Not all senior citizens are alike in how they like to spend their time years after their retirement, as one of them likes to go to art galleries, to lose time while looking at paintings in a gallery. Some stereotypes about seniors are true though in that most of them aren’t fans of horror films. That aversion, however, won’t stop director Sean Cisterna from making a horror film with seniors in Canada. Silver Screamers, then, follows Cisterna and his cast and crew responsible for aspects like cinematography and props. It shows the production and post production process for a short horror film they call The Rug.

This film treads what seems like familiar ground about the ‘magic’ of making movies under a budget. And ‘budget’ is the operative term here because funding in Canadian cinema is as good as nonexistent. Because of this significant factor, Cisterna frames what happens within this film as a senior community activity. That’s better than making these people work, but then again most payment for art is experience now. Back to the budget, the film follows the prop master who needs to buy a rug priced under $50. That’s easily doable like most things that Silver Screamers depicts, like making prosthetic art.

While following the mostly senior cast and crew, Silver Screamers shows their relationship with making things. With films like The Substance and Sinners, horror is mainstream now, a genre that filmmakers gravitate to. Despite senior citizens’ stereotypical aversion to horror, it makes sense that this is the genre Cisterna chose. This is a compliment, I swear, but horror is the craftiest and the most workmanlike of genres. Through contemporaneous footage and interviews, the film captures the simplicity of how accomplished these seniors feel. They make their contributions, the film fades to black, and tomorrow is another day on set.

I’m as close to 100% on board with Silver Screamers‘s premise, maybe I’m close to 70% or 80%. I get that they’re learning something, but pay these senior citizens man, they’re on a fixed income. Despite the seniors being on a learning curve, it seems that Cisterna’s attitude towards them is positive. As one of the seniors say, film making is hurrying up and waiting – its contradictions require patience. But both the seniors and their younger mentors are not stereotypical artist vibes with insufferably inflated egos. They’re solutions oriented people working towards the same goal –  to make a short film with polish, and blood!

Film lovers can watch  Silver Screamers in select Canadian theatres.