Creepy Clown Production Coming to Cheboygan

Oct. 21, 2016

When artist Eddie Renner and aspiring filmmaker Haynze Whitmore met at a Cheboygan restaurant to discus their latest project, a film centered around a creepy clown, they had no idea they had just tapped into what would become a zeitgeist; today, just a few months before they begin filming with nationally-known cult horror actor Bill Moseley, stories of creepy clowns appearing after dark are proliferating around the country.

Renner said he would not market his movie, Crepitus, by scaring people in northern Michigan with strangely placed clowns, but he’s not going to ignore that it’s happening.

“It’s really interesting. A lot of people believe it’s a publicity stunt for Stephen King’s new film, It, although he’s categorically denied that,” Renner said. “I like to post about it, because if people are going to do it, I’ll try to use it for marketing. But we wouldn’t purposely send people out as clowns.”

TO FILM IN CHEBOYGAN

Crepitus will film in Cheboygan this January, and Renner and Whitmore hope to have the movie released within a year.

Today, Renner lives with his wife, Sarah, who helped him write the screenplay, in St. Petersburg, Fla., where he draws caricatures at the Florida Aquarium in Tampa.

Whitmore studied filmmaking, lighting, and film editing in California and now lives in Cheboygan, where he works at the Mackinaw Trail Winery in Mackinaw City.

This is the pair’s second project. The first time they tried to make a horror movie, Whitmore wrote a script that Renner revised, which, as filming progressed, turned out to be too ambitious for a low-budget production. The film, Asylum of Secrets, told the story of a haunted mental institution.

Trouble with that production brought the friends to a table at the Your Spirit Café in Cheboygan in May 2014, where they came up with the idea for Crepitus, a movie meant to be able to offer A-plus thrills on a B-movie budget.

Tenner and Whitmore hope that if Crepitus is a hit, they can go back and finish Asylum of Secrets, which is 70 percent completed.

“It was a bit ambitions for our first film — we needed a lot of capital to do this film right,” Renner said. “Crepitus is written to be able to be shot really well with a low budget.”

Moseley will play the lead role of an ancient creature whose immortality is dependent on his consumption of children. The clown suffers from the medical condition crepitus, which means every movement of his bones is audible.

CULT ACTOR ON BOARD

Already, plans for the feature have far exceeded the initial vision.

Starting out, Renner and Whitmore didn’t think they could get an actor like Moseley, who has starred in movies like Quentin Tarantino’s 2007 film, Grindhouse, Rob Zombie’s The Devil’s Rejects, and Army of Darkness.

On the strength of the script, Renner and Whitmore landed a producer who has experience getting films worldwide distribution, Renner said. That producer, Lance Paul, had worked with Moseley before. He was able to get Moseley to take a look at the script.

“Everything just fell into place,” Renner said. “Bill loved the script.”

In fact, Renner said, he’d written a small part for Moseley on the off chance that Moseley would take the part. Renner said Moseley liked the story so much, he wanted to take the lead role.

That delighted the producers.

“Bill Moseley has a huge cult following, and anybody who’s been a fan of his, they have pretty much said they would love to see him as an immortal child-eating clown,” Renner said.

It wasn’t the producers’ choice to shoot in January. Renner, after all, had moved to Florida from Cheboygan because he doesn’t like winter. But that’s what worked out based on Moseley’s schedule.

Whitmore said they considered shooting the film in Georgia but ultimately decided on Cheboygan out of loyalty to their home town.

“The small town of Cheboygan has a perfect setting for our story, and I’m really excited that we are shooting it here,” he said.

Bonus for Renner: Most of the movie will take place indoors, so filming in January shouldn’t be an issue.

The team has secured an old house on Huron Street in Cheboygan — the home of ReSouled Furniture and Design — to use as the film set.

LOCAL TEEN GETS A PART

The production will employ veteran actors from around the industry, but a Cheboygan native scored one of the lead roles.

Renner said Caitlin Williams, a senior at Cheboygan High School, won the role of one of the leads, 17-year-old Eli. Though Williams has lots of local theater experience, this will be her first film role.

Renner said they had wanted to get at least one or two actors from northern Michigan, so they were especially delighted to have someone from Cheboygan in a leading role. But he said that Williams won the role on merit and not because she is local.

“She killed (her audition),” he said. “She was absolutely amazing.”

Williams said she’s thrilled to be in a movie.

“I have always worked on stage, and this will be a new adventure for me,” she said. “I am also very excited to be working with Bill Moseley. It will be an excellent opportunity to learn from someone with a lot of movie experience.”

The producers launched Crepitus with a successful crowdfunding campaign in April.

Now that Moseley is involved, the producers are trying to raise a second round of funding.

You can find more information through their Indiegogo link: igg.me/at/CrepitusFilm2