Scott Beck and Bryan Woods co-wrote the breakout horror hit ‘A Quiet Place‘ with director John Krasinski, but for their next move, they decided to co-write and co-direct their own project. Their movie, ‘Haunt’ will make its debut on the opening night of the Popcorn Frights film festival, which takes place at Savor Cinema, Fort Lauderdale, FL, from August 8th until the 16th.
While ‘A Quiet Place’ had a high concept– man-eating aliens have invaded Earth and are attracted by sound– ‘Haunt’ is a grittier and more grounded story about a group of friends who enter a haunted house attraction, only to find real horrors inside. As Beck summarized, “’Haunt’ is about going inside a haunted house, and unfortunately there happen to be psychopaths inside.” The film was filmed in Cincinnati, home of the annual ‘Halloween Haunt’ or just ‘Haunt’ to the locals, held every year at the King’s Island theme park.
Woods further explained:
“Our main girl is Harper who’s played by Katie Stevens. She is probably best known for her TV work, she’s one of the stars of ‘The Bold Type’ and ‘Faking It’. Her character is this young woman who’s in this horrifyingly abusive relationship. It all comes to a head on the week leading up to Halloween. The whole idea is, like, ‘Can I just let go, and have a good night, and move past this?’ All the while, we think that her ex- is following her, stalking her. We’re trying to merge this character story with kind of slasher tropes.”
While ‘Haunt’ may sound like a run-of-the-mill slasher movie, keep in mind, these were the writers that crafted ‘A Quiet Place’, which succeeded by bringing a fresh spin to alien horror. Hopefully, that freshness will carry over to Beck and Woods’ new project.
Discussing the filming process, Beck said:
“The shoot was incredible because, first and foremost, with our production designer, and our art direction team, we were able to build our own haunted house, that had functioning gags. That was like being in Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, getting to roam around these extravagant incredible sets. Beyond that, we got to actually film over Halloween, which led to this incredible camaraderie of everyone just wanting to enjoy the season, and throw all of that fun energy of what Halloween season really is into the movie.”
Here are some additional pictures from the movie:
If you are in Ft. Lauderdale, you can catch the world premiere of ‘Haunt’ at Popcorn Frights. The film will officially be released on September 13th.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
