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Cicada: I Was a Teenage Horror Movie!

In 1997, awkward pre-teens with a VHS camera struggle to make an ambitious vampire movie, each playing multiple roles, spilling dimestore blood in a slew of murder scenes, and testing testicular limits with a homemade zip-line setpiece. Now edited as a comedy, it is at once a bloody twist on vampire lore and an endearing portrait of young filmmakers coming of "rage."

  • Keil Orion Troisi
    Director
  • Gabe DiDomenico
    Writer
  • Aaron Troisi
    Key Cast
  • Gabe DiDomenico
    Key Cast
  • William DiDomenico
    Key Cast
  • Keil Orion Troisi
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental, Short
  • Genres:
    Comedy, Horror
  • Runtime:
    13 minutes 22 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    April 30, 2022
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    VHS
  • Aspect Ratio:
    4:3
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Hudson Valley Film Fest
    Warwick, NY
    United States
    August 16, 2022
  • Creature Feature Weekend
    Gettysburg, PA
    United States
    August 27, 2022
  • Scumdance
    NV
    United States
    October 15, 2022
  • Splat! Fantastic

    Poland
    October 28, 2022
Director Biography - Keil Orion Troisi

Keil Orion Troisi has been a filmmaker since childhood. He directed the comedic documentary short "Total Disaster" (2022), award-winning corporate-horror movie "Human Resources" (2015, feature) and "Mono Generation" (2017, short), and produced and co-wrote "Peace Pipeline" (2021) which won Best Doc Short at Dallas VideoFest, North Dakota Human Rights, Wolf Creek, Skoden, and Jim Thorpe film fests. Since 2012, he has been a core member of mischief-activism collective The Yes Men. He has worked for over a decade as a screenplay ghostwriter, editor, and story analyst, and won a NYFA Fellowship in Screenwriting-Playwriting.

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Director Statement

As teenagers, my friends and I made VHS horror movies every weekend and every day after school. We didn't have any money or resources, but we had a lot of imagination. More than 25 years later, I decided to re-edit that footage to make it on the one hand a version of a modern vampire/mad-scientist story, and on the other hand a meta comedy appreciation for its "so bad it's good" ethos. It is quite a fun experience to watch with an audience. You can read some audience reviews here: https://letterboxd.com/film/cicada-i-was-a-teenage-horror-movie/reviews/by/added/