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THE UGLY
A new thriller directed by Scott Reynolds
ESSENTIAL FILMS IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE NEW ZEALAND FILM COMMISSION 
PRESENTS THE UGLY. STARRING PAOLO ROTUNDO, REBECCA HOBBS, 
JENNIFER WARD-LEALAND, ROY WARD.DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY SIMON 
RABY. EDITOR WAYNE COOK. ORIGINAL MUSIC VICTORIA KELLY. 
PRODUCER JONATHAN DOWLING. WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY SCOTT REYNOLDS.
SYNOPSIS
No pitu. No remorse. Simon is a killer. Unfit to stand trial. He has been locked away for five years, watched by the sinister Docteur Marlowe. Enter Karen, an enthusiastic but formidably intelligent psychologist. She will interview Simon - who wants to prove that he is cured. He seems sane. Seemingly incapable of ferocious acts of violence.
He tells her of a terrifying force within him, which drives him to destroy those around him. He says this force has gone. Karen listens to his story. At first she trusts him, even believes him. But then her trust gives way to scepticism. His confession is replaced by  deception.
The interview unleashes demons from Simon’s strange internal world - threatening Karen’s previously stable sense of reality. She wants the truth. But she finds that truth can be the most terrifying thing of all.


redup.gif (851 octets) SCOTT REYNOLDS ANS HIS FIRST FEATURE - THE UGLY

Scott Reynolds, writer and director of THE UGLY, was born in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1968. His parents both worked at the Hollywood Cinema in suburban
Auckland, where one of his earliest memories is that the watched a double bill of THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN and A FISTFUL OF DOLLARD, an experience which began his obsession with the film world.
As a teenager he started work as a projectionist at the Hollywood, and for ten years this was how he studied filmmaking. He cites his principal influences as Kubrick, Scorsese, Raimi ans Hitchcock. Scott Reynold’s first feature, THE UGLY, is a suspense thriller which was filmed in Auckland, ans was completed in December 1996. It owes much to Hitchcock ans Sam Raimi.

" I love to be scared, i love to terrifying sequences and edge of your seat syspense " says Scott Reynold. " To sum it up, il love film - plain and simple. I was a film-fan before i was a film-maker. I have sat in audiences where we all shivered and screamed, so the
major reason why i wanted to make this film is so that i can in an audience where i make the audience shiver and scream ".

 THE PEOPLE WHO CREATED THE UGLY
The Ugly was born out of a creative partnership between producer Jonathan Dowling and director Scott Reynolds, when Reynolds first started to link about
making films.
The two collaborated to get Reynolds’first short film THE MINUTE off the ground, and the collaboration continued with the acclaimed A GAME WITH NO RULES.
Other key collaborations from that second short film have also played important roles in the realisation of THE UGLY, notably director of photography Simon
Raby, production designer Grant Major and editor Wayne Cook. Working to a demanding five-week shooting schedule, the cast and crew worked together to make a film that relies on Reynolds’fast and energetic shooting style.
" I came up with the idea first of a guy who looks in the mirror and sees himself as deformed, even though he really isn’t " says Reynolds. " I thought Serial Killer - this guy is sick and he talks about the hideous crimes which he has done. I wanted something where when he spoke about his past he could somehow relive it " " I also chose to mix the present with flashbacks. While Simon is in the flashbacks, people from the present may also pop up in the past. This is something which can work really well on film. People are loathe to use flasbacks and all that sort of stuff. But, i think it’s important to take risks ans not be afraid "
" With THE UGLY i have taken a lot of risks. "