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November 18, 2024 Contact: Steve Lyons Director, Maine Film Office [email protected]; 207-624-9815 AUGUSTA, Maine — A new Maine-filmed drama proved to be a major draw at theaters across the state. "The Ghost Trap," based on the novel by Midcoast author K. Stephens, tells the story of a young lobsterman who is forced to choose between right and wrong after a tragic accident. Shot mostly in Maine, the movie was filmed over 16 days in the summer of 2022, and employed 21 Maine residents as cast and crew members. Director James Khanlarian credits the local community's support for the project's success. “Filming in Maine was a dream, simply because of the people. We came to Maine and found enthusiasm and friendliness. People wanted to help out any way they could and were excited to be a part of something. That sort of thing doesn’t happen in Los Angeles or New York or even Georgia,” said Khanlarian. “It’s really beautiful for people to come together to support a large artistic project like this, and yes we paid people, but you can’t pay people to have that positive attitude. The novelist, K. Stephens had lobstermen friends who wanted to help support the film like Cheri Savage, Ryan Post, and Dan Merriam. I keep saying we could never have made this movie without the support of Mainers. It’s true, and that’s why we gave them the dedication on the credit roll at the end of the film.” “The local community rallied around the film because the characters felt authentic and it shows off the beautiful scenery in Maine that can’t be duplicated. We’re confident that projects like this help set the stage for future films to be shot in the state,” stated co-producers Cheri Savage and Ryan Post. The film has seen strong attendance, particularly at The Strand Theater in Rockland and Belfast's Colonial Theatre, where nearly 100 viewers attended each of the first three screenings. “Theatre management has been absolutely floored by our patrons' consistent attendance for “tThe Ghost Trap” at the Colonial,” said Kyle Walton, executive director of the Colonial Theatre. “To date, moviegoers have come in droves–and from as far as York County–to downtown Belfast so they could see the film!” Maine Film Office Director Steve Lyons noted the production's impact: "Seeing Maine on the big screen instills a sense of pride, particularly because lobstering is such an important part of our state's identity. In addition to featuring Maine’s scenic beauty, the production spent more than $700,000 in the state, benefiting our local economy." The film features Zak Steiner ("White Men Can't Jump," "Euphoria"), Greer Grammer ("Awkward," "Deadly Illusions"), Sarah Catherine Hook ("First Kill," "The White Lotus"), and Steven Ogg ("The Walking Dead," "Westworld"). "The Ghost Trap" has played to sold-out festival audiences at the Maine International Film Festival, Vacationland, and Maine Outdoor Film Festival, where it was an official 2024 selection. The film is now available through streaming services and to rent or own on all digital platforms and DVD. Click here to view the trailer.
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 Photo / Courtesy, Kyle Walton "The Ghost Trap" is doing well with audiences at smaller cinemas in Maine such as the Colonial in Belfast, shown here. By Renee Cordes While it's a turbulent time for small cinemas, some Maine venues are getting an unexpected off-season boost from screenings of a new, independent feature film set on the midcoast and shot at several locations in the state. “The Ghost Trap" is a drama based the eponymous novel by K. Stephens, about a young lobsterman forced to choose between right and wrong when his girlfriend suffers a traumatic head injury and a rival lobstering family sabotages his gear. The film, released Nov. 1 on streaming platforms and select theaters, is doing well in small cinemas across the state where the story takes place. “Early November, before Thanksgiving weekend, is always a deficit month to operate a movie theater,” Kyle Walton, executive director of the Hawthorne Theatre and Arts Collaborative, told Mainebiz. The nonprofit was formed in 2023 to rescue Belfast's Colonial Theatre, which dates back to 1912 and was forced to go dark in September 2022 due to financial difficulties. It reopened in November 2023. While the Colonial is still operating in the red, Walton is encouraged by the fact that after nine shows there, 450 cinephiles had come to see "The Ghost Trap." “'The Ghost Trap' has been a lone bright spot on the balance sheet,” Walton said. "There have been operating days where it accounted for 80% to 90% of daily box office receipts.” The movie made its New England premiere in July at the Maine International Film Festival in Waterville, and was the opening-night show of the inaugural Vacationland Film Festival, in August at Biddeford's City Theater. The film later returned to Waterville's Maine Film Center, which is housed inside the Paul J. Schupf Art Center. Mike Perreault, executive director of the center, told Mainebiz about screening "The Ghost Trap" — via email, as he was returning to Maine from a film festival in Rwanda. “It was a thrilling experience to screen ‘The Ghost Trap’ as the centerpiece film during the 27th Maine International Film Festival, and audiences returned to see it again at the Maine Film Center in October, ahead of its regular run release, with the filmmakers in attendance for a discussion,” Perreault said. “We're honored to showcase filmmaking that's produced in Maine, especially when the communities and neighbors that support these projects can proudly see themselves on the big screen." Steve Lyons, director of the Maine Film Office, sees the film as a success on multiple fronts. "The film's reception indicates that seeing Maine on the big screen instills a sense of pride, particularly because lobstering is such an important part of the state's identity," he told Mainebiz. "Strong box office sales for films like 'The Ghost Trap' are an encouraging sign for film production in Maine, and great news for the theaters that screen them.” 