Shock Value: The Filmmakers Behind ‘The Haunting of Pennhurst’ Talk Horror, Disability, and Care

A “horror film about care” is how multi-disciplinary artist Nathan R. Stenberg has described his initial concept for the Tribeca-premiering The Haunting of Pennhurst, a simultaneously disturbing and empowering doc he’s crafted along with fellow interdisciplinary artist Katarina Poljak and filmmaker Mike Attie (2014’s In Country). The film is an archival and vérité look at the Pennhurst Asylum, a tourist destination in Spring City, Pennsylvania, famous for its visceral “haunted attractions” and likewise infamous for having once been home to the Pennhurst State School and Hospital, a facility that systematically tortured and experimented on its disabled residents for close to 80 years. But what makes the multimillion-dollar enterprise truly stand out is that the majority of the “haunters” staging those spooky attractions are themselves disabled, including museum director and volunteer trainer/makeup artist Autumn Werner, who serves as the main guide in the doc. For this group of creatives, what was once a house of horrors has become a space to retake the narrative and to educate others so that the dark, ableist policies of the past are never instituted again. (Whether that message stays with visitors as they exit the gift shop or browse the Etsy store is less clear.) Soon after The Haunting of Pennhurst’s debut in the Escape From Tribeca section, Documentary reached out to the diverse trio of directors to learn all about their unique collaboration, as well as filming in a place of preservation financed by fear.

To read my interview visit Documentary magazine.