The horror movie Candlewood—which was filmed in my hometown of New Milford, Connecticut, and in which I was an extra a while back—is now available to rent or view on many streaming platforms, including Prime and Apple TV!

Produced by Bandstand Pictures, directed by Myke Furhman, and written by Victoria Flores-Argue and Joseph Patrick Conroy, Candlewood, from the official description, “follows a blended family that moves from New York City to a small, isolated town in Connecticut. Once there, a local urban legend wreaks havoc, fracturing their family dynamic and causing them to go insane.” The film runs an hour and half.

To watch the trailer, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ze6srALIQ8

To visit the Candlewood website, click here: https://www.candlewoodfilm.com/

To check out Candlewood branded gear, visit here: https://www.candlewoodgear.com/candlewood-they-were-here-first

I appeared in the supermarket scene. What was really the most fun for me was the privilege of feeling what it might be like to work on a movie. I’ve had decades of stage experience, but this was nothing like that. I may only have been on camera for a few seconds, but it was a completely different artistic process to get into that space, even as an extra. I had to develop my own back story and stay focused. Otherwise? I did stupid things like look directly at the camera (they had to reshoot at least once because of ME. Ugh). I give a great deal of credit to film actors. I don’t know how they do it, although my guess is that they’re just used to it. It was also really fun to meet the other extras. We were sort of our own little club—and, as is common in this area where everybody knows everybody? My scene partner turned out to be a friend of my brother’s, although I didn’t know that at the time.

Dark Discussions interviewed director Myke Furhman for its Halloween Boutique Psychotronic Reviews podcast, in which we discussed everything from trials and tribulations to challenges and fun behind the scenes stories, and that interview is here: https://www.darkdiscussions.com/podcasts/halloween-boutique-psychotronic-reviews-volume-066-candlewood-2025/

Fun facts about filming and the area:

~ Although the film is called Candlewood, after the area’s Candlewood Lake, most of the lake scenes were actually shot on Lake Lillinonah, which is part of the Housatonic River system, due to the time of year the film was shot and accessibility (much of the Candlewood Lake shoreline is privately owned, and the lake is also extremely busy, which doesn’t work well for the atmosphere they wanted). What it does have in common with Candlewood Lake is that it, too, was a project created by CL&P to generate electricity. In 1955, the Shepaug and Housatonic Rivers were dammed.

~ The two scenes that were shot directly on Candlewood Lake were the opening and closing. Both were shot at Lynn Deming Park, which is New Milford’s town beach. According to producer Victoria Flores-Argue, the filming on that day was interrupted by a TikTokker shooting the action from his boat.

~ The character of Eli (Jeffrey Alan Solomon) was inspired by the concept of our beach communities on the shores of Candlewood Lake. Beach communities—for example, I grew up in one called “Candlewood Terrace,” and my friend Kristina grew up in “Candlewood Springs”—are like HOAs. Everyone in the neighborhood pays in to enjoy and maintain a private community beach (these are separate beaches from the town beach, which is open to everyone and is maintained by the town government). While most communities that I’m aware of don’t have a caretaker for the homes, like Eli—homeowners are responsible for their own properties—they usually have a board that establishes certain rules, may recommend certain repair people, and may hire someone to fix up and maintain the beach area. My dad was on our beach board, and I know that while they cleaned up the beach themselves before the season started, they hired folks to maintain the outhouse, picnic areas, docks, and millweed overgrowth throughout the summer. Eli represents the beach community system in one character.

~ The Candlewood movie wrapped at the end of 2022, but took a long time to complete. This was due, in part, to the passing away of two people who worked on the film, both of whom were friends of people working on the production. Bedhan Ball was a co-executive producer, and was close to both executive producer Victoria Flores-Argue and Jeffrey Alan Solomon (Eli). John Lange was an incredibly talented editor who was a friend to director Myke Furhman. For a while, it was uncertain if the film would be finished. However, Furhman noted that the widow of one of those who passed on was very insistent that the film be completed, so the wish was honored, and it took time to find the right replacements.

~ The house in which this was shot is someone’s home in another lake town—and the homeowner very generously donated the time for its use. It was a lot of work to move everything, pack things away, and then reset afterwards, because the house needed to look vacant (more about this on the DD podcast!)

~ Shooting was interrupted at one point by a wasp infestation, and there were people on the crew who were allergic, so that made things … interesting.

