Curfews were extended, parents served as the limousine service and Four Star Pizza was the caterer for hundreds of teenagers who spent months in the depths of Hungry Bay’s mangroves filming a horror movie.

Written and directed by Nicholas Rinehimer, a 16-year-old Saltus student, it took 18 months and hundreds of volunteer actors from schools around the Island, to complete the 55-minute flick.

Nicholas’ first endeavour in the film world was premiered on Friday the 13th, seven months later than planned, but delays and unforseen obstacles were part of the process.

“I had most of the film edited by the end of last summer. December 21 was supposed to be the premiere date,” he said. “The edited version was erased, though, when my equipment froze.

“It wasn’t finished until June this year so we decided to open it on Friday the 13th.”

On top of problems with the editing, three members of the cast were unceremoniously dumped into January water along with a microphone, digital camera and an iPod after the boat they used to go to the mangroves tipped.

Only the microphone broke but when the cast arrived in the Hungry Bay’s mangroves, they found it provided not only the eerie setting Nicholas needed for his vision, but also massive blue crabs, mosquitoes, and garfish the cast feared would spear them as well cockroaches.

Regardless of these trials, every weekend from January until June last year, students would inundate the mangroves to shoot from 6 to 11 p.m. or 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Anna Clark, who played the main character Lucy, said all the difficulties were worth it. “It was so much fun. Stressful but fun.”

While her co-star, Jeryca Dillas, who played Sarah, one of Lucy’s friends, said they had all become concerned about the bizarre occurrences.

“Every night we were out there the moon was red. We were all convinced something strange was going to happen and one night some of the crew even ran off,” she said.

In the movie, Lucy goes searching for her missing cousin, Katy, after the Police fail to find her cousin. Lucy drags her friends along for the adventure but while their days are humorous, their night scenes are chilling. Comments after the premiere compared ‘Crossed Paths’ to the ‘Blair Witch Project’, a movie where three filmmakers became stranded in the woods of Maryland. Not a surprise, then, to find out one of Nicholas’ favourite movies is the ‘Blair Witch Project’. “I had to work with what I had available and comedy takes a lot of locations and the actors would be hard to get from one place to the next,” he added.

“Horror seemed like the most interesting and the ‘Blair Witch Project’ was in some way the basis.” His interest was honed last year while working with Vicki Zabriskie and her husband Christian on their short films for the Bermuda International Film Festival. Supporting his efforts were also the drama departments of Bermuda High School, Mount Saint Agnes, Warwick Academy and Saltus Senior and Junior schools. Most of the cast and crew were between the ages of 14 and 15. Even his sister, 13-year-old Jillian Robinson, who plays both a journalist in the film (Linda Robinson), and the Assistant Director got involved.

“My brother just asked because I was there. It was good working with him though,” she said. Positive words from a sister and glowing reviews from his cast, Nicholas is well on his way to learning the diplomacy needed for directors.

Good thing, because he’s already begun his second film. “After all I said about comedies, my next script is one. I’m nearly done with it and I should start filming this October,” he added.

For more information about Nicholas and his films visit: www.nor-films.com.