Torments on Hold!

February is here! And I am not even done with January, the first month of 2021 which began as if 2020 was still around, like an extension of December 2020.

And as the world tried, unsuccessfully, to turn the page and got stuck in the middle, Jac was forced to postponed the production of CruXtreme V – Playmates, which was going to begin on Wednesday the 6th, the same day the world watched in shock the events unfolding in the US capitol. That morning, as Trump began his farewell destructive speech, our lovely triumvirate entered its own existential crisis.

Jac, Dani and Mila were all set and brimming with fervor to begin their new provocative adventure that very evening, but early in the morning Erix, of Olalla fame, got on messenger with Jac to tell him some most distressing news. Miguel, our DP in all the mainstream films from Maleficarum to Pygmalion and Justine, was tested positive with Covid-19; a horrific situation in itself, but to make matters worse, Erix had spent the night of New Year’s eve at Miguel’s home. There were very few people there waiting for the new year to start, four or five, nothing big, but the possibility existed that Miguel was already carrying the virus. He was tested a few days after that night after finding out that one of his co-workers had fallen sick with the dreaded disease.

After those distressing news, and at the possibility that Erix got the virus from Miguel and shared it with Jac a day or two later, when they got together for lunch, the famous director made the decision to isolate himself and to cancel the planned production until the situation cleared. He went into a voluntary lockdown for a couple of weeks, if not more and planned to have himself and Erix tested for the virus at the recommended period of time.

So, just as it is in Hollywood, where COVID surges throws ‘essential’ production plans up in the air and film and TV producers and unions are grappling with how and when to get back to work, so it is with our great and sexy threesome.

Jac and Erix were finally tested, of course, and the results were negative, but a change in attitude had taken place already. Jac remained isolated for the rest of the month. He did, however, meet with Mila and Dani, once a week, with full social distancing and properly masked, to have some talks and to decide what to do.

They decided to take one day at a time, leaving everything on standby, at least until the beginning of February.

While isolated from the world, Jac got himself pretty busy editing the three films that were produced last year and, more importantly, slaved away on the cumbersome yearly accounting task he does to comply with the IRS demands since the beginning of his career. He’s the expert. He’s deeply aware of the irony, of course, because when he was graduating from high school and getting ready to go to college, his father advised him to study accounting, as a side skill, which could help him in the future. Jac refused, he was adamant, he was going to film school, period. Little did he know. Accounting takes a big chunk of his professional time, for decades now, he even designed a very complex spreadsheet to keep track of EVERYTHING. But I digress.

The priority for Jac these days is to finish the post production of CruXtreme III – The Callback. This is the film that Dani said it was her most intense and the one she loved doing the most. She did not want to finish shooting it, she was enjoying it so very much, even as it was the most painful to endure.

A second production being set up in the post production timeline is CruXtreme IV – Another Roommate, with none other than Mila in the role of the new young and beautiful woman looking for a place to live, in the same house where Dani met her doom before, only to end up in the now infamous torture room as her new frightful dwelling. A place where you can easily walk in, or be dragged in, as in her case, but a place you will never leave… in one piece … worse yet, there’s no comfy bed where to lay your head… not even a pillow.

The third film on the post production timeline is their most recent stimulating experience, the one the wicked trinity ended the year with, Crux Simplex (For Two).

The term Crux Simplex was invented by Justus Lipsius (1547–1606) to indicate a plain transom-less wooden stake used for executing either by affixing the victim to it, in the Crux Simplex Ad Affixionem way, or by impaling the condemned with it in the Crux Simplex Ad Infixione method used by my very own Vlad Tepes.

Our dear Mr Lipsius contrasted the crux simplex (both variations) with the two-timber structure that he called A Crux Compacta aka Compacta Crux Est, and that he subdivided into three types: Crux Decussata (X-shaped), Crux Commissa (T-shaped) and Crux Immissa (†-shaped). (I think someone’s brain is concocting scenarios for all three possibilities, maybe in one movie?) All these terms are of Lipsius’s own invention and they were not in use in ancient Roman times.

I must warn the public at large that in Crux Simplex (For Two) there is a brutal impaling, as well as the traditionally savage nailing of hands… and more…

In the meantime, in Dani’s second film in this most fiendish series, CruXtremeII -The Roommate, the unfortunate victim of our dear cruel but equal opportunity and fair landlord, is prepared to suffer yet another increasingly excruciating experience upon the dreadful RACK of Pain.

It involves further merciless stretching and ceaseless flogging before the ultimate torture begins.

There will be more news coming up soon. In the meantime, a reminder that we have great films in our stores, including the now number 2 in our best seller list for January 2021:

Training Camille Sessions 2, 3 and 4 available in our store NOW!