Looking for scary movies to add to your Halloween watch list? Look no further than the latest project from a local filmmaking team.
Micha Marie Stevens, Chance Gibbs, Trey Murphy and Jason Vandygriff have been producing horror movies for years. They were the team behind 2023’s Goatman, a film inspired by the Denton urban legend of Goatman’s Bridge. This year, they released a new thriller called Blood Dried Hands.
“It’s about a reluctant serial killer that’s grappling with his faults in life and who he is,” Stevens said. “And there’s a small-town detective that also is grappling with her own issues. It’s [about their] cat-and-mouse game to get to each other.”
The script was written by Vandygriff, who is also a police officer in Wichita Falls. In the film, Stevens portrays Sgt. Investigator Edi Sharp, the detective who is tracking down the serial killer. Stevens said she went all-in for the role and completed some rookie police training and ride-alongs with officers.
The nearly two-hour film is available to stream for rent and purchase on Amazon.
Before Blood Dried Hands’ national streaming release, it screened at film festivals in Austin, Las Vegas and New York. It was also screened in other countries at festivals, including the Florence Film Awards in Italy, the Hong Kong Indie Film Festival, the Barcelona Independent Film Festival in Spain, the London Movie Awards and the Sweden Film Awards in Stockholm.
Stevens said Blood Dried Hands won more than 100 awards at these festivals in categories such as best feature film, best genre film and best director. Stevens also won a total of 10 best actress awards from different festivals.
“We weren’t sure how it was going to be received,” she said. “We put a lot of our heart into it … and I think you can see that.”
She said it has been about two and a half years since the script was written. Since then, the film was cast, shot and sent to postproduction. And after its successful festival run, it is now available for streaming just in time for Halloween.
Stevens said she’s looking forward to the holiday.
“I’ve always been a Halloween dork,” she said. “I’ve been ‘that house’ in the neighborhood, pretty much since I’ve owned a house, like decorating and making it spooky.”
She also said Denton’s 31 Days of Halloween program is a “cool concept,” noting that the city might gravitate toward the holiday partly because there are spooky local legends like Goatman.
The tale of Goatman isn’t the only local ghost story she’s heard — Stevens said she knows of many people who have claimed to see Civil War-era ghosts around the downtown Square.
“I think there’s a lot of artist types in the community itself,” Stevens said. “And maybe it is the fact that there’s so many little ghost stories around here … so when you’ve got a whole bunch of creative minds, and you hear these little snippets of stories, like, why not have fun with it?”