Queens Tribune

Film director/producer and Glendale native Thomas Churchill brought his latest production, a horror flick titled “Emerging Past,” as close to home as possible – right onto the streets of his old neighborhood and the hallways of the Queens Tribune office.

The film, which Churchill describes as “in the tradition of ‘The Exorcist’ and ‘The Omen,’” stars Krista Grotte, who plays Pam, a photographer working for the Tribune who is assigned by her boss, Cameron, played by Stephen Geoffreys, to cover an election. In the process, she stumbles across a frightening hidden world where she witnesses human sacrifices. She then becomes a target of the cult she exposes. Churchill said the film has a surprise twist ending that people won’t see coming.

Churchill filmed the bulk of the movie on site around his native parts of Queens, including Glendale, Ridgewood and Middle Village. One scene was shot at St. Matthias Parish in Ridgewood, where Churchill went to school as a child. Filming also took place in early and mid-November in the Queens Tribune office and included a cameo appearance by Queens Tribune Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Michael Schenkler. Churchill said the Queens Tribune is “a major part of the film.”

“Emerging Past,” which Churchill says is meant to “scare the hell out of you,” also stars Brooke McCarter, who had a role in the 1987 film “The Lost Boys,” Steve Dash, and Edward X. Young. Churchill worked with producers Paul and Lori Weinroth, as well as his childhood friend David Lee Madison, who is a Middle Village native and a close friend of Churchill’s since junior high school.

Churchill was raised in the Queens neighborhoods of Glendale and Ridgewood, and graduated from Franklin K. Lane High School in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn. He now divides his time between Los Angeles and New York.

Churchill will head back to California to cut the movie, which he expects to be ready for release sometime mid-winter. He is currently in discussions with a few studios about a theatrical release, which he hopes will happen in the spring or summer of 2010. In the meantime, Churchill will be back in New York in February to film his next project.

Reach Reporter Domenick Rafter at drafter@queenstribune.com or (718) 357-7400, Ext. 125.