Interview With Emerson Moore, Writer and Director Of ‘Escape The Field’

I miss living in the Midwest during autumn. I miss October in Ohio and the Halloween festivities. When I was in high school, one of the most popular Halloween attractions was the “haunted” cornfield a few towns over. I preferred it over your typical haunted house, and while we do have one here in Phoenix, it’s just not quite the same when it’s still 150 degrees outside.

Emerson Moore’s feature length directorial debut, Escape the Field, brought back all kinds of nostalgia because it takes place entirely in a cornfield. “Six strangers wake up trapped in an endless cornfield only to discover something mysterious is hunting them.” Well, you have my attention. To celebrate the release of the film, I chatted with Writer/Director Emerson Moore about his inspiration behind the film, why he wanted to be a filmmaker, what’s up next, and more!

PopHorror: I really enjoyed Escape the Field. It was so much fun, and I’m really excited to speak with you today.

Emerson Moore: Oh, awesome! Thank you.

PopHorror: What inspired the film?

Emerson Moore: You know, I’ve always been a fan of these thriller-genre films dating back to when I was younger. I mean, Alien? Who doesn’t like Alien? A group of people trapped in a single location with something hunting them? I think it’s cool, so that and just other classics that you can look at. From The Shining, another trapped in a single location. That aspect of it.

I’ve been working on this project for a few years. The guys that I wrote it with all had this idea of being trapped in a wide open space. This seemed all together absurd but interesting and could be fun. So we took it from there. The real inspiration, which is like, damn cornfields are scary and let’s go there.

PopHorror: Yes, it reminded me of a haunted cornfield from when I lived in Ohio, so I liked that.

Emerson Moore: Oh yeah!

PopHorror: There’s a lot you can do with a single location. It’s just as scary, especially when it’s one you can’t seem to get out of. That’s even scarier.

Emerson Moore: It was a challenge at the same time. Keep it interesting visually and not just feel like you’re in a cornfield for the whole movie.

PopHorror: That leads into my next question. Your first feature length film is a horror movie, which I appreciate. Were you a horror fan before?

Emerson Moore: I think the first film I saw as a kid… I think Phantasm was one. Then you just get into the classics. Carrie to Dressed to Kill, The Shining, Alien, Jaws. They’re all there. But I went back and found Rosemary’s Baby, which then led me to Knife in the Water. So yeah, definitely. The Exorcist. Great movies. They’re so fun. The Omen, all those ’70s horror films that I found back in the day definitely shaped things. And then stuff out of our modern era is good, too, like The Ring, The Conjuring…

PopHorror: So it was a no brainer making your first film be a horror film.

Emerson Moore: Yeah, for sure! I knew what I wanted to do. Where do you go from there? There’s lots of places.

PopHorror: What would be your weapon of choice in a zombie apocalypse? 

Emerson Moore: Oh, man! I’d probably take that bat that Jeffrey Dean Morgan has, for sure.

PopHorror: What was it called? Lucille?

Emerson Moore: Yeah, something like that, right? Such a great weapon. It’s just so vicious. 

PopHorror: Great choice! What made you want to be a filmmaker?

Emerson Moore: Gosh, I knew at an early age. It was pretty straightforward. My older sister would put together Super 8 stuff. She would make these films and blood bags on the water and white t-shirts. She made all these gangster movies, stuff like that. Then I got my hands on a camera when I was pretty young and would make a lot of kung fu movies. Then I started goofing around making horror movies or whatever. We were just always kind of doing that sort of thing. Then I just gravitated straight to it. I grew up here in LA; I’m from here. So I would get jobs here as an extra on set. I spent my time as a PA. Did all those things and just kind of… have always been around.

PopHorror: That’s so cool! Did your sister go into filmmaking as well?

Emerson Moore: No, she didn’t. She didn’t, but I remember I was really, really young when she was doing that. I definitely have memories of it. Always these silent movies and the blood bags on white t-shirts. I will never forget it.

PopHorror: I love that so much. This film looks like it was a lot of fun to make. What was your favorite scene to shoot?

Emerson Moore: All of them. I shot it pretty much linearly so what you see is what you get in the order of sequence. Some stuff was moved around for night time shots, but for the most part, just stayed on track. You know, I loved shooting that opening scene right out of the gate. It was day one, shot one, scene three. When Sam wakes up in the cornfield and she opens her eyes. That one sticks with me. “Oh, here we go! This is happening. We’re going to do this.” From there, it was just a lot of fun. I got to spend a lot of time with my actors. I’d done so much prep work previously. I storyboarded this entire film before we started shooting, so I knew exactly what I wanted and where to go. I just marked off my shots as I went along and I really get in there and spend time with my actors and work on where we were going with the performance and what each of them were trying to do. I think it comes through in the film. They were all really spectacular from Jordan [Claire Robbins] to Theo [Rossi] and Shane [West], Tahirah [Sharif], Elena [Juatco], and Julian [Feder]. I asked so much of them. Just here, all you have to do is be in this cornfield, and we’re going to do this. It was a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed working with them.

PopHorror: What is up next for you?

Emerson Moore: I am just heading into prep. I’ll leave here in a couple weeks to head back east on my next film. We’ll be shooting some point in June, mid-June. Super excited about it. I think it’s one that you will love. I’m excited to be working with some of my friends again and reconnecting and getting back to it. I’m super excited! It’s going to be a lot of fun.

PopHorror: How exciting! Just one last question for you today. What is your favorite scary movie?

Emerson Moore: Oh, man. Really? Just one? That’s a hard one. I mean… wow. My favorite scary movie. Gosh, there are so many. I think I’ve already named like 10 of them. I’ll go with Alien.

Thank you so much, Emerson, for speaking with us. Be sure to catch Escape the Field in theaters now!