Ghost Toilet
Cleveland, Ohio | Film Feature
Horror, Comedy
Two female friends find a cursed wishing stone and only bad things happen. After protecting it for a decade and one of them passes away, the other one decides to flush the stone down the toilet it releases a demon... and the Ghost Toilet.
Ghost Toilet
Cleveland, Ohio | Film Feature
Horror, Comedy
1 Campaigns | Ohio, United States
16 supporters | followers
Enter the amount you would like to pledge
$3,170
Goal: $17,500 for development
Two female friends find a cursed wishing stone and only bad things happen. After protecting it for a decade and one of them passes away, the other one decides to flush the stone down the toilet it releases a demon... and the Ghost Toilet.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
"I'll swallow your soul...
through your butt!"
Lifelong friends, Liz and Tiffany, have been guarding a mystical wishing stone they found that accidentally killed their roommate a decade ago. When Tiffany passes away, Liz is left with the responsibility of keeping the stone safe. An irresponsible person at heart, she decides to flush the stone down the toilet in her grief. Unleashing the wish-demon trapped within the stone causing chaos upon a house full of party guests. Liz must fight the demons she released and her own personal demons, while potentially making a new friend along the way. The film ends covered in blood and guts in the bathroom… with the Ghost Toilet.
Hi, I'm Kara White, the writer and director of "Ghost Toilet". I've been working in the film industry for 20+ years and been directing documentaries and short films for 16 years. This time I've written a horror comedy feature film. It's the easiest thing I've ever written. It all just flowed. I'm so excited to share the crazy stuff going through my brain with everyone. It's definitely weird in here. This movie is born out of friendship. It's a movie about friends, the idea came from a joke my friend made, and now I'm making this movie with my incredibly talented friends.
I'm a huge film nerd and can't wait to bring my passion for movies to this film. What I love about my favorite horror movies is that they are fun, use real practical monsters, and get bloody crazy. I love how you can use camera moves and angles, editing techniques, themes, and character traits to convey a story. So I'm going to make sure Ghost Toilet does the same. Echoing the bloody hilarity of Evil Dead 2, bringing the fun characteristics of the characters of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the TV show), and the friendship comedy of Shaun of the Dead. Did I mention the blood? There will be blood cannons involved!
I can't wait to bring this story of strong female characters (even when they make bad decisions) to life. And to bring work to a struggling industry and to remind the world of how talented our local film crew members are.
Now is the perfect time to make this movie. There's a strong desire for new ideas, especially with the impact of "Sinners". Telling stories from different voices is where it's at. With the cancellation of the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" reboot, many of you are eager for more content that resonates that vibe. This is the opportunity to tell a genuine female-focused story and we have a few key team members on board to really bring it home. Director of Photography Amy Faust, and Production Designer Leyna Haller, join writer and director Kara White to bring you the laughs, chills, and bloody good time you are all looking for! EVERYONE will love Ghost Toilet.
We're a Cleveland-based team of independent filmmakers making something personal, fun, and creative. Our team has won multiple awards for their craft in filmmaking. We've created many of our own films with successful distribution and a proven track record. From period piece films on a budget to documentary and beyond, we've done it all together.
KARA WHITE
Kara White is an award-winning Director and Producer of documentaries, museum films, web videos, and commercials. She has been directing and producing short films and documentaries for decades, and is a multiple Emmy award winner. Her films have been in multiple festivals and have won many awards.
Kara co-hosts a video podcast called Saturday Morning Movie Club, where she talks about her love of movies and studying what makes them good (or bad). Growing up, she has always loved horror movies and dreamed of making her own one day. She loves telling stories about women, including her new film Ghost Toilet.
With a love for storytelling and passion for tales of strong women in history, she has directed the documentary films Rise Above: WASP about the Women Airforce Service Pilots from WWII and PBS's Beyond the Powder, telling the story of the first women's cross-country air race and the women who still race today.
In her free time, Kara enjoys spending time with her cats, watching movies, and flying in vintage airplanes (when available!).
AMY FAUST
Amy is an award winning Cinematographer and International Camera Guild camera operator. A 20 year veteran in the field, Amy serves on the Guild’s National Executive Board in the Central Region and chairs both the Central Region Women's Committee and the National Health and Welfare committee. She is passionate about protecting the work/life balance of our crews. Amy teaches Cinematography and Motion Picture Production at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. She was also a founding board member of Women In Film Cincinnati. Lifting up women in the industry is a passionate mission for Amy. Filming Ghost Toilet will continue the legacy of collaborating with other powerful women to bring films to life with dynamic and powerful cinema.
