Close to Home
Earlier this year, Kansas City filmmaker Clayton Scott made his directorial debut with the premiere of Below the Fold as part of Panic Film Fest at Screenland Armour in North KC.
Published November 17, 2021
Sitting on the banks of the Nodaway River, about 100 miles north of Kansas City, is the town of Skidmore, Missouri. With an estimated population of less than 200 people, this small town in rural America has quite the gruesome history. This is not to say that Skidmore is a hotbed of criminal activity per say. It is just that in the past 40 years, when crime does visit this otherwise sleepy town, it is quite violent or mysterious in nature.
In 1981, town bully Ken McElroy was shot to death while sitting in his truck in the middle of the day. After decades of theft, rape, arson, and violence that failed to result in his conviction, McElroy was shot by two different firearms outside of D&G Tavern in front of as many as 60 eyewitnesses. Despite an extensive federal investigation, none of the witnesses provided information that identified the shooter(s). To this day, no one has been charged in the killing of Ken McElroy. McElroy’s reign of terror in northwest Missouri, and his subsequent killing, was the subject of the New York Times bestseller In Broad Daylight.
Twenty years later, violence returned to Skidmore.
In 2000, Wendy Gillenwater was reportedly dragged from a car and stomped to death by her boyfriend Greg Dragoo. Gillenwater’s own mother was apparently only able to identify her body by her wedding ring.
A year later, 20 year old Branson Perry disappeared without a trace. As the story goes, Perry walked out of his house, telling a friend that he was going to place a pair of jumper cables in his shed, and has not been seen or heard from since.
In 2004, Perry's relative Bobbie Jo Stinnett was brutally murdered eight months into her pregnancy. The unborn infant was then cut from her womb with a kitchen knife and abducted by Stinnett’s murderer, Lisa Montgomery. Incredibly, the baby survived the incident and was eventually returned to her father.
It was this haunting series of real-life events, that served as the influence for Kansas City filmmaker Clayton Scott’s Below the Fold. Skidmore’s grisly past not only influenced the film. It made the town both the perfect backdrop for, and the focal point of, his movie.
Scott’s first feature-length picture, Below the Fold, is a suspenseful thriller that follows two Maryville Daily Forum reporters, David Fremont (portrayed by Davis DeRock) and Lisa Johnson (Sarah McGuire), as they investigate the unsolved missing persons case of Susie Potter a decade after she vanished. Initially, Fremont is charged with covering the upcoming anniversary of the Skidmore pre-teen’s mysterious disappearance but the newly hired Lisa Johnson, Fremont’s former flame, takes an interest in the story. As both Fremont and Johnson uncover new details about Potter’s disappearance (and discover a potential connection to a previous case, thought to be unrelated), a routine anniversary piece becomes a full-on journalistic investigation in the spirit of Zodiac and All The President’s Men.
Growing up in Missouri’s smallest county, Worth County, Below the Fold writer and director* Clayton Scott has long been fascinated by the nearby town of Skidmore.
“Skidmore was right next door. Growing up, you would hear stories about the town, and, you know, the different weird crimes that happened there … People in Skidmore, they want to say, ‘We’re a normal town’ but they’re not. Sadly, they’re not. This stuff doesn’t happen! It doesn’t happen in small towns like ours. [Skidmore] had that succession of three weird crimes when I was growing up and that impacted me”, Scott explained.
Particularly, the fictitious case of a 12 year old girl who disappeared without a trace while stepping outside to retrieve her Bible from her sister’s car, was inspired by the mystery that surrounds the real-life disappearance of Skidmore’s Branson Perry.
“[Below the Fold] started with this idea of how creepy it is for someone to go missing and how that’s elevated by never finding out what happens. As time goes on, your imagination can run wild. What happened to them? There’s so many theories you can have. Branson Perry was a case like that. He was just gone. There’s been developments but nothing concrete. That was a big jumping off point. … There were other cases [that inspired the movie] but that was the main one.”
