‘Juicy Behind The Scenes Stories’ Of ‘Clinger’ Movie; Exclusive Interview With Michael Steves And Jennifer Laporte

“Clinger” is a movie about an obsessed boyfriend in high school who dies in an “embarrassing accident” and returns to try and win the love of his girlfriend. In an exclusive interview with International Business Times, director Michael Steves and cast member Jennifer Laporte (Fern) talked about the movie and shared some behind-the-scenes anecdotes.

The ghost in “Clinger” is nerdy high school senior Robert Klingher (Vincent Martella of “Phineas and Ferb” and “Everybody Hates Chris”). “Robert's suffocating affection leads him to haunt Fern as a ghost and try to win her over... through any means necessary. As a ghost, Robert has supernatural powers - he can bring inanimate objects to life, distort reality, and appear and disappear in a cloud of smoke,” Steves said.

He explained that Klingher may seem like a “nice guy with glasses,” but he is not someone “who wins the girl in countless high school movies.” “Our aim was to flip the trope - in ‘Clinger,’ the ‘nice guy’ turns out to be a murderous stalker who thinks he's entitled to win the beautiful girl. And the girl, who is usually the male hero's prize, is our kickass heroine, Fern, fighting for her life and independence,” Steves said.

The movie uses practical effects, such as puppets and prosthetics, and not CGI for the special effects. Steves pointed out that the style of the special effects in the movie is similar to what the fans of the horror-comedy genre saw in the 80s in movies like “Gremlins,” “Evil Dead” and “Re-Animator.”

Talking about what it was like to film the movie, Steves said that it was a “month-long party with no sleep and fake blood everywhere.” The director also shared some “juicy behind the scenes stories” from the production set.

“We filmed a sequence in which a demon teddy bear tears apart a guy in his underwear at our Judeo-Christian high school,” Steves explained. The director was asked by the school authorities what they were filming, but then they saw a man “walking around in a prosthetic gore suit and no pants on.”

"We'll pretend we didn't see that," the people from the school apparently said and promptly left the set. The director also had to bail out an actor from a “small town Texas jail” after a “drunken incident at a water park.”

Laporte also had a lot of fun filming the movie. She described the cast and crew of the movie as a “great mix of goofy people who could always keep the energy up, even on our long night shoots!”

The actress said that her favorite part of the movie was the battle scene involving her character and her friends against the ghost. “The reactions of the spectators of the track meet watching the ghost-lazering (I think I just made up a word!) action on the field always makes me crack up!” she said.

Laporte described “Clinger” as a “goofy, fun, high school romance gone wrong.” The actress hopes that the audience finds the movie to be “really funny” and said that it is “definitely a unique film.”