Behind the Scenes: The Strange House, the Knife, and Filming Laird Barron

Director Philip Gelatt always knew the first shoot of First Word on Horror would set the tone for the entire series. What he didn’t know was just how much the atmosphere of that day would bleed into the final shape of the episodes.

Laird Barron’s interview and reading were the very first the team filmed. The challenge was finding the right space. They made the decision early on not to film in Laird’s own home. He was still recovering from serious illness, and they wanted to respect his space. So the production scouted a nearby house—one with enough room for a full crew, but more importantly, one that felt right.

What they found was a place caught between worlds: colonial-era bones with warped floors and rusted locks, stitched together with modern updates. The house itself seemed to hum with an uneasy energy.

There was one room that felt particularly off. An original bedroom, its floorboards buckling, its dimensions subtly wrong, with a flimsy old wooden door and a rusted bar to lock it shut. The crew chose not to film inside it, but its presence still made its way into the show. In the interview sections, light spills from behind that very door, casting an eerie glow behind Laird as he speaks—a haunting visual nod to the house’s quiet menace.

This was also a significant day for Laird personally. As Gelatt recalls, this was his first real trip out of the house since returning from the hospital. There were genuine concerns: would he have the energy to sit and talk for hours? Would he even be able to make it to set at all? But Laird arrived, and he delivered.

Between takes, something uncanny unfolded. Laird kept mentioning the science fiction and fantasy author Roger Zelazny, both on and off camera. Later, the crew discovered a stack of Zelazny paperbacks tucked away in the house’s collection—an eerie coincidence that didn’t go unnoticed.

For Laird’s final reading, filmed in a weathered shack behind the house, the crew faced a physical challenge. Thick weeds and thorn-covered vines choked the path. When Laird saw the struggle, he casually produced a knife from his pocket and handed it over. “Always carry a knife,” he said. “You never know…”

From the house to the man himself, the entire day felt like stepping into one of Laird’s own stories: shadowed, uncertain, but undeniably alive.

Share your favorite Laird Barron story in the comments—after all, what’s a horror story if not something to pass along?