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ABOUT
ABOUT
2025
18-25 JUNE
Virtual Reality
(Gunning and Parker, 2025)
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
As a creative Callum has long dreamed to tackle the existential and absurdist on screen. Using horror as a cinematic tool, he aims to use these creative philosophies to tackle the unseeable terrors of our reality, with mental illness as a creative focus.
Through his University experience, Callum has worked in a variety of creative roles, leading to his final year in which he took upon the roles of writer, director, and producer on 3 separate projects in the span of 20 weeks. These projects (Dying Is Easy, Virtual Reality, and Faith in a Bottle) mark his proudest achievements, leading teams of up to 18 to bring his visions and dreams to life. He is excited to take what he has learnt from his experience and use it to prove himself, and to grant opportunity to learn more and grow to be a better creative and professional all together.
This film is produced as part of my practice-based dissertation project.
SYNOPSIS
Dylan is lost. Not in anything tangible nor seeable, but within the haunting grasp of a nightmare. Can Dylan escape, or will he be swallowed altogether?
Virtual Reality is an exploration of the abjection of mental illness through horror cinema. The film aims to blend the absurdist and existential, aswell as the experimental and typical, to tackle dark themes such as: loss, grief, substance abuse, depression, and suicide. Following the ‘elevated horror’ movement of the 2010s, the film aims to tackle real-world issues, giving form to what haunts us from the peripheries of our own minds.
Virtual Reality is an exploration of the abjection of mental illness through horror cinema. The film aims to blend the absurdist and existential, aswell as the experimental and typical, to tackle dark themes such as: loss, grief, substance abuse, depression, and suicide. Following the ‘elevated horror’ movement of the 2010s, the film aims to tackle real-world issues, giving form to what haunts us from the peripheries of our own minds.
CAST & CREW
Writer, Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Sound Designer, Editor, Gaffer
DYLAN PARKER
Writer, Director, Producer
@gunning_filmmaking