~ The supermarket scene was shot at The Market, which is north of town (and growing up, wasn’t far from my friend Brenna’s house). It used to be called The Northville Market (and many locals still refer to it that way today). I went to high school and acted in a production of Once Upon a Mattress with the original owner’s son, and YES, it’s still a real market. You can go there and shop any time, they source from local farms and area chefs and bakeries, the staff is super nice, and their coffee station is cool. They’re at 301 Litchfield Road in New Milford, and here’s their website: https://www.themarketct.com/

~ The trails on which the mother (Lisann Valentin) and daughter (Isabel Lysiak) jog are real, and they are open to the public. It’s called Lovers Leap State Park, just as depicted in the film. Way up in the woods, there is the foundation of an old mansion. I’ve been there, but there’s not a lot left. And I will say? Yeah, those woods are creepy. Here’s where you can find out more and plan your visit: https://ctparks.com/parks/lovers-leap-state-park

~ The iconic Lovers Leap Bridge depicted in the film was built in 1895 and I remember we drove over it a lot as a kid to get to friends’ homes on the other side of the river or to downtown. It was closed to vehicles in 1977, when the “new” one (which, yes, I remember when that was being built) opened. Today, it is a pedestrian-only bridge, and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. I believe it’s also the bridge featured in the opening scene of Wes Craven’s 2010 film, My Soul to Take.

~ The urban legend on which this is based is one of star-crossed lovers, in which a Native American princess kills herself by jumping/flinging/canoeing into a gorge because she cannot be with her English lover—hence the name Lovers Leap Bridge, because  this is where we were told, as kids, that this event took place. It turns out, though, that this is a common urban legend shared by many small rural towns across America. Only the names and cultural identities of the lovers, as well as the geographic setting (sometimes it’s a cliff, a waterfall, a bridge, et cetera) change depending on where you are in the country or who’s telling the tale.

~ The score was written by Andrew Scott Bell, who at the time was fresh off the composition of Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey.

 ~ The neighborhood scenes, where we see other homes and residents of the town, were shot in communities off a road called Candlewood Lake Road North, and many of the houses’ exteriors have been well maintained and unchanged since they were built anywhere between the 1940s and the 1960s, hence preserving the area’s rustic feel, and that’s a pretty sweet time capsule. I can’t be totally sure, but I think at least one of the houses they walk by in the film was where one of my brother’s friends lived. I remember dropping him off at a party there once.

~ New Milford is not a stranger to the silver screen. My hometown has had scenes in Mr. Deeds (2002)—in fact, the scene in that film was on Bank Street at a restaurant directly across the street from the movie theater where Candlewood held its premiere in 2024 (and where my brother and I grabbed a cocktail before the party). Also filmed around town were The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (2009), My Soul to Take (2010), and Halloween II (2009), and that’s only just a few. If you want to see our charming downtown area, you can see that in Rob Thomas’ “Christmas in a Small Town” video. And hint…the building in which the Candlewood premiere party was hosted is in the video right at the end—that square building with the arch? That’s where our party was. Watch that here, and note Santa. That’s my friend Bill Buckbee I’ve known since third grade. He defended me from bullies on the playground, and he, too, had a bit in Candlewood: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=337759031515593

~ The Bank Street Theater, where Candlewood had its premiere in January of 2024, has a long and storied history and was originally a hotel called The New England House from 1902 – 1917; it was, I think, built in the wake of the Great New Milford Fire in May of 1902 that wiped out Bank Street (read about that here: https://www.ctinsider.com/newmilford/article/new-milford-great-fire-of-1902-historic-walk-18112397.php. It became a cinema in 1920 and has been New Milford’s most consistent downtown attraction. It also had at least one ghost story attached to it: when I was in high school, kids who worked there swore there were ghosts in the room where they kept the candy. They claimed that the lights wouldn’t stay on, the claimed to hear footsteps and voices—and they claimed it was an old hotel room that still had the early 1900s furniture. Yeah, probably hogwash. But fun to imagine, and as a kid, you believed anything. Aside from seeing Candlewood for the first time, I saw a lot of 1980s classics here when I was a kid: everything from Gremlins and E.T. (both with my mom) to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (with my friend Susie and we skipped school to do it) to Spaceballs (with my brother). Read Bank Street Theater’s history here: https://www.bankstreettheater.com/about/our-history/

In case you missed this earlier posting on my blog, here’s a link to photos from the 2024 premiere event: https://kristipetersenschoonover.com/2024/02/01/oh-what-a-night-behind-the-scenes-of-candlewood-filming-and-the-red-carpet-premiere/