GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Halloween may be over, but the scares continue with a new horror film titled, “The Spore,” which was just released on DVD, streaming platforms and VOD.
The film stars Jeanie Jefferies, Haley Heslip and Peter Tell. It follows the lives of 10 strangers trying to stay alive as a deadly fungus spreads throughout their town. Not only was "The Spore" filmed in West Michigan, mostly Lowell, but it was written and directed by D.M. Cunningham, who lives in Grand Rapids.
“If it's not my family, which is number one, that's the thing — movies,” Cunningham said. “Watching movies, making movies, thinking about movies.”
His genre of choice is horror, and he said his fascination with scary movies dates back to his childhood.
“When I was a kid, I was terrified of Freddy Krueger,” Cunningham said. “The way I could control or embrace the monster, I would put these posters of Freddy all over my wall. That was my way of dealing with fear.”
That unique process would come full circle many years later when Cunningham befriended Wes Craven, a well-known writer and director known primarily for creating "A Nightmare on Elm Street."
“I had a column in a magazine called Famous Monsters of Filmland,” Cunningham said. “I had a column that covered famous horror props and things like that in movies. It started when I wanted to cover Freddy's glove — like who made it, all the way down to where did the metal come from? I would really dive deep into this.
"So I had interviewed Wes, and I was prepared, like I'm not going to ask all the typical questions. At the end of it he said, ‘This is one of the best interviews I've done.’ And I was just floored. Here's my hero saying this to me! From that point, we started talking back and forth through email and stuff, and it led to, ‘Do you want to grab coffee? Do you want breakfast? Do you want to go see a movie?’ And it kind of went from there.”
At the time, Cunningham was living in Los Angeles. He had moved there in hopes of creating monster movies but got caught up in the mix of other projects. Cunningham said it was Craven who got him pointed in the right direction.
“I was working in TV as we were going out and doing stuff, and he goes, ‘You know you came out here to make movies, so I think you need to get back to that, you need to get back to your passion,’” Cunningham said, referencing a conversation with Craven. “And I said, ‘You're right. That's exactly what I need to do.’ So some friends and I got together and we made these short films.”
He said his early projects included actors from "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and Rob Zombie films. And just like that, he said, he was once again doing what he loved. After Craven passed away in 2015, Cunningham and his wife moved to Grand Rapids, but he still pays homage to his friend and mentor at every opportunity.
“I do dedicate a lot of things to him,” Cunningham said. “In 'The Spore' specifically, there's a dedication to him, George Romero and Tobe Hooper, because they've been so influential on my career and what I do.”
He said he originally conceived the idea for "The Spore" in the spring of 2019. By that summer, Cunningham and his team were ready to start filming.
“We started in August, shot all the way through March of 2020, and we wrapped one week before the pandemic and the whole shutdown in Michigan,” he said. “So we were filming this virus movie and then wrapped it and were like, ‘Wow, you couldn't have planned that if you wanted to.’”
Peter Tell, who plays Israel in "The Spore," said the filmmaking process was incredible.
“It was the best! When you get a group of like-minded individuals together who are doing this for the love of the game, the passion part of it, there's nothing more fun,” he said. “You're just kind of playing make believe, which is essentially what it is, right? It's an absolute Joy. It's therapy in a lot of ways for me.”
This is the first feature film for Tell, who said this experience could not have been better.
“From my perspective, it's just people who love to do the work, and it's a joy doing the work with those people,” he said. “There is a really good film community in Grand Rapids. It's small. Burgeoning might be a better word. It's a really good group of people who are really kind of passionate about this. And it's the kind of people that just like to pep each other up. When one succeeds, all succeed.”
Cunningham and Tell have already teamed up for another film titled "3 Demons," which is also being filmed in West Michigan.
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