The Gang From "Darkness Falls"

Anya, the occasionally clueless demon girl from "Buffy", stars in her first feature film as a gal running from the tooth fairy. Okay, it's not quite that lame. Emma Caulfield plays Caitlin, a small town (human) girl whose little bro is terrified of the dark...for good reason. Darkness Falls is the town where a charming childhood myth becomes fodder for night terrors and Emma has to join forces with her fear-tortured childhood sweetheart to face and conquer one ticked off, frightening killer created by Stan Winston Studios.

We chatted with the t.v.-turned-film star, learned what scares her, how she dealt with an eccentric young actor and we got the scoop from her leading man Chaney Kley and first time director Jonathan Liebesman about the making of their new spooky film.

TeenHollywood: What frightens each of you in real life? What is scary to you?

Jonathan: Opening weekends!

Chaney: Last night (the Premiere) is about as scary as it gets for me. The press line was very awkward. It's frightening that it might not be entertaining or well-received.

Emma: My fears are more abstract. They're large concepts. Like never having peace of mind or not being able to fulfill a spiritual quest or something. Sounds very New Agey and ridiculous, I guess. I don't know if it's a fear so much but I can't sleep without some sort of sound. I have to have some sort of white noise. If I am lucky enough to fall asleep without it, I'm usually up every hour with dreams of people chasing me. It's horrible.

TeenHollywood: Did anything about watching the premiere with an audience surprise you?

Jonathan: I thought there were a lot of laughs that I remember doing when we were on set but I hadn't heard (any reaction). In the editing room, nothing is funny or scary so that was a nice surprise when what was supposed to be funny was funny.

Chaney: I'd only seen a screening in a small room with executives. I was pleasantly surprised. They changed the beginning. I love to hear people laugh. Those were the best moments. If it got too absurd there was a great joke and I love those moments.

Emma: I like the cat. That was my favorite thing shooting it. We almost didn't get that shot. They were going to scrap it completely. I had to go back to Buffy. We had 20 minutes to shoot it. It was great. The cat jumped at the right time at the right spot. It scared me and I knew it was coming. That was a genuine wow. I didn't expect it to be that frightening.

TeenHollywood: There was a real cat but no creature on set. What did they tell you you were looking at?

Emma: I had nothing. I had a stick with some tape and Jonathan (director) prodding me with 'be scared'.

TeenHollywood: Aren't you used to that? (referring to Buffy)

Emma: Yeah, I guess so although we actually have creatures and people in costumes chasing us around on Buffy. I hadn't really worked with green screen much so it was interesting.

TeenHollywood: Were you surprised at the body count in the story?

Emma: There are some dead bodies, yeah but I don't see this as a slasher horror film, definitely not a Friday the 13th. You hear a lot and think you see a lot but you actually don't because it's so quickly cut and it's so dark.

TeenHollywood: Chaney, did you do any research on people who have mental problems for your role?

Chaney: No. I didn't need to. I definitely had my own sleep disorders growing up so I didn't. I definitely have my own problems and have for a long time (hummmm, we didn't ask).

TeenHollywood: What keeps you awake?

Emma: Don't ask.

Chaney: Just my own imagination. I'm very into the paranormal, reading about it. You read enough of those books and it fills you with enough speculation that you turn it into reality just for fun.

TeenHollywood: What made you want to do this project?

Chaney: Jonathan was a young director that, when I met with him, we just clicked right away. I talked to him about my life and things I believe in. I think he looked at me like 'I think this guy can do it'.

Emma: Same. I really wanted to work with Jonathan. I had seen his short film (Genesis and Catastrophe) and there wasn't a script at the time but based on that short I thought I'd even get the guy coffee. I just really want to work with him. It was amazing and visually arresting.

TeenHollywood: What was the subject matter of that film?

Jonathan: It was a Roald Dahl short story about the birth of Hitler but with some light comedy for the family (laughs).

TeenHollywood: How hard was it to shoot Darkness Falls with all the shadows and creative lighting?

Jonathan: Very difficult but we had Dan Laustsen who's a fantastic cinematographer and he had shot Brotherhood of the Wolf.

TeenHollywood: Were the shadows moving around CGI?

Jonathan: No, that was people walking in front of lights. There's not a lot of CG in this movie. The challenge was to really maximize production value with what we were given. The real thing is so much more believable because as soon as CG happens, you subconsciously know something is going on that can't be real and I think that's why directors are always going to push for the real thing if they can get it.

TeenHollywood: The sound in this film is very good..very creepy.

Jonathan: Before the studio gave us money for a great creature, we thought we were going to rely completely on sound design. We wanted to geographically show where she (the "monster") was through sound. The more you show of something the more you demystify it so the more we could keep her in the shadows or in the sound, the better. You do have to think of what your characters have to react to. The editor's biggest job was to get my voice out of the soundtrack because it's always 'look there. Chaney, come forward'. Because of my own inexperience it was probably that big D.W. Griffith style of direction (laughter).

TeenHollywood: Chaney, what was it like to actually work with the physical puppet of the monster?

Chaney: After the scene was done, it sort of set in that I was pretending to know what I was doing. All of a sudden I thought, 'why did I think I could do this'. I was trying to make (the thing choking me) real and there are metal things inside the hand like the Terminator hands. I pushed it into my neck as hard as I could for four days so much that I bruised my whole neck.

Jonathan: There were actual sparks from the fire we used and I felt that and they stung so I ran behind something.

Chaney: It was amazing. The (Stan Winston shop) guys are 'steering' the thing and they're in my line of site and it was fun to watch them get into it. The first time it was distracting but then I got into it and I respected them as performers. And my arm was on fire. That was great. It's not hard to act scared when your arm is actually on fire.

TeenHollywood: What was it like working with young first-timer Lee Cormie who played Emma's brother?

Emma: I had no experience with kids and I'm not sure I'm very good with them.

Jonathan: You were great. That kid was nutz! He'd come around the set and every time someone in the crew swore, which was all the time, he would charge 50 cents.

Chaney: He would come out in his robe like some kind of little Hugh Hefner dude. He'd be like...'that's a cigarette' and he'd charge you. I probably gave the guy like ten bucks.

Emma: My best Lee story.... He asked 'who is Emma?' And someone said 'she's a big t.v. star' and he's like 'no, she's not'. He decided to go online and put in my name and up came these pictures of me in my underwear from like FHM or something and he was horrified and thought I was a porn star. And for the entire shoot he kept saying to me, 'you're disgusting, you took dirty pictures'. I was like 'Thanks, Lee, I appreciate that'.

Jonathan: In about two years he'll look back and regret everything.

Chaney: He'll be looking for those pictures too. What was that website?

We asked Emma about her departure from "Buffy" and she let us know that she had asked creator Josh Whedon not to have her character die. She's not sure exactly how Anya will depart as yet but we're sure it will be with flair.