Mandurah actor brings horror movie to town for Western Australian premiere

Leoni Leaver, who plays sassy party girl Liz in the horror film There’s Something in the Pillaga, has ensured her home town will be one of the first to see her latest work with two special screenings.

Held at the Hyza Kite Mandurah Rooftop Cinema, the first of the screenings will be on none other than Friday the 13th, followed by another on March 14.

And just to play on the horror aspect a little bit more, audience members are invited to dress up as their favourite horror movie characters.

“The film’s been really well received so far,” Leaver said. “It’s got an 8.5 out of 10 rating on IMDB at the moment, which I’m really excited about. But I think it’s time the west saw it. We’re fairly confident to get the film screened at other theatres but so far the only confirmed screening is here in Mandurah.”

There’s Something in the Pilliga tells the story of a group’s encounter with the Pilliga yowie or jingra in north west New South Wales.  

A jingra is considered to be a devil man, similar to Bigfoot, by Aboriginals in the area. 

The story begins when Jay (Brendan Byrne) and his camera-obsessed friend Dylan (Paul Denham) meet Liz and Tammy (Rebecca Callander) and take them deep into the Pillaga forest.

After losing his dog in the scrub the group go on a hunt in the darkness but discover that something is hunting them.

Panic sets in and the group unravel one by one and it is all caught on camera.

There’s Something in the Pillaga has been nearly a decade in the making and since 2011, the film has been in the post-production stages.

“The project There’s Something In The Pilliga started back in 2005 when I had a discussion with my cousin Tracey Gaynor about an experience she had some twenty years before with her friend and two men in the Pilliga forest,” writer/director Dane Millerd said. “Tracey and her friend met two men one night in Gunnedah before agreeing to go on a midnight road trip with them to see an old hermit friend of the two men in the Pilliga. The hermit’s name was Old Man Grosser, and it was believed he had lived in the Pilliga in a humpy for over 70 years. The two men decided they would play tricks on the girls and scare them by pretending to be the Pilliga yowie. That was the original inspiration for There’s Something In The Pilliga.”

It’s been a long wait for Leaver, who only saw the finished product late last year.

However the distance has created the perfect conditions for self critiquing.

“Whenever I watch myself on screen, and I love to watch myself, I don’t feel like I’m watching myself,” Leaver said.

“It helps because if I look at it like that, I can critique myself easier.”

Leaver, as well as Millerd and possibly other actors, will also be there on the night to answer questions following the screening.

For more information find Leoni Leaver on Facebook or go to hyzakitecinema.com or theressomethinginthepilliga.com