Aleister Caravaggio – Con Man of the Occult. Released Halloween 2013.

Well, I think the world and his wife know that it is Halloween in a week’s time. As well as all that, two actors that I was in a film with earlier in the year  (That film is More Sex Lies and Depravity, formerly known as Ethan, which I wrote about earlier in the year and is set for release on DVD in February 2014) are involved in a new pilot for a horror-comedy series which gets it timely premiere on YouTube on…yep…Halloween. One of them – Ruggero Dalla Santa – plays Aleister and is also the creator of this new idea. The other, Nathaniel Francis, plays Dean – the grandson of Aleister’s Landlady.

Aleister Caravaggio is a real medium who abuses his powers to get what he wants in life. But what happens when the people in death decide to take revenge? Demonic possession, make- believe rituals and questionable tarot readings; in a world where thousands of ghosts are suffering from post-mortem depression, it’s just another day for Aleister Caravaggio.

Ruggero is hoping to see the series make the jump onto TV but, if it doesn’t make the grade then he is ready to develop it as a web series instead. A crowdfunding campaign for £1000 was launched earlier this year to help produce the pilot episode. The target was reached and surpassed within a week, with the total amount pledged jumping to almost £1600 in less than a month, demonstrating undeniable support for the project. This gave a completely new scope to the first step of the project, allowing for high-quality equipment hire, costumes, set dressing and much more.

Ruggero explains where he got the idea from:

I  had  been  toying  with  several  of  the  elements  that  form  the  world  of  Aleister  -­‐   the  way  the  communication  with  the  spirits  work  for  example  -­‐  for  some  time,   and  had  even  started  developing  an  outline  for  a  feature  film,  but  the  initial  spark   for  Aleister  came  from  somewhere  completely  different.  There  are  lots  of  series’   that  centre  around  a  strong  and  non-conventional  male  character  who  defy   rules  and  always  end  up  on  top  of  everybody  else.  Some  of  these  series’  are  very   good,  other  degenerate  into  quasi-­‐chauvinistic  stereotypes.  I  wanted  to  see   something  different.  I  wanted  a  lead  character  who  thinks  of  himself  as  very  cool   and  macho,  but  who  is  ultimately  punished  for  it.  Someone  who,  in  order  to  end   up  on  top,  will  have  to  question  his  own  actions  and  decide  to  change.  I  never   meant  this  as  a  sort  of  ‘educational  model’,  it’s  just  an  idea  that  I  started  to  play   around  with  and  which  ultimately  combined  itself  with  the  ‘ghost  world’  I  had   developed  for  that  other  project.

Look out for it’s premiere in a weeks time. In the meantime, here is a trailer showing a taste of what you can expect to see.

You can find out more about Aleister Caravaggio on the website here, on Facebook and follow Ruggero on Twitter