Bay Area filmmakers see thrilling possibilities with horror productions
TAMPA, Fla. - It's the film genre that makes you want to scream and grabs you in suspense.
Tampa Bay area filmmaker Rick Danford is a longtime fan of horror movies.
"It's just, I think it's the adrenaline rush," said Danford. "I love horror movies because when you watch them, and you get into them and there's a really good story or great effects or something like that, it just it creates that fear factor."
He's not just a collector of film thrillers, but he has also created his own. His supernatural feature film is called "The Clock." He said it's inspired by something he heard in his childhood on a horror radio show.
"But that particular story was about this clock that was actually a gateway to hell. And I love that whole storyline, and it always stuck with me," Danford said. "It's won an award. Now it's looking for distribution, and it's got about five or six other film festivals that it's going to be accepted into."
Danford didn't have to go to Hollywood to find the perfect location to shoot.
"The house in Brooksville is actually haunted. So, we thought it'd be really cool to film in an actual haunted house," said Danford. "We had a couple of houses that we filmed places in the surrounding area and a place in Tampa. It's a lot easier to get people to give you locations and a lot easier to find actors to work with than it is someplace like California and New York."
MORE: Python hunter: Animal populations now critical in Florida Everglades
Director Dan Myrick may agree with that. He's a Tampa Bay area native and best known for the 1999 horror classic "The Blair Witch Project."
"Well, I've always thought Tampa is one of the best locations for film projects. And we shot a couple of short films there last year for our Black Veil series. And, you know, we've had great cooperation with the film commission," said Myrick.
Tyler Martinolich, the executive director of Film Tampa Bay, sees a promising future for more productions like Danford's filming in the area.
"Horror is a great place for young filmmakers to start," said Martinolich. "They're typically self-contained and not a lot of different locations. As a film commission, we're going after young filmmakers like, hey, come here, we have you. You know, you're interested in horror, we have all these great stories, let me introduce you to Ruskin or Gibsonton or wherever it might be."
When it comes to films that fright, the Tampa Bay area may be casting a spell on the industry.
"There's a lot of filmmakers around here, there’s a lot of production companies, there's a lot of film festivals that are around here that are popping up. They're all dedicated to horror," said Danford.
For more information about "The Clock," visit www.theclockmovie.com.