Currently available to buy and rent on digital platforms,Children of the Pinesis a new horror film directed by Joshua Morgan and produced byLucas A. Ferrara. The movie follows Riley, a college junior who is persuaded to visit her estranged parents, Kathy and John, during school break. However, it quickly becomes evident that she was right to keep her distance. Upon returning home, Riley discovers that a group of mysterious children have taken up residence in the house, and their unexplained presence leads her to seek out the dark truth.
Children of the Pinesstars Danielle J. Bowman, Kelly Tappan, Vas Provatakis, Donna Rae Allen, Richard Cohn-Lee, and David Raizor. While Ferrara has worked on projects such as5000 Space Aliens,Makeup, andFrank & Emmet,the film serves as Morgan’s feature directorial debut. Morgan wrote the screenplay at the impressive age of seventeen, and he expresses his excitement for itsofficial release four years later.
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Screen Rantinterviews Morgan and Ferrara about connecting with one another through Kickstarter,Children of the Pine’sDavid Lynch influence, andfilming near the realTimberline Lodge.
Children Of The Pines Was Originally Meant To Be A Television Series
“It was a lot of Twilight Zone inspiration of these little hour-long specials that would all be their own episodes.”
Congratulations onChildren of the Pine’srelease. Seventeen is such an impressive age to have written a film like this.
Joshua Morgan: I’m very thankful for the crew, because they not only believed in it, but they were very trusting and patient, and I learned so much from them in this process because they’re all pros. They believed in the idea enough where they wanted to teach me a lot of the ropes of how to function on set and how to run everything. This wouldn’t have been possible without Lucas and all the supporters, but especially the crew on set who were dealing with the seventeen-eighteen-year-old kid running the show. That was very phenomenal of them.
Lucas A. Ferrara: What’s interesting is that this was supposed to start off as a TV show.
Joshua Morgan: Yeah, this was going to be forty minutes to an hour long, just one-off, kind of a Twilight Zone. They would all be their each individual little scary mellow drama that would each go for forty minutes to an hour, and they’d each have their own themes about existentialism or whatever it might be. These little hour-long horror specials were the original idea. And then we decided, “Well, why not just make it a one-off thing, but just expand on it and expand on the backstory?” And now we’re here.
So the original plan was more of an anthology series?
Joshua Morgan: Yes. So they would each be their own individual self-contained things. You never know what this might end up turning into, especially down the road, but I would love to make an anthology horror series, especially with everything that I know now and that I want to do. But that was how it started. It was a lot of Twilight Zone inspiration of these little hour-long specials that would all be their own episodes.
Children Of The Pines Was Inspired By Morgan’s Favorite Horror Films
“I started watching David Lynch movies and a lot of these whimsical horror movies that I really wanted to be a part of.”
How did you two find one another to make this film happen?
Joshua Morgan: It was in the middle of the pandemic, there was nothing going on, I was in my junior entering senior year of high school at that time, and I felt like I was just ready to start the next chapter of my life. I wanted to make my first professional project, but of course, do so in a safe environment. At the end of the day, I knew that I needed some funds, and so I went to Kickstarter, and Lucas came into the process as a producer.
We connected through the internet and that’s actually how we met the majority of our crew. It was in the middle of the pandemic. It was all virtual, and we found our composer that way, our cast, everybody. But Lucas and I connected over Kickstarter and then we became friends and now we are releasing this film, which is pretty wild. That was four years ago.
Lucas A. Ferrara: Despite the fact that Josh and I have been friends for four years, and this has been an interesting journey, as he said, we met via a crowdfunder. I was going through solicitations for films and there was Josh with his eerie pitch for this movie, which actually was more of a TV thing, but I liked it. I liked his pitch, and what I particularly liked was the fact that he was seventeen. He was a kid.
I said, “Wow, look at this. He’s so young, and he wants to do something so significant.” I had to be part of it. Despite this four-year journey—festivals took a year, reshoots took six months, finding a distributor took about six months, and then getting it queued up for release took another six months—Josh and I have never met in person.
