A global contagion leading into widespread feelings of isolation, paranoia and societal breakdown long ago only fueled the anxieties of characters in horror films. But with the five-year anniversary of the onset of COVID-19 in real life, the pandemic is not only still shaping the themes of the horror genre, but also how they’ve been made recently. The new horror movie, ‘Our Happy Place,’ is one such feature on which its creators were forced to adapt their craft to an unprecedented reality.

The project marks the feature film directorial debut of Paul Bickel, who also wrote the script. He also produced ‘Our Happy Place’ with Raya Miles, David Ho and Tracie Thoms. Miles, Bickel, Thoms and Eugene Byrd also starred in the drama.

The movie’s small cast and crew had restricted access to resources, and were forced to have safety protocols in place, while they shot during the COVID lockdown. These limitations, however, led to a surge in creativity and innovation, as the filmmakers had to embrace minimalist settings and new storytelling techniques to reflect the times.

‘Our Happy Place’ follows Raya (Miles) as she wakes in the forest, cold and confused, with no memory of how she got there. Each day, it happens again. By the third day, she wakes in a shallow grave. The graves deepen each time, as if an unseen force is burying her alive.

Back in her cabin, she’s haunted by visions of tortured women whose screams echo in her mind. Night after night, her visions intensify, blurring the line between dream and reality. As the hauntings intensify, Raya must confront a horrifying truth that shatters everything she had believed.

‘Our Happy Place’ had its World Premiere during Dances With Films: NYC 2024 on Saturday, December 7 at 7pm. The screening was held at Regal Union Square during the festival‘s third annual event in New York. Bickel, Miles, Thoms and Byrd generously took the time to sit down for an exclusive interview at the Regal theater the day after the drama’s screening to talk about starring in and helming the drama.

Film Factual (FF): What was the inspiration in making ‘Our Happy Place,’ and how did the project get started?

Raya Miles (RM): It was during quarantine during COVID, and Paul and I were staying up in this cabin up in Big Bear Lake in California. After we realized that the two-week (quarantine) idea wasn’t going to be the case, and we were going to be there for a long time, Paul said “I have to do something creative and not waste time.”

We were walking through the woods and said, “What if you were to wake up in the woods one morning, having no idea how you got there or how to get back, or why you were there?” That became the seed idea to build the script around. That’s how the whole project began.

Then Tracie became attached, so we knew we would have to shoot COVID-style. So Paul developed a character who would be my (character’s) friend, and with whom we would communicate with on Facetime.

FF: Speaking about starring in the film, Tracie, what interested you about your characters and the overall script?

Tracie Thoms (TT): Well, Paul and I have been collaborating now for about 20 years. (Thoms and Bickel laugh.) We’ve been working on all of these scripts, and have had ideas about what we’re going to get done.

It was the diminished opportunities that we had in this moment that created this great story. When you have everything available to you, you say, “We can do this and this.” But when you don’t have anything at your disposal, how do you make a story scary?

I just trust him. As collaborators, you just learn to trust each other over time. So with whatever he’s working on, I’m always like, “Okay, when are we shooting?”

That’s what’s really great about having a community of people who work together. Those are the relationships that you want to build in this industry because without them, you have no idea where your next job is coming from. It’s always nice to have a group of people who you can always create with.

This idea stuck because it was simple to do, and we had all the time in the world to do it. We also had all the focus in the world to figure it out because we weren’t off doing other jobs, since there weren’t other jobs available.

Paul Bickel (PB): To piggyback off of what Tracie said, when I first met her, she was so vital in being a let’s do something-kind of person. I knew that this whole group of people was the group I wanted to be around. We wanted to make something amazing happen, and eventually we came up with something.

Like Tracie and Raya were saying, we used quarantine as much as we could because it felt isolating and like we couldn’t go anywhere.

RM: Yes, that lent itself to the horror genre.

PB: So we were living it and filming it essentially at the same time.

TT: One of the biggest elements of horror is isolation. We naturally had that during the quarantine, so we were isolated in L.A. We (motions to Byrd) were quarantined together, and they (motions to Miles and Bickel) were quarantined together, so we were like, let’s make a movie in our separate pods. That helped create the barrier that my character can’t get to them because of his character’s illness.

RM: I can’t get the help I need because no one can come to me.

