Production began this week on “Southern Scares,” an ambitious horror mystery that brings acclaimed actress Dee Wallace to the Columbus area for a locally-helmed feature film shooting in the region.
Wallace, known for her iconic roles in Steven Spielberg’s “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” Stephen King adaptations “Cujo” and “The Frighteners” and werewolf classic “The Howling,” joins the cast of this 90s-set thriller that blends mystery, horror and Southern folklore into what producers call a love letter to both the region and the era’s documentary horror boom.
The film follows Ellen, a skeptical college student who discovers a box of lost VHS tapes containing episodes of an eerie, unfinished horror documentary series hosted by her missing sister, Roberta. As Ellen watches the tapes, she unravels a chilling mystery involving haunted tunnels, forgotten cryptids and ghostly figures that may have been more than just stories. With each episode, Ellen pieces together clues about her sister’s disappearance while discovering that something sinister was watching Roberta all along…