Shown is the production crew on the set of the independent horror movie “Marrow,” starring Jessica Dawn Willis and Michael Ironside and directed by Mitch McLeod. The film crew and actors were in Hochatown for 11 days filming recently. (Contributed photo.)
by Tawsha Brinkley-Davenport
Lights, camera, action. Hochatown became a movie set for 11 days recently. A movie production company descended upon the area with their actors and crew for their upcoming film Marrow set in the 2000s.
Marrow is based on the true accounts of a stalking incident in 2000 in a small town in Texas.
The director, Mitch McLeod, uncovers this true-life event with his movie camera and explores the obsession America has grown to have with true crime podcasts. The movie has been described as a “unique true crime inspired horror movie.”
“Sometimes it has become an unsettling fascination with serial killers and true crime podcasts. I’ve never seen the dark side of these explored in film from both sides of the lens of the audience and those telling those stories. That is what I want to learn with this film, an attempt to understand these dark fascinations held by so many,” said McLeod.
The movie stars Jessica Dawn Willis and Michael Ironside.
Willis is known for her work, including The Woman Under the Stage, (for which she won an award) A Haunting in Texas and Trunkfish. She plays Jamie Foster, a former vlogger who attempts to revitalize her career by inviting her stalker onto the show, knowing he may be the serial killer responsible for murdering a string of influencers.
Ironside is a Canadian actor that has been in 270 film and television movies. He is known for playing villains and antiheroes. He has appeared in Scanners, Spacehunter, Top Gun, Total Recall, Starship Troopers, Splinter Cell, the cult favorite “V :The Final Battle. He even had a brief stint on NBC’s ER.
Ironside will portray a disgraced former psychiatrist who survived a mysterious encounter with Jamie’s stalker in the past.
The movie is an independent movie directed, co-written and produced by McLeod, who is a Dallas- based director and writer. McLeod’s previous work as a director has included 2019’s Silhouette, The Women Under the Stage, which in he also partnered with Willis and Cortez on as well.
McLeod’s production company Absentia Pictures are the producers of the movie. Absentia Pictures is a production company based in Dallas. One of their short films, The Woman Under the Stage, won three awards and was 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
The Marrow script was co-written with McLeod, by award winning horror novelist and film scholar Preston Fassel. Some of his titles include Our Lady of Inferno, Landis, and the Story of the Man on 42nd Street.
The film stars in addition to Ironside and Willis, Danielle Harris known for the Halloween franchise as the “scream queen,” as she has been featured in six Halloween movies; and stage stars Ashley Spicer and Phil Harrison.
In supporting roles are Matthew Tompkins (McCleod previously worked with him on Woman Under the Stage) Abby Joy, and Natali Jones, Kristin Payne, Vanessa Sun, Rachel Rice and Mare Rouse.
The executive producer for Marrow is Carlos Cortez. Cortez also appears as a supporting actor in film. In addition to McLeod and Cortez as producers, Matthew Tompkins and Jon Keeyes will produce as well.
Of course, with so many people on a movie set they are bound to get hungry. The team called Hochatown Catering Company to the rescue.
“We catered breakfasts and lunches for the movie crew from July 14 to July 25. This was a totally new experience for us. We’ve never catered for a professional film crew, but we were thrilled to be part of the process. And Michael got to cook for one of his childhood heroes, Michael Ironside, and beautiful scream queen, Danielle Harris,” said Kasey Mansfield, Hochatown Catering Company owner.
“I run the social side of our business. My husband Michael is a Culinary Institute America- trained chef and USMC combat veteran. We started our catering business in New Braunfels in 2023 but moved to Hochatown and rebranded it as it is today in April of this year. We bought our first home, brought our three kids here. We are living the dream life in the trees. It has been an experience with the film crew,” said Kasey Mansfield.
“The food was absolutely phenomenal through and through and every moment of their presence (Michael and Kasey Mansfield) brought a level of brightness to each and every day,” said McLeod.
Over the last several years the Broken Bow/Hochatown area has seen several film crews come to this area. Broken Bow, in conjunction with the Broken Bow Chamber of Commerce, received official certification as a film-friendly community by the Oklahoma Film and Music Office (OF+MO) in 2023.
This certification helps promote Broken Bow to the film and television industry, encouraging production companies to film in the area.
Although Hochatown often is associated with Broken Bow as a tourist destination, it hasn’t been officially certified as film friendly yet.
To date several music videos, commercials, YouTube influencer channels, reality television shows and independent films though have been filmed in Hochatown as well.
After the shooting was finished in Hochatown and the Broken Bow area, they left for Dallas for the second unit to begin shooting in Dallas.
“We enjoyed our time in the area and all the people we met there. We expect to wrap by the end of August. Thankfully, I’ve managed to meet and befriend some amazing and talented people from all spectrums of the industry,” said McLeod.
“The entire crew was awesome. It was a very cool experience for us. We love what we do. We are even invited to the premiere next year. We look forward to attending it,” said Kasey Mansfield.
