The Rural We: Matt Greene-DeLanghe

Written in the Berkshires, filmed partly in the Berkshires, and now screening in the Berkshires: that’s the movie “Skelly,” starring Brian Cox. It was written and directed by Matt Greene-DeLanghe, a filmmaker who grew up in Great Barrington and still lives in the Berkshires. “Skelly,” based on his childhood experience of making a haunted house with his friends each Halloween, will be screened at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center on Sunday, October 13 at 4 p.m., and at The Adams Theater on Sunday, October 20 at 3 p.m. It’s also available for rent on Amazon Prime, Apple TV and Google Play.

I went to film school at NYU, but didn’t do much in film right after, just put it on the back burner. I started a food truck in Philmont and had some other misadventures. At some point I realized I still wanted to write and direct films. I wrote the screenplay for this movie back in 2009 but needed money to make it. I did a Kickstarter and pretty quickly realized that the most I’d get would let me make a short film, so I made a short film version, “The Year of the Haunted House.” It was a nice proof of concept to make a feature film.

“Skelly” is based on an actual haunted house my friends and I put on when we were kids. Ours was in a basement, but in the film it’s in a barn. We used my cousin’s big old barn in Ashley Falls (Massachusetts). The other main location we shot in was in Becket.

I wasn’t the one who hired Brian Cox — the producers did. This was at the time during the pandemic when big productions were shut down. It was a nice opportunity for independent films because actors were available to do small stuff.

The producers didn’t want to go the film festival route, so “Skelly” has been available on streaming services to rent since May. I’m excited about the local screenings, but actually a little nervous, too. You always wonder, what if nobody shows up? It’s been an interesting realization that we think of people — celebrities — as having it made, but there’s so much insecurity they deal with on a daily basis. Screening is exciting but nerve wracking, too. I’ve stepped into the realm that my work is out in the world and being commented on by people I don’t know.

I taught AP English at BART (Berkshire Arts and Technology Charter Public School), but now I’m teaching film production at Greenfield High School. I have another full-length screenplay I want to produce and I’m waiting to see if there’s enough momentum from “Skelly” to help push it forward.