The Tivoli Theatre was packed over the weekend for the premiere of The Orchard, a movie written and shot in Creston.
With drone shots of recognizable valley sights, the audience was delighted and somewhat horrified by the thrilling horror movie.
Kerry McArthur, screenwriter, co-director, and editor of the film, gave a brief overview of the story.
“This is the story of a recovering drug addict, Lucas Bauer, who inherits his grandfather’s orchard in Creston, which is a place of a lot of pleasant childhood memories. But things seemed kind of off from the very beginning. As soon as he arrives and after he has a pruning accident in his orchard, the painkillers that he’s given set him back into illicit drugs and a kind of madness. All of which reveals some very dark secrets about the orchard and his own past.”
On Friday, the theatre was packed full with a line full of locals down the street waiting to get in.
McArthur says although the movie is in the horror genre, it’s not the typical horror you’d expect to see.
“We consider the film a psychological horror, which means it’s less about jumpscares and loud bangs in the night than it is about psychosis in the main character’s head.”
“That having been said, there’s enough creepy passages and gore that we fully consider it a horror film.”
Producer and co-director Mark Wolfe says he was excited to be able to showcase the talent in the valley.
“One of the things that we found really rewarding about doing this project was the ability to showcase a lot of the talent that is in Creston, both in terms of the actors but also in terms of the music, with a lot of the music in this film being from Creston artists. So we’re equally excited about that as well.”
The movie premiered from Friday to Sunday, with opening night on Friday resulting in a standing ovation.
Further film projects are hoped to be coming soon.