Filming wraps in Lake Orion

By Jim Newell

Review Editor

Who knew that the community “Where Living is a Vacation” might also be a new haven for independent filmmakers?

Filming on a new, independent thriller, An Intrusion, recently wrapped in Lake Orion, with scenes for the movie being shot at several area locations residents will quickly recognize – from restaurants, to Lake Orion Village Hall, a home on Lake Orion’s Dollar Bay, and in the Vezina Law Firm.

Writer-Director Nicholas Holland, a Michigan-born independent filmmaker, describes the film as a thriller, “Something between The Strangers and Fatal Attraction.”

“The film is about the collapse of the structural integrity of a family following a father’s recent infidelity, an affair that he’s trying to keep secret,” Holland said. “As he tries to hide it from his wife after breaking it off, his family begins to experience a series of home invasions; his daughter has a stalker that follows her to school, playing psychological bouts of torture with her.”

The film, which takes place the week before Christmas, is about the father’s suspicions of everyone around him as he tries to bury the secret and figure out who is tormenting his family, Holland said.

“I think the film will resonate with a lot of people because, even though it’s a very out-there circumstance, a lot of the tones it touches on, in not only the family but the community it takes place in, I think will be extremely relatable to a lot of people,” Holland said. “I don’t think it will require a lot of suspension of disbelief.”

Holland said the movie features actors who have made a name for themselves in the independent film community, as well as some well-known actors who are “still kind of in the niche.”

Actor Scout Taylor-Compton plays LOPD Detective Savannah Simpson in the film, and did some of her training for the role with the Lake Orion Police Department.

Taylor-Compton is a veteran of the screen, starring in such films as the Halloween horror movie remakes, The Runaways (2010) with actor Kristen Stewart, An American Crime (2007) and roles in the television shows as Gilmore Girls, Charmed, Nashville, Grey’s Anatomy and the CSI and NCIS franchises.

Actor Keir Gilchrist is the star of the popular Netflix series Atypical and plays Layne in An Intrusion. He’s also had roles in It Follows (2014), Dead Silence (2007), and The Good Neighbor (2016) alongside legendary actor James Caan.

Gilchrist has known Holland for a while and said they’ve wanted to work together, so when Holland sent him the script for An Intrusion he was intrigued.

“He asked if I would look at his script said there was a part he thought I’d be right for,” Gilchrist said. “I thought it was really interesting, with lots of great twists and turns. I did not see the end coming at all, which is rare. I feel like with a lot of scripts you see where it’s going, but this one was really kind of unique in that way.”

Actor Angelina Danielle Cama plays Rebecca Hodges, Layne’s girlfriend in the film.

“I think the script is very intriguing with all the action, the thrills that are involved. The script is what sold me,” Cama said. “And I think when people watch this film they’ll really enjoy it.”

“It’s pretty much like a family. We’re all comfortable, we’re all laughing,” said Cama, who has starred in the films Betrayed (2018), Enigma (2019) and Eternal Code (2019).

An Intrusion was filmed almost entirely in Detroit and Lake Orion. On Dec. 12-13, the cast and crew were filming outside sequences in downtown Lake Orion along Broadway and Flint streets, and interior scenes at Lake Orion Village Hall with LOPD officers as extras.

The cast and crew have said filming in Lake Orion was a good experience and that residents will enjoy spotting several areas of their community in the finished film.

“Everyone’s been incredibly welcoming compared to other places I’ve shot. Which, I think, is true of most of Michigan, but this town especially. Everyone’s been super excited to have us and opened doors and very warm,” Gilchrist said. “I think it’s always fun when something’s shot where you live and people can sit there and go, ‘I know that spot, I know that spot.’”

“The community has been exceptionally receptive to us,” Holland said. “This experience has been great. We were able to block off an entire street to shoot a big sequence with numerous police vehicles. We had complete cooperation from everyone in the neighborhood, the homeowners. We shot several business scenes in restaurants and a law firm and everybody’s been incredibly generous to us.”

Sam Logan Khaleghi is executive producer for the film. Film fans and Lake Orion residents will remember Khaleghi, who directed the movie Devil’s Night: Dawn of the Nain Rouge, which also filmed in Lake Orion and Detroit and used many Lake Orion residents as extras.

An Intrusion is expected to be released in late fall of 2020, Holland said.

“I just want to thank everybody for their involvement and to the community for allowing us to do our disruptive thing and film here,” Holland said. “It’s definitely been at least one extreme stress off our shoulders, being able to work with the community while making An Intrusion.