Longtime indie-horror screenwriter John Oak Dalton just finished principal photography on his first feature as director, THE GIRL IN THE CRAWLSPACE, lensed in the wilds of Indiana. Read on for filmmaker comments and the exclusive first look at photos and a brief teaser trailer.
Henrique Couto, who has helmed a number of Dalton scripts, produced THE GIRL IN THE CRAWLSPACE, which stars Erin Ryan, Joni Durian, John Hambrick, Tom Cherry, Jeff Rapkin, Polonia Brothers veteran Jeff Kirkendall, Andrew Shearer, Joe Kidd, Iabou Windimere, Rachael Redolfi, Chelsi Kern, Clifford Lowe and Joe Skeen. The synopsis: “Jill [Ryan] has been held captive by a serial murderer called The Crawlspace Killer. Upon her escape, she is helped by a therapist, Kristen Swan [Durian], and is gradually pulled into the gravity of Kristen’s troubled marriage to failing screenwriter Johnny [Hambrick]. As Jill’s memories begin to return, her actions will tear apart the fabric of a small Indiana town.”
“John Dalton is one of my favorite collaborators, so helping him take the director’s chair was a no-brainer for me,” Couto says, and Dalton adds, “I have wanted to make that jump for a while, after working on the sets of some of the movies made from my screenplays. This is a script I feel strongly about, one that I have wanted to get out there.
“Henrique gave me a great compliment,” Dalton continues, “when he said the movie should be its own genre called ‘Hoosiersploitation,’ and I knew he saw it through my eyes: the wide-open spaces, the dried-up towns where people need creative outlets to thrive on hard soil. But I have to keep it real; it’s also about a guy in a burlap mask terrorizing poor Erin Ryan.”
The murderer’s mask was created by Tim Shrum, who does horror design work as House of Schlock, and the makeup was done by Erin Hoodlebrink from a design by Erica Blackstock. Chelsea Swinford also did makeup for the film. Keep up with THE GIRL IN THE CRAWLSPACE at its Facebook page.
