Miami native Aimee Carrero is having quite the busy year, and 2014 has barely gotten started. It was recently announced that Carrero's new sitcom pilot, Young & Hungry, was picked up by ABC, and later on in February, she will guest star on FX's The Americans. And out today in theaters, you can also catch her in Devil's Due.
Filmed last summer in New Orleans, Devil's Due draws its inspiration from the classic 80's cult film, Rosemary's Baby, with a splash of the modern era and Paranormal Activity style video recording.
"The movie is filmed in a 'found footage' style that really allows for a kind of mystery, and the things that scare us the most are those we don't see," Carrero says. She also adds that she believes it's the team of filmmakers, Radio Silence, who make the film stand apart from others like it; "they bring a newness and innovation that is really refreshing."
Basically, explains Carrero, "it's about this girl who gets pregnant with the devil's baby... and I play the comic relief." Her character, Emily, is like family to Sam (Allison Miller), the devil's baby mama, because the two grew up together as orphans and share a special bond, she says. "Emily is a window into her otherwise mysterious past."
While filming the movie, Carrero recalls wondering whether people would get scared from watching the finished product; "It wasn't scary when we were filming it because you know everybody, what you're doing in a particular scene, and what's coming next." Yet, she does admit that when she saw the trailer months later, "I freaked out because it was so scary!" Part of what contributed to her fear might have been her own personal - and goosebumps-inducing - memories of her time spent in New Orleans.
As it turns out, Carrero and the crew stayed in a haunted hotel during production. "The movie was really fun to do - we shot in New Orleans during the summer and we got to stay in a haunted hotel," she says in passing. Wait, what? Did she just say "haunted"?
Adding with a laugh, she says how nobody wanted to admit that fact at first, but towards the end of their stay and after many sleepless nights were showing on people's faces, someone dared to ask if something weird was going on at their hotel. After that, everyone started sharing their ghost stories and creepy happenings.
Oh, NOLA.
Carrero says she immediately felt the creeps when she walked into the old hotel and was given a giant, three-bedroom suite for her petite self. The first night she was there, she decided to watch a bit of comedy on television before bed. "I was in bed with all my lights on watching some comedy special on HBO, and the character on the TV said an expletive and I heard somebody go 'shhhh' right next to me!"
Naturally, she freaked and didn't sleep a wink that night. It didn't help that at 3 a.m. that same night she got a knock on the door from an elderly woman who was accusing Carrero of being in her apartment. "I don't even know why I opened the door, but when I called the front desk, they were just like, 'Oh, that's Nancy!'" she says, with a wave of her hand. The hotel was part hospice, "so not only was it haunted, it's not even the ghost of Tennessee Williams but instead Bill from down the hall!"
"It was definitely part of the experience," she says with a warm laugh.
Though the film was shot in New Orleans, this past week, residents of New York City were treated to their own devil baby roaming the streets. In this hilariously creepy promo for the movie, a mechanical baby with a demonic face is put in a stroller and pops out when people approach it. At one point, the baby even throws up white goop.
"At first I had no idea it had anything to do with the film and found it really disturbing," says Carrero about the video. "I was more scared watching that thing pop out at people than I was making this movie! That baby is my worst nightmare."
Devil's Due hits theaters today.
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