Recently, HorrorBuzz had the opportunity to chat it up with the busy and burgeoning filmmaker, Steve Stanulis, director of a newly released horror flick by the name of Clinton Road. As the creator of this occult movie, I found Stanulis to be a dedicated director and passionate about his works while talking about this new movie and what’s to come. This 2019 release, Clinton Road, is inspired by a true-life haunted place by the same name — a 10-mile stretch of road in the backwoods of New Jersey boasting several haunted stories, a few of which were weaved into the narrative of this film. To get further insight into the background of Clinton Road and its director, read below on how we picked Stanulis’ mind while he was in between takes working on his latest film.

We started with a softball question for background on this director, asking what his favorite horror figures or movie(s) of all time would be. Steve quickly gave 3 of the classics, beginning with Kubrick’s’ The Shining, and following with The Amityville Horror (careful to note that he was referencing the original, not any remakes), as well as Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. The man obviously has good taste! But after watching Clinton Road I did not exactly find the “Hitchcockian” elements he self-described Clinton Road to have, though when I later asked if he could have the film to be known for/described in any particular way, he offered “A fun horror, in the vein of a 70’s horror film… old school”, which I would agree with. I am reminded of Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) with its ensemble of good looking co-eds, except in Clinton Road‘s case, it is ghosties stalking them instead of a chainsaw-wielding psycho.

It will probably tell you a lot about this film when I say that Ice T does some of the best acting…and that is not to say that this is his best performance (and definitely not his longest performance; it is basically a cameo as he is, sadly, only in the first 10 minutes of the film). Oh well, I was not too disappointed at the lack of Ice T, but I couldn’t help but ask Stanulis how he picked his cast, and of course, how it was working with my favorite Law & Order: SVU character. It turns out that he met Ice T through a friend, and that T reportedly liked the script and really wanted to be a part of the project. Since I was not a huge fan of this film, I had to ask if he could change anything about Clinton Road what would it be and how would what he’s learned inform the decisions he makes with future films. Unfortunately, I could not quite draw out a self-critique of the film from the director, however he did mention that he is already in post-production on a movie called the Fifth Burrough, and as we spoke, Stanulis was on set for yet another film which will be co-starring none other than rapper DMX as a detective. With reportedly bigger budgets for these two follow-ups to Clinton Road, he is expecting to be able to do better and better. These latest films do sound interesting, describing one as a mix of “Paranormal Activity and Se7en”. The initial script to Clinton Road, written by Derek Ross Mackay, he described as “13 Ghosts meets The Ring”, and Stanulis further mentioned that the concept came to him during a night of watching America’s Scariest Places, which featured a segment on Clinton Road, NJ and later inspired him to go down the road and see this haunted placed for himself.

Being the scaredy cat that I am in the face of true paranormal activity, my interests were most piqued about the area. When asked about how it was to film in a haunted location, Stanulis mentioned that they filmed in the woods for 14 days, overnight, up and down that 10-mile stretch that is known as Clinton Road. It is surrounded by hills, creating an isolating effect, and to make matters worse, everyone on the crew found that there was practically no cell service once one gets to the halfway point. And to make matters even worse, if someone did have service the cast and crew noticed that their cell phone batteries were drained 5 minutes after charging. Creepy much?! Perhaps a physicist could explain some phenomenon, but listening to Steve makes it seem like the place was truly haunted, with some wayward ghosts possibly not wanting people to call for help! According to Stanulis, the place is littered with stories of ghosts, a few of which he used in this movie. An easter egg that I did not notice — Stanulis mentioned that the character of Michael, played by Ace Young, is holding coins at the end, which harkens to one of the area legends of a little boy in a lake who drowns people in the movie, and supposedly if you go to the lake and throw a coin in he will throw the coin back. Yikes — I should have asked Steve if he tried out this legend for himself while going through their tight 14-day shoot! I did, however, ask if he himself believed in the paranormal and the occult, to which he answered “without a doubt”, and further explained that to him the paranormal is comforting in a sense because it offers evidence of an afterlife, a viewpoint I found refreshing as a veritable scaredy cat. Paranormal can be comforting, who’d have thunk it?

Starring a crew of attractives who make excellent ghost fodder, including the likes of Ice T doing his best Ice T impression and prototypical mob guy Vincent Pastore (and other random celebrities you might miss for the mere seconds they grace this movie), Clinton Road will probably be best appreciated by paranormal enthusiasts who have not yet delved into the depths of this haunted area of America. I, for one, had not heard of Clinton Road’s spooky tales, and with more background on the area’s history thanks to Steve Stanulis, it only piques my interest to look into this neck of the woods more — and make a mental note to make a pit stop should I find myself schlepping through New Jersey. It is a small wonder that this haunted area has not yet been used in a horror film, but Stanulis did joke (or rather half-joked) about a Clinton Road 2 movie, pending getting his hands on a better budget than his “$200,000” budget for this first movie. So, who knows? We may just be getting more ghost stories from along this lonely and creepy stretch of highway. You can check out my review of Clinton Road for a rundown of the film, and to check this feature out for yourself, you can find it available via all online platforms and currently playing in theaters in 15 U.S. states!