When Scott began writing Below the Fold in 2013, he was living in Southern California. In 2014, he returned to the Midwest and made his home in Kansas City. He worked on the screenplay off-and-on for the better part of three years before sharing it with his wife Sara on Valentine’s Day in 2016. A few months later, he began location scouting around Kansas City and in northwestern Missouri.
“It was always going to be Skidmore.”
By fall of that year, Scott felt great about his final draft of the script and in November of 2016, he began casting for his movie. Scott comprised an entire case of actors and actresses local to the Kansas City area or northwestern Missouri. Not only was the cast local, but the vast majority of the crew was as well. With the then unnamed film casted, Scott was ready to shoot in the Spring of 2017. But then, the film’s first delay came.
“Sarah (McGuire) wasn’t able to film in the spring,” explained Scott. When asked if he ever considered recasting the co-lead of Lisa Johnson, Scott immediately dismissed the notion. “She was perfect. I told her, ‘We’re doing this with you.’ I wasn’t about to lose Sarah. After I saw her, I could not imagine anyone else as Lisa.” Now set to begin filming in the Fall of 2017, Scott’s efforts were nearly derailed once again. Three weeks before they were set to film, his cinematographer left the project.
This led to Iain Tremble taking the reins. “He’s the best cinematographer I’ve ever worked with,” Scott declared. “He’s very talented. I believe you’ll see him on bigger projects in the future. Iain’s someone to watch.” Filming began on location, in northwest Missouri in Fall of 2017.
In talking with Scott about his movie, it became apparent how much these locations meant to him. I asked him, "I don’t think you shot here for budgetary reasons. I don’t think it was because it was convenient. If you were still living on the West Coast, I believe you would have found a way to make this movie in Skidmore. How important was it to film this on location, here in Missouri?”
“It was always going to be Skidmore. It was always going to be Maryville and Worth County,” Scott verified. He admitted the challenges that would have arisen in California to create an authentic look-and-feel. “A big part of going into it was finding those locations. I did not have the money to do a lot of production design. You can add some elements. Take some away. But finding these locations was crucial to the feel of the film,” Scott explained to me. He expressed how grateful he was that everything worked out to shoot the movie back home with actors and actresses local to the area. Many of the extras in the film were actual Skidmore and Maryville locals.
And in every literal sense of the phrase, Clayton Scott really did return home to film Below the Fold. Over the course of 10 weekends that fall and winter, his parents often housed and fed members of the cast and crew. The making of the movie was a family affair. “This thing doesn’t happen without my family,” stressed Scott. Scott’s siblings, in-laws, and extended family members are recurring entries in the film’s credits due to their contributions.
By the Fall of 2019, the film was a finished product and under lock and key. “Even those little last minute tune-ups were done in 2019.” Below the Fold was set to premiere at the KC Film Fest in April, 2020 but of course, the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted those plans.
Even with the uncertainty of the pandemic, Scott was never tempted to jump the gun, so to speak, and seek out alternative ways to release his film to the public. He remained patient, hopeful that the opportunity to share his film as it was intended would come. “The goal was always to premiere it at a theater. The first time I wanted someone to see it was at a theater. At least locally, Kansas City, Maryville, Worth County … I wanted them to have the opportunity to see it in a theater. We made it for a 40 foot screen, not a four inch screen. I believe that the cinema is the best way to see our movie.”
Even when there were opportunities to debut the movie in a drive-in setting, Scott remained patient amidst the frustration of having to wait to premiere his film. “Brighter movies and lighter movies play well in a drive-in. What we did was too dark in tone and too dark visually for that medium.” Beyond the medium, Scott had two very specific theaters in mind for his film. “I always wanted to play it at Screenland [Armour] and the Hangar^.”
“I always wanted to play it at Screenland [Armour] and the Hangar.””
