Horror is no stranger to Kansas City. The genre has long been a staple for local filmmakers, offering room to experiment with style, atmosphere, and practical effects. What’s changing now is the scale. As larger productions choose to film in the region, opportunities are expanding for local crew to take on more ambitious and technically demanding projects. The feature film Don’t Move, filmed in Kansas City in October 2024, represented one of those opportunities to bring together experienced professionals and emerging talent for a production that pushed both creative and logistical boundaries.
For set dresser Mahryn Rose, the project built on years of experience in art and production design, allowing her to return to a genre she knows well, while stepping into new levels of responsibility on set.
Like many young filmmakers in Kansas City, Mahryn Rose found her way into the industry through the community and connections she built at UMKC. Though she has “always loved the art department,” her passion deepened after directing her stop-motion horror short Origin. Using found objects to bring her story to life sparked an appreciation for the artistry and detail of production design. As the scale of film work in the region continued to grow, so did Mahryn’s opportunities to refine her craft. She began working professionally as a set dresser, contributing to several of the first feature films shot in Kansas City using the reintroduced state film incentive. That early experience helped prepare her for the demands of Don’t Move, where she was able to apply her skills to a larger and more complex project.
Based on the novel by James “Murr” Murray and Darren Wearmouth, Don’t Move follows Megan Forrester, played by Lyndsy Fonseca, as she struggles to survive a terrifying attack in the woods. When a supernatural entity paralyzes its victims with fear, Megan must confront both the threat and her own past to make it out alive. The film also stars Russ, Tom Cavanagh, Rob Riggle, Hunter King, and Joseph Lee Anderson. Shot across multiple natural and built environments in and around Kansas City, the production made use of the area’s varied terrain, transforming familiar local spaces into an unnerving cinematic landscape.
Don’t Move was unlike any other set Rose had been a part of, finding the exterior locations as “the most down in the dirt [she] has ever been on.” Deep in the woods of Minor Park, overnight shoots began with the locations department setting up lights and clearing paths for crew prior to call time. “Upon arrival, it felt like something exciting and different was happening,” she recalled. “We were in our own little pocket of the world.”
The long overnights, rough terrain, and unpredictable weather brought new challenges for the crew but also added to the immersive feel of the production. For the art department, the natural elements became an extension of the story. Instead of relying on artificial backdrops, the team leaned into the imperfections of the environment to create something that felt tangible and grounded.
Finding ways to enhance the forest’s natural environment was often messy, but essential to bringing the story to life. A not-so-small part of her team’s on-set work involved collecting bags of dirt and leaves, as well as creating the perfect recipe for fake mud. At times, the landscape itself demanded creative problem-solving just to move equipment or reach set pieces. Rose and her team wore waders to safely enter a four-foot gap between riverbanks to suspend fake spider webs across logs and branches.
Scenes where actors trudged through spider webs, bones, and blood required extra attention-to-detail in order to guarantee continuity across takes. As the on-set dresser, Rose always kept this in the back of her mind. “Continuity was on a different level compared to other sets,” Rose states. “As the main person watching the monitors in the art department, every little detail matters.” Maintaining that continuity required close coordination with camera, lighting, and makeup departments. A shift in angle or lighting could completely change how a prop read on screen, and the art team worked frame by frame to keep each scene visually consistent. That precision, Rose said, was part of what made working on Don’t Move both challenging and rewarding.
While some locations were provided by nature, others were built from the ground up. A big task for Rose’s team was building out a ramshackled cabin, custom-designed and weathered specifically for the film by the art department. Dust coating props, camouflage netting, and sheets of spiderwebs are just a few of the “specific ways to make sure the weathering [of the cabin] didn’t look inauthentic.”
In the final days of production, “a game of resets” begins as the art department works to revert their man-made environments back to the exact conditions they were found in. The repeated weathering of locations throughout the shoot made housekeeping tasks “the most integral parts of the job” for Rose. “People don’t realize the amount of things on-set dressers have to account for to maintain respect for locations,’ Sites in Kansas City, Excelsior Springs and The Northland were more than willing to host the production, continuing the close collaboration between the metro’s film scene and Missouri businesses. Rose’s “favorite part about filming in these local places is how excited people are to get a peek into our world.”
Three years ago, Rose was unsure where her life would lead. “I was answering phones at a live theater, unsure if I’d ever break into the film industry in a meaningful way.” Like many other Kansas City residents, the elevation of the local film community has had a remarkably positive impact on her career and sense of fulfillment. “I’ve never felt so supported or seen as I did when I joined KC film [community].”
For Mahryn Rose and so many others, projects like this one are proof that the region can sustain complex, genre-driven storytelling at a high level. The continued growth of these productions represents more than just an increase in size or budget. It reflects a thriving local industry where artists can build lasting careers, and audiences can expect exceptional stories made right here at home. Stay tuned for updates on Don’t Move and the next wave of Kansas City-made stories.
