Fredericton filmmaker tackling Stephen King adaptation for latest project

Known for his disturbing scenes and scripts, Fredericton filmmaker Michael Stafford is taking on a new challenge.

Stephen King.

The work of the well-known author, often referred to as the "King of Horror," falls in line with the types of pieces Stafford, who owns StrongSide Productions, likes to take on.

So, when the opportunity presented itself, he decided to apply to King's Dollar Baby program, which came to an end in December after more than 40 years.

"I always wanted to do it and I thought, why not?" he said. "It's Stephen King, you gotta do it."

Stafford adapted Stephen King's short story, The Last Rung on the Ladder, for the screen. (StrongSide/Facebook)

Last year, King announced the end to the program, which previously allowed aspiring filmmakers and theatre producers to adapt one of his short stories for $1, but all contracts granted before the cut-off would be honoured.

For Stafford, he got in just under the wire and is adapting King's short story, The Last Rung on the Ladder.

The film, said Stafford, follows siblings Larry and Katrina, who are both going through different stages of grief.

The summary of the original short story by King says when Larry hears of his sister's suicide, he recounts a day when the two were children and Katrina was left fearfully hanging off a broken ladder while they were playing.

The roles of the adult and young versions of Katrina are played by Erica Whitman of Browns Flat and 10-year-old Raegan MacNeil of Fredericton.

WATCH | 'You want people to be genuinely frightened' 

The two actresses have a history of working together, having played the leading roles of mother and daughter in Stafford's last short film.

For Whitman, the last film was her first time taking on a lead role and only her second time acting. But she walked away with the award for outstanding lead performance at the Silver Wave Film Festival and decided to audition again.

Whitman said while she had always wanted to act, she thought if she ever did, it would be comedy. The last film was anything but.

"It was a chance to get to jump right in and try something I've never done before," she said.

"It really is challenging and this film will also be similar to the last — it's dark, it's moody, it brings out emotions.

"It's a Stephen King film, so, you know, we're getting as eclectic and weird as that can be."

Erica Whitman plays Katrina in The Last Rung on the Ladder. She starred in StrongSide's last film as well. (Michael Heenan/CBC)

But tackling a horror film has its challenges. For Stafford, those challenges include making everything realistic.

One Nova Scotia man, who has worked on movie and television sets, including X-Men: Apocalypse and Future Man, is working to bring the gory vision to light.

Marc Deveault, a former medical technician in the military turned special effects artist, worked with Stafford on another project where he learned he was trying to get the rights for the King short.

Deveault said he told Stafford that if he needed anything to give him a call, and he did.

Deveault has worked on King adaptations in the past, including Big Driver and The Mist, but he said creating realistic horror is more difficult than one might think.

There are many considerations for every single wound, including the type of weapon used, whether something is a cut or a rip, the colour of the veins, whether there is visible muscle or fat tissue, and how the skin reacts to the injury.

Special effects artist Marc Deveault says making a realistic wound involves a lot of different components. (Zoom)

Deveault said a small budget adds another challenge to pulling off the "magic trick," as he calls it.

He said some things aren't achievable because of the budget and adjustments have to be made to still allow for the realism.

Deveault is also working on a monster of sorts that will be revealed to the cast during shooting.

"Most of my payment is to see the crew when the creature walks in," he said.

With the three-day film shoot scheduled for mid-June, Stafford said the goal is to debut the film in the fall during the film festival season in Fredericton.

Stafford is seen gesturing to a roof, which will be used for a sequence of shots to pull off a scene that depicts one of the characters jumping from the top of a tall building. (Michael Heenan/CBC)

Stafford is working on a budget of around $3,000, mainly raised through crowdfunding. He said it took a lot of volunteers coming together to get everything ready.

He said the Crowne Plaza is opening its doors to the team for a day of shooting, and one of the set builders on the project helped secure a warehouse in Lincoln where other parts of the film will be shot.

"A movie like this around here, it's a lot of community effort," said Stafford. "It's hard … to get money, especially because it's Stephen King, it's not technically my original idea … so we had to do a ground up approach and it went amazing."