Private Project

The Night They Hit Back

Sonny--the hapless son of The Don--and his reluctant muscle, The Goon, embark on a mafia hit just as a zombie plague begins devouring the country.

  • Jason Thorson
    Director
  • Jason Thorson
    Writer
  • Jason Thorson
    Producer
  • Chris Haag
    Producer
  • Billy Boyce
    Producer
  • Matt Kenyon
    Key Cast
    The Girl Who Played With The Dead, Hole in the Wall
  • Greg Johnson
    Key Cast
    Incest Death Squad Trilogy, Mediatrix, Hole in the Wall
  • Rich Peterson
    Key Cast
    Bordello of Horror
  • Kristen Casey
    Key Cast
    The Girl Who Played With The Dead
  • Matt Hadley
    Key Cast
  • Aaron Sandell
    Key Cast
  • Billy Boyce
    Key Cast
  • Brad Blawat
    Key Cast
  • Chris Haag
    Director of Photography
  • Matt Hadley
    Musical Score
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Horror, Comedy
  • Runtime:
    27 minutes 26 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    November 1, 2016
  • Production Budget:
    3,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Jason Thorson

Jason Thorson was born and raised in Beloit, WI where he was bestowed with the ironically uncreative, on-the-nose nickname “Jason Imagination” by his mother. He developed a love for cinema at a very young age with a proclivity for horror movies and exploitation flicks.

Jason is an alumnus of Beloit College where he majored in Creative Writing and graduated suma cum laude with honors in screenwriting. He is the owner and editor-in-chief of RavenousMonster.com, an award-winning online magazine that offers news, reviews, and analysis of horror media.

When Jason isn’t writing about movies, watching movies, or making movies, he can be found performing music as the drummer for the bands Mister Pink and Irritable Discontent.

Jason lives in Janesville, WI with his wife, daughter, and two cats.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

THE NIGHT THEY HIT BACK is the culmination of spending over 20 years sitting atop an expanding mountain of micro-budgeted first acts. My co-producer, Chris Haag, and I have been making beginnings of movies since the early-1990s. Given our encroaching midlife crises and our moderately better resources, we decided quite out of the blue to put together a project that we could—and would—actually finish. I wrote a script with a simple premise and through my contacts made running Ravenous Monster I was able to assemble a fantastic, creative and, most importantly, experienced cast and crew. After a two-and-a-half-year preproduction, we shot THE NIGHT THEY HIT BACK in Beloit, Janesville, and Verona, WI over four days during the summer of 2014. My intent was to make an ostensible piece of popcorn entertainment, but one that was subversively well-structured and represented a true, substantive narrative arc for its protagonist, Sonny. Post-production lasted another two-plus years—a testament to our relative filmmaking inexperience—and as of 11/01/2016 we finally have a completed movie that I hope scares you, tickles you, moves you, and above all else, entertains you.