364 days after it was originally intended to premiere, Below the Fold played before a sold-out theater at the Screenland Armour as part of the film festival, Panic Fest on April 15, 2021. (It would also have a second showing that weekend as part of Panic Fest.) At last, Below the Fold would grace the silver screen. And on that day, I was there, at my favorite theater in town, to catch the directorial debut of Kansas City’s own Clayton Scott.
The cast of Below the Fold poses for a picture with writer-director Clayton Scott (fourth from right) after the film’s world premiere at the Screenland Armour in North Kansas City. PHOTO CREDIT - Jessica Wigger
Below the Fold is driven by the performances of the film’s leads, Davis DeRock (who plays David Fremont) and Sarah McGuire (who plays Lisa Johnson). The chemistry between the two on the screen is so natural as they perfectly capture the complicated relationship between David Fremont and Lisa Johnson. The combination of ever-present angst from having a romantic past with one another, mutual professional admiration and respect, journalistic integrity, and the obvious concern for one another’s well-being presents the viewer with a relationship that is somehow concurrently seamless and has easily identifiable layers. DeRock’s and McGuire’s interaction on the screen achieves perfection in how flawed it is. It feels so real. Lisa Johnson is the fiery, eager reporter with a sense of justice who wants to be the hero and has a tendency to let her frustrations get the best of her. David Fremont is the pragmatic professional who has been in the same job for way too long and is reinvigorated by an actual story to tell but sometimes lets procedure get in the way of storytelling. Despite their differences, both are united in their pursuit of the truth.
DeRock and McGuire bring these characters to life and make them worth caring about. Neither character would be worthy of our attention without the other. David Fremont and Lisa Johnson are yin and yang. Their on-screen compatibility is critical in carrying the plot of this dialogue-heavy movie. Scott deserves a lot of praise for not only writing such a perfect relationship, but finding the stars locally who could properly convey it.
“After I saw [Sarah McGuire], I could not imagine anyone else as Lisa.”
And speaking of Sarah McGuire, I completely understand why Clayton Scott was willing to delay his entire production to keep her on board. She was a revelation! Her versatility and range as an actress, in many ways, dictates the emotional journey of the viewer during Scott’s 90 minute thriller. She has such a mastery of nonverbal communication that lends itself to a special ability to make the viewer feel what her character is feeling. Davis DeRock turned in a similarly excellent performance. Additionally, Scott Lucas really shines in his role as Matthew Donovan. While only in a handful of scenes, Lucas’s believable portrayal commands the audience’s attention in his few appearances.
Scott was quick to remind me that there was more to this than a great cast. “My cinematographer and my entire team were crucial in bringing this entire story to life.” The composition was most noteworthy. The use of sound, and deliberate silences, sets the disturbing tone for Scott’s slow-burn thriller. Incredibly, Below the Fold was scored, in its entirety, at a distance. Originally from Hong Kong, and now Los Angeles, composer Ho-Ling Tang was one of the few members of the crew who is not local to the area. She collaborated with Scott via email, telephone, and video-conferencing platforms to create the music for the film. An already impressive sound design, is made even more remarkable when you realize that Tang was never once on location.
Below the Fold writer-director Clayton Scott and his wife Sara at Panic Film Fest on April 15, 2021. Scott first presented his script to Sara on Valentine’s Day, 2016. Sara appears in one of the movie’s scenes. PHOTO CREDIT - Jessica Wigger
You might recall that to keep McGuire on board as Lisa Johnson, Scott had postponed his initial spring production to the fall. Much like landing a new cinematographer right before production, this turned out to be another happy accident in my eyes. Given the tone of Scott’s film, the grays, browns, greens, and oranges of a Missouri fall play better than spring ever could have. Even Scott admitted this was true. “We pushed to the fall and, aesthetically, it was a blessing. It worked perfectly.” The dreary fall and winter seasons permitted the crew to introduce limited instances of bright color in an ironic, and almost mocking, manner that provided stunning contrast. Autumnal rural Missouri was the perfect canvas for Scott’s first foray into feature length films.
