The upcoming film “Spirit Halloween: The Movie” has a lot of ties to Rome, Georgia. In addition to featuring recognizable locations like the DeSoto Theatre, the former Toys R Us, and the landscape of Celanese, one of the film’s associate producers is the Chair of Film Studies at Georgia Highlands College (GHC).
Seth Ingram, who oversees the film program at GHC, played a big part in the production of the film, which stars Christopher Lloyd, Rachel Leigh Cook, Marla Gibbs and Jaiden J. Smith among others.
The film students at GHC also worked on the film. Damon Self worked as a Grip alongside another GHC student, Joseph McDaniel, who worked as a Production Assistant.
Click here to learn more about the film program at GHC
Ingram’s ties to the local film festival played a part, as well. He was familiar with the film’s production company from another movie that had previously played at The Rome International Film Festival, where Ingram also serves as executive director.
“Producer Michael Haggerty and Shannon Houchens of Hideout Pictures reached out to me about possibly shooting the movie in Georgia,” he said. “I suggested Rome, and we began to line up locations for the film.”
As associate producer, Ingram found and secured all the filming locations for the entire movie with the assistance of a location team made entirely of Rome area residents. In addition, he sourced a local crew, some local cast as well as camera cars.
“I also used my local connections to help find housing and hotels for the cast and crew, and I have an acting cameo in the film,” he said. “We only had a few weeks of preproduction and had to move fast with everything.”
Since “Spirit Halloween: The Movie” wrapped, Ingram has produced another feature film in Rome that will be released sometime in spring 2023, during which four GHC students participated in crew positions.
“We also recently produced GHC’s first student short films, and we are excited to premiere them when they are through with the postproduction process,” he said. “As we continue to grow the program, we hope to land more feature films in the area for students to apply their trade and support the local economy while the younger students continue to gain work experience on film sets.”
Watch the trailer for the movie here:
