Top movie in America during pandemic is by Detroit brothers and was filmed in Michigan – Detroit Free Press

Poster for 'The Wretched,' a horror film by directors/writers Brett and Drew Pierce.(Photo: 'The Wretched')

Brett and Drew Pierce are 2020's most unexpectedkings of the box office.

Their new movie"The Wretched," shot in Michigan's Leelanau Peninsula, has heldthe topspot inbox-office earningssince it openedMay 1, according to Box Office Mojo.

How did a low-budget horror film become number one in the nation? Withmultiplexes and art-house theaters across the country shut downby the COVID-19 crisis,drive-in theaters are having a moment in some states.

And since Hollywood has stopped releasing new movies temporarily, the little indiewritten and directed by the Pierce brothers who grew up in Detroit and Royal Oak is providing those old-fashioned outdoor sites with some thrills and chills.

"The Wretched" earned nearly $66,000 at about a dozen drive-ins on its first weekend. Since then, it's expanded to about 21sites and reached$332,000 in earnings, a drop in the bucket of Hollywood's usual top receipts. (For comparison, the number-one movie for allof 2020 so far, "Bad Boys for Life," made$419million worldwide before quarantining began).

But first place is first place, no matter the total. This weekend, "The Wretched" will triple its screeninglocations.

"Now they're bumping it into 60 (sites), starting this Friday," says Brett Pierce, who'sbased in Los Angeles, as is his brother.

The siblings, who wrote and directed the project together,have roots in horror story-telling through their father, Bart Pierce. He didspecial effects for 1981's "Evil Dead," theshoestring-budget cult classic by Detroit's own Sam Raimithat spawned a franchise and had a bigimpact onthe future of scary movies.

Their dad is particularly noted for teamingup with another artist, Tom Sullivan, to create the effects for the epic bloodbath of the film's finale.

Brett Pierce says his father and Sullivan essentially took over the basement of hisfamily's Detroit home to completethe effects. He was a toddler at the time andwandered downstairs once without anyone noticing.

Just then, the gory ending was being projected on a large screen. After that, the story goes,Pierce pretty muchstayed out of the basement until he moved to Royal Oak in his teen years.

These days, Pierce, 42, very much appreciates the connection to "Evil Dead" and his father's role in it.

In a way, he notes, "The Wretched" is taking the same path as Raimi's career-making debut.

"When ('Evil Dead') came out, it wasn't rated, so normal theaters wouldn't play it. But drive-ins would. It's cool to follow in my dad's footsteps this way."

Drew Pierce (left) and Brett Pierce, the sibling team that wrote and directed 'The Wretched' horror movie.(Photo: 'The Wretched')

"The Wretched" isdescribed as the story of a teenage boy who's fighting a thousand-year-old witch posing as the neighbor of his soon-to-be-divorced parents.

Pierce calls it "three years of blood, sweat and tears for my brother and I." Their goal was to make a "fun, summer roller-coaster horror movie" during a shoot that was a family affair.

Filming took place mostly in Northport and Omena, two picturesque towns in the Traverse City region, because Drew Pierce's in-laws live around there.

Their dad pitched in to handle some necessary grunt work. "We always joke that we busted him down to a production assistant," says Brett Pierce. "He'd go pick up actors at the airport. He'd get lunch for us."

Their mother and stepfather did the craft services, aka thefood and beverages for the cast and crew.

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Both parents came in handy during crowd shots. "Hopefully, nobody looks too hard, because you'dprobably find my mom and dad in the background" of several scenes, jokes Pierce.

Pierce's nephew, Drew's son Owen, also had anon-camera role. He appears in the movie as ababy targeted by the witch.

This is the second horror movie fromthe brothers, who made a2011 zombie comedy "Deadheads," also shot in Michigan.

"The Wretched" had its premiere atthe 2019 Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal, a well-known gathering for genre movies. It also played last year at the Traverse City Film Festival, where "Deadheads" had screened previously toa sold-out audience.

Pierce says he was in hismid-20s when he moved to Los Angeles. He is one of several friends from Royal Oak's Dondero High School who worked together at the school's public access TV station and now make theirliving in TV and movies on the West Coast.

The "Evil Dead" team is still in contactwith the brothers. Pierce sees its star, BruceCampbell, about once a year. And not long before the Fantasia event last year, he says, "we were able to get Sam to sit down with us and watch the movie in a private screening and he really liked it."

Adds Pierce, "It was a huge confidence booster."

Scene from 'The Wretched,' a 2020 horror movie about a teen battling a 1,000-year-old witch.(Photo: 'The Wretched')

Pierce says it feels good to provide some entertainment in these tough times. Besides playing at drive-ins, "The Wretched" is available on several streaming platforms.

"It'sa nice way to give people a little bit of escapism in the dark...The movie really fits with a drive-in. It's fun. It's got monsters in it. It's teenagers in summertime."

"The Wretched" also is the pride and joy oftwo newly dedicated followers of film industry earnings:

Says Pierce with a laugh, "My parents look at Box Office Mojo every morning now."

Contact Detroit Free Press pop culture critic Julie Hinds at jhinds@freepress.com.

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Top movie in America during pandemic is by Detroit brothers and was filmed in Michigan - Detroit Free Press