Weekend at haunted Hinsdale House: the shoot wraps

September 2, 9:58 PMParanormal News ExaminerRoger Marsh

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The haunted Hinsdale House, Hinsdale, New York.

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Tremont Avenue Productions is off the road now – just back from raw shooting at two haunted sites in New York and Pennsylvania. Two video series are upcoming later this year – but here’s an overview of what took place.

Location One: Hinsdale, New York. Roger Marsh, Philip Haddad, Greg Garland, and Matthew Beucker drove into Hinsdale, from southwestern, Pennsylvania. Shawn Galligan drove in from northeastern Ohio. Michael Rambacker met us at our Olean motel and we all drove to Cuba, New York, for dinner before our first visit to the haunted location.

Rain was threatening and we were a bit worried about outside shots we wanted to capture and outdoor interviews. Knowing the properties’ background, we decided to stop along a bridge before climbing to the home’s location and share a group prayer. Michael led the prayer.

Our first shoot that Friday night was along a public roadway near the home site at the top of the mountain where I had experienced the case of the disappearing car back in 1974. Two local men showed up on time with vintage 1968 cars and our crew stepped into action. We had planned just three shots, but Matt envisioned a fourth and we added it.

And then the first anomaly of the weekend happened. I can’t say exactly what I saw – but twice during the shoot set-up, something low and black flew overhead. My only description was that it looked like a 2’ by 4’ piece of carpet rolling quickly overhead. In the darkness standing along the roadway, it moved across the sky, but I could not see where it ended up – just a piece of its travel as it shot across overhead. Five minutes later I saw it again.

Photo: Hinsdale House homeowners Flo and Joe.

The Hinsdale House – locally known as the Spook House – owns up to its rural location on more than seven beautiful acres with a pond with no neighbors in sight. The once white frame home was painted a gold color – faded and chipped long ago – and little maintenance has added to its now deteriorated condition. We are introduced to its owners of 20 years – Flo and Joe – a couple in their mid-eighties. Flo apologies for the lack of house cleaning, but Michael points out that a team of volunteers had been there a day or so before and made the place respectable. Joe seems not to worry, opens a newspaper, and relaxes.

This was our walk-through night. The crew went into action – climbing into every nook and cranny and walking much of the grounds. The home’s first floor consists of a large eat-in kitchen that allows entry into a small bedroom and a full bathroom.

Photo: Crew members, from left, Matthew Beucker, Greg Garland, Shawn Galligan.

Flo warns there is a hole in the bathroom floor that she’s covered up with a rug – so be careful in there. From the kitchen you can move into a living room, and an area that had once been a small bedroom – but with the wall removed – becomes an extension of the living room. There is also a door that opens up into a screened in front porch. The staircase to the second floor is in the kitchen. Upstairs, some former homeowners might have claimed three bedrooms, but It actually seems like one large bedroom and two walk-in closets.

The crew broke up into two groups. One went off to walk around the large pond and I attempted to join up with them in the dark sometime later. I remember asking my guide exactly where the pond was, and they pointed off into what I thought was the distance. I was watching my steps along a grassy path with very little light, looking for the other crew members. Finally I stopped as it seemed they were approaching.

Michael walked up to me and asked that I be careful. He pointed to my right foot. I looked down and realized I was literally standing in the dark two inches from the edge of this murky looking pond – one step and I would have been swimming.

Photo: Front view of the Hinsdale House.

After several hundred photos were taken and video was shot, we headed back to the Olean motel, satisfied with our first night.

Saturday would be a long day. We arrived at 10 a.m. to set up Base Camp – an area where equipment would be stored and actors and crew would be checked in and dished out as needed throughout the day. By 11 a.m., we had hoped to begin a series of outdoor interview shoots, but the weather was not in our favor – and frequent downpours slowed us down or sent our cameras indoors. I finally made the call that all interviews were indoors and we got it done.

