Carter Smith, a fashion photographer who burst onto the filmmaking scene with the 2006 short Bugcrush and 2008 Dreamworks feature The Ruins, has parlayed his professional success over the years into a number of properties on Maine's picturesque Bailey Island.
Last fall, as he was preparing to sell one of the properties, a red house with a boathouse near Mackerel Cove, he realized that the location was "too perfect" to not use for a horror film before he unloaded it. In the span of just six months, he and collaborator Johnny Berchtold put together the microbudget horror project Headlock and fast-tracked filming, which was completed earlier this spring.
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| Map courtesy: Visit Portland |
"It can [typically] take years and years to get indie films made," Smith told the Harpswell Anchor. "Both of us really love that scrappy, DIY feeling of indie filmmaking. We got to write to the space that we had available - and the limitations."
Smith and Berchtold previously worked together on the 2023 thriller The Passenger, with Smith directing and Berchtold starring. Once again, that's the recipe here, with the additional layer of the pair having collaborated for the script as well.
Berchtold stars as Cody, a troubled man who is hired to pack up a summer rental on Bailey Island. As the character's past is gradually revealed, things begin to spiral. Berchtold's other recent acting credits include the 2025 Hulu series Murdaugh: Death in the Family and the 2023 Netflix family film Dog Gone.
There is still one day of filming left to complete for Headlock in Los Angeles, where Smith works and lives part of the time along with New York City. The plan is to release the film in 2027 after, hopefully, a run at top film festivals.
[Carter Smith: Instagram]
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