Cody Clark » 01.13.08 »
Who hasn't looked at all of these movies about proselytizing missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- "God's Army," "The Best Two Years," "The R.M.," "States of Grace," "Return with Honor," "The Errand of Angels" -- and thought, "You know what we really need? A missionary movie with zombies in it."Mission accomplished. (Pun intended.) Mitch Davis, 27, a publicist at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colo., served his own LDS mission to New Mexico. The first place he served was the tiny desert town of Polacca, on the Hopi Indian Reservation.
"I loved my own mission and I think about it often," Davis said.
One day he ended up discussing missions with a friend and the two of them wondered how the actions and responsibilities of missionaries would change in the event of a natural disaster, an earthquake, or maybe a tsunami. The idea stayed in his brain until suddenly the words "natural disaster" became "zombie attack."
"I love horror movies," he said, "and I'd never seen a Mormon horror movie."
Davis turned the idea into a 7-page script for the LDS Film Festival's annual script-writing competition almost overnight -- he'd meant to enter the competition but forgot about its deadline until the week before scripts were due.
He submitted his script for "Through the Valley" (of the shadow of death?) with no expectation that it would be selected for production by the festival. Which just goes to show that you never know what's going to hit a nerve.
Davis said that, though listed by the festival as a "horror" film, "Through the Valley," directed by Joshua Ligairi, has its share of humor. And it's not an out-and-out zombie movie, either. "This won't be missionaries running around with shotguns blowing zombies' heads off," he said. "My missionaries will follow all of the mission rules and try to help the people around them."
Though he hasn't yet seen the film of his own script -- weather-permitting, he'll catch it at the festival -- Davis is thrilled to be a filmmaker. And he's going to stick with it. "I honestly don't know what this will bring," he said. "Regardless of what happens, I'll continue to write.
Direct link to the article at The Daily Herald.
Moderator's update » 01.25.09 » Through the Valley was released on DVD at the 2009 LDS Film Festival as part of the Best of the LDS Film Festival DVD series. Also available is a short film co-directed by Cleanflix co-director Andrew James. That short is called Wrestling with God. Joshua Ligairi was the production designer on the film which stars Ligairi's friend Adam Johnson (mentioned in the post above). Both films are on the best of 2008 DVD which can be purchased online directly from the festival here.