By 1 p.m., locals were arriving for the Spirit Walk scene. We had let the media know that we were looking for more than 100 extras for a scene where we wanted to depict people from . Sixty-one people and a horse showed up. Yes – a horse. We were just as surprised.

Unfortunately as the Extras stood in line – costumes and all – while we set up the shot, it started to rain. But the rain ended just as we moved everyone into position. The idea was to move the group onto the trail area that ran around the pond – just out of sight of the camera – and on “action,” they would slowly walk into a wide grassy area alongside the house – as though they were wandering spirits.

Photo: Director Roger Marsh (far right) during shooting of a second floor scene.

Having walked that trail earlier in the day, I knew that about a quarter of the way around the pond, there was an unavoidable mud pit that you had to troop through. I was aware of that area, and assumed that those giving directions to the Extras would stop them at that point – as there was plenty of room by then to keep the out of sight.

Matt and I were behind Camera 1, having scoped out the shot. Shawn was directing the group, and a production assistant was leading them. I remember looking up at one point once Matt and I were satisfied with the shot and realizing that this group of Extras – having stood in the rain just minutes earlier, was about half way around the pond. We realized that this group had obviously had to walk through that mud pit, and would obviously, have to come back through it again on “action.”

We corrected that for the second, third, and fourth take of the same shot. The only other problem was that the entire group, horse and all, had to move through a rather narrow passage in the back yard during the third and fourth take, which took them right by Camera 1.

Photo: Assistant Director Matthew Beucker (left) framing actors for a shot on the second floor.

On that third take, the horse turned sideways, swung around, and just about took Matt and Camera 1 down. We joked that , observing what was about to happen, I could save either Matt or Camera 1 – and well, I didn’t have to make that call, but I assured Matt it would have been him.

The scene basically went off without a hitch – and we decided to keep everyone in the back yard – while our Camera 1 moved from person to person to interview them. The cameraman from the NBC affiliate in Buffalo who came out to cover our shoot – Michael Kintner – also followed along and shot the crowd afterwards – and completed an interview with myself.

Michael was awesome from the moment we met him. He had been involved with a pre-interview with the site homeowners two days earlier – so he knew the lay of the land and what he was getting himself into. Sensing that it might be a hot day and that our crew would be shooting in and around the house – he brought in this huge motor home and parked it on the driveway so that the elderly couple had the comforts of home while their property was being invaded.

And that wasn’t all this guy did.

Realizing that this couple never had a proper driveway – a dirt pathway with ruts – he showed up early the next morning with a dump truck full of gravel and a backhoe and built a driveway for them. Really – Michael you’re the best. They loved it.

Photo: Crew members Philip Haddad, left, and Matthew Beucker.

Saturday continued as 10 regional actors arrived for the six exorcism re-creation scenes. We completed two scenes on the tight second floor, a third scene in the kitchen area – and with three scenes to be shot in the living room – we made the decision to shoot the actual exorcism prayer as the final scene of the night.

Roughly about 11:15 p.m. we had actors and crew in place for this final scene. We had hoped to wrap by midnight and I was moving through this as fast as I could get it to happen. One of the stories we had heard from 1974 was that during this exorcism prayer – the house shook. Well, we were all shocked – cast and crew – when the house actually shook about half way through this scene.

I recall feeling the house shake – like the “shock” moved from the roof to the foundation – lasting about two beats. Everyone stopped. I remember looking up in a “did that just happen” motion. We all looked at each other. Some people had odd facial expressions. Some were smiling. Few words were said. We moved on and finished on time – and wrapped for the night.

On Sunday we shot some footage of the crew exploring the property. We did more interviews with Michael. We went to several additional and nearby sites that we wanted to cover. We had expected to conduct a few interviews with witnesses – but when they did not show up on time – we made the painful decision to wrap a couple of hours early and head on to our next destination – the Knickerbocker hotel in Linesville, Pennsylvania.

Check back soon for a crew round-up on the Knickerbocker and our awesome experience there. We expect to be in post production with both projects about October and hope to have these up and running by the end of the year.