Toetag Pictures

Before Toetag Pictures was founded, director Fred Vogel and special effects artist Jerami Cruise both attended the same university, the Art Institute of Pittsburgh,^[3] where they began shooting underground short films with a focus on gore and violence. After graduating from university, they made the first August Underground film together in 2001.^[4]

Toetag Pictures was founded after the creation of August Underground's Mordum (a sequel to Toetag's 2001 exploitation horror film August Underground) in 2002. Following the success of August Underground and its sequel, Toetag Pictures was able to lease their first studio in Bellevue, Pennsylvania. Parts of the studio can be seen in the pseudo-documentary S&Man. Due to the continued success of Toetag, the company was able to move to a 7,000 sq ft studio in Pittsburgh.^[3] The team would go on to make seven films under the name Toetag Pictures before rebranding to Toetag Inc in 2010. The company lost its Pittsburgh studio that same year.^[3] After the Pittsburgh studio closed, Toetag went on to work on special effects for the segment "Wet Dream" in the horror anthology film The Theater Bizarre, and also contributed to SFX for the films White Reindeer (2013) and Fractured (2013).^[5] In 2012, Jerami Cruise moved the Toetag EFX department to Los Angeles, California.^[1] The company also opened a storefront in 2013 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.^[3] In 2014, Toetag Inc created Toetag Releasing, which went on to distribute four films: "Arme/Lust", "Cross Bearer", "I Am No One", and "Deadwood Park". In 2015, Toetag Inc, Toetag EFX, and Toetag Releasing all went on hiatus.^[3]