It was no ordinary day in Fredericton.
A woman lay on the gravel, her face disfigured and the ground marked red, but no one was worried. It’s the second day of filming an on-screen adaptation of Stephen King’s Last Rung on the Ladder, and this was part of the filming schedule.
The short-film adaptation is the brainchild of Michael Stafford, the film’s director. He got the rights for the film for $1 as part of King’s The Dollar Baby Program, which ended on Dec. 31 2023.
That makes Stafford’s film one of the last with the program.
“It means everything to me. This is my joy, this is my passion,” Stafford said.
The story centres around a childhood incident with a ladder in a hayloft, and the suicide of main character Larry’s sister Kitty, also known as Katrina. Stafford wants to live up to the audience’s expectations for a King film.
“I hope they’re satisfied, and I did it right and I did it true to the story,” he said.
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Erica Whitman, who plays adult Kitty, has some stunts scheduled but said capturing the story’s heavy emotions with her expressions is her challenge.
“To get into the dark and twisted mind of Stephen King and play that out, it’s going to be a good acting challenge, and I’m looking forward to it,” she said.
And what would a Stephen King film be without gory visuals?
Special effects and monsters
The original story doesn’t include King’s typical marks of horror, but special effects makeup artist Marc Deveault said he’s looking forward to working on some of the film’s monsters — a variation from the short story.
This isn’t the first film he’s worked on — he’s brought his talents to the sets of X-Men: Apocalypse, Frontier and King’s The Mist.
“I’ve worked on Stephen King prior, so you want to make sure it’s up to his standards,” Deveault said.
For the 10-year-old actress playing young Kitty, Reagan MacNeil, this is another chance to get her name out there.
“I hope that it goes far, because we’ve put a lot of work into it so far, and it’s only day two,” she said.
With a local cast, Stafford is hoping to bring attention to New Brunswick’s film scene — and one day bring some bigger television shows to the capital city.
“Fredericton’s starting to get more and more momentum when it comes to filmmaking. We’re hoping that the government will start giving more grants to us so that we can be like Nova Scotia,” he said.
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