What inspired this film? Can you bring us through the storytelling process?
Joshua Morgan: The start of it was, I am fortunate enough to have very loving parents and a loving home, but growing up in high school, you’d have friends, you’d hear stories, and you just saw so many different dynamics that would exist in other people’s houses. That interested me as far as the root of it in the family. As I was entering my senior year of high school, it was also about what happens when you leave high school and your relationships and friendships end. What if you get stuck in that?
What if you get stuck in the past so much that you really can’t let go, and it manifests itself in such a strong way that it ends up hurting, not only yourself, but others? That’s really where the idea started. The concept is the thing that came pretty quickly. I had this idea of this little clone beating their older self to death. It was a really morbid vision, but there was an image in that that spoke to me as something that would be really haunting and powerful.
I was in high school when Hereditary came out, and that was massive. That had such a big influence on most people right now in film school, or just honestly anybody. I started watching David Lynch movies and a lot of these whimsical horror movies that I really wanted to be a part of. That’s honestly where a lot of it came from. It was the dynamics that I saw, but also a lot of the movies that came up in my life that I was very drawn to.
Children Of The Pines Prioritizes Tension Over Violence
“Many consider this movie to be a cerebral horror film and that is what makes it different.”
Going off of that, this is about a broken family and a mom trying to reconnect with her daughter. Were those themes also influenced by films you’ve seen in the past?
Joshua Morgan: Yeah, a lot of it was the movies that I was seeing, but I think it makes for really good self-contained drama. At the end of the day, you’re looking at a story that you have to do with certain constraints and perimeters, probably limiting yourself to a house or a diner. There’s not much else that you can do with the amount of money that we have and the resources and the fact that you’re in a pandemic.
My approach to it was, what is the most tension I can create in a house that wouldn’t feel so foreign to anybody? Things that I think everybody’s seen or experienced, but how can I play that up in a way that you can justify being in a house for an hour and a half? The horror starts with hearing people with so much disrespect for each other, and then we go into the surreal territory. I think that’s where a lot of those family dynamics came from. I wanted to find something that would be relatively relatable.
Children of the Pinesrelies on suspense rather than violence. How do you feel that adds to the tension more than gruesome elements would?
Joshua Morgan: There’s that famous saying that Hitchcock has where it’s more interesting to show the bomb at the beginning of the scene, and you know it’s there, and you just let the whole scene play out knowing that bomb is there. My goal was, how long can I create that ticking for? To where you know something’s happening, you don’t know quite what it is, but the dynamic between the people is so tense and awkward and uncomfortable.
At a certain point, when you realize why Riley is there and why her ex is there, I wanted to sustain that for as long as possible. That was almost more interesting to me than any jump scares or gore. While there are elements of that, I find it more scary being in these relatively grounded situations that just have such a disturbing and immoral air to it.
Lucas A. Ferrara: Many consider this movie to be a cerebral horror film and that is what makes it different. You’re not going to find the guillotines, as you noted, you’re not going to find the chainsaws, you’re not going to find the guns. There’s very, very little gore. That’s what attracted me to the movie. It was a different kind of horror film. Many reviewers are noting this. One reviewer said that Joshua’s work is reminiscent of early Stephen King. That is incredible. I’m so proud of Joshua.
Children Of The Pines Was Shot Near Mount Hood
“That was a driving factor of wanting to do it there, but even if The Shining never existed, it still feels like I wanted this to be a dark fairytale.”
This takes place in the snow and the mountains, which is an aesthetic that I really enjoy. How did you want the environment to add to the film’s unease?
Joshua Morgan: The horror movie that made me really want to be a director was The Shining. We shot it right around Mount Hood, which is where they got a lot of the B-roll shots of The Shining and where the actual real Timberline Lodge is. That was a driving factor of wanting to do it there, but even if The Shining never existed, it still feels like I wanted this to be a dark fairytale. At its core, it’s this very whimsical, uncomfortable, scary thing. I wanted it to be set where you have this very relatable family story, but in this very mystical land.