Amy’s camera work can be viewed in Emilio Estevez’s The Public, Netflix’s Turtles All The Way Down & Point Blank and Hulu’s Point Blank. Photography, a short film she shot in collaboration with Hemlock Films and Tri-C Academy is currently making the film festival rounds, garnering accolades along the way. Her clients also include Showtime, Hulu, HBO & MTV.
In her spare time, you can find Amy buried under her two small kids, tickling them until they squeal for mercy!
LEYNA HALLER
Having survived small horror films in the depths of rural Ohio, Leyna worked her way up to blowing up downtown Cleveland (at least twice). When she’s not production designing WWII cafes, 1960s high rises or possessed bathrooms, she is a Lead Person on such films as Judas and the Black Messiah, Bones and All and a little project called Superman.
Leyna loves being part of Art Department because film sets are an integral part of a film’s world building. Sets help tell the story within the story and sometimes come to life as characters themselves.
She was elected to a leadership role with I.A.T.S.E. Local 209 as Secretary-Treasurer in 2022. While her service to the members throughout Ohio and Northern Kentucky has been very rewarding, it has had the unintended consequence of giving Leyna proficiency in the dark art of spreadsheet formulae.
When she’s not haunting the Set Dec warehouses or performing demonic rites to get a set finished in time, Leyna can be found bribing her hellhound with treats and tearing out walls with her husband trying to find where that sound is coming from…
ROBERT RUGGERI 
Robert is an award-winning producer & director hailing from tropical Cleveland, Ohio. As a producer, Robert’s first two films, Take Shelter and Kings of Summer, both premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and went on to receive worldwide distribution. Take Shelter, starring Jessica Chastain and Michael Shannon, took home the top prize for Best Picture at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival Critic’s Week competition in 2011.
Robert’s follow up films, G Funk, a documentary he produced with rapper Warren G, and the Helen Hunt Thriller, I See You, both premiered at the SXSW Film Festival to critical reviews and sold to Google/YouTube Premium and Amazon Prime, respectively. I See You reached #1 on both Amazon Prime and Netflix during its release.
Robert considers himself the same excited kid who was outside filming sketches and short films with his friends, albeit with much more expensive equipment these days. He loves the collaboration of film and enjoys working on projects with his friends. That is why he was drawn to Ghost Toilet, (besides the great title) teaming him up with long time friends and fellow collaborators, Kara and Adam White, a duo that he has been working with for the past 20 years.
ADAM WHITE
As a producer, Adam has won multiple Emmys and film festival awards. He has produced multiple narrative and documentary films, including the upcoming WrestleHer, A Pirate’s Life for Me, Before America, and Voyager. His past films are Emmy award-winning films for PBS; Witness to Revolution, Space Chase: USA, The Restorers, Red Tail Reborn, and Beyond the Powder (which has aired on PBS for over a decade).
Adam is also a cinematographer for features, short films, commercials, and documentaries. He's a giant film nerd and co-host on Saturday Morning Movie Club talking all things movies. Adam graduated from Wright State University's prestigious film program with a degree in Motion Picture Production.
He is also a licensed pilot and makes a great bowl of chili.
ALAN TUSKES
Alan has an obsession with bringing cinematic illusions, monsters, and nightmares to life. Alan grew up watching Ghoulardi and Ray Harryhausen and reading Fangoria and Famous Monsters of Filmland, inspiring him to create movie magic.
Alan refined his craft working at Stan Winston Studio, Rick Baker's Cinovation, Steve Johnson's XFX, and KNB EFX Group. His fingers have been in the foam and silicone of massive blockbusters and cult classics alike. Contributing to the worlds of From Dusk Till Dawn, The Green Mile, Men in Black II, Planet of the Apes, Thir13een Ghosts, adn the Dun TV miniseries - which earned the KNB team an Emmy Award for Best Special Effects.
After returning to Ohio, Alan worked with Robert Kurtzman at Creature Corps and worked on locally based films like White Boy Rick, The Bye Bye Man, and It Follows and taught future monster-makers at Tom Saviini's Special Makeup Effects School. Alan also competed on Syfy's Face-Off (Season 12).
Fueled by latex paint, classic horror, and a lifelong mission to make the unbelieveable real, Alan has his own shop in Cleveland (Alan Tuskes MUFX) to continue bringing monsters to life.
We couldn't ask for better crew members in Ohio to crew all the positions.
We really are like a family here.
