YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – In his latest movie, Adam Michael is fully aware of audience expectations.
“Already Dead” starts out like a horror flick with five friends – Chloe, her twin Maggie, Greg, Grace and her wife, Alex – visiting a vacation cabin in the woods.
That’s a familiar setting.
“It’s interesting, because I wanted to play with assumptions,” says the Youngstown-based filmmaker. “Five friends going to a cabin for a weekend feels very much like a horror movie. But then it morphs into a thriller, a kind of drama to be exposed over the course of 24 hours.”
The one-hour and 20-minute locally made film will get its premiere screening and reception at 7 p.m. Oct. 23 at Golden Star Cinema in Austintown. Tickets are available at the theater box office.
After the five characters settle in at the cabin, some secrets are revealed. As a result, friendships and relationships are betrayed – and one of them ends up dead.
“Then the rest of the film becomes a whodunnit of figuring out who committed the murder,” Michael says.
The film was shot at a vacation home near Leetonia.
The cast includes Selene Phillips of Pittsburgh; Ashley Rae of Beaver, Pa.; Megan Lynn and Morgan Hostetler, who are sisters, of Los Angeles; Joe Morales of Canton; and Maggie Adler of Cleveland.
Michael’s goal was to take what appears to be a tried-and-true formula and then spin it on its head as he introduces some unique characters.
“Every one of these characters is going through something in their life,” he says. “We pretend like we’re okay, but we hide things. This film looks into what happens when these things that we hide come out all at once, and how sometimes that can be a disastrous situation. You can start the day as a group of five friends, and at the end of the day, one of them is dead.”
A Real Payoff
The lead character, Chloe, is played by Megan Lynn Hostetler. Michael calls her the worst character he’s ever created – someone who just wants to hurt everybody around her.
“The way that Megan plays the performance is absolutely brilliant,” he says. “I could not have asked for a better actor in that role. Playing her sister in the film is her actual twin sister, Morgan. And the way that Morgan plays somebody who is reserved and intelligent and looks at everything from afar is so beautiful. Her performance is so subtle.”
Morgan’s behavior eventually leads to a confrontation that is a real payoff for the audience.
“That’s the feedback that we’re getting,” Michael says. “People really like the ending.”
The screenwriter-filmmaker says “Already Dead” represents a step forward in his career.
“I feel myself growing old as a filmmaker,” he says. “And this was a really big step for me in terms of production value, and the crew that we were bringing on, the actors.”
After the red-carpet screening in Austintown, Michael will seek a distribution network so more people can see the film. “We’ve been getting really positive feedback from distributors and sales agents,” he points out.
Michael is working as an administrative assistant on a film by another artist.
After that, he will start on his next movie, “Better Places to Go,” which will also be shot in the Mahoning Valley.
Last year, he released his movie, “Shredded.”
Pictured at top: Director Adam Michael edits clips during shooting of “Already Dead.”