In many ways, that aesthetic served as a metaphor for many of the movie’s themes. Majestic trees with brilliant orange and yellow leaves that seem to be full of life but are actually dying. Bright green lawns that seem perfect on the surface but in the fall of Missouri, are muddy underneath. Below the Fold peels back the veneer of small-town America and shows how a rural town’s greatest strengths can also be its Achilles’ heel. Scott presents a holistic view of rural America rarely seen in cinema. He showcases the greatness of these communities while simultaneously exposing the downside of, and even darkness, that can exist within them. Scott shows how picturesque places like Skidmore, Maryville, and Worth County truly are but he also presents run-down, abandoned, and weathered parts of the same towns. He captures how a place can be beautiful, but in decay, all at once. Just like his writing of David Fremont and Lisa Johnson’s characters, Clayton Scott strikes indisputable balance.
He turns the stereotypical strengths of small towns on their ear to expose the shadowy underbelly of these traits. Rural America has long been presented as a bastion of American morality but Scott goes deeper to show the power that institutions like local schools, the church, and legal entities wield in such small towns. Scott’s film explores the lack of accountability in these communities and how easy it could be for those in positions of authority and trust to abuse their stations. Towns like Skidmore and Grant City are often portrayed as neighborly, close-knit communities where everyone knows everyone else. Below the Fold’s version of these communities share everything among their residents which, much like the famed McElroy case, also includes their silence. The film shows that while small towns can be incredibly supportive they can also be quick to ostracize. The movie takes a deep dive into this idea that this exact sense of community can be your saving grace can just as easily be your downfall. Much of the movie is a commentary on small town politics and how they can exalt those who they deem worthy of exaltation and condemn those that feel like the “right people” to condemn. That was a constant, underlying theme that resonates long after the final credits have rolled.
“Don’t be surprised if no one talks to me. This is Skidmore.”
These themes were especially disturbing to me. Never before has a movie hit so close to home as Below the Fold did. As I sat in the theater at Screenland Armour after watching Below the Fold, it was amazing to think about the path that took writer-director Clayton Scott from such humble origins to debuting a feature-length movie in downtown Kansas City.
After the conclusion of Below the Fold on April 15, I caught up with the director’s sister, Jessica Wigger. For Scott, this film was a family affair and that showed at the premiere.
Obvious to me, Below the Fold hit so close to home for me because the images were of MY home. I have no qualms about referring to the writer-director’s origins as humble because they were MY origins. For the entirety of our youth, Clayton Scott and I both called Worth County home.
The settings for Below the Fold are very real places to me. The Worth County Courthouse in Grant City, Oldtowne Cafe in Allendale, Snakebite bar in Sheridan, and the Public Library in Maryville are all places I know very, very well. The Methodist Church in Sheridan and the house used as the home of the youth minister in the film were both places where Clayton Scott and I actually attended Youth Group.
The Nodaway County Courthouse, Maryville Daily Forum, and the main stretch of Skidmore are places I have driven by countless times. For those more local to Kansas City and the surrounding area, you may recognize the exterior shot of the Ladybird Diner in Lawrence, KS or the interior of the Cafe Pony Espresso in downtown St. Joseph, MO.
The faded billboard in the early part of the movie asking for information on the abduction of Susie Potter in the countryside of rural Missouri? It is virtually identical to the billboards that I remember seeing for Branson Perry’s disappearance when I was in high school. It is clear how much this case influenced Clayton Scott’s writing. The news clips from KQ2**? That is the news station in St. Joe that would have covered such an incident. Many of the surnames used in the film are well known family names^^ in Nodaway and Worth counties. I understand how the allure of these incidents in nearby Skidmore intrigued Scott and influenced his writing because as he put it, things like Skidmore’s succession of violent, mysterious crimes “… doesn’t happen in small towns like ours.” There was always a cloud of intrigue surrounding Skidmore in neighboring communities. I mean, I clearly remember being on a waitlist to check out In Broad Daylight from the school library.
