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Cable Network Shoots Exclusive Horror Movie in Rocky Hill

Chiller TV films most of the thriller 'Glimpse' in a local optometrist's office

 

Rocky Hill is not typically considered a moviemaking hotbed. Residents may therefore be surprised to learn that programming executives from an NBC-affiliated movie network, an accomplished, Hollywood actor making his directorial debut, and actors from everywhere from Manhattan to Boston, all descended on the sleepy hamlet this weekend to shoot a major horror film production.

Glimpse is part of a feature-length compilation of terror shorts, based on the five senses, entitled Chilling Visions: 5 Senses of Fear. The anthology will tentatively premiere on Chiller TV in the spring of 2013 after making the rounds at film festivals and undergoing a limited theatrical release.

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Playing upon humans’ irrational fear of certain medical specialists, the picture features a sinister optometrist who hijacks his patients’ memories and relives them via “evil eye-drops”, according to co-producer Colin Theys.

Theys is a senior staff member at Synthetic Cinema International on Silas Deane Highway. Synthetic has partnered with Chiller on previous projects, and the New York-based horror channel tapped the local company again to produce and facilitate their latest production which will spotlight “up-and-coming directors,” says Chiller’s Senior Director of Programming, Shane O’Brien.

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Miko Hughes, Glimpse’s freshman writer and director, clearly fits that description, but he is hardly an unknown quantity in the industry. Hughes is most famous for his work on the acting side of the ledger, with his best-known film credits being Pet Sematary, Kindergarten Cop, Apollo 13, New Nighmare, and Tropic Thunder, as well as a slew of television roles.

Hughes recounts the apparent kismet which led him to participate in the project.

“I had already conceived of a horror story about an optometrist, but I never thought it would come to anything,” he admits. But, after hearing of the Chiller production, “then I was told that the theme was the five senses.”

When Theys and other producers scouted locations for the office of Hughes’s nefarious eye doctor, “Dr. Tom” (Ted Yudain), they did not have to look far, soon discovering the ideal site at Rocky Hill Eye Associates on Cromwell Ave.

“The office is only a year-and-a-half old, so everything still looks very new,” explained Theys.

The cast and crew spent 12 hour days on Saturday and Sunday at the optometrist’s facility before moving to Wild Bill’s Nostalgia Center in Middletown for the final day of shooting to film what co-producer David Geere labeled the “nightmare sequences” that materialize through Dr. Ted’s memory extraction. Highlights included a series of dream intervals featuring the menacing “Fat Man” character, played by actor and former professional wrestler, Ox Baker.

Baker’s has had roles in notable films, such as Escape from New York with Kurt Russell and The Big Brawl with Jackie Chan, but he is at least as famous for his exploits in the ring, including rendering Hulk Hogan unconscious and catapulting Andre the Giant over the top rope.

The production staff and other individuals on set seemed a bit star-struck by Baker and Hughes, as the former freely gave out autographed pictures from his wrestling days, and the latter paused periodically to pose for pictures despite the extremely tight set schedule.

Chilling Visions: 5 Senses of Fear will debut at national film festivals in 2013 and experience a limited theatrical release thereafter. Following these preliminary screenings, the movie is expected to have its world premiere on Chiller TV in spring 2013.

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