Having a Hollywood movie director as an uncle, junior Grady Wells and freshman Mary Catherine Wells are about to have their own brush of fame as they are both starring in the upcoming horror movie, Knucklebones. A release date hasn’t been set, but the project has been in the works for a while.

“When I was in fifth grade, my uncle gave me the opportunity to star in one of his horror movies,” freshman Mary Catherine (MC) Wells said. “I used to be really into acting, so I was really excited when my uncle let me be a part of the movie. My uncle lives in Hollywood, and he is a horror movie writer and director. He moved to Dallas for about a year and then began filming the movie here in Dallas.”

The movie was filmed at several different locations but mainly at the Cutting Edge Haunted House in Fort Worth.

“Some parts were filmed in smaller houses and cemeteries, but the main parts were filmed at the Cutting Edge Haunted House,” MC said. “He rented it out the whole thing, so it was just a huge set. I wasn’t in any of the scenes there, but my brother was, and I really liked getting the experience of seeing the process of making a real Hollywood movie.”

In the movie, a group of bored college students unleash a murderous demon while playing a dice game made from human knucklebones. Grady Wells opens the movie frantically running away from the demon, Knucklebones.

“I play the child version of the character who lives in the place where the kids summon the demon,” junior Grady Wells said. “He too summoned the demon when he was younger which is my part, but he eventually was able to get away from it. It is really cool because I’m the opening scene of the movie.”

Both Grady and MC made significant contributions that were vital to the film.

“Both MC and Grady were amazing to work with and very professional,” Knucklebones director and writer Mitch Wilson said. “Grady did his scenes at the end of a very long day and worked through the night. MC worked several days on the film and the entire cast, and the crew fell in love with her. She had an incredible attitude and her energy was contagious. Film production can be grueling, and I was lucky to have her there. Both did a great job on the film, and I would hire them again in a second.”

The movie is in its fifth year of production due to the expensive cost of creating a film.

“The reason that it is taking the movie so long to get finalized is because he had enough money to film it but then ran out of money to completely finish it,” MC said. “There are a lot of special effects and specific edits that are really expensive. March of 2014, I had to go to a recording studio and record all of my lines. I would watch the videos from when I was younger and match my words with my lips on the screen.”

Even though Mary Catherine and Grady were secured a role in the movie because of family connections, they still had to prove themselves at the auditions.

“There were auditions for all of the other actors except for my brother and I,” MC said. “I still had to come to the tryouts so they could make sure that I fit the part. I play the lead girl’s little sister, so I have a couple of lines in the movie, but it isn’t a huge role.”

Wilson believes that he subconsciously wrote the roles specifically for his niece and nephew.

“Both of their parts already existed in the script before I casted MC and Grady,” Wilson said. “Although, now that I think about it, I pitched Grady and MC the story idea before I even got serious about writing it. I think I remember MC suggesting the main character having a younger sister.”

The premier of the movie hasn’t been set, but the official trailer is posted online.
“My uncle doesn’t know when it is going to come out,” Grady said. “He doesn’t know if the movie will get accepted to be shown in theatres, but when it does come out, there will be an opening presentation in Los Angeles that my sister and I will go to for people to publicly see. I never was able to see any parts of it, so I’m really excited to see it when it comes out.”