While part of the setting for Below the Fold was the actual town where I grew up, the film presents a fictional version of Skidmore, of Maryville, and of Worth County. Therefore, it was not as much the physical locations as it was the depths of the themes that Scott explored, and the way he presented rural Missouri, that caused this movie to hit so close to home for me.
In my conversation with Clayton Scott after I saw Below the Fold for the first time, we discussed how thankful we were to grow up where we did. Neither one of us would have wanted to grow up anywhere other than Worth County. It was an amazing place to come of age. That being said, the portrait of small town America that Scott does present carries a lot of truth within it. The small town politics that his film hits on helped to shape my adolescence.
“Never before had a movie hit so close to home.”
In many cases, small towns are pleasant and charming but can simultaneously be in absolute physical decay with ever-shrinking populations. A beautiful two-story farmhouse with a carefully manicured lawn can sit next door to an abandoned house with busted windows that is one more wind storm away from falling in on itself. Many small towns are not so dissimilar from the beautiful, majestic trees with dying leaves that are of often on display during the fall. In the case of Skidmore, Maryville, and Worth County, he captured some of the most beautiful and some of the most run-down, unsettling places in each town. He did not need to manipulate the locations. As Scott put it, “I just had to let Skidmore do its thing.”
Sarah McGuire steals the show with her portrayal of Lisa Johnson. This scene was filmed inside Allendale, Missouri’s Oldtowne Cafe. Below the Fold utilized neon green light shone through the blinds to meld the Oldtowne Cafe’s interior and the exterior of Lawrence’s Ladybird Diner into a single restaurant. PHOTO COURTESY OF Below the Fold (2021), Mutiny Pictures
Beyond the physical depiction of the region, the real power of Below the Fold is how Scott addresses some of the uncomfortable truths about small-town America. In pushing those weaknesses to their darkest, seediest, most extreme conclusions, Scott provides a powerful commentary on towns like Skidmore. As mentioned, most notable is the light Scott shines on the potential harm that can be caused by such close-knit, secluded communities and the potential danger of small town politics.
Sure, Scott creates, what some may consider to be, farfetched circumstances to push the envelope of small town politics for the sake of Hollywood entertainment. That, however, does not make these scenarios unrealistic. As a matter of opinion, the fictional disappearance of Susie Potter, and subsequent investigation in Below the Fold, seems more realistic than some of the actual events that have transpired in Skidmore in the past forty years.
While the low-budget***, independent film is not without its shortcomings, Clayton Scott and his crew made exceptional use of obviously, limited resources. The overall visual and sound design of the movie are tremendous. David DeRock and Sarah McGuire were fantastic. Aside from the local ties, their performances alone are reason enough to see this movie.
Clayton Scott is a longtime David Fincher fan, so it hardly surprised me that there were a few Fincher-esque elements to his tension-filled movie. Scott has often described himself as a person more interested in questions than answers. The questions presented in Below the Fold provide a number of twists and turns that will keep audiences on the edge of their seats for 90 minutes.
Speaking of seat edges, that is exactly where Scott and his entire team have been ever since Below the Fold premiered in April. After months of patiently waiting, a wider audience will finally have an opportunity to see this movie. Just last week, Mutiny Pictures announced they will be distributing Below the Fold and that it will be available for video-on-demand beginning on November 23.
In another development, there will also be an opportunity for movie-goers in northwest Missouri to see Below the Fold on the big screen, prior to being available to rent and buy on select streaming platforms next week.
Yesterday, it was announced that Below the Fold will have a limited release at The Hangar in Maryville, Missouri this weekend. It will play at 7:00pm on Friday, November 19 and Saturday, November 20. Each showing will be followed by a Q & A with the cast and crew. At long last, those in Skidmore, Maryville, and Worth County will have an opportunity to see the movie that was filmed in their backyards, as it was intended - at the cinema.
