Shelley Duvall’s Epic Conquest

Felissa Rose is America’s modern day “scream queen”; at 55, the veteran of 150 movies, most of them horror. But she was, she says, genuinely frightened knocking on the front door of the Texas home owned by Shelley Duvall. It was December 2022, and Duvall, star of one of the most acclaimed horror films of all time – Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining – had not made a film for 20 years. Today, she would break the drought.

The film, The Forest Hills, will finally be released next week, in a handful of US cinemas and digitally in the rest of the world. Duvall died three months ago from complications related to diabetes, and this was her final role. Directed by Scott Goldberg, the independent production stars the relatively unknown actor Chiko Mendez as Rico, a man who endures head trauma in the Catskill mountains and begins to experience “nightmare visions” of his mother (played by Duvall). Other stars include Edward Furlong and Dee Wallace, another scream queen, in a cameo role.

Duvall’s participation was a surprise to everyone. As well as being officially retired since 2002, she was using a wheelchair, couldn’t travel and struggled to remember lines. But such was her keenness that what was originally a cameo role (inspired by Jason Voorhees’ hallucinations of his mother, Pamela, in Friday the 13th) was significantly expanded and Goldberg, the actors and crew returned to Duvall’s home to continue filming.

From the moment Rose knocked on Duvall’s door, she says, she was nervous and excited. “I said to her, ‘I’m so nervous and excited.’ ‘I just love you, and may I have a hug?’ Shelley looked at me with these big, sparkly eyes, and said: ‘Of course!’ and embraced me. That’s when I started crying. She was so sweet, it was the most lovely scenario I could ever imagine.”

Goldberg had long admired Duvall and was thrilled to be working with her. He approached her through her longtime partner, Dan Gilroy, the former singer of Breakfast Club. “I didn’t hold out much hope. He passed along her number, we spoke, and she said she’d be interested. It was as simple as that.”

Born in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1949, Duvall grew up a few hours south in Houston, where her father was a lawyer and her mother worked in real estate. She made her name in a series of landmark 1970s classics, including seven films with director Robert Altman, who discovered her while she was still in college. Duvall made her debut in Brewster McCloud as a teenage tour guide, before starring as a mail-order bride in McCabe & Mrs Miller in 1971. Other collaborations between her and Altman included Thieves Like Us, Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson, and 3 Women, for which she won best actress at Cannes in 1977.

It is unclear exactly what motivated Duvall to return to acting for this role – Goldberg’s passion for her work and his offer to shoot at her house will probably have been motivating factors. But it’s also possible the film’s themes, including schizophrenia, touched a nerve following her appearance on Dr Phil.

According to Mendez, Duvall seemed incredibly excited to be working again. “Her face and smile just read ‘happy,’” he says. “One of my mottoes has always been to ‘surrender to the camera’ and Shelley nurtured that. We talked about every scene in detail, she made suggestions. I witnessed her plough through long hours and still stay on point. She kept me on my toes. We both loved every second of it.”

The film will be released in US cinemas on 4 October and digitally on 8 October.

FAQs:

* What was the motivation for Shelley Duvall to return to acting for The Forest Hills?
It is unclear, but it is possible the film’s themes, including schizophrenia, touched a nerve following her appearance on Dr Phil.
* How was Shelley Duvall’s experience working on The Forest Hills?
She was reported to be fully committed to the project, working long hours, and was thrilled to be back in front of the camera.
* What is the story of The Forest Hills?
The film tells the story of a man who endures head trauma in the Catskill mountains and begins to experience “nightmare visions” of his mother, played by Shelley Duvall.