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For our first stage of fundraising, your support helps us create escrow to go after key genre cameo appearances (you'll be so excited to see who we get!), set up legalities, secure a casting director, create our production design, and lead-up to pre-production. Your support also helps raise awareness of the film, to help bring more funding to film the project. We will need additional funds to create this feature film. There will be a follow up Seed and Spark campaign for production funds, and we hope you can be part of the whole process!
We are also going after investors to pay for production. So the more we can show there is a fan-base, the better our chances. If you are interested in being an investor, please reach out to us!
Our marketing plan is to promote this movie as if it's already a cult classic. We really want to make this a community event. Because let's face it, watching a film called "Ghost Toilet" deserves to be watching in a theater of people having a good time. We'll turn these special screenings into an event with interaction and glowing toilet brushes! Our distribution model is digital rental and purchase, with a screening tour to college campuses and independent theaters across the country.
This movie speaks to those of us who love to have a good time watching a crazy horror movie and those of us with special friendships. And losing those friendships, and then finding new ones. Battling your grief and fighting inner demons. And for our characters, fighting physical demons.
Ghost Toilet is based on an award-winning short film created for the 48 Hour Film Festival called "Bitch Get Out of the Bathroom".
At it's core, "Ghost Toilet" is a Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode that meets Evil Dead-inspired demons. With your support, we'll bring this crazy supernatural tale to life. Thank you for considering our film and being a part of this wild ride!
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Production Design
Costs $2,000
Our Production designer and team will create designs and blueprints for our main house set that will be built in a Cleveland studio.
Legal
Costs $1,500
Hiring an entertainment lawyer to set up an LLC, draw up contracts, and to do all the lawyer-y legal things.
Yeah, but who's in it?
Costs $1,500
This will cover initial costs of hiring a Casting Director to help us find our cast.
What's this thing actually going to cost?
Costs $500
Hiring a Line Producer to do a breakdown budget and schedule. So we'll have an official budget to present to funders.
Genre Cameo Appearances
Costs $12,000
This is for escrow to go after key cameo appearances. We're going after supernatural horror talent to make this film be a blast to watch!
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
We're an award-winning Cleveland-based team that have been working together on major motion pictures, independent films, and all the things in between for over 15 years. We have created worlds and stories together for lower budgets that have translated into incredible films. From movies set in WWII to the 1960's and beyond, we're ready to create a world of dark comedic horror found in Ghost Toilet.
We look forward to hiring an Ohio crew that have worked on some of the biggest films out there. We have a talented crew base here and are excited to get people back to work in a tumultuous time in our industry.
Our team is a group highly qualified professionals who are all friends. And who doesn't want to make a movie with their friends?
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
"I'll swallow your soul...
through your butt!"
Lifelong friends, Liz and Tiffany, have been guarding a mystical wishing stone they found that accidentally killed their roommate a decade ago. When Tiffany passes away, Liz is left with the responsibility of keeping the stone safe. An irresponsible person at heart, she decides to flush the stone down the toilet in her grief. Unleashing the wish-demon trapped within the stone causing chaos upon a house full of party guests. Liz must fight the demons she released and her own personal demons, while potentially making a new friend along the way. The film ends covered in blood and guts in the bathroom… with the Ghost Toilet.
Hi, I'm Kara White, the writer and director of "Ghost Toilet". I've been working in the film industry for 20+ years and been directing documentaries and short films for 16 years. This time I've written a horror comedy feature film. It's the easiest thing I've ever written. It all just flowed. I'm so excited to share the crazy stuff going through my brain with everyone. It's definitely weird in here. This movie is born out of friendship. It's a movie about friends, the idea came from a joke my friend made, and now I'm making this movie with my incredibly talented friends.
I'm a huge film nerd and can't wait to bring my passion for movies to this film. What I love about my favorite horror movies is that they are fun, use real practical monsters, and get bloody crazy. I love how you can use camera moves and angles, editing techniques, themes, and character traits to convey a story. So I'm going to make sure Ghost Toilet does the same. Echoing the bloody hilarity of Evil Dead 2, bringing the fun characteristics of the characters of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the TV show), and the friendship comedy of Shaun of the Dead. Did I mention the blood? There will be blood cannons involved!
I can't wait to bring this story of strong female characters (even when they make bad decisions) to life. And to bring work to a struggling industry and to remind the world of how talented our local film crew members are.
