Night Of The Demons: Story Of An Extra – by Tony Brown

The story behind me getting the part as an extra in NOTD is when I was scouring the internet for information on the movie. Initially, I had mixed feelings that one of my favorite movies of all time was being remade, but I was still definitely interested. Then, I heard it was going to be filming in New Orleans (which is about six hours from where I live) and THEN…I heard Tiffany Shepis was attached! I’d met Tiffany at the Chiller Convention in May of 2008 and she was really cool. I knew I had to do SOMETHING to get involved…I just had to! Anyways, I was looking on IMDb and noticed there was an e-mail address for someone working on casting extras for the party scene. So, I e-mailed the girl and she asked for a photo and my phone number and I got my sister (Stephanie) on board as well…and the rest is history. I don’t even care that we had to drive so far to be a part of it…I would’ve done it for free.

When me, Stephanie, and some other extras were shuttled from the holding area (a pizza place transformed into a waiting/lunch area for the cast and crew) to Luling Mansion (serving as Broussard Mansion in the film) – it was…surreal. Now, I’m not gonna say the house took my breath away or anything, but it’s pretty impressive. I prefer the original house, myself, but this one seems pretty menacing as well. Those steps leading up to the front door were enough to get you wondering what would happen if you had a nasty spill down them…! I wish I could’ve actually gone upstairs inside the house, but the rooms I got to see and work in were pretty top-notch. Definitely very different from Hull House.

The first scene we shot was a bar scene which involved Diora Baird, Michael Copon, and John F. Beach. We had to mime words and act like we were dancing, passing in front of the camera, and generally trying to make it crowded so Diora Baird’s character had to actually struggle to make her way into the room. There’s then an awkward conversation between Diora and Michael’s characters. I wasn’t present for the scene where Edward Furlong sells drugs to one of the party-goers (which was a friend of my friend Jade LaFont who’s also an extra in the movie) because they were switching out extras from scene to scene. Sometimes, they would use everyone.

So then, I think we did another scene where Diora Baird and Michael Copon were talking by the bar and I was actually instructed to stand in front of a light since I was tall….haha By the end of the night, we were shooting the “cops break up the party” scene where the power is shut off and everyone has to act like they don’t know what the hell’s going on. The cops then bust the party and Tiffany Shepis high-tails it with the money (Stephanie and I are standing very close to Tiffany in that scene, so that‘s cool). Shannon Elizabeth then runs from another room, trying to stop all of her party guests from leaving and realizes that Tiffany just made off with all of the money people paid to get into the party with. We shot that scene, and another variation of it where I actually leave the room where Shannon Elizabeth is waiting, probably close to 20 times! But hey, I was living it up – it was all fun.

The second night of shooting I got to be in some scenes with Jade, but wardrobe was unable to locate the black hockey mask Stephanie had been wearing on her head the night before – so she ended up waiting outside the rest of the time, and that sucked. We did more party-goer scenes, and we got to walk around Bobbi Sue Luther as she gyrated on a go-go box. I know she apologized in advance if her “weave” hit anyone…it ended up hitting me and also knocking a drink out of an extra’s hand! lol

The high point of the evening…and my last scene…was when I was picked to be a bartender in the “sexy room.” This scene only took 2 or 3 takes, thankfully. The steadicam comes into the room and focuses on some couples making out, including two girls fooling around on a couch…and then makes its way to a devil-horned guy with no shirt and a backpack taking a drink from…your’s truly! Very nerve-wracking stuff, considering the camera goes RIGHT past us. We then hurried into another room, since this was a continuous, tracking shot of the whole party (I wonder if it’s gonna be sped up), and this is where Monica Keena, Diora Baird, and Bobbie Sue Luther are just arriving to the party. I’m not sure which take is gonna be used, but if it’s the first one – I’m gonna be bartending and then right in the main room. I hope continuity is covered – Adam said they were good!

The only cast member I actually talked to was Tiffany Shepis. She is such an approachable, sweet, and crazy girl – and it made it easier to hang out with her a little bit between takes and on lunch since I already knew her. I did not bother trying to talk to any of the other cast members because I wasn’t sure how they’d act. Although, I did notice that Michael Copon, Bobbie Sue Luther, and Diora Baird all ate lunch with the extras. Michael and Bobbie Sue seemed very down-to-earth and both had a great sense of humor. I only saw Edward Furlong from a distance, and I almost didn’t recognize Monica Keena in her zombie make-up…she’s so tiny and petite in person!

During some downtime between doing a scene, Adam Gierasch came up to me and said “Man, you’re featured all over in this movie!” to which I replied, “Well, is it gonna mess up continuity if I’m in one room and they cut to another room and I’m in THAT one too??” and he was just like “Nah, we got it covered.” Adam was really, really cool. I got to meet him and Jace Anderson when Stephanie and I went to do our test photos; I think he was surprised I recognized him when we first met – he even gave me a copy of a storyboard from the movie which he asked me to NOT upload to the internet…and I didn’t, so maybe that gained me some browning points! lol

I didn’t get to meet Shannon Elizabeth, but I was standing in the same room as her when we were waiting for a scene to begin shooting. At one point, she came back into the room and apologized if she “pushed through anybody.” She seemed very sweet, and I feel for her having to run after us all those times – but she didn’t have to run down those damn STAIRS a million times! LOL She did not seem at all like what a lot of people say about her… I think people are just jealous.

Shannon Elizabeth and Amelia Kinkade seem to have very different takes on the character of Angela. Amelia was very over-the-top with her gothic wedding dress, while Shannon is a little more current with her Hot Topic-type leather outfit and knee-high boots. The little lines that I heard Shannon recite made her seem a little more bubbly than Amelia as well. After all, she is a party planner or something like that in the remake.

The night shoots were pretty grueling, but I would do it again in a heartbeat… The first night lasted from about 6 PM until 6 AM, and I’m not sure exactly how long the second night lasted since I had to leave early. I cannot wait for the movie to be released, and I hear rumors that it was picked up by a major distributor which might be why the release date was pushed back from October to February of 2010. Either way, Kevin S. Tenney already said they have an obligation to show the film on 1,500 screens in the US!

–Tony Brown
The Old Hockstatter Place