In 2014, Blake Mawson,like many of us, sat stunned as Uganda passed the now infamous “Kill the Gays” law, and Russia began its crusade against the LGBT community by making it illegal to even mention that we exist in public.  Like many of us, he was astounded by what he saw and as many artists do, he began to create something that that expressed his need for justice in a world that seemed to offer none.

“There was a lack of response in the media about how gay people were being treated,” he explained.  “The world was celebrating the Olympics in Russia while stories began to pop up about Russian LGBT people being catfished and then dehumanized on videos that were uploaded to the internet.  These people were losing their jobs and being disowned by their family and the larger media did not seem to care.”

He sat down and began writing and soon enough the story/script for “PYOTR495” was completed.

The film centers on a young man named Pyotr who agrees to meet up with a man he’s met on a hookup app.  He sets off late at night to meet the man in his apartment for a supposed night of sex but finds upon his arrival that he has stepped into a dangerous trap.

The man and his friends have intentionally lured Pyotr to the apartment to humiliate him.  They hold him down in a bathtub and shave parts of his head, painting the shaved sections blue.  They pour urine over his face, all the while yelling that they are only doing this to help him.  Pyotr cries out for help and begs them to leave him alone, but his cries only spur on his tormentors.

And then Pyotr cracks…and morphs into a beast with unimaginable strength.

For Mawson, it was in many ways a return to his horror roots.  His father was a fan of the classic Universal monsters and he recalls watching titles like The Wolf Man and Frankenstein and The Hunchback of Notre Dame repeatedly as a child.  The image of those mobs chasing the “monsters”  have always stuck with him and came to mean even more as he was coming out.

“[The monsters are] always being chased by villagers with pitchforks and torches,” Mawson recalled.  “As a gay person coming out to the world, you feel that way sometimes.  For a young Russian gay man in an environment that denies your existence and criminalizes it at the same time it has to feel like a curse.”

Mawson continued to develop this idea of gays being sent to hell until a new thought formed.  What if coming out was like going through hell?  What if going through hell changed you, gave you power you didn’t have before the process.  If you repress something like your sexual orientation your entire life, what happens when that repression is finally released?

All these questions and their subsequent answers worked their way into Mawson’s script and onto the screen.

Mawson created a spectacular and dynamic film.  The abandoned streets and buildings of Berlin mimic perfectly the look of a destitute section of Moscow while he used interiors of an actual old church in Toronto to build the interior sets of the apartment where Pyotr is tortured.

The film’s star, Alex Ozerov (who you might recognize from recurring roles on “The Americans” and “Orphan Black”) is a native of Russia who left at age 13 with his parents to move to Toronto.  Ozerov brings beauty and sensitivity to the role of Pyotr before his metamorphosis.  He draws the audience in and fills us with sympathy as he is attacked, and I found myself rooting for him as the tables turned and the unkempt beast inside him emerges.

“PYOTR495” is currently making the rounds on the festival circuit and will be featured on Boys on Film 16: Possession which will release on June 12, 2017.  There will be a screening of the film at FilmOut San Diego LGBT Film Festival on June 10, 2017.

The young director said he is especially excited to see more and more LGBT film festivals carving out time for more genre fare.

“There is a long-standing relationship between queerness and horror and every single screening I attended at LGBT festivals which had created a horror showcase ended up completely sold out, so that definitely speaks to something!”

You can keep up with all of their screening dates by following them on Facebook.  You can also find them on Vimeo and follow them on Instagram!

PYOTR495 | Trailer from DRIVE-IN/KEEP OUT Productions on Vimeo.