by Jeannie Curry
Contributing Writer

Tony Doupé sat at his office desk, watching a trailer for the horror movie “Frayed” play on his computer screen. The footage was full of action and the music was tense, but Doupé, the film’s star, looked indifferent.

“I don’t mind making them (horror films),” he said. “I just don’t like watching them.”

In “Frayed,” Doupé stars as Sheriff Pat Baker, a Washington man who tries to protect his family and town when his deranged son Kurt escapes from a mental hospital 13 years after beating his own mother to death.

The film premiered at the Mann Chinese Theater during Screamfest, a horror film festival in Hollywood, CA, and won the Best Cinematography award at the International Horror and Sci-Fi Film Festival in Tempe, Arizona.

The “Frayed” website advertises, “suspense, terror and one of the most brutally graphic scenes ever depicted on film,” and Doupé confirms these claims.

Shoreline students who have seen Doupé around campus probably know him as a drama and cinema instructor, teaching classes and directing plays. But they may not realize that Doupé is also a working actor with more than 100 commercials, 10 television episodes and 30 feature films to his name, not to mention 17 years of regional theater productions.

His resume includes roles in big star-driven films such as “The Ring” and “Life or Something Like It,” as well as many locally produced independent films.

Born and raised in Washington, Doupé received his Masters in Theater Arts from the California Institute of the Arts and stayed in Los Angeles for two years after earning his degree, primarily directing theater productions.

In California, however, he had to contend with what he terms “The Curse of Seattle,” the compulsion to compare every other city with Seattle, “the most beautiful place in the world.” He returned to the city to start a family and now works primarily on films that shoot locally.

Thanks in large part to people like Doupé, the independent film scene is thriving right now in Seattle as filmmakers take advantage of the wealth of local acting talent and skilled crews.

“Seattle is a theater town,” said Doupé. “It breeds good actors.”

In addition, Western Washington is a popular place to film horror movies, because the landscape and the frequent gray weather complement the “gloom and doom” setting that directors try to create.

“Frayed” was written and produced by three childhood friends from Kent who reunited to form the production company Lock It In Entertainment. The three cast Seattle-area actors, and the film was shot over the course of three weeks in various locations around Washington in September 2005.

Post-production on the film began in early 2006 and took just over a year to complete.

Shooting in such a short period of time was hard, Doupé says. Most of the filming was done at night, so Doupé often arrived on campus straight from the set. “Sleeping was not an option,” he says. “But you kind of got used to it.”

Film festivals provide many independent films with the chance to be picked up by distributors. Screamfest is one of the most respected horror movie festivals in the country, and it was an honor for “Frayed” to be screened, Doupé says.

The majority of films showcased at Screamfest get distribution, either for release in theaters or to go directly to DVD, according to the festival website.

“People in the industry seemed to like it,” Doupé says of the film’s festival screenings. “They don’t have to lie to you. If they think it’s a piece of crap, they’ll tell you it’s a piece of crap.”