Director returns home to film his first horror feature

By Stacey Janzer

Hanging out with celebrities like Liam Neeson, Adrien Brody and Mila Kunis – it’s just another day in the life of Amherstburg native Gavin Booth.

 

But the director thought of nowhere else but Windsor to shoot his feature film.

 

Among the downtown businesses closed for the evening and people waiting for city buses sits a vacant building on Ouellette Avenue.  Inside this building is where Booth has decided to film his feature.

 

Standing inside the front room of the movie production office on a mid-September Friday – in a room that looks like it’s undergoing construction.  Pieces of wood, debris and a single chair inside – local director Booth excitedly awaits talking about his film, ’The Scarehouse.’

 

Although Booth has been creating films since he was a child, this is his first feature horror film.

 

“My dad used to take me out to the movies every week,” said Booth.

 

Booth said his dad had an interest in photography and had a Super 8 camcorder that Booth used to make stop-motion films.

 

“Back then you couldn’t even get movies on VHS,” said Booth. “Back then I was just trying to recreate the scenes, using my Star Wars figures or He-mans or GI Joes or whatever toys I had to make movies.”

 

Until recently Booth lived in the Windsor area. In 2011 he was able to attend the Toronto International Film Festival, where he had a random encounter with a producer, Sarah Hansen. They discussed working on a show together, but he was quickly fired from the production. They both got busy with projects and wouldn’t talk for months but in 2012 things changed.

 

The two discussed the first meeting they had and that was when Booth discovered she had feelings for him. She felt that working together would have been a conflict of interest.

 

“So once I knew that, I was hit with a Clueless moment of ‘Wait I love Josh, only Josh is Sarah in this bad high school play version,’ said Booth. Soon after Booth and Hansen were married.

 

The pair wrote and produced a short horror film together called To Hell, with Love, which Sarah said could be described as having a similar dynamic to ‘The Scarehouse.”

 

Booth said he was always interested in horror films. One summer in his teens, he and his friend went A to Z through the horror section of the Amherstburg video store.

 

“Good, bad, awful it didn’t matter. It was just every horror movie ever, but I’ve always been obsessed with horror movies and I’ve had ideas for horror movies,” said Booth.

 

According to Booth, after the short film was made the distributor D Films became interested in his other potential films.

 

“They saw that and said, ‘What do you have for a feature.’ I said, ‘Well I have this idea called The Scarehouse,”’ said Booth.

 

The Scarehouse is a female-driven horror film. Teagan Vincze, the actress who plays one of the tortured girls, said being in a horror film was on her bucket list.

 

Vincze describes her character, Shelby Hickman, as a compulsive liar.

 

“She’s trying to lie her way out of not being killed,” said Vincze. “The more she lies, the more it angers the other girls.”

 

Sarah plays Corey Peters, one of the leads, who she said is a mix of vicious and sweet.

 

“Her and Elaina, the other lead, have opened a Halloween funhouse and the movie takes place all in one night as we quickly learn the girls have a much more sinister revenge plot up their sleeves,” said Booth.

 

D Films moved fast on his project, even providing Universal for U.S. distribution. Booth said he is thrilled that the process has gone so smoothly.

 

“From May until now it’s almost done shooting. It’s like the fastest (process),” said Booth. “This is not a business that moves quickly as I’ve learned in the past. You wait years for things to never happen. So it’s been a blessing that this sped up and went through right away.”

 

Sarah said she was impressed with how great the community is here.

 

“Once we started filming I really felt the family feel the city has,” said Sarah. “It feels like home versus just another production. People stop by, restaurant owners personally deliver food, everyone seems to know everyone.”

 

Booth could not think of any other place to film.

 

“Windsor is awesome. It’s basically the only way I know how to make movies,” said Booth. “Everybody working on this film is a one-degree separation of my life.”

 

Shawn Lippert, who owns the building the film was shot in and holds a haunted house there yearly, plans on integrating “The Scarehouse” in to Scarehouse Windsor, located at 709 Ouellete Ave. opening on Oct. 4.

 

“It will be cool,” said Lippert, “Plan to be scared a lot.”

 

Booth said he is expecting the marketing for his film to start soon as the projected release date is early next year.

 

“The film takes place on Devil’s night, the night before Halloween,” said Booth,  “So I think it would be appropriate to start the marketing.”

 

The film’s trailer can be found at https://www.facebook.com/TheScareHouse.