FILM

A local scream for Halloween

By Noah Bruce

Portland filmmakers Betsy Carson’s and Kate Kaminski’s new film, The Barghest, is premiering — fittingly for a horror flick — at midnight on Halloween, at The Movies on Exchange Street.

The Barghest is an 85-minute indie shot on mini-digital video. The plot involves a woman, Billie Laidlaw, who, after inheriting her father’s estate, must move to the haunted mansion where she grew up. Once there, she confronts issues such as sibling rivalry, a relationship with a skeezy older man, dead people, and, of course, demonic possession. The film features local talents Tammy Duffy, Buffy Miller, and Scott Mullenberg, and a soundtrack by Portland band Black Tara. “Our goal,” says Kaminski, “was to work withiS the genre of the horror/thriller tradition, but twist it enough to make it fun.”

Together, Carson and Kaminski comprise Brickhouse Pictures, and The Barghest is their second feature. Their first, (I’m Living) A Charmed Life was screened locally and at film festivals.

You may or may not be scared by Brickhouse’s latest, but for Black Tara’s Chris McKneally, seeing the movie was definitely creepy. “The setting looked really familiar,” he says, “then I realized it was my ex-girlfriend’s apartment.”