Now is the perfect time to make this movie. There's a strong desire for new ideas, especially with the impact of "Sinners". Telling stories from different voices is where it's at. With the cancellation of the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" reboot, many of you are eager for more content that resonates that vibe. This is the opportunity to tell a genuine female-focused story and we have a few key team members on board to really bring it home. Director of Photography Amy Faust, and Production Designer Leyna Haller, join writer and director Kara White to bring you the laughs, chills, and bloody good time you are all looking for! EVERYONE will love Ghost Toilet.
We're a Cleveland-based team of independent filmmakers making something personal, fun, and creative. Our team has won multiple awards for their craft in filmmaking. We've created many of our own films with successful distribution and a proven track record. From period piece films on a budget to documentary and beyond, we've done it all together.
KARA WHITE
Kara White is an award-winning Director and Producer of documentaries, museum films, web videos, and commercials. She has been directing and producing short films and documentaries for decades, and is a multiple Emmy award winner. Her films have been in multiple festivals and have won many awards.
Kara co-hosts a video podcast called Saturday Morning Movie Club, where she talks about her love of movies and studying what makes them good (or bad). Growing up, she has always loved horror movies and dreamed of making her own one day. She loves telling stories about women, including her new film Ghost Toilet.
With a love for storytelling and passion for tales of strong women in history, she has directed the documentary films Rise Above: WASP about the Women Airforce Service Pilots from WWII and PBS's Beyond the Powder, telling the story of the first women's cross-country air race and the women who still race today.
In her free time, Kara enjoys spending time with her cats, watching movies, and flying in vintage airplanes (when available!).
AMY FAUST
Amy is an award winning Cinematographer and International Camera Guild camera operator. A 20 year veteran in the field, Amy serves on the Guild’s National Executive Board in the Central Region and chairs both the Central Region Women's Committee and the National Health and Welfare committee. She is passionate about protecting the work/life balance of our crews. Amy teaches Cinematography and Motion Picture Production at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. She was also a founding board member of Women In Film Cincinnati. Lifting up women in the industry is a passionate mission for Amy. Filming Ghost Toilet will continue the legacy of collaborating with other powerful women to bring films to life with dynamic and powerful cinema.
Amy’s camera work can be viewed in Emilio Estevez’s The Public, Netflix’s Turtles All The Way Down & Point Blank and Hulu’s Point Blank. Photography, a short film she shot in collaboration with Hemlock Films and Tri-C Academy is currently making the film festival rounds, garnering accolades along the way. Her clients also include Showtime, Hulu, HBO & MTV.
In her spare time, you can find Amy buried under her two small kids, tickling them until they squeal for mercy!
LEYNA HALLER
Having survived small horror films in the depths of rural Ohio, Leyna worked her way up to blowing up downtown Cleveland (at least twice). When she’s not production designing WWII cafes, 1960s high rises or possessed bathrooms, she is a Lead Person on such films as Judas and the Black Messiah, Bones and All and a little project called Superman.
Leyna loves being part of Art Department because film sets are an integral part of a film’s world building. Sets help tell the story within the story and sometimes come to life as characters themselves.
She was elected to a leadership role with I.A.T.S.E. Local 209 as Secretary-Treasurer in 2022. While her service to the members throughout Ohio and Northern Kentucky has been very rewarding, it has had the unintended consequence of giving Leyna proficiency in the dark art of spreadsheet formulae.
When she’s not haunting the Set Dec warehouses or performing demonic rites to get a set finished in time, Leyna can be found bribing her hellhound with treats and tearing out walls with her husband trying to find where that sound is coming from…
ROBERT RUGGERI
Robert is an award-winning producer & director hailing from tropical Cleveland, Ohio. As a producer, Robert’s first two films, Take Shelter and Kings of Summer, both premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and went on to receive worldwide distribution. Take Shelter, starring Jessica Chastain and Michael Shannon, took home the top prize for Best Picture at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival Critic’s Week competition in 2011.
Robert’s follow up films, G Funk, a documentary he produced with rapper Warren G, and the Helen Hunt Thriller, I See You, both premiered at the SXSW Film Festival to critical reviews and sold to Google/YouTube Premium and Amazon Prime, respectively. I See You reached #1 on both Amazon Prime and Netflix during its release.
Robert considers himself the same excited kid who was outside filming sketches and short films with his friends, albeit with much more expensive equipment these days. He loves the collaboration of film and enjoys working on projects with his friends. That is why he was drawn to Ghost Toilet, (besides the great title) teaming him up with long time friends and fellow collaborators, Kara and Adam White, a duo that he has been working with for the past 20 years.
