Richmond production company produces second film, "Darkness Hunting"

Feb. 7—Blake Vickers

Adam Sergent learned a lot about ghost hunting for his second feature film, "Darkness Hunting."

The new movie was filmed in Richmond and Georgetown and tells the story of a group of ghost hunters investigating a haunted house.

Sergent, head of local production company Bad Image Productions, spent time researching ghost hunting in preparation for the film. That meant getting up close and personal with the actual equipment used by ghost hunters and even paying a visit to the infamous Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Louisville.

"I taught myself how to use actual ghost-hunting equipment and picked some up. Then, while doing research for the film, I actually went to Waverly Hills, that was a pretty bizarre but interesting experience as well," Sergent said. "As soon as you walk into that place, you just feel this energy — a ghost isn't gonna jump out at you or anything — but it was just a really bizarre experience, and I put a lot of that into the film."

Sergent, who also wrote the screenplay for the film, wanted to go bigger for his second feature. Meaning more cameras and more shooting locations to make a story that felt bigger than its predecessor — "The Devil's Instrument."

"When I was thinking about doing this, I wanted to do a more traditional horror movie. With "The Devil's Instrument," there are some horror elements in it, but at its core, it's really more of a psychological thriller," Sergent said. "I still wanted to do that big horror movie, the kind of movies I watched when I was a kid... I wanted to do an original horror movie. There's been so much done with the genre, but I had never seen a movie about ghost hunting and the people who do it."

Thanks to the success of "The Devil's Instrument," Sergent had a bigger budget for "Darkness Hunting." He took inspiration for the film from shows like "Ghost Adventures."

He noted that many of the things associated with spirits were "off limits" to him as a child. Items like crystal balls, Ouija boards, and dousing rods are all featured in the film. Sergent said that "Darkness Hunting" has intense build-ups that lead to the scares to "jump out of your seat." Some of those moments happened off-camera too.

"There were some instances where we picked up energy on the devices when we weren't supposed to and it kind of ruined the shot. We were picking up real paranormal evidence when we weren't supposed to, so we turned the equipment off just to get the shot," Sergent said.

According to Sergent, another eerie incident occurred on set when a cast member lost consciousness while filming an intense scene with an Ouija board. Thankfully, the cast member was not harmed.

There are several returning cast members from "Devil's Instrument" appearing in the new film. While Sergent tried to get everyone back, several had scheduling conflicts.

Jordan Bryant — who had a small part in "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" — and Chris Olds return for "Darkness Hunting."

"I enjoyed working on set (in both movies)," Olds said. "Adam is an amazing writer and director and the actors really brought both stories to life. I hope the audience feels the same suspense and intensity that I felt during filming. I think it is important that talented Kentucky filmakers like Adam share their vision."

While it had a bigger budget than its predecessor, "Darkness Hunting" is still an independent film, meaning a rapid rate of production. Filming was completed after eight days of shooting in Richmond and Georgetown.

"We had a little bit more time on this one, but we were still going at the speed of light... But just having one film under my belt gave me the confidence to go bigger, even though we are still limited in terms of budget and time. I wanted to see how big I could go and stretch this thing out," Sergent said.

At the moment, Sergent is in the post-production phases of "Darkness Hunting." After finishing work on the film's audio, he plans to take it on the festival circuit.

"We wanna see how far it can go... Where it's a bigger project, I'm even thinking (a theatrical release) with this one. Going to hit the festival circuit, I'm going to see if I can pick up a mid to high-level distributor," Sergent said.

Sergent hopes that people will be able to watch "Darkness Hunting" in 2023, but said the film will be available in early 2024 at the latest.

Bad Image Productions works with Kentucky-based casts and crews. Sergent, who is self-taught, said he hopes to showcase the talented and overlooked filmmakers in the state.

"When I was growing up in Kentucky, I kind of wanted to go into film, but growing up in a small town; I didn't think it was a feasible option. But I think there is a lot of talent here in Kentucky," Sergent said in a 2022 interview with the Register. "It's not really known as a film capital. But the more people that do it, the more people will come see it. So I really wanted to showcase that right here in Kentucky."

He encouraged up-and-coming filmmakers to check out his website, https://badimageblog.com/, to use as a resource for learning about how to make movies.

"The Devil's Instrument" is streaming on Prime Video.