'Not a Marvel film' James Khanlarian, the film’s director, told Mainebiz that the production crew had a good experience filming in Maine. "We were very fortunate to befriend and get the support of the local lobstermen early on, and we filmed along the Penobscot Bay from Port Clyde to Northport," he told Mainebiz. "It makes a big difference when you show people that you're here to tell a meaningful story instead of exploiting them, so we had a ton of working lobstermen take time off and donate their boats ... The best way to pay them back is to show their profession and their way of life in an accurate and honorable fashion. By the reactions, I think we've achieved that." He's equally pleased at the support from small Maine cinemas screening the film. “It would be wonderful for the film to play in a thousand theaters across the country, but we’re not a Marvel film. We’re not even a studio film,” he said. “So it’s really wonderful to get support from theaters like the Colonial in Belfast, the Strand in Rockland and others," he said. “It’s a film about real people in real situations, and so these intimate theaters are a better fit for us. We’d love for the film to run yearly during lobster season, but there are hurdles.” The support is especially welcome given that the independent filmmakers didn’t have a distribution deal in place beforehand, as a bigger production would have. “We raised the money from private investors and made the movie and had to show distributors that it was a good film,” Khanlarian said. His team is still looking for a good international distribution deal, and he said he's confident of landing one soon. While "The Ghost Trap" was the first film Khanlarian has shot in Maine, he said, “I can’t wait to do more.” And in Belfast, the Colonial hopes to screen more films with a Maine connection or identity, according to Walton. "As independent movie theaters continue to gravitate toward independent or enterprise content," he said, "the production of commercial-level films that reflect the locale they were shot in is extremely vital to theatrical exhibition within the state of Maine." K. Stephens on bringing her new Midcoast movie, 'The Ghost Trap,' to the Colonial Theatre as told to Kyle Laurita, reporter for Midcoast Villager  If you have a subscription to Midcoast Villager, you can read it online here or pick up a physical copy of the newspaper this week, starting November 7.
 Colonial Theatre screening. (l to r) Actor Paul Bellefeuille, author K. Stephens, co-producers and lobstermen, Cheri Savage, Ryan Post, and actor Xander Berkeley. Hello friends! Now, that we've gotten through the fall flurry surrounding the release of the movie, I'm putting more focus on the book and its audience this winter. To any bookstore or library who would like to have a community virtual gathering around the discussion of The Ghost Trap, I'm happy to host a free Zoom chat this winter and spring. I just did a Zoom chat with the Maine 2020 Reading Connection book club and it was a fun, entertaining evening . Here's what they had to say: "You wowed our mighty band of readers. You now hold the record for captivating us for the longest Zoom meeting—-we went the full 90 minutes! Everyone was moved by The Ghost Trap. And we all learned something that Monday night. You achieved your goal! The story of Jamie, Anja, and Happy will stay with us. Thank you, K, for joining us." Topics for discussion:
Depending on the time/date, there is a possibility of getting some of the actors, producers, and lobstermen on the Zoom chat as well, giving you the full rounded picture. Contact me at [email protected] and we can set something up! By Dennis Perkins, Portland Press Herald  Zak Steiner as lobsterman Jamie in “The Ghost Trap.” Photos courtesy of Khanlarian Entertainment Mainers may already be familiar with the story of “The Ghost Trap,” Maine novelist K. Stephens’ 2009 tale of love, loss and danger among Maine’s lobstermen. A young, third-generation lobsterman named Jamie finds his already shaky personal and professional life upended by a near-tragedy that begins to feel more and more like an actual tragedy with each passing year. Already fighting with his stern father and the encroachment of environmental regulations that have turned each day’s catch into a high-stakes gamble, Jamie’s one happiness is tossed overboard along with his beloved girlfriend, Anja, on a seemingly ordinary day on the Maine ocean. What follows is part wrenching drama, as Jamie attempts to care for the now-disabled Anja while succumbing to the temptation represented by a free-spirited sailor named Happy who sails tourists back and forth from the Florida Keys. A thriller element creeps in as well, when Jamie finds his traps cut and himself embroiled in a simmering, violent feud among the town’s lobstermen, a rival lobstering family of roughnecks, and a from-away rich fisherman with plans to buy out everyone’s livelihood. Now a feature film written and directed by James Khanlarian, the film version of “The Ghost Trap” hits video on demand and DVD on Friday, with the film getting one of its few big-screen premieres at Belfast’s Colonial Theatre. It’s a fitting homecoming for the film, which was shot in Maine and California, with a focus on the Midcoast. Here are five reasons it’s worth seeing. “The Ghost Trap” does Maine justice. As someone who’s never set foot on a lobster boat and who has only lived in Maine for a measly 37 years or so, I can’t speak to how accurately Khanlarian and company get the details of Maine lobstering. But