Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
SCARY SUCCESS
Bishop Shanahan grad’s film picked up for Halloween release
Chester County native Dan Sinclair locked himself in his bedroom for weekends at a time to create the psychedelic thriller, “Chemical Peel.” He didn’t realize simulating entrapment and re-watching a few horror films would go beyond filming a low-budget indie film — the movie was released on Oct. 14 on DVD just in time for Halloween.
“It’s been a long road to get to where I am now and now this is only the beginning, but it’s the only road I’ve ever wanted to follow,” Sinclair said.
A 96-minute thriller written and produced by Sinclair was released on DVD by Lionsgate Entertainment — a Canadian American entertainment company known for releasing “Dirty Dancing,” “The Hunger Games,” “Catching Fire,” the “Rambo” series and more.
“I think we were all beside ourselves,” he said about selling the film to Lionsgate to have it released to the masses. “This thing that we spent a year of our lives making now exists on my DVD shelf. It’s pretty great.”
Other than shutting himself behind his bedroom door in Glendale, Calif., Sinclair spent his time sitting in coffee shops and re-watching films emulating people trapped in one location, such as “The Evil Dead” and “The Shining,” to help write the script for “Chemical Peel.”
“Honestly the best inspiration came from phys-
“It’s been a long road to get to where I am now and now this is only the beginning, but it’s the only road I’ve ever wanted to follow.” — Dan Sinclair, filmmaker
ically locking myself in with my characters,” he said.
The movie is about a bachelorette party turning deadly when a weekend getaway is fogged over by a nearby train crash releasing a deadly chemical into the air. The group is trapped indoors as the chemical seeps into the house.
“Each character in “Chemical Peel” has their own psychological arc as they each react to what’s happening in their own way,” Sinclair said in his synopsis of the movie. “But don’t worry, horror fans, there’s plenty of scares and gore, too!”
Sinclair said Halloween season has him breaking out his favorite classics, some of which partially inspired the creation of “Chemical Peel.” He said he’s “binge watching” 1980s horror f licks — “Return of the Living Dead,” “Night of the Creeps,” “CHUD,” “The Stuff” and “American Werewolf in London.” “But if I had to name an all-time favorite, I have to go back to my childhood favorite where it’s a tie between “The Goonies” and “Back to the Future.’”
He went back to his childhood, before he reached a VHS collection of 300 tapes that eventually turned into hundreds of DVDs. His first movie seen in a theater — Steven Spielberg’s “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.”
“It blew my mind,” he said, adding he couldn’t get enough of other films such as “Star Wars,” “Back to the Future,” “Ghostbusters” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
“I had to see them all and I would watch them over and over again.”
He said he constantly asked for creative writing time in school and his dad kept a notebook filled with stories he wrote between 6 and 10 years old.
“I’d really like to take a look at that,” he said.
Sinclair, originally from Wilmington, Del., moved with his family to the Chester County area and graduated from Bishop Shanahan High School in 1996. He still has family living in Coatesville.
He spent a “far-from-successful” semester at Bloomsburg University after he graduated high school. He went back to Coatesville to attend Delaware County Community College, receiving an associate degree in communications.
He continued his college career at the University of Central Florida to study creative writing. He said it “turned out to be one of the greatest decisions I made thus far in life.”
It’s where he met his mentor Jeanne Leiby and a few English department professors — Pat Rushin and Susan Hubbard. He earned a bachelor’s degree in English with a creative writing concentration in 2003.
He said Leiby, Rushin and Hubbard heavily influenced him to become a writer. However, Leiby played a larger role pushing him to graduate school. He eventually received a masters in fine arts in creative writing from UCF in 2007.
“Jeanne (Leiby) really kicked my ass into gear, helping me focus and achieve that degree I never would’ve thought possible if you had asked me about it back in my DCCC days,” Sinclair said.
“Tragically, Jeanne died in a car accident in 2011, but she’s still lives on in my heart and my brain, continuing to inspire me, motivate me and kick my ass to get out of bed and write every day.”
His journey didn’t end in Florida — California was his next and ideal destination to pursue his dream to create films.
“I packed up whatever I could fit in the back of my pickup truck and drove to Los Angeles back in February of 2008,” Sinclair said. “The Phillies won the World Series only a few months later, which, of course, I took as a sign that I made the right decision.”
In 2010 he was asked to write “Chemical Peel” for director Hank Braxtan.
“He knew I was a writer and he was a director. It was time to do get something done. That’s really what this whole thing was,” Sinclair said. “It was a movie made by dedicated people who love making movies, and instead of talking about it or waiting around for something to happen, we just went out there and did it. I don’t think it could’ve gotten done if we weren’t all on that same page.”
A small crew of about 20, including actors starring in the movie, shot the interiors for the film in a house Sinclair and three others from the film crew lived in Glendale, Calif.
“We were a little family. Though it was hard work, we all had so much fun making this movie,” he said. “And we all still say that. Ev- ery time we run into each other, we all miss those days. Well, maybe not the very first day.”
According to Sinclair, the first day of production went from 9 a.m. to 4 a.m. the next day.
A year’s worth of long hours, mostly on weekends, and crew and cast taking on more than one role at a time, led Sinclair down this road.
“I’ll do this until I die if I’m lucky, though I really hope I don’t die for a long, long time,” he said
“Chemical Peel” is available on DVD on Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart and Barnes & Noble. The movie is also available On-Demand, Pay-Per-View and iTunes.
For more information about the movie and to watch the trailer, visit getchemicalpeeled.com.