This weekend you can see the first installment of Tales From Mutantville at the Twelfth Annual Nevermore Film Festival at the Carolina Theatre in Durham. But did you know that Scarecrow At Midnight was filmed entirely on location at the one and only Myers House NC? Kenny Caperton, owner of the Myers House NC, invited Mutantville Productions out to his home in Hillsborough last October to film Scarecrow At Midnight.
In 1978 John Carpenter took a budget of $320,000, a small cast and an even smaller crew and created what would become known as THE seminal slasher film of modern horror – Halloween. John Carpenter’s Halloween went on to gross over $47 million in the US and $60 million worldwide. It has since grossed countless millions more on endless home video, DVD and blu ray incarnations making it the most profitable independent movie of all time (that is until the The Blair With Project in 1999 (BWP later being replaced by Paranormal Activity in 2009)).
In 2007, while on a trip to California to see the premiere of Rob Zombie’s Halloween, Smashing Pumpkins superfan Kenny Caperton decided to walk the streets of Pasadena and revisit the birthplace of a slasher legend. It was on this particular tour of the original Halloween filming locations that Kenny decided what better way was there to preserve the memory of the “Myers House” than by building his own. By 2008, Kenny made that inspiration a reality as construction began on his new home – an almost exact replica of the “Myers House” from John Carpenter’s Halloween.
In 2009 Kenny decided to shoot a tribute film to John Carpenter’s Halloween and based it in his new home. Kenny wrote the script for Judith and brought in Josh Hasty (Mannequin In Static) to direct. The story of Judith shows how Michael’s sister, Judith Myers, influenced him and leads up to the terrifying opening moments of John Carpenter’s film. Kenny doesn’t mind being called a superfan, but he doesn’t want his house to become the main location for every Halloween fan film out there.
In 2010, Kenny asked Mutantville Productions to come out to the Myers House NC and film an original horror film. MVP
filmed for two days over a weekend in mid-October and post-production began almost immediately. The rough cut of the film was completed by mid-November and by December, a work print was submitted to the Nevermore Film Festival committee for consideration.
Scarecrow At Midnight was accepted into the Nevermore Film Festival and will make it’s premiere there. The first installment of the Tales From Mutantville anthology will play during the short film block “When the Stars Begin to Fall” on Saturday the 19th at 12pm NOON and again on Sunday the 20th at 2:10pm. Tickets are $8 and are available at the Carolina Theatre box office (package deals and discounts are available).
Writer/director J.T.McRoberts remarks that “I first met Kenny at the First Annual Myers House Halloween Bash in 2009 and then ran into him again at the Nevermore Film Festival in 2010 and he asked me to shoot something original at his house. That’s what I really admire about Kenny, he loves Halloween and horror films so much that he is willing to open his home to strangers to give them a chance to make their own dreams come true.”
” Kenny and I discussed how we wanted Scarecrow At Midnight to be an homage to John Carpenter’s Halloween. We wanted it to have nothing to do with John Carpenter’s movie other than the fact that we used the same house and set the story on Halloween night. In my mind that makes Scarecrow At Midnight a true homage because it doesn’t focus on the past like a fan film – but instead looks towards the future by creating a new horror myth for a new generation. Maybe one day, someone will want to live in “Sonia’s House” from Scarecrow At Midnight.”
If you’re interested in visiting the Spookhouse, then plan to attend one of their events. Kenny hosts regular celebrations at the Myers House NC including the Annual Myers House NC Halloween Bash. Visit the official Myers House NC website for more information.
Come see Scarecrow At Midnight at the Nevermore Film Festival this weekend. Tickets are available online and at the box office at the Carolina Theatre.
