Phoenix filmmaker Ted Tanaka‘s 2021 concept short “Her Monster” snagged 38 awards on the film festival circuit.
It also garnered feedback from viewers, including one posting on the Internet Movie Database site (imdb.com) that the film deserved more than 21 minutes.
“I am a fan of shorts ... this one would do well to evolve into a full motion picture, or go Stephen King and continue to produce a series of these shorts to tell the long version of the story,” wrote “robolm-04563,” who also praised the actor playing the monster.
That would be Sean Berube, the retired Tucson Police officer who is taking that viewer’s opinion to heart.
On June 5, Berube launched a Kickstarter campaign (kickstarter.com/projects/seanberube/her-monster) to raise $5,000 toward the $60,000 he anticipates he’ll need to make the feature-film version of “Her Monster.”
“After years of working in the industry, I finally decided to go all in on a feature film and produce it myself,” said Berube. “I’m at a point in time in my life, right now, financially, where I can afford to do this, and I have built up a team of people who have made multiple short and feature films so the timing is perfect. We are all hungry to make movies and put in the work.”
Since his first acting stint in 2018, Berube, who left Tucson for Hollywood with his wife and young twins in late 2020, has racked up nearly 90 acting and stunt credits.
He would like to add producer to his résumé.
“Her Monster” is about young Sara Holloway, whose stepfather is so abusive to her and her mother that she hides under her bed. That’s where she meets the monster, Mr. Happy (played by Berube, who also played a detective). The monster, with knife-like sharp teeth and claws, is more shocked by the little girl’s presence than she is by his, and tells her to scoot over.
“She was more afraid of her stepdad than she was of this monster under her bed,” Berube explained.
The girl asks Mr. Happy why her stepdad is so mean and asks for his help. When the monster steps in and takes care of the girl’s problem, the police come — Berube also plays a detective in the film — and are at a loss to how this little girl could have anything to do with her stepfather’s brutal demise.
In the feature-length version, which Tanaka also wrote, “we go more into the characters and tell more of a story,” Berube said, including the backstory of how Sara found a family heirloom pendant necklace from the Japanese side of her family bloodline that summoned Mr. Happy, whose real name is Otakemaru.
According to family lore, the monster appeared when anyone wearing the pendant is scared and bleeding.
Berube is locking up pre-production on the project, including scouting locations in Arizona and casting; he will once again play Mr. Happy.
Berube hopes to begin filming in Globe in late August and finish in time to present the film at the American Film Market in Los Angeles, Nov. 11-16.
The global film acquisition, development and networking event brings new independent films to the marketplace, where organizers say industry representatives conduct more than a billion dollars in distribution and film financing deals.
Berube, whose day job at March Air Reserve Base returns him to his law enforcement roots as a criminal investigator, said if they can’t sell the film at the American Film Market he will consider streaming options.
