East Coast Indie Update: Film Screening on April 19, 2011 at UCONN in Storrs.
The Other Side of the Tracks aka The Haunting of Amelia
This time at the East Coast Indie we had the pleasure to screen a Showtime and international favorite, Other Side of the Tracks. We were joined by the writer/director A.D. Calvo, one of CT's more accomplished filmmakers.
This film is a wonderful horror-romance that really revives the art of storytelling. Rather than packing the film full of special effects and meaningless violence this film takes it's time to create the story. Developing the characters so you really get to know them as the film draws you deeper and deeper into it. This dreamy film takes you through a blend of life, death, and the murk in between. Where do we go when we die? And what happens if we can't find our way?
So, why the two different titles? On television and internationally this film is known as Other Side of the Tracks, however if you want to buy a copy of the film you'll be looking for The Haunting of Amelia. The reason for the name change was that the distributor thought that if it looked a little bit more like The Exorcism of Emily Rose, or The Ring it would sell better. And then Showtime picked it up as Other Side of the Tracks. Oops.
This film had an incredible all-star cast.
You may recognize Tania Raymonde, who played Amelia, from a couple little shows known as LOST and Cold Case. The character Josh was played by Brendan Fehr, who you've probably seen on the show Bones as Jared Booth, and CSI: Miami as Dan Cooper. And last, but certainly not least of the leads is Chad Lindberg playing the part of Rusty. As seen on Supernatural as the character Ash, and Jesse in The Fast and the Furious.
A.D. Calvo was a great guest speaker and he shared a lot of cool stories from when they where filming. My personal favorite was that the special effects artist who did the effects for the monster with the eye-ball hands in Pan's Labyrinth was their effects artist! A.D. invited Arjen Tuiten to the shoot on an off-chance and he said, "I'd love to! I've never been to Wallingford CT before!" So he came on board and did some incredible make-up effects on Tania. I don't want to give too much away, but this girl looked totally creepy. The day they did the shoot Arjen got her all made up and on their way to the shoot they got stuck in some really bad traffic, caused by an even worse car accident. Tania, being in layers and layers of make-up on a hot day eventually got out of the car to catch a little air. No doubt the sight of a dead girl walking next to a horrific car crash got more than a few gridlocked-drivers attention that day!
It's definably worth watching, several times. Aside from the beautiful story telling, the performances are great and the visuals in this film are truly breathtaking. You can watch it on Showtime or find yourself a copy of the film on Amazon.
So, now that you know a little more, fan the film on Facebook to help spread the word!
Very nice review! I saw one of the very first screenings of it in 2006 I think it was. I loved the storytelling too the most. The cinematography was excellent and the acting was well above expectations for a "little" made-in-CT indie. The glicth in which title to look for seems infuriating if this is your baby. But it happens more then we think. A friend of mine made a film entitled Hells Beacon but the distributor re-titled it Predator Island becasue they wanted it next to a much bigger release which began with "Pr" in the title. Keep an eye out for A.D. Calvo's upcoming releases, Melancholy Fantastic and House of Dust.
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