Michael Paul Stephenson's first film Best Worst Movie was a terrifically entertaining and funny documentary, but also an incredibly personal one for the former child actor. Stephenson was the young star of the ill-fated Troll 2, the 1990 cheapie horror film that flopped at the time but has been gleefully celebrated over the years by cult audiences who deem it the best, worst movie of all time. It was an auspicious debut for the director, but it was hard to imagine how Stephenson would be able to follow it up-- it's not like he starred in another cult film as a child that he could document for the next go-round.
Now Stephenson has announced his next project, which actually does have its roots in the kind of old-school horror that birthed Troll 2 way back when. Stephenson will be directing the dark comedy Destroy, about a man who thinks he's a vampire hunter, but is in fact stabbing with wooden stakes innocent old men. The script was written by Zack Carlson and Bryan Connolly, whose previous collaboration was the nonfiction book Destroy All Movies: The Complete Guide to Punks on Film.
The image you see above came along with the press release, concept art cooked up by artist Johnny Sampson that gives us an idea of what we can expect out of Destroy, described as "somewhere between '80s genre classics like An American Werewolf in London and contemporary comedies like Shaun of the Dead." Check out a full-size version of the gorgeous concept art below, and if you haven't seen Best Worst Movie, please do yourself the favor of seeing it. I have no idea if it will help us know what to expect with Destroy, but it's a great documentary either way.
