A Haunting at Mill Hill becomes a film
NORWALK — Norwalk’s spookiest stories are coming to the small screen.
Since 2011, the Norwalk Historical Society has done historical tours at the cemetery at
Mill Hill where local actors tell Norwalk’s most terrifying tales. The popular event, “A Haunting at Mill Hill,” is the historical society’s largest annual fundraiser.
But due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, the event is going virtual this year with the help of Waterbury filmmaker Kurtis Spieler, who turned the tour into a movie viewers can pay to watch to support the Norwalk Historical Society.
The event, which requires months of preparation and research to find scary Norwalk stories, usually brings in about $8,000 annually with close to 600 people from the tri-state area taking the tour each October. Samantha KulishFargione, programs and educational coordinator at the historical society, began getting concerned about the fate of the 10th annual fundraiser when the pandemic hit in March. Originally, she had planned an extended tour this year with special events the day before and of Halloween.
“This event is kind of like my baby,” KulishFargione said. “My first thought (when the pandemic hit) was how will this affect The Haunting? It’s really an event that not only raises money for the historical society, but brings people into the city. We see it as a way to bring outsiders in and clue them in that this is a cool place to hang out for an evening. That’s an important thing to bring to Norwalk.”
The historical society consulted with its board, executive director and volunteers to figure out a solution. The Holmakoff family, who volunteers at the Halloween event, connected the historical society with Spieler.
Spieler works for Vinegar Syndrome, a Bridgeport-based film restoration company, and has made his own films — predominantly horror ones — for a number of years. Two of his films, “Sheepskin” and “Devil’s Well,” can be found on Amazon Prime.
“A Haunting at Mill Hill - The Movie” is one of the first shoots Spieler has done amid the pandemic. Cast and crew wore masks during the shoot, which was mostly based outside. The movie was shot over three days in September.
In addition to making a movie in the middle of a pandemic, Spieler and Kulish-Fargione, who writes the scripts for actors, were challenged with translating live performances into something that was just as exciting on film.
“We tried to recreate the experience you’d have at The Haunt,” Spieler said. “The Haunt is not like a traditional haunted house where people try to scare you. The actors tell historical stories, so we wanted to recreate that experience in a visual way but make it more theatrical. ... Having someone speak to a camera can be boring if not done right. The challenge for me was how to make it visually interesting.”
Spieler was able to add effects people wouldn’t get seeing the tour in person — a woman telling the tale of her death in a house on School Street was edited to appear transparent like a ghost. Another character telling a tale of death by gunshot was enhanced by sound effects and makeup added to show when the actor was shot. Students from Factory Underground helped out with the sound
effects.
The flexibility of filming allowed two stories to even be filmed in the buildings where they take place.
“We used a lot of the buildings to film,” KulishFargione said. “The (Norwalk lockup building) isn’t big enough to accommodate a group of visitors, but this allowed us to use the building as backdrops to many of these stories. There’s a lot of different special effects that can happen that we can’t necessarily do live. That really made a difference where we were able to use movie special effects to bring these stories more to life in terms of the stories.”
“A Haunting at Mill Hill – The Movie” can be viewed starting at 5 p.m. on Oct. 23 through Nov. 1. Movie tickets are $10 each. The net proceeds from ticket sales support the Norwalk Historical Society’s education programs and cultural exhibits.
“We’re keeping our fingers crossed that this brings in as many people as the normal tours,” Kulish-Fargione said. “The cool thing about this is people from all over the world could tune in. This event has become a big community activity. We hope the film will continue that feeling of community.”