A new horror movie in the making that has previous ties to Leelanau County is putting Northport on the map again.
“The Wretched,” which was shot in Omena and Northport in the spring of 2018 and released in 2020, went into pre-production and filming for the sequel, “The Wretched Devours,” just this week. Although the first movie was filmed primarily in Leelanau County, the sequel is being filmed in Syracuse, New York. Detroit-born brothers and filmmakers Brett and Drew Pierce, also known as the Pierce brothers, wrote and directed the first “Wretched” movie, and are once again leading the way in producing and directing the sequel.
While the sequel features a new cast, location, and story, the “wretch,” or evil witch in the film, still plays a pivotal role. According to the new film’s synopsis, it will follow a deputy investigating missing children cases, revealing the return of the witch that has been terrorizing the community. That town’s name in the film? Northport.
Northport residents Shelley Lavey and Tom Gallery, their daughter Amanda, and grandkids have been along for the ride since the start of both horror films as their son-in-law, Drew Pierce, is one of two of the writers/directors. Lavey said it’s exciting to have production for the new film underway, but it will be at least a year or so until audiences can see it as filming has just begun. Since it’s a new storyline, she added that people can watch each film independently, so it’s not necessary to see the first Wretched to understand the sequel.
“Drew has certainly vacationed in Northport many times, and I think when they were writing the first movie and they were visualizing the location, they just visualized Northport,” Lavey said. “So they used that in their heads as set design and as inspiration and looked around for locations. They didn’t want to film in the same location because it’s a different movie and it’s a different location with different characters, except for the 'wretch.' Also, the film incentives are very good in New York state right now, so they’re filming in Syracuse.”
In the first film, Lavey said her eldest grandson, Owen, played the part of the baby as he was only a year old at the time. Both Owen, now 8, and his younger brother, Declan, 5, might even make an appearance in the sequel, Lavey said, depending on if they can make a 1 a.m. call time to be on set.
“There is one scene in the movie when it’s Halloween night, so there are kids in the background in costume and they (the kids) can be in that scene if they want to make a 1 a.m. call time,” she said. “The older grandchild will be there for sure, the one that was in the first movie, but the younger one, I’m not sure if we could wake him up for 1 a.m. call time.”
Lavey, Amanda, and the kids are planning to join Drew and the rest of the crew in Syracuse later this month. Although the kids FaceTime with their father every day, she said it’s been nearly seven weeks since they last saw each other, so the family is more than thrilled to reunite during an already exciting time.
“He FaceTimes with them everyday, but it’s not the same as being there, so they’re counting down the days until ‘daddy day,’” she said. “While they started the filming on Monday, they’ve been working on it for a while because they’ve been writing it for a long time… In Syracuse, they just did seven weeks of pre-production out there, which is getting the car ready, locating the sites, costumes, props — all the details.”
“The Wretched” is currently available for streaming on Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video, among other streaming platforms.