For Clayton Scott, getting to see his movie on the screen where he watched so many movies in high school and college as an aspiring filmmaker, is a dream come true. When the year began, Scott was uncertain when or how Below the Fold would ever play in theaters. Now, as 2021 draws to a close, he will have seen his creation feature at the two theaters he always dreamed of.
For those of us in Kansas City, we will have to wait a few more days to catch Below the Fold via on-demand streaming. I am hopeful that people in northwest Missouri will flock to The Hangar this weekend and that next week, Kansas Citians will take advantage of the opportunity to support local film. Scott and his entire team, of course, share that sentiment. “Support for indie films is so big, especially if we’re going to make another [movie]. And I want to make the next one!” Scott is already looking ahead to future projects and revealed he’s in the early stages of working on the script for his next story.
I remember the first time I saw a Clayton Scott film. It was about 15 years ago. I had come home from college and my younger brothers, Connor and Logan, had assisted Clayton and his friend Alec Ware^^^ with a video project for a history class and they wanted to show it to me. It could not have been more than 10 minutes in length. Considering that Clayton’s older brother Charles was one of my best friends growing up, I recall watching a number of Clayton’s videos and projects after seeing that first one.
As I sat at the Screenland Armour earlier this year, and finally got to view the movie that he had been working on for years, Below the Fold only confirmed something that I have long known - Clayton Scott is an incredibly talented storyteller.
At the conclusion of the premiere, Scott and his entire cast took questions from the audience. That was when I had an opportunity to ask him about the importance of making the film here in Missouri. Scott’s passion for the area where he grew up and his excitement to make this movie in Kansas City were beyond evident.
And I believe that the people of Kansas City, should be equally excited to have this writer-director among the newest entrants in our growing film scene.
The 411
Below the Fold (2021)
Directed by Clayton Scott
Starring Davis DeRock & Sarah McGuire
Run Time: 92 minutes
Limited Theatrical Release at Hangar Cinema on November 19 and 20. Purchase Tickets HERE.
Available Beginning November 23, 2021 Via: Amazon Video, Comcast Video-On-Demand (VOD), Cox VOD, DISH, Google Video, InDemand, iTunes, Redbox VOD, Spectrum On-Demand, & Vudu
www.belowthefoldmovie.com | Facebook | Twitter
This Film Has Not Yet Been Rated. Parental Discretion is Advised.
Those Pesky Endnotes That I Often Insist Upon
* As a big fan of Quentin Tarantino and his movies, I always appreciate, and am so impressed by, those who both write and direct their own films.
^ The Hangar is an aviation-themed movie theater in Maryville, Missouri, where Clayton Scott attended Northwest Missouri State University. Aside from his own familiarity, and the movie being centered around two reporters from the Maryville Daily Forum, the Hangar is the closest movie theater of note to the three main settings of Below the Fold - Skidmore, Maryville, and Worth County. It makes a lot of sense that Scott would want his film to play here.
** Clayton Scott’s KQ2 connection was another person from Worth County, Jason Davidson. Davidson was actually the person who first proposed the film’s name, Below the Fold.
^^ In fact, a number of the surnames that seem to be passive dialogue or minor characters are actually the names of families in Worth County that Clayton Scott is related to.
*** How low budget? There are many who would actually consider “micro budget” to be a more apt descriptor. While I will not divulge the number, viewers should note that dozens of Indiegogo contributors are individually named and thanked in Below the Fold’s credits. Among the names I recognized were many members of Scott’s family and one member of my own family - my younger brother Connor who once aided Clayton on his video projects.
^^^ Alec Ware was often the lead in Clayton Scott’s earliest projects and has a minor role as Adam Henry in Below the Fold.
Have you had a chance to watch “Below the Fold” yet? What were your thoughts? What other local Kansas City movies should I watch this year? Let me hear it in the comments!
