Hollywood returns to Columbus. Smiths Station grad’s movie filming in Georgia
The list of movies filmed in Columbus and the Chattahoochee Valley continues to grow. Now, another one is being produced here.
“Southern Scares,” billed as a horror-mystery and a supernatural thriller, began filming Aug. 16 in Columbus and is scheduled to wrap Aug. 31, the Columbus Film Office announced in a news release.
The movie’s most notable actor is Dee Wallace, known for her roles in “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” “Cujo,” “The Frighteners” and “The Howling.”
The Columbus Film Office describes “Southern Scares” as a “‘90s-set thriller that blends mystery, horror and Southern folklore into what producers call a love letter to both the region and the era’s documentary horror boom.”
Midland resident Paul Rowe, a 2001 graduate of Smiths Station High School, is the “Southern Scares” writer and director. The Ledger-Enquirer last wrote about Rowe earlier this summer, when the pilot episode of a TV series titled “Going Postal” he is producing was screened at the National Infantry Museum in Columbus.
According to the Columbus Film Office, “Southern Scares” is a story about a character named Ellen, “a skeptical college student who discovers a box of lost VHS tapes containing episodes of an eerie, unfinished horror documentary series hosted by her missing sister, Roberta.”
The news release adds, “As Ellen watches the tapes, she unravels a chilling mystery involving haunted tunnels, forgotten cryptids and ghostly figures that may have been more than just stories. With each episode, Ellen pieces together clues about her sister’s disappearance while discovering that something sinister was watching Roberta all along.”
Rowe’s company, Last Caress Productions, intends to help the Chattahoochee Valley grow its reputation as a good place for filming.
“Columbus, LaGrange, West Point, Opelika, Auburn and Phenix City are a handful of small-to-medium cities clustered together on the western side of Georgia and the eastern side of Alabama,” Rowe said in the news release. “Our small but mighty film community is based in this area, mainly Columbus, an hour and a half down the road from one of the largest film communities in the world: Atlanta, Georgia. After Atlanta, there is a steep drop-off in TV and film development. We want to change that.”
What movies have been filmed in Columbus, Ga.?
Other Hollywood features filmed in the Columbus area in the past six years include:
- Tim Blake Nelson’s “The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd,” starring Amanda Seyfried and Scoot McNairy. A release date hasn’t been announced.
- “The Razor’s Edge,” starring James Franco and Tommy Lee Jones. A release date hasn’t been announced.
- “The Neon Highway,” starring Beau Bridges and Rob Mayes. Released in 2024.
- “Cash Out,” starring John Travolta and Kristin Davis. Released in 2024.
- “The Long Night,” later titled “Survive the Night,” starring Bruce Willis. Released in 2020.
This story was originally published August 28, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
