ST. GEORGE — Washington County resident and actress Jan Broberg is getting set to appear in a new independent horror film being released Friday on multiple on demand and video platforms.
An actress since she was six years old, Broberg has appeared on the big screen in blockbuster films such as “Ironman 3,” on television shows such as “Criminal Minds,” “Colony” and “Everwood,” and in a host of Hallmark films. She has also graced the professional stage both locally and at venues across the western United States.
Broberg is perhaps best known for the Netflix Documentary “Abducted in Plain Sight,” based on the book “Stolen Innocence,” written by her mother, which chronicles her upbringing and the real-life abductions of Broberg by a neighbor when she was 12 and 14 years old.
In her new film, “Behind You,” Broberg said she is excited to have played a very different role than what she has done in the past.
Written and directed by Andrew Mecham and Matthew Whedon, “Behind You” tells the story of two young sisters (Addy Miller, Elizabeth Birkner) who have lost their mother and are sent to live with their estranged aunt (Broberg) for safe-keeping. But the girls soon learn that their keeping is anything but safe. They arrive to find a sinister and strange aunt and shortly discover that all the mirrors in her house are covered or hidden.
According to the film’s synopsis, “When one of the sisters happens upon a mirror in the basement, she unknowingly releases a malicious demon that had haunted her mother and aunt years ago.”
Broberg reached out to St. George News in anticipation of the film’s release to discuss the movie, her role and the emotion of fear.
“Behind You” is an independent film that was written, directed and produced on a relatively small budget, Broberg said. The movie was filmed in the luxury gated community of Osmond Lane in Provo, a fact that Broberg laughingly said made her happy to be filming a scary movie in a neighborhood like that.
But despite its smaller production size and budget, Broberg said that the film’s cast and crew produced an incredibly high quality product.
“The people that worked on and produced the film were extraordinary,” Broberg said, adding praises for the young actresses who play the sisters as well as the entire crew.
Broberg is particularly excited, she said, for viewers to see the how one of the actors portrays the physical embodiment of the poltergeist aspect of the home.
While the film is ostensibly a horror movie, Broberg said that it has a really good storyline, something that not all horror-esque films have, she added.
“I think the story is very interesting,” she said. “You don’t know what side of the line the aunt is on.”
It is the complex nature of the story and her character in particular that Broberg said she enjoyed sinking her teeth into.
“I love anything that lets me take on a different aspect of my personality,” Broberg said. “The aunt in this film has been through some really dark trials that allowed me to access my own past.”
Though Broberg has certainly been through personal horrors in her real life, she said that her role as the aunt in the film was something that was unique to play and something that audiences haven’t seen from her before.
“I liked the challenge of it,” she said.
While discussing the film, Broberg tapped into what she feels is at the root of why people enjoy watching horror movies.
“Fear is a true human emotion,” Broberg said. “Scary movies unite us in the fact that we all have fears. There is such an important place for this genre.”
Broberg likened watching a horror film to taking on a scary task – walking across a high bridge, for example – and surviving.
Watching a scary movie allows people to go through the emotion of fear and survive it, she said.
“I think there’s something to that,” Brogberg said.
For the time being, the film will be released straight to on-demand and digital video platforms, but Broberg hopes that in the future people might have a chance to see the film on a big screen. Still she hopes that many people will watch and enjoy the film in their homes.
The film is being released on the following platforms Friday:
Cable/Satellite/Telecommunications services
- Comcast.
- Directv.
- Cox.
- Charter/Time Warner.
- Dish.
- Verizon.
- Frontier.
- Smaller regional providers.
Digital
- Apple TV.
- iTunes.
- Amazon Video.
- VUDU.
- Google Play.
- Microsoft Movies and TV.
- FandangoNow.
- Redbox On Demand.
Resources
- “Behind You” Instagram page
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