Tantrika May 27, 2011

Tantrika is Travis Kerschen's third feature film, and his first feature film to be shot in Houston, TX (south Houston, specifically). His second feature film, IKO, was a drama, shot in Mexico City with a Mexican and Chilean cast. His first feature film, Pageant, was a comedy shot in Austin, TX. The film is about eight professional adults (yuppies) who break into an abandoned house for kicks. As the night wears on they encounter horror after horror. The movie is a cross between the films of Stan Brakhage and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The word tantrika means a practitioner of Buddhist tantra (vajrayana). The film's themes are concurrent with some of the meditations and rituals of tantra (sex, death, insight). The actors who play they yuppies improvised their lines, and they include; the brilliant Houston actor Jason Sweatt, master thespian (and also Houstonian) Ronda Flannery, Susan Blair, Sara Gaston, Jim Lawrence, Chelsea Aldrich and Liza Garner. This film is one and a half hours of horror, death and humor.