'Stranger in the Woods' crew took a 'no red lights' approach to making thriller movie
"Workaholics " co-creator Kyle Newacheck, Adam Newacheck, Holly Kenney, and an adorable dog named Koda, look at gaslighting in the horror genre
Workaholics co-creator and star Kyle Newacheck, and his brother Adam Newacheck, who also directed on the show, worked with writer and actor Holly Kenney to make the thriller Stranger in the Woods without the "red tape" and "red lights" that come up with the studio systems.
"There was a way to produce this on a micro budget that we could do our way, which was fantastic," Kyle Newacheck told Yahoo Canada. "Not a lot of red tape and not a lot of bureaucracy, which I've dealt with, with the studio systems, working for Netflix, and working for FX and Disney, and all the big companies."
"There's always lots of stuff to cut through to get to the set, and this one was easily one that we could have not only a green light, but no red lights, which is what I've been searching for in Hollywood. No red lights. ... It was going to be a way to get all of our friends together who maybe haven't had a chance to showcase their stuff yet, because of said red tape in Hollywood, and get them out there and see what happens. See what the heck goes down if you actually commit to it. ... They're feature freshmen performances and they're all so good."
Buy Stranger in the Woods on Apple TV for $9.99, or rent for $5.99
For Kenney, this journey started back in 2017, originally with a short film script.
"I wrote this film because I was like, I just want to make something, and a feature film feels impossible," Kenney said.
"I've been a huge horror, thriller fan my entire life, so this was kind of a no brainer that this would be the genre that is my first screenplay."
It was about 45 pages long, but then Adam Newacheck felt passionately about making this a feature. They also stared collaborating with Kenney's costar and friend Brendin Brown, and Kenney's husband and costar Radek Antczak.
In Stranger in the Woods, Olivia "Liv" (Kenney) just lost her fiancé and has experienced a traumatic attack. That's when her friends, Sam (Brown), Theresa (Paris Nicole), Liam (Devon Stewart) and Brando (Antczak), decide they should all spend some time together at a cabin in the woods, also bringing Liv's emotional support dog, Koda, along. The cabin belongs to Sam's estranged brother, Clayton (Teddy Spencer).
But when Koda goes missing, Liv gets nervous and concerned that someone is coming after her.
"For me, the main thing was it had a voice," Adam Newacheck said about what attracted him to Kenney's script initially. "There are threads in here that I ... didn't know a ton about when it was brought to me back in 2017, and so for me, it was a great chance to explore something that I didn't know about."
"It had a direct route through understanding these, with gaslighting and believing victims. ... So for me, that was what I really kind of sunk my teeth into, ... it was a way for me to ... understand these a little bit more than I have maybe in the past. ... In reality, the fact that ... the second I read it the first time I was like, I can make this movie right now. I can go to the cabin that we already own. We're ready to go, we can do this. We have the location. I saw a route through it. I think that was really important to me."
Producer Kyle Newacheck, he had just finished directing Netflix's Murder Mystery, which resulted in him "respecting a fantastic twist."
"This film, from the moment I read it, it had one that functioned at a high level, and I thought that was worth pursuing," he said.
'I wanted Liv to look real and rough'
In terms of establishing the lead character of Liv, Kenney shared that her goal from the beginning was for the character to be "real."
"In a lot of scary movies, or thriller or horror genre, the lead girl's still always done up and beautiful, and I wanted Liv to look real and rough, and going through it," she said. "I wanted her to have this vulnerability of, she's not OK, she's trying, but she's not OK."
"It's hard to be OK when you're surrounded by people who are constantly reminding you, or letting you know, that they think you're crazy, and that they don't believe what you've experienced, and how that takes a physical and mental toll. ... I don't hope that someone can relate to it, because I would hate to think that people are in situations that they can, but if someone can relate to it, I hope it just makes them feel a little less alone and makes them feel kind of seen and represented."
'Koda is such a key element to Liv's safety and Liv's comfort'
In most circumstances, once you put an animal in the story, especially a dog, the audience is going to feel very invested in that dog's journey.
"My intention with having a dog in it was always for the character of Liv, ... it was really an element that I used to show what Liv was going through," Kenney said. "She was Liv's emotional support animal, she was someone who made Liv feel safe and protected, and not alone."
"Koda is such a key element to Liv's safety and Liv's comfort, and I knew that in order for the plot to move forward, something had to be taken away from Liv again, in order for all of this to play out."
Buy Stranger in the Woods on Apple TV for $9.99, or rent for $5.99
Koda is actually Kyle Newacheck's dog, making him, as he described himself, the "animal wrangler" on set, as well as a producer.
"I remember when we were casting the movie, we were really trying to figure out how we were going to do the dog, that was actually the most complex part of preproduction, where you're like, if we can figure this out, then maybe we can make this movie," he said. "I was down in LA for a trip and I had Koda with me, she was just my road dog with me."
"All of Koda's life, she is the one in the family that gets stopped on the street to get pictures taken with the dog, for whatever reason. I always think they're talking about me from Workaholics. ... No, they always come up, they say, 'Hey, that dog is gorgeous. Can I get a photo with your dog?' We were standing in Adam's garage and I was like, 'Koda sit,' and she sat, I trained her, and I was like, 'Koda's the dog, this is it.'"
From an incredibly photogenic dogs, to a cabin in the woods horror setup, this group of friends absolutely committed to making Stranger in the Woods on their own terms.
