Roxy ready for its closeup

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This article was published 16/06/2015 (3749 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Lights, camera, action!

The Roxy Theatre in Neepawa will be rolling out the red carpet for the premiere of the movie “Amityville Theater” this Friday night.

The movie, a low-budget horror movie set in a theatre, was filmed at the Roxy and produced by Scrapfilms.

“We never had done anything in our lives with movies before. It was a wonderful experience. Everyone enjoyed it,” said Debbie Reader, the line producer.

The movie was filmed for two weeks during the end of September last year in Neepawa. Though it was set to be filmed in New York, originally, the location of the set changed after the videographer took a trip to Neepawa last year.

Mathew Hickinbottom, from Dudley, England, was in Neepawa for his cousin Mike Reader’s son’s wedding. While there, Mike and his wife Debbie showed Hickinbottom, the videographer, around town.

“(Mathew) says I’m reading a script and this town and this theatre would look great. Could I have a look inside? So we got him the key and he took photos and he sent them back to the writer. And it just snowballed from there,” Debbie said.

Hickinbottom, along with John R. Walker, a writer on the film, and Rhodri Jones, a special-effects makeup artist, came to Neepawa to film the movie.

“Amityville Theater” is set in the same world as the other Amityville horror movies and centres on Fawn Harriman, a teenage girl whose parents die tragically. Harriman then finds out that she has inherited the theatre in the town of Amityville.

Harriman, along with a few friends, venture to the town for the weekend in order to check out the theatre. After they get there, things start to go weird and people go missing.

When the theatre board was approached with the opportunity for a film production at the Roxy, they saw it as a win-win for both the theatre and the community, board chair Marilyn Dietrich said.

“We just thought it was something different for the community, good for the community and if somebody wants to use the Roxy it’s just one more bonus,” Dietrich said.

Scrapfilms rented the theatre and scheduled their filming times around the normal weekend movie schedule. Dietrich says that there were no issues between the theatre board and the production company.

Debbie helped with casting, drawing on local Manitoba talent to fill the roles.

“I’ve had a big interest in filmmaking and I had heard from Mrs. Reader that they were doing auditions, so I thought that I should try out and see what it’s all about,” said Linden Baker, a Grade 12 student from Neepawa.

Baker played Kyle Blaker, Harriman’s boyfriend in the movie.

“It was great to work with all of (the professionals) because they knew what they were doing and they knew what they wanted but they were easy to work with for us newer people,” Baker said.

Monèle LeStrat, who played Harriman in the film, echoed his feelings, saying that “just getting to work with actual filmmakers was amazing. It was my first time on screen, so I did learn a lot about just filming and blocking scenes. It was fantastic,” LeStrat said.

LeStrat, a Grade 10 student from Virden, heard about the movie from her grandmother, who had read about it in the Neepawa Banner.

“As soon as she heard about it, she actually contacted me and told me because I’m really interested in acting,” LeStrat said.

Neepawa was very supportive of the movie, Debbie said.

They allowed for streets to be closed down to film scenes and community members would show up to film crowd scenes.

The film was already released in the United Kingdom in May on DVD and it had a limited theatrical release. In the U.K. it is titled “Amityville Playhouse.” Debbie says that it has been well received there, as far as she knows.

In North America, it will be released on DVD on June 23 through Amazon and possibly Walmart. The film will also be playing this weekend (June 19- 21) at the Roxy Theatre, with a red-carpet premiere on the Friday opening.

“We’re kind of trying to do a little thing like they do on TV land. We’re going to pull out some kind of red carpet, and maybe introduce a few (of the cast) as they come through,” Dietrich said.

The cast will arrive at the theatre at 7 p.m., and then the movie will begin at 8 p.m. and will be open to public.

Movie tickets will cost $10 each, with all proceeds going to the theatre.

“I’m excited and very nervous for everybody to see what we made,” Baker said.

“It’s really cool to think that it’s happening, but it’s still kind of weird to see yourself like that.”

To see the trailer for the film visit youtube.com/watch?v=Et2sJ0uJCWg.

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