Interview: Dallas Morgan -Writer-Director (Sightings)

Writer-director Dallas Morgan’s unnerving supernatural thriller Sightings premieres on VOD this November.

Dante Basco (Hook, Bad Ass 2 : Bad Asses), Kevin Sizemore (Fear the Walking Dead: Flight 462), and Boo Arnold (Nashville) star in a pulse-pounding cornucopia of Stranger Things, Signsand Jaws, arriving November 7.

When former Sheriff and skeptic of the paranormal, Tom Mayfield (Boo Arnold), encounters three dead bodies on his TX ranch, he must enlist the help of his conspiracy-theorist brother-in-law (Rawn Erickson II), a local surveillance expert (Dante Basco), and a renowned cryptozoologist (Stephanie Drapeau), in order to uncover who or what is behind these mysterious events.

While being pursued by the local detective (Kevin Sizemore) as a lead suspect for these deaths, Tom is forced to reconsider his preconceived ideas of what lies beyond our planet.

Ultimately, he must mend the estranged relationship with his daughter (Tahlia Morgan) and come to grips with the truth of his missing wife (Tiffany Heath), as he discovers the importance of community in survival and the belief in the unseen.

From High Octane Pictures, the studio that brought you Clowntergeist and The Answer, comes another workout for your goosebumps, Sightings out 11/7.”

Hi Dallas, How are you doing?

Dallas – I am good, thanks.

Tell us about “Sightings”? I was able to watch it and it is really good film.

Dallas- Oh wow, thank you! I appreciate you taking time to watch it.

It has a great story, lots of great creepy moments and you did a great job. You wrote and directed the film! Tell us about how the idea manifested for you?

Dallas- Correct! I wrote it, directed it and then my wife and I produced it together. So my wife and I had been in the film and television industry and we wanted to produce something on our own and really do a feature-film together. Through family connections we had access to this two-hundred acre ranch just outside of Austin, Texas so we knew we had this location so I started developing different ideas that could be set on this property.

We went through a couple of ideas before we settled on what ultimately became “Sightings” and the way that the actual story came about is you know I am a big fan of the paranormal, science fiction genre and movies that explore big ideas but actually do it on a very personal level. I wanted to do something in that space and I was talking to a buddy of mine. He sent me a video clip, a news clip of a guy out in the back woods of North Carolina who was claiming to have seen a Sasquatch!

This guy was a big, over the top type of character. That is what you would picture living out in the middle of nowhere. So seeing him and seeing this news story inspired my imagination and I felt initially that the story of Bigfoot and the Sasquatch legend and all that had been explored before and it has been done before. But when I came up with the idea of putting a little bit of a twist on the origin of Bigfoot and where he comes from. That is what really got me excited about pursuing this story further and once I had that idea I went out and started doing some research on different theories and what Sasquatch is and where he comes from and as I started to explore that world a little bit, it became even more exciting.

That is amazing! You have such a great cast in the film! What was it like working with everyone?

Dallas- It was a lot of fun and I definitely agree with you that every one of the performances were great. I think going in to this, even at the writing stage I didn’t realize how much of an ensemble movie it really is until we got on-set and we had six or seven actors in one scene. You really get to see all of their personalities come through. For me the most fun was directing the scenes where all the characters were there and getting to see them interact with each other come to life that was probably the best part. Any time you are working with actors that you wanted to work with. That is always exciting! You know Dante Basco who plays the surveillance expert in the story, I was imagining him for the role as I was writing it! So to actually see that come about and happen that was exciting!

Yes and Dante was in “Hook” and he is just amazing! I love Dante!

Dallas- Yes, well I originally saw him in “Hook” and then I’ve seen him in some other independent films and I’ve always been a fan of his.

Any chance there will be a sequel?

Dallas- So I am working currently on another idea that I am in the writing stage of. You know I not opposed to a sequel for “Sightings” and I’ve even had some ideas because there’s a lot of different ways that you could go with it. There’s a little bonus scene during the credits of the movie that could lead off to a new story and there is a back story you could explore the story of the women that Tom (Boo Arnold) finds on his ranch. Where did they come from? What is their storyline before they ended up? I even had the idea of doing potentially a spin-off of one the characters. There is the Rebecca character who is this cryptozoologist who travels the world exploring different phenomenon. It would fun to kind of go with her on other adventures so there is a couple different ideas that I think have potential but it depends on how well “Sightings” is received and then in addition to that I’ve got some other stories and stuff that I am writing now that I cannot wait to make happen!

What do you want to say to the fans and the audiences that will be watching “Sightings?”

Dallas- My biggest hope for everyone when they sit down to watching “Sightings” is that I definitely want people to have a great time. My intention of making the movie is that it would be a lot of fun for people to watch and gives them something to think about in a new way. Also I really hopes it affects them emotionally both in the fear emotion and the heart emotion. Seeing Tom (Boo Arnold) the lead character go through this pretty major transformation through the course of the story, I hope that is something people are able to relate to so overall I hope people are able to have some laughs, have some thrills and just have a lot fun watching a good movie.

Thank you so much Dallas!

Dallas- I appreciate you letting me share some of this with you!