TT: Yes, so it was very meta. So we used a global pandemic to our advantage! (Thoms laughs.)

FF: Eugene, what interested you in starring in the film, as well?

Eugene Byrd (EB): What really interested me in the project was Raya and Traci, to be honest. Paul was like, “Hey, you’re not doing anything, obviously!” (The group laughs.) “Do you want to do this?”

I was like, “What would I be doing?” He was like, “Oh, just be in the background. Be Tracie’s love interest.” I was like, “Oh, yeah, that works! It’s not like that’s hard!” (The group laughs.) “So you want me to do some hard work!”

TT: Act, baby, act!

EB: Just the idea that we were shooting a movie during the pandemic, and Paul was going to be the camera operator, the director and the star, and doing the lighting, was exciting. It really intrigued me.

The fact that I would get to play with Traci, and be this couple that’s always fighting, was also intriguing. We never fight, so I was like, oh, this is practice! (Group laughs.) That way, if anything goes down, I know how to handle it! So it was fun.

PB: They were also representing what real life could have been like. The character of Raya was living misery in her pod, so whatever problems they were having seemed frivolous to what she was experiencing.

RM: Yes, it provided a great contrast – they had the levity of joy and being silly and goofy, while my character is literally losing her mind.

FF: Paul, speaking of helming the movie, you made your feature film directorial debut on ‘Our Happy Place.’ What was your overall approach to helming the drama?

PB: Directing required very little from me. She (motions to Miles) knows me so well, and they (motions to Thoms and Byrd) also know me so well that there was so little that I had to say. Raya knew the character so well that my role as the director was mainly to make sure that everything was there. But there were a few times that I asked her to move to the left or right.

RM: I’m not too good at that part!

PB: It was really funny!

RM: But in terms of being the director, he had to do such specific plans for the day. Each day he had to determine exactly what we were going to cover that day and where we would need to go. So he would scout locations one day, and then get it all set up.

But with all that he took on, the things-to-do list was a whole other level than if we had a traditional crew. He had to remember such things as the SIM card, the batteries and the lights.

PB: I also had to remember the wardrobe and make-up.

RM: He was also rigging things…while he was in scenes. So there were a lot of technical elements in the direction.

PB: It was difficult, but also incredibly fun.

We also had to shoot at certain times of the day, during this magical hour. Fortunately, Big Bear allows a longer magical hour because the sun goes down over the mountain but not over the horizon. So we had about 40 minutes of really perfect lighting. So when we were shooting our exteriors, we could only shoot for 40 minutes a day. So that took some time of planning.

FF: Speaking of the filming locations for the project, how did you all approach shooting remotely on location?

PB: We own the house we were in, and fortunately, we just bought it before the pandemic, so that was figured out for Raya and me. Tracie had her house, so that was also figured out.

We also do a lot of hiking throughout the woods, so unbeknownst to us, we were scouting for a few years. We were like, “Oh, this is a great location, so why don’t we use this someday?” Then we finally came up with this story while we were walking in the woods. So for the locations, we kind of knew where we wanted to go.

FF: How did you work together to build the characters and overall story?

TT: It was really easy, as we’ve been friends for a long time.

EB: We’ve also worked with Paul before…so we kind of knew each other’s shorthands, strengths and weaknesses.

TT: Paul also has a unique way of directing. He puts us in a deficit, meaning that he doesn’t tell us everything that’s happening. That was good, actually, because then we didn’t play things inadvertently that we weren’t supposed to play. Paul was like, “All you know is that your friend is out here and she may be in trouble.”

It was all very meticulous, so we asked, “Should we set up a camera in our house so that you’ll also have our coverage?” He was like, “No – you’re only going to exist on a screen until you don’t.” We were like, “But why?” He was like, “Don’t ask questions. We’re going to change your name in the phone from Tracie to Amy, so the next time you call, we’re going to be acting, okay? Goodbye.”

He then hung up and called right back as his character and was like, “Hi, what’s going on?” I was like, “What am I saying and doing?” He said, “I’m just asking how you are, and you’re talking about your day.” So I was like, “Okay.”

So we actually didn’t know what we were doing, which made everything come together. We were like, “That’s what we were doing?!?”

EB: I was just supposed to be this annoyed guy who’s stuck in a pod.

TT: We broke up, so we were stuck in a pod together…It was just easy because we trust each other.

