Sonoma High grad releases ‘Killer Party’

As we all know well by now, clowns are scary, but a SVHS alum makes them funny as well.|

It’s a fairly typical Hollywood story.

Up to a point.

Four years ago, Sonoma native Rachael Drummond was on her way to kill some homicidal maniacs and crazed party clowns when her water suddenly broke, forcing her instead to go to hospital and deliver her second child. The maniacs went back to their day jobs waiting tables in Los Angeles, and several weeks later – now fitted with a fake pregnancy belly – Drummond returned to the scene of the crimes to finish what she’d set out to do the day her daughter was born.

Kill maniacs, that is.

All of this, actress Drummond says, is why the movie she was making that day with her writer-director husband Alex – the appropriately named, “Killer Party” – was ultimately released under the appropriately obstetrical banner, “Broken Water Productions.”

“It was a very short, seven-day shoot, and I wasn’t due for five weeks, so we thought I had plenty of time,” Drummond explains. “I felt fine. I was in great shape, and my doctor had approved everything. Then, the night after our sixth day of shooting, I dreamed that I was in labor. It really rattled me, so I went to my husband and asked, ‘Do we have a contingency plan, in case I suddenly go into labor today? Could we, like, grab all of my remaining shots and then go to the hospital?’”

Once Alex, who was directing the film, had calmed her down, reminding her of the unlikeliness of her dream literally coming true, she reported to makeup.

“When I got up out of that makeup chair and went to get my wardrobe,” she says, “I got half way across the room and that’s when it happened. I stood there crying, thinking, ‘I just ruined our horror movie!’”

Born and raised in Sonoma, Drummond (formerly Lyerla) is a graduate of Sonoma Valley High School. She previously attended Flowery Elementary and Altimira Middle School. A spirited performer from the start, Drummond appeared in numerous shows in the Sonoma Valley area, including several plays at SVHS and what was then called Sonoma Vintage Theater (at the Sonoma Community Center). As a teenager and beyond, she worked with Sonoma Shakespeare Festival (then at Gundlach Bundschu), and had appearances in shows at Spreckels Performing Arts Center in Rohnert Park and Odyssey Theater in Santa Rosa.

After leaving Sonoma in 1993 to attend college at Boston University, she eventually settled in Hollywood, where she’s beginning to have success. In addition to a regular gig doing improvisational comedy with an improv team called Dork Horse, she’s shot several national commercials, and appeared in a number of popular television shows, including “Parks and Recreation,” “Parenthood,” “Fresh off the Boat,” “Mom,” and “2 Broke Girls.”

“I just shot an episode of “Speechless,” with Minnie Driver,” she says. “It’s a show about a family with a special needs child, and I play a friend of Minnie Driver’s, who is also the mother of a special needs kid. The episode hasn’t aired yet, but I would love it if I ended up as a recurring character.”

Until then, Drummond maintains a table-serving job while constantly going out for auditions – much like the struggling actor-catering company characters in “Killer Party.” The film was created, in part, to help call attention to her acting talents, and also to showcase Alex’s writing and directing skills.

“We’re always trying to get jobs in the business,” Drummond says, “so we decided to just do something fun we wanted to do, and maybe use it as a bit of a calling card, maybe help give a boost to our careers. I was pregnant, so we made my character pregnant. It’s at my baby shower that there’s an outbreak of a weird virus, and people start turning into crazed killers. One minute you’re talking to your friends and everything seems fine, the next minute they’re trying to kill you.

“It’s a lot like working in Hollywood,” she says.

The film, which she says is in the spirit of comedy-horror films like “Shaun of the Dead,” turned out well. “There is death, there is killing, there is gore – and there are a lot of laughs.”

After years of fundraising to complete editing and other post-production necessities, the film spent a year touring various horror-science fiction film festivals and conventions. It finally attracted the attention of a distributor, and in August was officially released via iTunes and other video-on-demand formats.

“It’s gotten mostly good reviews,” she says. “It definitely looks like an indie low-budget film, but if you are into fun, schlocky films made by a bunch of friends on a shoestring budget – one of whom actually has a baby part way through and suddenly shows up with a fake belly – then “Killer Party” is a your kind of movie. You’re definitely going to love it!”

Email David at david.templeton@sonomanews.com.

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