Samantha Bode- Movie Extra, Film Editor

Hartford Courant (Connecticut)

August 24, 2004 
BYLINE: CLAUDIA VAN NES; Courant Staff Writer

More than 150 people "died" in Old Saybrook Monday
morning.

Among the deceased were a wheelchair-bound teen who's
a horror movie buff, a town employee who practiced her
violent demise all weekend and a mortician who wanted
to be dead instead of taking care of the dead -- for
once. 

The corpses spent early Monday chasing their dreams,
however transient or tongue-in-cheek, by playing the
victims of an alien invasion.

This involved arriving in town in the fog and dark to
be the first chosen to play extras in a
violence-riddled indie horror film, "Hell's Beacon."
The closing scene was shot at 6 a.m. in the northbound
lane of Main Street in front of Saybrook Hardware.

"I really, really like" horror movies, said Samantha
Bode, while Pat O'Neal, studying to be a special
effects artist, created a deep slash in Bode's neck
and applied rivulets of blood down her shirt.

Bode, 17, of North Branford, uses a wheelchair because
of a rare neurological disease called Friedrich's
ataxia.

And on Monday, thanks to family friend Nicki Gallagher
-- who e-mailed director Chuck Gramling to ask for an
extra part for Samantha -- the teen got a bit part in
the horror flick.

And she got more than that. Unknown to Gallagher,
Gramling also suffers from a neurological disease
affecting the muscles, called spastic paraparesis.
Their common plight prompted him to ask Samantha to
help him edit the film, which is headed straight to
DVD and video distribution.

"My heart went out to Sam," said Gramling, as he used
a cane to skirt the cameras Monday morning. When the
call went out for the extras to sprawl across the
sidewalk and road, Gramling yelled out, "Sam! I need
Sam!"

Gallagher helped Bode to her front-row position before
the other alien victims, where she acted dead with the
best of them.

"Awesome. The best," Bode said of her experience, her
eyes shining and her shirt soaked in blood.

Farther back in the killing field was Karen Siemon,
slumped lifeless over the hood of a car.

Ironically, Siemon, who works in the assessor's
office, had spent the weekend rehearsing exactly that
style of death.

"I practiced all weekend for this, flopping over the
car hood, dropping to the grass," she said, unaware
that she would actually be instructed to do what she'd
perfected at home.

Also among the dead was Phil Appell of Middletown,
chosen because his crisp white dress shirt lent itself
well to gory splashes of blood, Bonnie Lucas said. She
and her husband, Rich, are co-executive producers of
"Hell's Beacon."

As general manager of the Swan Funeral Home, Appell
usually has a different role when it comes to dead
people. On Monday morning, somber as a mortician,
Appell said, "I'm going to be one of the deceased."

More exuberant were the scores of teens who'd come as
early as 1 a.m. to get one of the non-paying extra
roles as murdered folks. They said they either were
crazy about horror/action films or expected their
roles on Main Street's blacktop to pave the way to
Hollywood.

"I really want to be discovered," said 16-year-old
resident David Ferrari. His pal, 18-year-old Ben
Clyde, said, "I'd just be happy to meet Hilary Duff."

Another 150 would-be extras arrived too late to be
chosen. Such was the fate of high school junior Katie
Kalisz of Marlborough.

"I thought this was going to be the start of my acting
career," she lamented just before Gramling shouted, "I
need everyone not dead to move back." This was
followed by the warning: "Don't eat the blood."

This comment was directed at the actors lying in the
street being squirted with more "blood" by Rich Lucas,
who said he figures his "co-executive director" title
was bestowed by producer Andrew Gernhard "because we
invested in the movie."

Lucas is a retired communications teacher at Southern
Connecticut State University, where the 27-year-old
Gernhard was a student.

"This is my best movie yet," Gernhard said. He's shot
two other such films and chose Old Saybrook for some
of the scenes in his latest work because he became
familiar with the town during visits with his father,
Daniel, who lives in Old Saybrook.

After a number of takes that involved an "alien,"
played by Sean Gallimore of Guilford, chasing his
latest victim through the supine throng, Gramling was
satisfied with the work.

"OK. You're free to go," he shouted.

The dead got up, wiped the road dust off their clothes
and walked away.