The Mistress of Suspense Strikes Again! Interview With Writer And Director Lou Simon Of AGORAPHOBIA

Lou Simon, who is making a name for herself in the indie horror film world as The Mistress of Suspense, has had a long battle with getting her film Agoraphobia released in the United States but it has finally made its way to streaming services. She gave us an inside scoop on the nightmare that it was to get the rights back and be able to release her film the way she wanted to.

Off the heels of her feature film, Hazmat, which did really well at film festivals, Simon thought filmmaking was easy. Streaming hadn’t become the main way to view movies yet and people were still buying DVDs in 2014, so she thought there was still some money to be made as an independent filmmaker. She wanted to make a bigger budget production than she previously had with her first two films and had aspirations to attach named talent to her next project.

Simon got the idea for that next project while driving by really beautiful, multi-million dollar homes on the water with gorgeous backyards and thought about how awful it would be to live in a home like that, but not be able to go outside and enjoy it. She started to wonder about what would keep someone inside and from enjoying the beautiful landscape they have exclusive access to. “What would keep a person from going out?” became the question she was asking herself and the idea for Agoraphobia was born.

Cassandra Scerbo, who plays Faye, the lead character, had just wrapped Sharknado and was also a South Florida native, which is where they were going to be filming.  Simon thought she would be a great casting choice for the lead role. Simon was able to sell Scerbo on the project by telling her she’d have an all-expenses-paid vacation home to visit her family and work on a new project, making it the best of both worlds; business and pleasure. “She was amazing to work with. She was always prepared and super nice and friendly to everybody,” Simon says of working with Scerbo. “I was a little afraid she was going to come in with an attitude or like a diva or whatever, but no, she was not like that at all,” Simon continues.

Simon wanted a named actor in the horror genre to play the psychologist of the agoraphobic. She thinks Tony Todd liked the idea of playing the good guy for once since he’s always cast as the villain. She wanted the psychologist to be a real character who genuinely cared about the progress of his patient.

Agoraphobia spent fourteen days filming in Miami, Florida. “While we were still in post-production, we went to L.A. to try to find a distributor for the film and found a distributor,” Simon tells us. “We had a few months to finish post and submit the files to them and then they set a release date for November 2015,” she goes on, “I think it was the 3rd”. But after the distributor set a release date, Simon and her team started to have issues with them.

“They were having a huge turnover in the company,” Simon recalls, “and every week we were talking to someone new. I was getting the feeling that the release was not going to be what I wanted it to be,” she laments. Simon says they weren’t getting access to the PR company as she had previously been used to. She knew from previous experience how important it was to do press if she wanted the film to make any money. She told the distributor that it wasn’t working out and she asked for the rights back to her film. The owner of the company agreed to give the rights back and they canceled the contract.

Simon tells us, “It was about a month later, I’m at AFM, talking to a distributor, trying to get him excited about the project and he goes ‘that one’s already released, it just came out last Tuesday.’ And I said ‘no, it wasn’t’ when he pulled out his phone and shows me.’ She was in shock.”

At that point she called the distributor who had released the film despite the fact that they had canceled the contract and gave the rights back to Simon and her company, to find out what was going on. “They were as shocked as we were,” she says.

She discovered what had happened was, they had relicensed the film to a bigger distributor prior to the release and even though Simon canceled the contract with them, no one stopped the process of releasing the film. She says they never quite established what went wrong in the communications between the two distribution companies, but once it got released, within a couple of days it was pirated and was all over the torrent sites.

“They took it down within three to four days, but it was too late,” Simon says. At this point, having blown the big release that she had originally wanted, she thought she would try to work with them. Agoraphobia ended up getting released two more times months apart, much to Simon’s dismay, and when they couldn’t settle on an agreement Simon and her company sued the distributor in federal court, in New York. She referred to the lawsuit as “David vs Goliath” as an independent filmmaker going up against a bigger named distributor.

The legal process was slow and stressful for Simon and her team. The court case dragged on for four years and they still hadn’t gotten very far into it, still in the middle of the discovery process. The judge presiding over the case ordered a mediation and during the mediation, they came to a settlement and dropped the case. Simon was emotionally and mentally exhausted at that point and even though she wasn’t thrilled with the settlement outcome, she was willing to accept it so the whole nightmare could be over.

In the end, she decided to release Agoraphobia using FilmHub and doing it the good ol’ fashioned way; self-distribution.

What inspired the storyline and character arc for Agoraphobia? 

Lou Simon: It wasn’t one thing. I usually have a premise in mind and then over time, sometimes months, I keep adding to it as things pop into my head. It can come from watching a film, a conversation with a friend, a random thought.  I keep a note in my phone and just keep adding to it until I’ve figured out the whole story.

What were your biggest challenges and obstacles when filming this movie?

Lou Simon: I’m not one to speak badly of cast and crew, but in this film, I allowed the DP to bring the electrical department. They were a nightmare to deal with, constantly doing things to delay the production on purpose. The most unprofessional people I’ve ever worked with. I obviously never worked with them again, but the delays were costly.

What were your most memorable moments when making this film? Any moments with cast or crew that stand out to you?

Lou Simon: The day that Tony Todd was on set. It was the best and the worst. Best, because I was so happy to be working with him and he was so great to work with. Worst, because we had four scenes to film in one day. We had one day and only one day, and there was no way we would be able to extend it if we didn’t get it all. It was so stressful that I’m pretty sure my blood pressure shot up. I got really faint at one point and someone gave me a soda.

Have you ever known anyone who has actually suffered from agoraphobia?  How much research did you do into the phobia before or when you were writing the script?

Lou Simon: I have not. I did a lot of research online and read a lot of the comments on blogs on the subject.  That’s where you get some of the best true stories from people.

What were the learning and teachable moments of making this film?

Lou Simon: You learn so much with every film that it’s hard to pinpoint just one or two. This one was especially a difficult film because of everything that happened with the distribution, but there’s nothing I could have done that would have prevented what happened.

How closely did you work with the editor(s) in post-production?

Lou Simon: I always sit in with the editor. I’ve learned more about directing from editing films than from directing them. It’s helped me be more focused on getting what I absolutely need. I edit the movie in my head as I film.

Are you satisfied with the final cut of the film? Is it what you envisioned?

Lou Simon: No filmmaker is ever satisfied. You always want more time, more money, more everything. I’m proud of what we were able to accomplish with the limited budget and time that we had, but there are a bunch of things I would do differently.

What do you want people to know about this film and the process you went through with it?

Lou Simon: You have to fight for what’s right. Don’t let anyone take advantage of you.

Where can people watch the film now that it is available in the United States?

It’s currently for rent or to purchase for as little as 99 cents on Amazon.  They can stream it for free on the Binge channel on Roku and TubiTV.