Interview:
Jon Michael Simpson,
star,
"Sorry About the Demon,"
director,
"Hi I'm Blake"
Austin-based actor, director, and producer Jon Michael Simpson is enjoying the best possible start to 2023. Sorry About the Demon, a horror comedy that features Simpson in his first lead performance, is now available to stream on Shudder after premiering locally during last year’s Other Worlds Film Festival. His directorial debut, the documentary Hi I’m Blake, is not only available for digital and on-demand viewing but will receive its Dallas-Fort Worth premiere at 3:30 p.m. Feb. 5 at the SMU Hughes-Trigg Student Center. Written and directed by Austin-based filmmaker Emily Hagins, and produced by the Austin-based genre production company Paper Street Pictures, Sorry about the Demon finds Simpson’s newly single Will moving into a lovely old house that is also home to two ghosts and a demon desperate to find a new human body to possess. Will is unaware that the owners have rented him the house with the intent of serving him up as a human sacrifice to the malevolent Deomonous in a bid to save their possessed young daughter. But, as Will quickly learns, Deomonous is not easy to please. Sorry About the Demon represents Simpson’s latest collaboration with Hagins, who previously directed him in the 2019 Scare Package segment “Cold Open,” the 2018 V/H/S mini-series episode “First Kiss,” and the 2018 prom night-themed digital series Hold to Your Best Self. Concurrent to working with Hagins, as well as producing films in Austin, Simpson devoted six years to making Hi I’m Blake. The documentary’s subject is Blake Hyland, the son of the neighbors Simpson lived next to while growing up in Grapevine. In 2014, having moved to Waco with his parents, the then 14-year-old gymnast sustained a serious brain injury as a result of hitting his head on unprotected concrete during a trampoline flip gone wrong. The injury also left Blake with limited use of his right arm and attention and memory issues. Simpson’s documentary chronicles Blake’s recovery process, his return to high school, and his efforts to helping other people living with traumatic brain injury. An edited version of Hi I’m Blake aired in 2021 as an episode of Hi I’m, the Magnolia Network documentary anthology series it inspired which focuses on people overcoming significant life challenges. Jon Michael Simpson previously produced The One You’re With, The Get Together, A Perfect Host, The Tiny Life of Butcher Duke, and Apartment 413.
Aired: Jan. 31, 2023. Web sites: http://www.jonmichaelsimpson.com/ https://www.facebook.com/jon.m.simpson.9 http://hiimblake.com/ https://www.facebook.com/HIBfilm/ https://magnolia.com/ |
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