everything just feels right, as star Zak Steiner, all lanky muscle and scruffy beard, hauls his traps with deft weariness, and the interactions all around the Maine fishing village setting come off as lived-in and authentic. The film credits the Maine lobstermen who loaned out their actual boats (and presumably kept the production honest), and while there are the requisite sequences set at a picturesque lighthouse and the Maine Lobster Festival in Rockland, “The Ghost Trap” (unlike another recent Maine-adjacent movie) never seems like a tourist here itself. “Hey, it’s that guy/gal!” The film is dotted with very good actors you probably recognize but maybe aren’t sure from where. Star Steiner did six episodes of “Euphoria” and was in the unnecessary “White Men Can’t Jump” remake. Greer Grammer (apart from being Kelsey’s daughter) was the star of “Awkward” and has been in the biz since childhood. As Jamie’s callous father, Stephen Ogg, with his somehow threatening eyebrows, will be familiar as a bad guy in everything from “Better Call Saul” to “The Walking Dead” to TV’s “Snowpiercer.” (Gamers will likely recognize his voice, since he played fan favorite “Grand Theft Auto V” character Trevor.) You likely won’t recognize “The Fall Guy” 1980s series star Heather Thomas as the tough old broad running both the town’s saloon and general store for how naturally she fits right in. There’s even one of “The Lost Boys,” as Billy Wirth shows up as the menacing patriarch of Jamie’s rival Fogerty family in a pivotal scene. And now Maine-based character actors Whip Hubley (“Top Gun”) and Xander Berkeley (everything, including “Terminator 2,” the original “Candyman” and “Apollo 13”) fill out the cast with their in-demand talents. The Maine accent report. The Maine accent presents a degree of difficulty for actors that generally ensnares even the best from-away thespians. With Hollywood rushing to adapt the next Stephen King story so regularly, that means Mainers are often taken out of things with each effortful “ayuh.” “The Ghost Trap” is largely successful, thankfully, if not in capturing the Maine way of talking 100% correctly, at least allowing its Mainers to sound like they’re from this planet. Steiner carries much of the load as Jamie, and the star couches the quiet fisherman’s increasingly coiled and explosive pain in a confidently believable cadence. The cast of pros all adopt a strategy of not doing too much, a trap that so many non-Mainers fall into when either not doing their research, or maybe doing too much by watching other bad Maine accents in other media. Like the film’s fishing town setting, I never got distracted by the artifice, which is a pretty impressive achievement, considering the way these “just visiting” Maine productions go. The movie’s positive effects on the Maine film scene are everywhere in the credits. As long as I’ve been writing about movies in Maine, I’ve banged the drum about how attracting movie and TV production would only benefit Maine’s hard-working film professionals. And scanning the credits for both in-front-of- (actor Thomas Ian Campbell) and behind-the-scenes (Mazie Bartels-Biswell, Rebecca Myshrall, Karlina Lyons, Kyle Walton) Maine talent is an added delight. Seriously, Maine legislators, we need to pass tax incentives for film and TV production in the state. Like, yesterday. “The Ghost Trap” is just a good film. My quibbles are relatively minor. (But quibbling being my business, here goes.) Some of the fishermen’s griping about governmental regulation feels perfunctory for a story like this, at several points appearing to come from offscreen as if producers forgot to assign the thankless lines to particular actors. A climactic visitation (?) feels as hokey as it is out of place in such a down-to-the-water tale. And the film’s quest for a villain settles on some lazy stereotyping in lieu of the more grounded conflicts its characters act out as just part of their daily lives. Sarah Catherine Hook’s Happy never quite gels as anything but a conception of the carefree life Jamie longs for away from his generational existence working the lines and his deeply conflicted loyalty to the struggling Anja. (Hook is fine, but she’s essentially the template for what my former A.V. Club colleague Nathan Rabin coined as the “manic pixie dream girl” stereotype.) And the film’s ending, while studiously avoiding easy answers, feels both rushed and perhaps too ambiguously dreamy for its own good. All that said, “The Ghost Trap” is a creditably compelling drama/crime story that just so happens to be set in a specific Maine community. It’s well drawn, responsibly crafted and brimming with very good actors all filling out the plot’s twists with professionalism and slow-burn intensity. Steiner is especially good, and Grammer, tasked with portraying a specific and challenging form of disability for much of the film, succeeds in making the very changed Anja as tragic as she is deeply human. “The Ghost Trap” screens at Belfast’s Colonial Theater Friday through Sunday (where K. Stephens and several crew members will be in attendance). Also, look for it on streaming and video-on-demand platforms starting Friday. An additional date has been added to the lineup. Nickelodeon Cinema in Portland is screening The Ghost Trap on November 6 at 7 p.m.  Freestyle Digital Media has officially set The Ghost Trap. Collider can exclusively announce that the new thriller by first-time feature director James Khanlarian based on the novel of the same name by K. Stephens will be released in North America on November 1 on DVD as well as digital HD, cable, and satellite platforms. A limited theatrical rollout will also begin on the same day, giving viewers in select locations a chance to see the Maine lobstering drama on the big screen. Read more from Collider
 We've got big news coming up!
