Naman Shrestha
Under the direction of Elliott Lester, ‘The Thicket’ is a Western crime drama movie adapted from the eponymous 2014 novel by Joe R. Lansdale. The narrative centers on a young man named Jack whose life turns upside down when a ruthless, violent killer known as Cut Throat Bill abducts his sister, Lula, with the help of her gang. In order to rescue her sister and ensure her safety, Jack turns to a bounty hunter named Reginald Jones, who hires a couple of unlikely heroes to help him in his mission.
That includes a grave-digging ex-slave named Eustace Hollow and a clever sex worker named Jimmie Sue. As the band of misfits embarks on a mission to track Cut Throat Bill, they find themselves in a sinister no-man’s-land called The Big Thicket. Set at the turn of the century in West Texas, the thriller movie stars Peter Dinklage, Juliette Lewis, Esme Creed-Miles, Levan Hawke, and Leslie Grace, with the titular place being home to all things evil and chaotic.
The Thicket Filming Locations
Initially, ‘The Thicket’ was scheduled to be filmed in Spain, but the plan got derailed and postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Later, the shooting took place entirely in Alberta, particularly in Greater Calgary. According to reports, principal photography for the Peter Dinklage starrer got underway around late February or early March 2023 and continued for a month or so before wrapping up in the first week of April of the same year. During the shoot, the cast and crew endured extreme winter conditions, which led to the production shutting down a few times when temperatures fell below -35 degrees Celsius.
Greater Calgary, Alberta
Most of the pivotal sequences for ‘The Thicket’ were lensed across Greater Calgary, which includes the city of Calgary and several surrounding municipalities. For the purpose of shooting, the filming unit mostly utilized the locales of the rural areas just outside Calgary to depict West Texas from a bygone era. The cast and crew members reportedly set up camp at the CL Western Town, located west of the city of Calgary and the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The period film studio is home to many 19th and 20th-century buildings with finished interiors, period streets, a school, a church, and all other necessary amenities, making it an ideal shooting site for the period drama.
The production team also took over Albertina Farms, situated near the Bow River, and made the most of its unique backlots, natural landscapes, and a working ranch to shoot several key portions. Numerous important scenes for ‘The Thicket’ were also reportedly shot using the facilities and terrains of the Bow River Ranch Western Backlot in Glenbow, near the Springbank Airport. In addition, the Stoney Nakoda reserve (locally known as Mînî Thnî) and the Kananaskis Range also feature in the backdrop of various portions.
During a conversation with Screen Rant, the filmmaker Elliott Lester was asked about the shooting process in Calgary. He stated, “It was -35 degrees, it was the most brutal winds. I didn’t sit down the entire film. I was marveling at the crew in Calgary that they’re literally like mountain goats. I think it was, at times, really hard on the actors, because nothing can prepare you for that level of cold. They got through it. We try to make everyone as comfortable as you can, but it’s undeniable you’re out there freezing. In terms of preparation, I packed a lot of wooly socks and drank a lot of soup.”
Elaborating on the dedication of the crew members in Calgary, he also told Calgary Herald, “I’ve shot around the world and I’ve worked with dedicated crews. But I haven’t worked with a committed crew like that. They were able to deal with it. We were like, ‘How are you doing this? How are you pushing a dolly in -25?’ They were never complaining. We didn’t have one complaint. I’d love to come back and shoot another movie — in the summer.”
