The plot follows a group of stoner millennials on a secluded getaway who stumble upon an ancient strain of cannabis that gives them a severe case of the munchies.<\/p>\n
Director Callum Devlin says The Weed Eaters feels like “a multimillion-dollar” production, despite its crowdfunded budget of $19,000. Photo \/ Samuel Austin<\/p>\n
Devlin said the comedy was a \u201ccrack-up\u201d when the film wasn\u2019t trying to scare the audience.<\/p>\n
It was filmed like a Western, written like a comedy and edited and scored like a horror film, he said.<\/p>\n
The Weed Eaters won SXSW Sydney\u2019s Best Feature Film award and the Jury Prize at the Gerardmer International Fantastic Film Festival.<\/p>\n
Tour attendees can expect a pre-release screening and Q&A sessions with some of the film\u2019s crew and cast before its cinema release on April 30.<\/p>\n
It will screen in Whanganui at Embassy 3 cinema at 7.30pm on Sunday, April 12, followed by a Q&A hosted by musician and Durie Hill Elevator operator Anthonie Tonnon.<\/p>\n
Stars include Alice May Connolly, Finnius Teppett, Annabel Kean and Samuel Austin, who also all held production roles.<\/p>\n
Filming took place on lead actor and producer Kean\u2019s family property in Kowai Bush, Canterbury.<\/p>\n
This meant the crew could use the backdrop of the Southern Alps while saving on accommodation and location costs.<\/p>\n
Only four to eight cast and crew were on set at a time, Devlin said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe crew was so small, we got to film in golden hour basically every night.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Weed Eaters explores New Zealand\u2019s relationship with cannabis in a meta conversation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were so close to legalising it during the referendum but just missed out,\u201d Devlin said.<\/p>\n
The crew supported safe recreational cannabis use and wanted to combine that idea with scarier plot themes.<\/p>\n
\u201cCannibalism is pretty scary. Having the wrong kind of drugs is very scary. But what are we actually afraid of as people in our early 30s? The repercussions of terrible decisions in our lives. That is truly frightening.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the writing process, he drew from his experiences of watching horror films while \u201ctoo stoned\u201d.<\/p>\n
Writing was also inspired by the crew\u2019s anxieties and fears.<\/p>\n
Devlin said they aimed for the film to be 80 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt ends well. It ends correctly. But there is more to the story for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Colour grader Fergus Rotherham (Dangerous Animals, Boy Swallows Universe) played a key role in transforming the film\u2019s look.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could watch a live stream of him doing the grade … It was like getting a full body massage. It was just so relaxing and reassuring,\u201d Devlin said.<\/p>\n
The all-Kiwi soundtrack features music from composer Callum Passells, along with Sir Dave Dobbyn, Lawrence Arabia and Mousey.<\/p>\n
Kristina Ceyton and Samantha Jennings from Causeway Films joined The Weed Eaters as executive producers. <\/p>\n
Devlin said Causeway Films had produced some of the world\u2019s most frightening and successful horror films, including Talk to Me, Bring Her Back and The Babadook.<\/p>\n
A follow-up film is not off the books.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I had 50 grand on top of the film, I would give it to our glorious cast and crew. Everyone worked for peanuts on this film,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The film\u2019s tour will be funded largely by ticket sales, as well as support from the New Zealand Film Commission and its distributor.<\/p>\n
They plan to take the film to British and US cinemas if the release goes well.<\/p>\n
The Weed Eaters is rated R13 for violence, offensive language, drug use and content that may disturb.<\/p>\n
It was Flicks\u2019 favourite film of the 2025 New Zealand International Film Festival.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is such a naughty film. It reminds you of Black Sheep or something. Getting to go see that as a teenager was so exciting,\u201d Devlin said.<\/p>\n
Noam M\u0101nuka Lazarus (Ng\u0101ti Whatua o Kaipara) is a multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The plot follows a group of stoner millennials on a secluded getaway who stumble upon an ancient strain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370933,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[26652,2546,17285,1550,3682,24004,3401,193981,156,593,410,134125,18590,3025,435,409,111,139,69,10903,5433,1120,223,61,60050,1883],"class_list":{"0":"post-370932","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-aotearoas","9":"tag-awardwinning","10":"tag-cannabis","11":"tag-centre","12":"tag-comedy","13":"tag-coming","14":"tag-drug","15":"tag-eaters","16":"tag-entertainment","17":"tag-film","18":"tag-horror","19":"tag-illicit","20":"tag-marijuana","21":"tag-most","22":"tag-movie","23":"tag-movies","24":"tag-new-zealand","25":"tag-newzealand","26":"tag-nz","27":"tag-popular","28":"tag-stage","29":"tag-takes","30":"tag-the","31":"tag-to","32":"tag-weed","33":"tag-whanganui"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}