Last week we announced to you that there was a horror/comedy film shot here in greater Bangor Region.
The film, titled October 31, is slated for release in October 2023, according to the film’s producer/writer, Christina Scott.
Bangor Movie 21, Cori Skall
Scott, who says she grew up in Maine, was excited to return home to shoot the film.
“I lived in Bangor with my dad for a while. I went to UMO and lived in Old Town and Orono.”
Bangor Movie 1, Christina Scott
Scott, who double majored in advertising and journalism at the University of Maine, said she partnered with her brother to start Wicked scary productions. She currently lives with her family in Florida, where she moved to be closer to her son who is in school there, but the plan has always been to come home.
“When my brother and I decided to start a film company, which is an ode to Maine, Wicked Scary Productionswe decided that eventually we would film here in Maine, because we love it so much.”
Movie Bangor 2, Christina Scott
“When we finally got the chance to shoot our first movie, I convinced our director that the best place to do it was in Maine.”
Movie Bangor 3, Christina Scott
“We’re shooting a horror comedy, which I wrote. It’s about two nerdy teenagers who go on a monster hunt in real life. They meet a mysterious girl…there’s a lot humor in it, lots of blood.”
Bangor Movie 17, Wicked Scary Productions
There’s no doubt that Scott was influenced by Maine Horror Legend, Stephen King.
Bangor Movie 20, Cori Skall
“It was kind of funny because every time there was a horror movie premiere I was standing in line and Stephen King was either in front of me or behind me because we always wanted to see the horror movie. horror first. And so, of course, growing up, I always read a ton of his books and thought, ‘Man, I want to do horror. I want to write horror.” And now it’s so cool to now be able to shoot in Bangor where we would go to see movies together.”
How does Scott feel about being back in his home country?
Bangor Film 18, Wicked Scary Productions
“It’s kind of exciting. It’s our first movie, you know, my brother and I and we’re really happy and excited to be back in our home area.”
Bangor Movie 8, Cori Skall
“I’ve always written and I have a ton of scripts,” Scott says that she connected to the film industry through a relative of a former colleague. “He read some of my stuff and said, ‘Hey, let’s do something!'”
Bangor Movie 25, Cori Skall
Scott says when it came time to choose locations to shoot, she knew exactly where she wanted to go.
Bangor Movie 24, Cori Skall
“I have tons of family in that area, so that was one of the things. I was like Oh my God! I’ll be able to visit my family. They’ll be able to come on set. They’ll be able to help me! So that was a big draw.”
Bangor Movie 14, Cori Skall
But even with a “home” advantage, Scott says finalizing filming locations was a tricky task.
“The process was a lot harder than I thought… It would be 12-14 hour days of searching and searching and searching. We were scouting in April and May and a bit in June. It was a daunting process.”
Bangor Movie 15, Cori Skall
“Doing it myself was really tricky, but I think I was good at it. Our locations were all 10-15 minutes from each other. I started with AirBNB, which I probably won’t do again , just because of the ramifications of asking people “Hey, is it okay if I throw fake blood around your house?” Most people aren’t okay with that.”
Bangor Movie 12, Cori Skall
“A cousin of mine has a house in Hartland, and he was like, ‘Sure, you can get blood all over the place; roll your head down the stairs, you know, if you want, of course!’ The main problem I had was the timing of the shoot; we wanted to shoot in the summer because there were a lot of kids in the movie. And then I found out you had your new scene there and you We had tons of concerts, lots of people, but it’s going well.
Bangor Movie 23, Cori Skall
Filming around holiday crowds wasn’t the only problem. There was also a problem finding a place where the cast and crew could stay.
Scott said she contacted the Director of University Hospitality Services at Husson because it was so close to many of the locations they used to film.
“His name is Sterling Pingree and he was amazing!”
Pingree was able to help provide accommodations for the production.
“So we were like everyone else staying here in Husson, and our two stars are staying with us in the townhouses.”
Bangor Movie 5, Cori Skall
“It was so cool. Everyone I met was so nice and so helpful.”
Scott says the production began filming the second week of July and expects to wrap filming in late July.
Bangor Movie 16, Cori Skall
“We basically have to go through the post-filming process. You know, audio and color correction and all that kind of stuff. I think we’ll try to take it to some festivals, but for now, it’ll probably end up on Netflix unless we buy it at festivals.”
Here are some other Maine-related movies:
13 films shot in Maine
Maine is not new to Hollywood. Many films have been shot in Maine since 1956.
