Synopsis

Based on actual events from the mid-1990's, the story of Neo-Mania is a portrayal of adolescent self-destruction and hopelessness. During a 72-hour drug-fueled adventure, the boys embark on a psychological (and ultimately spiritual) journey to express their untenable frustration and alienation from contemporary society. Along the way, they encounter a 16-year old Southern boy, a rebellious youth with psychic visions named Taylor, who changes the course of their road trip and ultimately alters their collective destiny. The mainstream media -- everything from newspaper accounts to reports on the nightly news to the sensationalist rants of talk shows like Geraldo Rivera -- adopt the term 'Teenage Vampire Cult' to describe the four boys and their apparently random acts of senseless violence. In coming to terms with their actions, the boys eventually realize (although too late) that misdirected revolt does not necessarily lead to positive change, and their journey results in a disastrous finale of self-damnation and exile. Only after Zach, the group's sole survivor, has gone to prison for life and looks back on the events of that horrific trip is he able to find redemption.

Themes / Subtext

Neo-Mania is a true-to-life horror movie which rests on a variety of cultural themes and actual events from the 1990's. The script -- co-written by director Ned Schenck and novelist Travis Jeppesen -- is compelling and thought-provoking, founded broadly in the literature of rebellion such as Lautreamont's Les Chants de Maldoror, Milton's Paradise Lost, and the writings of Camus, Nietzsche, Sade, Rimbaud, Dostoievsky, and others. The story of man trying to find his place in the universe is timeless. In approaching the script, the director wanted to show what it was like to grow up in modern America as a disenfranchised youth, and to provide a realistic examination into the consequences of lost innocence. The film raises serious questions about the bankrupt state of modern American culture and the values proscribed by a society obsessed with excessive greed, materialism, violence, entertainment, sex, and global expansionism. For children who feel they do not 'fit in' with mainstream views, this culture often seems hopeless and bleak -- the American dream does not carry a silver lining for many of our youth, and this hopelessness eventually leads to a breaking point. It is precisely at such breaking points when teenagers explore and become fascinated with subculture -- vampirism, the occult, goth culture, drugs, skateboarding -- as they examine alternate routes of dealing with the individual struggle between power and domination, those who are aligned against or opposed to the currents of power that prevail in society at large. The story is highly influenced by a host of events from the mid-1990's, including Rod Ferrell and his teenage Vampire Clan, Sean Sellars' occult-inspired murder spree, a national obsession with Satanic cults and vampires, a goth youth subculture and its related death-metal & industrial music, and the escalation of youth violence and high school shootings.