Director Andy Fickman Recalls the Supernatural Experiences That Inspired ‘Don’t Turn Out the Lights’

Everyone has an “Andy Fickman” in their life. Someone who you don’t know personally, but know of them because you have people in common and they keep talking about how great and talented this guy is and how much they love working with him and keep going back to do so.

My “Andy Fickman” is, in fact, Andy Fickman himself. The veteran director of films like Race to Witch Mountain and Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2, and of the terrific stage show, Heathers: The Musical, and I have a couple of people in common. One of whom, the veteran producer J. Todd Harris, is working with Fickman again on the comedic play Parents in Chains, which will have a star-studded two-night run of performances in Los Angeles on September 30 and October 1.

Fickman also just wrote and directed the indie horror flick Don’t Turn Out the Lights, which features a completely unknown cast and tells the story of a group of friends on a road trip that takes a horrifying turn. The movie is a passion project for Fickman, who ventures into horror after a career mostly spent in comedy. It hits VOD and digital on September 6. He took a break from traveling in Minnesota to chat with us.

This horror flick feels like a different type of film for you. Where did the idea come from?

Well, this has been one of the only projects I’ve ever done that has probably been with me for most of my life. When I was in high school in Houston, there was an old, shuttered, rusty cemetery where you were supposed to get in the car and scare each other there. One time, my best friend and our girlfriends at the time, we all drove there, threw a jacket over the barbed wire and went in. It’s pitch black, there’s all these old, old graves, 100, 150 years old. We were there in the pitch black, telling ghost stories and we heard a noise.

This feels like it’s something from your movie.

We heard something! It started coming at us, and it felt like footsteps. It felt human and it was racing. There were no lights, no security, no police and we just hightailed it. We got the girls over, my friend got over and then I went over and I shredded my hand on the fence. I still have the scar. For years we would talk about what it was, and we all had a very different opinion about what happened that night, and that stuck with me.

Photo via Film Mode Entertainment.

How did that then manifest into this movie?

Well, I was researching a movie, and I was on the Queen Mary on a private tour with a handful of very strong producers. We were in the engine room, an area that was notoriously haunted. They were talking, and a really large pulley made out of iron dropped from the ceiling and just went right by my arm. Had I been a couple of inches over, I’d be dead.

The tour guide looked panicked, and was like, “Okay, we should just move on.” When we got in the car from Long Beach back to Beverly Hills, everyone had a different opinion.

You start with that notion of what’s the fact? What could it be? And what should it be? And are you crazy when you think, well, could it have been a ghost? What was in that cemetery?

I wanted to tell a story where we lay every possible solution out. Is it assholes you meet who are racist Nazis? Is it a bunch of locals playing a prank on you? Is it something internal? Is it something we can’t explain? That’s really what drove me, was wanting to take seven great, brand new actors and go to upstate New York and the Hudson Valley, lock ourselves away in the middle of the night and see what could come out of it.

I’m glad you mentioned the seven actors because I was fascinated by them. What was behind the decision to go with all the unknowns?

We had an amazing casting director, Russell Boast, and I have to say, my producing partners took a swing because every project I have done has been star-driven, but I didn’t want to cast anyone who anybody knew, because I love the notion of discovery.

I always loved the original Alien, we didn’t know who Sigourney Weaver was. We knew Tom Skerritt. We knew other people. Our feelings were that Tom Skerritt is the hero. Once you take those names away, then you’re kind of left with Ripley, and you’re growing with her.

I think from the very beginning, I said, “I don’t want names, I just want great actors.”

Photo via Film Mode Entertainment.

What was the process of putting them together?

Everything was online. We were coming through COVID-19, doing auditions online, and then we did the final seven mix and match. We called them “The Magnificent Seven.” None of them knew each other. We got to Kingston, New York, and took over the Best Western Plus. The Plus is what makes it luxurious,

Sure. I’ve been to them.

Right? We just started being together and talking, and all of them shared those ancestral, “Well, my grandmother told me this once,” or, “my aunt told me this once,” and that led to, “Okay, we have the right team.”

Before I ask about what came out of those rehearsals. One of your actresses is named Crystal Lake Evans. Which has to be the best name for a horror movie actress ever.

(Laughs) First of all, it was just Crystal Evans. Then, when I saw finally her resume, and she was down to the very end, I told all the producers, “Who doesn’t cast Crystal Lake in a horror film?” I asked her, this has to be some family name, right? She’s like, “Nope, you know exactly what it is.” I said, that is my childhood, and I want Crystal Lake in our movie.

I would think, with a name like that, you don’t care if she can act or not, you need to cast her.

That is 100% accurate.

Photo via Film Mode Entertainment.

How did the script change when you got those seven together? Did you find that a lot of organic stuff came out of that?

I think you write with an idea in your head of what those prototypes are, and then you get real people and the prototypes change overnight. We rehearsed and hung out and played games, and we watched a classic horror film every night. We just got to know each other and the friendship became real, and then it was each of them finding their voice.

They just brought so much enthusiasm to it. They would also ask to tell us what’s going on in this story. I just said it’s up to you, the individual experiencing it. That helped because when we were filming in those woods late at night, they would all kind of cling to each other.

I’m guessing that will lead to a lot of bonding among the cast.

Yeah! One thing that I loved more than anything was, that we’re a teeny, tiny indie. When a character was no longer a part of the production, they could go home; but they all stayed on their own, just to support each other. They were at video village, just helping each other out, which I just thought was beautiful.

You’ve been doing this a long time. These are all unknowns at the start of their careers. I’m curious if you offered any wisdom or guidance for them moving forward, and what that looked like.

I did this movie, She’s the Man, and they were all obsessed with it, so that helped. We would talk about how to be a good steward on set. How do you work together?

I always tell people that if I’m doing a big movie and I can get an entire restaurant with 500 extras, that’s what I’m counting on. If I do television, I’m down to, like, 100 extras. [When] you do theater, you’re like, “I can have four chairs and a table, but my job is how to make it work.”

I think that was the approach with them. I can’t wait to watch their careers soar. Some are already off and running, and I can’t wait to work with them as a group and individually again, because I genuinely loved, loved, loved this process so much.

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