This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
*Anchored Lens Productions’ new indie thriller “The Grove” has horror fans buzzing, not just for its chilling storyline, but also because it was filmed on the famously haunted Lake Lanier in Georgia.
In an exclusive interview, stars Acoryé White and Guxci opened up about their characters, the inspiration behind the film, and their eerie experience shooting on a site with a deeply haunted history.
Meet Imani and TJ: The Heart and Soul… Until Madness Strikes
In “The Grove,” Guxci plays Imani, a vibrant character who acts as “the mastermind in the movie.” She explained, “She’s the one who gets all of the people together to go to the woods and have a little getaway. She’s the fun one. She’s the glue of all the friends. So, over time, she quickly realizes that she probably shouldn’t have invited everyone on this trip.”
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White, who also co-wrote and co-directed the film, plays TJ, a soldier whose dreams of a normal life unravel into violent chaos.
“TJ, he’s the guy who wants to have that traditional life of like… I don’t want to be the stereotypical Black guy. I want to be a provider, and I’m willing to do whatever it takes to get it. And whatever it took probably wasn’t the best idea,” White said. As tension rises, TJ’s “military instincts start to kick in,” leading to explosive conflict among the friends.
A Soldier’s Descent into Madness: A New Kind of Story
While “The Grove” plunges deep into psychological horror, White said the story isn’t directly personal, but it is deeply purposeful.
“It’s wanting to see something different for once. And kind of be able to see someone that looks like me in a non-Marvel film,” he explained. “We don’t get to tell those stories most of the time because they’re not greenlit. So once you can greenlight it yourself, you want to make something different.”
Inspired in part by superhero narratives, White envisioned “The Grove” as a way to show a Black soldier’s complex, human struggle, outside the constraints of genre stereotypes.
Filming on Lake Lanier: Beauty, Fear, and a Haunted Legacy
The setting for “The Grove” became a character in its own right, and the cast and crew could feel its presence.
“When we first got to set, all of us had our phones out, just recording, exploring everything,” Guxci shared. “And then it gets dark. Every time we had to leave our trailer back to the house or vice versa, we had someone walk us. It’s eerie. We’re in the middle of the woods. There’s no street lights at all.”
Guxci admitted to a “love and hate relationship” with the property. Learning about Lake Lanier’s dark past–its burial of communities, graves, and particularly Oscarville, a thriving Black town wiped out/forcibly displaced by white residents in the early 20th century–weighed heavily on her mind.
“When I first got there, I was like, I don’t know about me out here,” she said.
For White, Lake Lanier’s haunted history was an unexpected and unsettling discovery. “I’m from Alabama originally,” he explained. “Once we were looking for the location, the cabin popped up. We’re like, oh, this is exactly what we wanted.”
At first, he hadn’t realized the weight of the location until the cast and crew were on set. “I’ve never been to Lake Lanier, never heard of Lake Lanier. And once we booked the place, the owner says, ‘Hey, you know, you guys are renting both cabin houses.’ Then someone’s like, ‘Oh, have you heard about Lake Lanier?’ I’m like, ‘What about Lake Lanier?’… It’s haunted.'”
After doing his research, White said, “A couple of things start going crazy. I’m like, man, I’m going crazy. Then I start realizing like, why I probably shouldn’t be filming here.” He added, “No one gets in the water at all.”
Shooting in the woods without CGI or green screens added to the realism and terror.
“We put (the cast) in the woods and see what happens. I think that made it better. Just being in the woods and not knowing if you really heard something crack (in the dark),” White recalled.
“The Grove” is now out in select U.S. theaters, offering audiences a visceral, atmospheric horror experience with a chilling real-world backdrop, and a reminder that sometimes, the scariest ghosts are the ones buried by history.
Watch our full conversation with Acoryé White and Guxci via the clip below.
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