How did that go for you?

Growing up in Appalachia, we love our cryptids.

And I have been immersed in the world of cryptids since I was a kid, since I moved back from overseas.

So we have Bigfoot, we have Mothman, we have some weird ones you probably haven't heard of, like the Flatwoods Monster and Vegetable Man.

We have more cryptids than any state in the union.

I'm standing by that fact.

I don't know how real it is, but I'm standing by it.

production on Dark Hollow, was that it? You shot the script with no more rewrites?

yeah yeah that's uh from everything that i've read and everybody that i've talked to i think that that's pretty standard for a big guy in a suit is that the big guy actually can't see anything and pretty often his range of motion is pretty limited so i i think that's a problem that people really have to deal with in pretty much all of these creature feature productions

Well, you're always trying to creatively problem solve, right? And that's the thing about making an independent film is that you just, you don't have the resources to throw money at most of your problems.

So you have to get real creative.

So for example, you know, down, we were in a real coal mine for three days, very cool, very cool place to work.

And also, like legitimately terrifying being down there when you turned off all the practical lights and then our lead she's lighting her way uh for your previous comment we lit some of those scenes practically with just a sparkler and it makes sense in the story why she just has a sparkler um but she just has a sparkler to light her way and so it was pitch dark down there and so our our poor dp with his 70 pound easy rig is trying to follow her through this time A little mine shaft, you know, four feet high, stooped over while she's going through with nothing but a sparkler to light the way.

I'm trying to see anything at all to figure out if we got the shot or not.

Tough place to work.

So, uh, yeah, so we've, we've already touched on this a little bit, but, um, my favorite final question to ask somebody in these interviews is where do you see the future of independent filmmaking going?

So one thing I want to know is that has anyone ever warned you about something supernatural that you laughed off or like you ignored, but you secretly remembered or you pushed through and decided to see what it was about anyway?

Hmm.

Well, Meemaw, you know, my grandmother's not from West Virginia, but Meemaw is very much based on my own grandmother, who's also a very powerful, she's the staunch heart of the family unit.

She's held together several generations, I think four generations now at the center of that.

She's And so I, you know, I had that inspiration for her character, even though she's a little different.

And I'm glad you enjoyed her.

I liked her too.

So, but when you finally saw, you know, this with the creature and from what you envisioned that was physically brought to life, did it look like the monster that had been living inside your head or did it become way creepier than you've ever imagined given the team that you worked with?

So, When Paradise wins the jury prize, do you immediately think, I have to make this movie now? Or was there still a part of you that was wondering whether this would actually happen? Like, what was that moment when Dark Hollow went from a script I believe in to, holy shit, pardon my language, we're actually making this? How did that happen?

It's so funny being in such a competitive and saturated industry and film especially being independent right because you hit these, you hit these kind of like thresholds or stepping stones that you feel like really should move you forward, and that was kind of winning Austin Film Festival you know I got a mentorship with Vertigo Entertainment.

which was great.

I was meeting all of the head executives of all of the major horror studios in Hollywood and talking to them.

And Vertigo liked the script.

They wanted to develop it.

There was the possibility that they would have developed it and picked it up and turned it into something with a real budget, with a budget in the $10 to $20 million range.

I

And so anybody who,

Yeah, baby's got to eat.

I think a lot of horror is kind of about that, too.

It's that, like, what is the emotionally resonant thing going on here that is also violent and also has to do with prey and predators and fear? So...

Anyway, I think the two do kind of dovetail.

And that was the background that I brought into doing this.

The other thing coming from a nature documentary that I think was really helpful for making Dark Hollow was working with landscape, you know, working with the land.

I'm just super curious if you could share the difference between planning and producing horror films, which are really scripted, and reality TV, which involves an unscripted process.