The serial-killer thriller has just wrapped production.
BRIDGETTE WRONA AND THE WHISPER CREEK MURDERS is the first feature from Texas-based studio Little Spark Films. Directed by Mary Beth McAndrews (BYSTANDERS) from a script by Preston Fassel, based on a concept by Cameron Hazelwood, it stars Amanda Huerta, Lisa Gaye (THE TOXIC AVENGER PART II and III), Kelli Maroney (NIGHT OF THE COMET, CHOPPING MALL), Alexandra Broussard and Larissa Dali, the latter of whom produced with Catalina Querida. The synopsis: “The film follows the eponymous 20something sleuth, the hostess of a popular true crime podcast called ‘Hot Coffee, Cold Cases.’ For her latest case, Bridgette is dispatched to the remote East Texas town of Whisper Creek, where a long-dormant serial killer known as The Flower King has resurfaced. Haunted by memories from her own rural past, Bridgette must uncover the truth in a place where everyone is a suspect.” The film is described as “YA mystery/gateway horror,” though the exclusive Polaroids from the “Flower King murders” the production shared below reveal it has a grown-up grisly side.
“To give these crime scene photos an eerie, 1970s vintage atmosphere,” set photographer Alex Dominguez tells us, “I used a digital-to-analog-to-digital workflow. After taking the digital photos and adjusting the color temperature, I exposed them onto real instant film using the Polaroid Lab. Once the physical prints developed, I used the Polaroid app to scan them back to digital. I’m really proud of how this process gave the final images such a unique, authentic character for the set.”
“As a certified weird girl,” McAndrews says, “now is the time for Weird Girl Cinema, and I couldn’t be more grateful to direct an entry into that growing pantheon. BRIDGETTE WRONA is a film for all the weirdos out there who are passionate, creative, smart, and a little different from the world around them. My hope is that teens will watch this and feel inspired to dive further into the world of genre films; we don’t get a lot of true gateway horror anymore! This is gateway horror for the girls out there who spend their days watching true crime videos and reading about serial killers.”
Adds Fassel, “I had a few personal initiatives, including doing a YA story in the vein of what I grew up with—TUCK EVERLASTING, BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA, MANIAC MAGEE—this non-IP, thoughtful approach that spoke to its audience as real people. Something that I’d show a theoretical daughter of mine, about a girl I imagine would be what that daughter would turn out like. And my hope is I’ve delivered a teen TWIN PEAKS that mothers can use to introduce their daughters to David Lynch.”
