Bloody-Disgusting recently caught up with director Steven Miller, who is currently putting the finishing touches on Scream of the Banshee, part of After Dark’s 8-part ORIGINALS series arriving this October. Penned by Anthony C. Ferrante (Boo!), the pic is an “old school” creature feature (more info) that stars both Lance Henriksen and Lauren Holly.
“After Dark called me this past November and said, ‘Hey, we have this movie for you,’” Miller tells BD. “They were a fan of my first movie, which was AUTOMATON TRANSFUSION. It was really quick. They got the script and then they handed it to me. From getting the script to shooting was literally a month or less. We shot in Louisiana in Baton Rouge. They’ve got some crazy stuff going on down south. It’s a great place. Everybody there is really cool and the crews are really nice. We shot this movie in 12-15 days, depending on how you look at it. It’s very quick, very hectic, but a lot of fun.”

To tell his tale about a shrieking Banshee that dooms all who hear her scream, Miller was able to score two impressive leads in Lauren Holly and genre icon Lance Henrickson. “Lauren is one of those actresses that is amazing to work with,” says Miller. “She’s worked in TV before on CIS, which was important when you’re shooting on this tight of a schedule and only doing two or three takes.”

“Lance is rad,” adds Miller. “Any time you get to work with the man, Bishop, he’s awesome. He’s one of those dudes that just comes in and kills it every time. You don’t have to give him much direction at all. I talked to him on the phone before we got there, which was fun, and just kind of went over his character and what we wanted him to be. He got there, put on a wig and just knew what he was doing. He kicks in some doors, tries to blow away some Banshees like they’re aliens. It’s fun.”

Miller hopes banshee will be a return to fun monster movies of the ’80s such as 1985’s FRIGHT NIGHT, which the director says he looked to for inspiration. “I really love Fright Night. We looked at that movie a lot because it’s fun. It’s not crazy scary, but it’s fun. And that’s where we were trying to take BANSHEE. Yeah, it’s going to have its scare moments, but ultimately it’s a monster movie. And so, especially for kids nowadays who’ve seen everything, we really just wanted to make it fun and cool and more of that kind of atmosphere.“