But with Paul, he was like, “Don’t ask me questions.” I was like, “But what do you want me to wear today?” He was like, “Pretend that you have a Zoom meeting.” I was like, “Okay, so sweatpants on the bottom and a dress shirt on the top, and I’ll put some make-up on. Got it.”

PB: She just couldn’t stand up in front of the camera in that outfit! (Group laughs.)

EB: But since we’ve worked together before, we knew that Paul knows what he’s doing…It just came down to trusting him.

PB: It also came down to casting. These two (motions to Thoms and Byrd) were right for what we were doing. I think if you write something for someone that’s beyond their reach, it won’t work. But they were both perfect for these roles. I think filmmaking comes down to casting.

TT: There was also this really great thing about it that as the pandemic evolved, the movie and our friendships also evolved. Then when the world opened back up a bit, we could go to Big Bear. So by the end of the movie, we were like, “We got to where you are, and it’s like a reunion because we get to see each other again in person!” It was a great moment to go up there.

David Ho, who’s here taking pictures of us right now, was our DP (Director of Photography) for that part of the movie. So Paul was actually able to direct while David set up the shots for the end of the movie.

It was like a mini-vacation, and we were playing and creating. It was a wonderful weekend of July 2022.

PB: It was a great weekend. But the neighbors didn’t like it!

TT: The neighbors didn’t like anything!

PB: But we hadn’t seen each other for a year, so it was great to be back together.

TT: Then we shot the party scene at my house in L.A. It was really great to have that kind of reunion at the end of that year, which was tragic in a lot of ways, as we lost people. But we have this wonderful piece of work to show for it.

The fact that we did it with just us is a great achievement that people don’t necessarily understand when they see the movie. They were like, “What do you mean you didn’t have a crew?”

My father (director Donald H. Thoms) saw the film, and he thought it was Paul and Raya, plus two other people. I was like, “No, Dad, it was just Paul and Raya.”

My father was surprised, and he works on independent films. He was like, “What?” I said, “Yes, Paul was controlling the camera, acting and doing all the rigging. Raya was doing the lighting and make-up.” He was like, “I don’t understand.”

PB: Yes, it was a true two-person crew!

FF: Paul, you also serve as an editor on the drama, along with Jim Holdridge. How did you work together to put the final version of the film?

PB: I did the first pass. Then I thought, I really need some help. We have a really good friend, Jim Holdridge, who’s a really good editor. He took what we had and really continued the story. He came up with some suggestions and said, “Maybe we should have this.”

RM: During Jim’s edit, we went in and shot some more scenes to help with the narrative. That was really impactful on the storytelling. It was an amazing process to work with Jim.

PB: The one thing I’ll also say about directing is that it’s important to know what you want. But it’s also important to check your ego at the door and allow new information to come in. You’re most likely going to collaborate, and if you do, things come out so much better. I think what Jim gave to the project absolutely elevated everything.

FF: ‘Our Happy Place’ had its World Premiere here at Dances With Films: NYC. What was the experience like of premiering the movie at the festival? What type of reaction did you receive to the drama?

PB: Oh, it’s been incredible. This is one of the festivals that I was hoping we’d get into. The spirit of this festival and how they celebrate true independent filmmaking – and you can’t get any more independent than ours, as you’re seeing almost everybody who worked on the film here – is amazing.

TT: Our editor, Jim, and the guy who did our score aren’t here right now…

RM: …But they were here for the screening. But if Jim and our composer, David Hernandez, could be here now, that would be it!

TT: We even recorded some of the music for the movie.

RM: Yes, Tracie and I recorded the Christmas music. David Ho, who’s our post-production artist, did all of the arrangements and got the musicians together to do those recordings. We also used music from our friend Damu Malik, who was our third DP.

EB: He was also in the film!

TT: Yes, he was in the dinner scene, and also provided the song for that scene.

EB: He’s very talented.

TT: So part of the moral of the story is that half of the talent is friends! If you have talented friends who like to work together, then you can make anything happen.

RM: Then it was all about having the perseverance to get everything done, which wasn’t easy – it was a long process.

PB: Yes, it was a long process. It took almost as long to finish the film in post (production) as it took to shoot it. David Ho was vital in making this all happen. He did the color correction, final mix and all of the sound. Without him, we couldn’t have finished the film and bring it to this wonderful festival!