Scared yet?

Clinton film maker goes ‘slasher,’ but with a message from the heart

September 1, 2021 by Ken Leinart

Imagine an old-fashioned slasher movie — something straight out of the 1980s.

But put in a dash of sentiment — a filmmaker’s personal touch about loss and change.

“The Pale Ghost” is not your typical Hollywood slasher-type scary movie.

That’s because it’s not Hollywood. It’s Spencer Simmons’ follow up independent film to his first flick, “He’s Coming.”

“I love scary movies,” Simmons said in a recent interview. “I wanted to make a horror film, of course. But I wanted to make something really special for horror fans.”

Simmons said the film will keep people on edge because, “You don’t knowwhen the killer is going to pop up. And you don’t know what the killer is going to look like.”

But “The Pale Ghost” is going to be something more than a horror film.

It’s going to have a subtle subtext.

You could say it’s going to scare you, sure. But it’s going to make you think, maybe even make you a bit nostalgic.

“There is a friendship slowly deteriorating throughout the film,” Simmons said. “I think most people can relate to that.”

Simmons said he drew from personal history in the film — about friendships drifting apart.

But he learned many things as well.

Perseverance and dedication are there.

It took a year to film “The Pale Ghost,” because (as an independent film maker) he had to shoot when he and his cast weren’t working. That left them mostly filming on Sundays. It was also filmed during the COVID-19 pandemic, so there were protocols and other safety issues to mitigate.

Simmons noted he contracted the virus during filming, delaying things even more.