But first--put these upcoming Maine dates on your calendars: October 18 If you're in Maine, you can see The Ghost Trap movie starting October 18 at the Maine Film Center in Waterville, where our film debuted as Maine International Film Festival's Centerpiece Film. Cast, crew, and author K. Stephens will be in attendance at the 6:50 p.m. screening with a Q&A session afterward , and the show will run for three weeks in multiple time slots in their state-of-the-art theater. Buy tickets October 24 If you're in the Waterville area, be sure to join K. Stephens the following week on Thursday, October 24 at Silver Street Tavern in Waterville for a "Books & Brews" Happy Hour. Grab a drink and a bite for an informal happy hour meet-and-greet from 4-6 p.m. and chat about the movie and Maine's film industry. Oliver & Friends bookshop is collaborating and will be selling autographed copies of the new film cover. Free to the public November 1-3 Join K. Stephens, cast, and crew for their official Midcoast Maine debut at The Colonial Theater in Belfast for a November 3 mid-afternoon matinee from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. This Maine novel-turned-movie was set and shot in the Midcoast, so this will be a well-attended event, followed by a Q&A and an after-party in town. If you can't make it at that time, consider going to the Friday or Saturday evening screenings or the Sunday evening screening. Buy tickets We are very excited to share these upcoming events with you. We still have a major rollout of news to share, along with more screenings and author events, so stay tuned! Winner of three film festival awards, The Ghost Trap, represented by Freestyle Digital Media, is on its way to premiere nationally in November, 2024.  I've been working on getting autographed copies of the novel into gift stores this summer and fall. For now, if you want a signed copy of the ONLY collector's original covers left-which have sold out very fast this summer, go to these establishments. The Lobster Pound Gift Shop - Lincolnville H&H Mercantile - Searsport Bonnie's Place - Rockport Gift Shops with the new film cover (autographed copies) Happy Clam- Wells, ME Holiday Inn By The Bay - Portland Fireside Inn & Suites - Portland Fireside Inn & Suites - Belfast More gift stores will be added in the coming months. We're actively looking for more gift shops who want to carry signed copies so contact us if you are interested!  The 24th annual Valley Film Festival screened more than 70 films and hosted professional development panels for eight days this month. Juried Ten Degrees Hotter and audience awards were announced at a ceremony hosted at Hennessey Studios in North Hollywood’s Arts District. The district and San Fernando Valley are part of Los Angeles.
The Ten Degrees Hotter awards went to “The Ghost Trap” for best U.S. narrative feature, “Ciurè” for best international narrative feature and “American Pot Story: Oaksterdam” for best documentary feature. Short film honors from the festival went to “Broad Daylight” for best narrative short and “Speaking with the Ancestors” for best documentary short, with an honorable mention for the documentary “An Unlikely Mermaid.” In summers, high temperatures in the daytime are around 10 degrees warmer than the rest of Los Angeles’ west side, according to Ivo Welch. Full story  The 2nd annual Vermont Film Festival, held from Thursday, July 25 to Sunday, July 28, was filled with three days of films. The festivities included comedic shorts, a lively DJ Dave Dance Party, an industry event, and the festival concluded with a wrap-up party on Sunday night.
Winners Best Short Comedy “Viva Extra” — Written and Directed by Kevin Samar Best Short Drama “10 Minutes to Showtime” — Written and Directed by Logan Keefe Best Thriller “Grafton” — Directed by Bryan Santiago Best Documentary “Bearing Witness: A Name And A Voice” — Directed by Dina Jane Rudick Best Feature Comedy “Mother Father Sister Brother Frank” — Written and Directed by Caden Douglas Best Feature Drama “The Ghost Trap” — Directed by James Khanlarian Most Vermont “Connected” — Directed by Chad Ervin Full story |
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