ADAM WHITE
As a producer, Adam has won multiple Emmys and film festival awards. He has produced multiple narrative and documentary films, including the upcoming WrestleHer, A Pirate’s Life for Me, Before America, and Voyager. His past films are Emmy award-winning films for PBS; Witness to Revolution, Space Chase: USA, The Restorers, Red Tail Reborn, and Beyond the Powder (which has aired on PBS for over a decade).
Adam is also a cinematographer for features, short films, commercials, and documentaries. He's a giant film nerd and co-host on Saturday Morning Movie Club talking all things movies. Adam graduated from Wright State University's prestigious film program with a degree in Motion Picture Production.
He is also a licensed pilot and makes a great bowl of chili.
ALAN TUSKES
Alan has an obsession with bringing cinematic illusions, monsters, and nightmares to life. Alan grew up watching Ghoulardi and Ray Harryhausen and reading Fangoria and Famous Monsters of Filmland, inspiring him to create movie magic.
Alan refined his craft working at Stan Winston Studio, Rick Baker's Cinovation, Steve Johnson's XFX, and KNB EFX Group. His fingers have been in the foam and silicone of massive blockbusters and cult classics alike. Contributing to the worlds of From Dusk Till Dawn, The Green Mile, Men in Black II, Planet of the Apes, Thir13een Ghosts, adn the Dun TV miniseries - which earned the KNB team an Emmy Award for Best Special Effects.
After returning to Ohio, Alan worked with Robert Kurtzman at Creature Corps and worked on locally based films like White Boy Rick, The Bye Bye Man, and It Follows and taught future monster-makers at Tom Saviini's Special Makeup Effects School. Alan also competed on Syfy's Face-Off (Season 12).
Fueled by latex paint, classic horror, and a lifelong mission to make the unbelieveable real, Alan has his own shop in Cleveland (Alan Tuskes MUFX) to continue bringing monsters to life.
We couldn't ask for better crew members in Ohio to crew all the positions.
We really are like a family here.
For our first stage of fundraising, your support helps us create escrow to go after key genre cameo appearances (you'll be so excited to see who we get!), set up legalities, secure a casting director, create our production design, and lead-up to pre-production. Your support also helps raise awareness of the film, to help bring more funding to film the project. We will need additional funds to create this feature film. There will be a follow up Seed and Spark campaign for production funds, and we hope you can be part of the whole process!
We are also going after investors to pay for production. So the more we can show there is a fan-base, the better our chances. If you are interested in being an investor, please reach out to us!
Our marketing plan is to promote this movie as if it's already a cult classic. We really want to make this a community event. Because let's face it, watching a film called "Ghost Toilet" deserves to be watching in a theater of people having a good time. We'll turn these special screenings into an event with interaction and glowing toilet brushes! Our distribution model is digital rental and purchase, with a screening tour to college campuses and independent theaters across the country.
This movie speaks to those of us who love to have a good time watching a crazy horror movie and those of us with special friendships. And losing those friendships, and then finding new ones. Battling your grief and fighting inner demons. And for our characters, fighting physical demons.
Ghost Toilet is based on an award-winning short film created for the 48 Hour Film Festival called "Bitch Get Out of the Bathroom".
At it's core, "Ghost Toilet" is a Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode that meets Evil Dead-inspired demons. With your support, we'll bring this crazy supernatural tale to life. Thank you for considering our film and being a part of this wild ride!
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Production Design
Costs $2,000
Our Production designer and team will create designs and blueprints for our main house set that will be built in a Cleveland studio.
Legal
Costs $1,500
Hiring an entertainment lawyer to set up an LLC, draw up contracts, and to do all the lawyer-y legal things.
Yeah, but who's in it?
Costs $1,500
This will cover initial costs of hiring a Casting Director to help us find our cast.
What's this thing actually going to cost?
Costs $500
Hiring a Line Producer to do a breakdown budget and schedule. So we'll have an official budget to present to funders.
Genre Cameo Appearances
Costs $12,000
This is for escrow to go after key cameo appearances. We're going after supernatural horror talent to make this film be a blast to watch!
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
We're an award-winning Cleveland-based team that have been working together on major motion pictures, independent films, and all the things in between for over 15 years. We have created worlds and stories together for lower budgets that have translated into incredible films. From movies set in WWII to the 1960's and beyond, we're ready to create a world of dark comedic horror found in Ghost Toilet.
We look forward to hiring an Ohio crew that have worked on some of the biggest films out there. We have a talented crew base here and are excited to get people back to work in a tumultuous time in our industry.
Our team is a group highly qualified professionals who are all friends. And who doesn't want to make a movie with their friends?