Historical Horror in War: Behind the Scenes on the Making on an Independent Film

In late 2004 writer/producer/director Ron McLellen decided to embark on his third feature motion picture - Hell's End. This came about due to the sale and success of his previous film Jack O'Lantern to Lion's Gate Home Video. With Executive Producer Tim Hayes (who financed Jack O'Lantern), assistant director Dave R. Watkins, and myself (returning on board as Production Manager), McLellen quickly set out to write a movie based upon subject matter both controversial and ripe for re-interpretation. He chose to make a balls-to-the-wall WWII/horror/sci-fi extravaganza. Not only did he want to do a period independent motion picture (a taboo for all independent filmmakers) but he also wanted the Germans to speak in German (with roughly 60% of the movie in English subtitles).

After numerous pre-production meetings, it was decided to cast the movie with German speaking actors, the majority of which were unknowns or non-actors. The rest had to go to speech classes conducted by Jennifer Osburg and Phillip Hildner (both of whom are featured in the film). With a cast of roughly thirty-five regulars (and at one time eighty extras), McLellen and crew ventured up to Clayton, Georgia (where portions of Deliverance and Grizzly were filmed, among others) for three months of heavy filming at Camp Rainey Mountain, which we transformed into a WWII - prison camp.

Hell's End is the story of a soldier of the future (Rob Elwood) who is sent back in time to a prison camp near the Belgium border in order to stop the Germans from experimenting on POW soldiers and developing a secret weapon that could bring about Hitler's triumph in the war. This alternate-history fable, in particular, was a long time coming for director McLellen whose first script in this genre The Darkriders never got off the ground due to budgetary difficulties. After the subsequent success of Jack O'Lantern Executive Producer Hayes decided to go ahead with McLellen's dream project before the ink on the final draft of the new script was dry.