If you haven’t seen ALBINO FARM yet, now’s the chance if you subscribe to The Movie Channel, as the backwoods horror flick is making its cable debut on TMC tonight, 9 p.m. (ET/PT). Read our interview with co-writer/co-director Sean McEwen before you check it out.

Horror cinema has for some time mined folklore for inspiration, whether it be Eastern Europe’s belief in vampirism or Mexico’s love affair with the goat-sucking chupacabra. ALBINO FARM filmmakers Sean McEwen and Joe Anderson followed suit in crafting their backwoods fright feature.

“One of the original ideas we kept coming back to,” McEwen tells Fango on the set, “was based on an actual legend specific to southern Missouri and the Ozarks about the ‘albino farm.’ There was a good foundation for a story, but it definitely needed a lot of meat put on its bones, which also gave us the opportunity to really take the creative ball and run with it.”

To help explain the urban legend from which the film’s storyline is derived (while driving to southern Missouri on a “travel day” following the previous evening’s lightning strike, which fried a production generator and almost several crewmembers), McEwen swings Fango by the crumbling remains of the Sheedy Farm. Various creepy stories are attached to this place, most of them related to homicidal albinos or depraved medical experiments carried out in a hidden subterranean hospital. It’s a legend celebrated by Missouri teens and college kids, albeit one which is universally accepted as pure hokum. The farm itself is now nothing more than crumbling masonry, and with suburban sprawl encroaching on what used to be the much-sought-after Irish immigrant-owned parcel, even these remains will soon be lost to time.

Some people would like that to be: McEwen, Anderson and ALBINO FARM producers Rachelle Ryan and Barry Curtis BEGAN receiving angry e-mails once the film’s production was announced. It seems that a small number of very vocal people, without ever having read the script (including Springfield attorney Chantel Alberhasky, whose son has albinism), condemned the project for not only reminding people of the macabre local legend, but for its perceived depiction of those with the genetic disorder. Pressure was even exerted on Jerry Jones, director of the Missouri Film Commission, to shut the project down. 

McEwen was perplexed by the whole thing, and while he admits today that such controversy certainly couldn’t hurt the marketing of his low-budget feature, he adds that his and Anderson’s goal was simply to create a scary, engaging creature feature. “It’s an allegory for a group of people who were misunderstood and mistreated,” McEwen says. “Simply put, as filmmakers, it’s not interesting to take a group of people and beat up on them in some cheap way. It was more interesting to dive into exploring themes of injustice, misinterpretation and social and cultural accountability.”

The duo took a year to pen the script, and when it came to securing backing for the movie, McEwen notes, “As everyone knows, it isn’t the easiest thing to get people to invest in an independent film. Fortunately, Joe is extremely sharp when it comes to business, finance and the like, and drew up a business plan that truly reflected our due diligence in assessing the market. Once the money was in place, it happened just as everyone said it would—all that time spent waiting and suddenly, the whole thing took off like a striped-ass ape!”

ALBINO FARM’s ensemble includes Australian pop star Tammin Sursok as virginal lead Stacey, TV actor Sunkrish Bala (née Balasubramanian) as the resourceful Sanjay, newcomer Nick Richey as the requisite beer-swilling jock Brian and ROCK MONSTER’s Alicia Lagano as the pierced ‘n’ dyed punk girl Melody, with supporting roles filled by FEAST’s Duane Whitaker, THE HOWARD STERN SHOW’s Richard Christy, Bianca Barnett, FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VII’s Kevin Spirtas and wrestler Chris Jericho. McEwen recalls that the production tackled the casting process in two phases. “The leads were to be filled out of Los Angeles, and for some of the smaller roles, it was important to cast locally—both for the film’s authenticity and to keep with the spirit of the Missouri Tax Incentive program.” And the filmmaker couldn’t have been happier with the results: “We were blessed to work with some unbelievably talented actors.”

This being a monster movie, however, the FX play as much of a role in the proceedings as the stars, and to craft them, McEwen hired special makeup artist Jason Barnett. Two and a half years following the wrap of principal photography (which took place in some unique Missouri locations, including a third act lensed in the Fantastic Caverns—more on that in a moment), McEwen is still happy with his decision. “At the risk of stating the obvious, we wanted the effects to be incredibly realistic, horrific and unique,” he says. “This was one of the circumstances where the horror gods were looking out for us, when they dropped maestro Jason and his team into our laps. Jason is just one of those ridiculously talented guys who can take an idea and make it far better than you could have ever conceived. His work is amazing, and I believe audiences will be extremely gratified with the creatures, and essentially the world, Jason created.”

Barnett’s creations dwell within those aforementioned caverns, and McEwen recalls that shooting in this locale proved to be the production’s most challenging aspect. “We were hot, exhausted and tick-infested,” he says of those night shoots. And with a climactic plot point requiring the lighting of a flare in one of the caves, McEwen and crew carefully planned the logistics of the shot (incorporating a real-time off-camera costume change, an FX gag involving multiple actors and two locked cameras), as they’d only get one try, given that acrid smoke would permeate the subterranean locale once the flare had been struck. 

“It worked!” McEwen remembers. “I still can’t believe it to this day, but somehow everyone nailed what they were supposed to in a perfectly synchronized and coordinated shot! And with fans blowing full-force as soon as the take was done, the cave cleared of smoke just in time for Ma and Pa Ozarkian Vacationer and their kids to see the wonders of Fantastic Caverns in all their full and uninhibited glory.”

McEwen reflects on his journey into the Ozarks: “It’s funny, but when you’re doing an independent feature, by its nature there’s an inherent lunacy with the whole process. Literally, the entire dynamic vacillates between being excruciatingly frustrating and balls-to-the-wall fun all at the same time. We definitely had our moments of teetering on the razor’s edge of success and utter collapse/failure. But as they say, ‘That which does not kill you makes you stronger.’ ”

And in this case, it has only encouraged McEwen to tackle his next horror feature. “I’m keeping it under wraps for now,” he says, “although I liken the project to sort of John Carpenter doing THE EVIL DEAD by way of COCOON.” In the meantime, you can visit ALBINO FARM on-line here. 

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