Northfield man adds own twist to Halloween movie offerings

SCHMIDT Matt Schmidt loves horror movies. If forced to choose, "The Exocist" is his favoite, followed closely by "The Shining." But this Halloween, the Northfield dad has a special recommendation — his own. "Happy Birthday Hannah" is available on Amazon, which gives a platform for independent filmmakers to share their movies. The Atlantic City police officer has written screenplays before but knows it’s hard for an unknown writer to get a movie made. So, he went to Amazon, which has several requirements that included Schmidt having to shoot and edit his own movie — done through iMovie — and create a digital poster. He didn’t have to make a trailer, but chose to. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7e-g1OAmbxw Atlantic City staple, the Irish Pub, is among the locations. Eleganza in the Pier Shops at Caesars also helped with a scene. Schmidt even had a fellow officer, photographer Justin Draper, do the stills. It tells the story of a woman named Rachel who is haunted by her younger sister who she accidentally let drown when they were children. Young Rachel is played by Schmidt's older daughter, Hannah, with the role of Hannah being played by younger daughter, Hailey. Schmidt had only weekends to work on the film, which took him from February to September. "The reception has been mostly positive," he said. "But, as a first-time filmmaker I expected that the movie would have its critics, and it has. The found footage horror genre doesn't appeal to everyone."