How far would you go to protect the ones you love? Would you sacrifice your own moral code? These questions sit at the heart of filmmaker Jason Abrams’ debut feature, Hungry Dog Blues, which releases on video-on-demand platforms on April 25.
Inspired by films such as No Country For Old Men, Thief, and Shotgun Stories, Hungry Dog Blues follows two estranged half-brothers, played by Abrams and C.J. Wilson, who kidnap the lead witness against their incarcerated father in an effort to prove his innocence. The idea for this story came from Abrams watching his father go through legal troubles that resulted in his father losing all of his money and his home.
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“I was struck with how intensely protective I felt and how I wanted to do anything I could to protect him,” Abrams says. “That feeling stuck with me, and it really scared me—how far I was willing to go to protect my family.”
While the real-life situation was far less dramatic, Abrams used that feeling to write the script for Hungry Dog Blues in 2017. After shopping the script around, he was ready to take the plunge and move back to St. Louis to make the film in December of 2019, with the intention of shooting the film in March of 2020.
“We had it all lined up, it was going to happen, then the pandemic hit, everything shut down, and we lost all of our funding,” Abrams says.
Abrams cut his script down and rewrote parts to craft a story they could produce amid the pandemic, taking the proper regulations and safety measures, and was able to shoot the film over 17 days in October of 2020 in St. Charles County. While filming during the pandemic was certainly stressful, Abrams notes that nobody on the small crew tested positive or got sick, and that the experience was ultimately a positive one.
“It was such a beautiful respite from the chaos that we’d all been living in during the pandemic,” Abrams says. “We all banded together, bubbled up, and lived together for three weeks, and I feel like everyone really blossomed in that environment…there’s a lot of great talent on display across the board, in both the cast and crew.”
While Hungry Dog Blues has already played locally in 2022 at both the St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase and the St. Louis International Film Festival, Abrams is excited for a wider audience to finally see his film.
“It feels really good, but it’s also really surreal,” Abrams says. “I’ve been working on this thing for five years, and the idea that it will just be out there and that anyone can go watch it feels great. We worked so hard on it, and I just want people to see our hard work and what we can do.”
Hungry Dog Blues releases on streaming video-on-demand platforms on April 25.