I didn’t want it to just be in Suburbia. I wanted it to be in the middle of nowhere in this almost otherworldly setting. Going back to those fairytale-like vibes, the first thing that came to mind was these snowcap hills, and it’s very cold and just feels very barren. Both in the aesthetics of how we wanted to shoot it, and also just the land, I wanted it to feel very empty and whimsical, but that there’s something dark. And I think that where we shot it in Oregon was absolutely perfect for that.
Lucas A. Ferrara: And they had to battle the elements. The snow was a very big problem. They were calling me, telling me the snow was significant at the time.
Joshua Morgan: Once again, it’s a testament to the crew. We were a very small crew and we had amazing gear. We were in the middle of the snow, and there was a lot of filming. The whole movie, if we’re talking about everything, was shot in just about ten days. We did our pickups, which was three, but the initial shooting in Oregon, the bulk of the film was done in those seven days.
There was a lot of going into the house and out of the house and the snow was there. What you see was what we were shooting in. It was really intense, as far as the weather, but at the end of the day, especially when you’re done shooting, it’s beautiful. You’re in a small town, and the snow’s around you, and you’re with good people.
Morgan And Ferrara Both Have Other Projects In The Works
“Without a doubt, I want to go darker and disturbing and keep finding these very relatable stories.”
How was working with such a young cast while battling the elements of nature?
Joshua Morgan: They were phenomenal. It was honestly one of my favorite surprises because I’ve told so many people about the process, and especially just hearing the movie Children of the Pines, a lot of working professionals almost are shocked when I tell them that it was a really amazing experience working with these kids. That’s usually not the narrative, but they were dedicated, and also their parents. You can have a great child who’s an actor, but their parent has to be excited to bring them to set.
They are their motivator going home, their motivator in the morning, and they make sure that they get a good night’s sleep. It really goes hand in hand with both the actor and the parents. We still keep in contact, and they’re great people, and they have great kids who are very, very talented. I was just lucky to find them. And we actually found them about two weeks before we even got to Oregon. It was a last-minute casting, and it just really worked out so beautifully with everything, just the timing of it all.
What’s next for both of you? Do you have any other movies in the pipeline or any other genres you would like to explore?
Joshua Morgan: There are two shorts that I have coming out. There’s a dark comedy called Tapioca. And then my latest project, just the most recently shot as well, was a short film called Blake Buried a Body. That is something where I really wanted to experiment and push myself more so on the gore side of things. Without spoiling too much, we were breaking down doors. There’s a skin mask. We really want to see how far we can make this very disturbing, gut-wrenching story that has a good drama at the center of it.
I’m writing a couple things at the moment. I’m still narrowing down exactly the next feature that I would like to make, but without a doubt, I want to go darker and disturbing and keep finding these very relatable stories. I want to see how far I can push them into the realm of either surreal or really horrific territory, hoping that there’s some empathy that I can get from the characters just from existing in that horrificness.
Lucas A. Ferrara: I have another horror film that’s in post-production and will be coming out in maybe about six months or so. It’s called The Manor of Darkness, and it’s currently in post. We’re doing some original music, some VFX, which you know is very complicated, but I’m really excited about that as well.
About Children Of The Pines
Winner of best feature at Ice Cinefest and best thriller at Indo-French Film Festival
Over her winter break, Riley, a college junior, is persuaded by her estranged parents, Kathy and John, to visit home to fix their fractured relationship. As Riley settles in, she discovers that her parents have developed an unsettling friendship with her high school ex, Gordon, and that mysterious children are now living in the house.
A series of disturbing flashbacks reveal Kathy and John’s time at an eerie, unconventional couples therapy retreat that promised to heal their problems through supernatural means. As the day progresses, Riley starts to uncover the dark and twisted truth of her parents' desperate attempts to mend the deep issues plaguing their family.
Children of the Pinesis currently available on digital platforms such asYouTube Movies & TV.
