golem

--Webster’s New International Dictionary, Second Edition

Jeremy Stephens (STEVE ROZIC) reads from one of his father's books of the occult in THE GOLEM.

begins late one night when Sue Stephens, an over-worked book editor living in N.Y.C., receives a mysterious telephone call pleading for her help. Weeks later, she learns from a long lost brother that her estranged father has passed away. This devastates Sue who had hoped to one day patch things up.

As the family gathers in L. A. to tie-up any loose ends with their father's estate, tensions mount as we learn the brothers blame Sue for everything that has transpired between them and their father. The significance of this hits home when they discover a golem -- a human figure of clay sculpted by their father -- living in the family garage.

Over the next few hours the family will be forced to question everything in their lives including their sanity; their only chance of surviving the horror of this night is in the discovery of the secret of... The Golem.

I'd wanted to do a story based on the golem legend for several years. After the successful completion of our first short film, Dead Stop, when we began outlining our dreams and aspirations for our next film, the golem came up and seemed a natural way to incorporate everything we wanted to achieve.

The most famous story or legend involving a golem is that of Rabbi Loew in Prague who built a clay figure in 1600 to defend the Jewish citizen from oppression. This story was first filmed in 1904 by German Director Paul Wegener and considered to be one of the earliest monster movies and a shining example of german expressionistic filmmaking -- as well as forerunner to the Universal Studios Frankenstein franchise.

Despite these great beginnings, the golem as a film figure was never exploited to the extent of the other great screen monsters. Versions appeared as smaller characters in fantasy films, most recently in an episode of The X-Files. For this reason, I thought it would be a fresh idea, one with a connection to motion pictures in their infancy, which I felt was also where we are at in our own productions.

Rava's Golem -- The story of one particular Rabbi and his creation. Great information about jewish legends.

Paul Wegener, Man or Monster? -- Great reference about the German Expressionistic director and his pioneering work on Der Golem: Wie er in die Welt Kam (The Golem: or How He Came into the World.)

Screen Greats -- An enthusiastic fan site devoted to the classic monster movies of yesteryear including Der Golem.