An in-depth interview with director MARC KLASFELD discussing DO NOT ENTER.
SYNOPSIS: The Creepers are thrill-seeking urban explorers who love pushing things to the edge, and their latest stunt – livestreaming from New Jersey’s abandoned Paragon Hotel – is their biggest yet. With its mobster past, supposed ghosts, and rumored stash of $300 million, the Paragon is catnip to The Creepers, a surefire way to increase their fanbase. But fear has other plans. Daring to enter the Paragon, not heeding the warnings, The Creepers fend off deadly rivals while supernatural creatures stalk them from the shadows, testing their endurance, sanity, and willingness to pay fame’s heavy price.
Directed by Marc Klasfeld with script by Dikega Hadnot, Spencer Mandel, and David Morrell, DO NOT ENTER stars Jake Manley, Adeline Rudolph, Francesca Reale, Shane Paul McGhie, & Laurence O’Fuarain.
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More than two decades after making his narrative feature debut with the biting satirical comedy The LA Riot Spectacular, director MARC KLASFELD is back behind the camera for another feature—this time in an entirely different genre.
His new film, DO NOT ENTER, trades political satire for supernatural horror, following a group of thrill-seeking urban explorers known as “The Creepers” who livestream their latest stunt from the abandoned Paragon Hotel on the Jersey Shore—an ominous property rumored to hold both mob money and malevolent spirits.
For Klasfeld, the return to narrative filmmaking after 21 years wasn’t a retreat from directing but rather the result of a busy career elsewhere.
“I’ve directed dozens and dozens of music videos,” Klasfeld explains. That long stretch in the music video world sharpened his visual instincts—something that becomes immediately evident in DO NOT ENTER, which blends cinematic horror language with flashes of stylized imagery and mixed-media textures. “Being cinematic comes very natural for me,” he says.
From the very beginning of the film, that sensibility is on display. The opening title sequence feels both modern and archival, layered with visual Jersey-esque Easter eggs and hints about the world the characters are about to enter.
“They put you in the mood of the movie,” Klasfeld notes. “There’s little Easter eggs in there if you look closely. There’s storytelling going on in the titles as well.”
Although the film is loosely based on David Morrell’s novel Creepers, Klasfeld embraced the opportunity to infuse the story with Jersey Shore iconography. “There’s definitely a lot of Jersey stuff in there,” he says, acknowledging the regional touches woven throughout the film. For viewers familiar with the area, those details stand out immediately—from mob references to visual callbacks tied to the coast itself. Even the haunting imagery of the famous Seaside Heights roller coaster that collapsed into the ocean after Hurricane Sandy appears in the film’s visual landscape.
Those touches help ground the story’s supernatural elements in something that feels authentic and recognizable.
Despite the film’s Jersey Shore setting, the production ultimately traveled halfway around the world to shoot it. The abandoned Paragon Hotel—central to the story—was discovered in Bulgaria.
“We found this one building in Bulgaria, of all places,” Klasfeld says. “It’s very difficult to find an abandoned building of that size that’s actually safe to shoot in.” The enormous structure proved to be the perfect stand-in for the fictional hotel. “You cannot believe the size of this building,” he recalls. “You can walk for miles in this space and still not get to the other end.”
The location’s scale and eerie architecture required surprisingly little modification from production designer Nikolai Kirilov. “I would say most of it was there,” Klasfeld says. “That’s why we ended up shooting there.”
Although the building now hosts concerts and events, the filmmakers transformed it simply by shooting at night and selectively dressing the interiors. “When you turn off all the lights… it definitely has an eerie vibe.”
Klasfeld reunited with longtime collaborator and cinematographer Yon Thomas, with whom he had already worked extensively on music videos. That history created an easy creative shorthand.
“Yon and I just wanted to capture that space and do justice to it,” Klasfeld explains.
The film blends multiple visual styles—from expansive cinematic compositions to a gritty VHS aesthetic that reflects The Creepers’ livestreaming culture. “I’m a big fan of VHS art,” he says. “So the movie has a little bit of everything—a mixed-media vibe that gives it a layered visual story.”
As the film progresses and tensions escalate inside the hotel, editor Patrick J. Smith helps maintain momentum through tight cross-cutting between multiple characters scattered throughout the massive building. Smith, though relatively early in his editing career, brought experience from working as an assistant editor on major Hollywood productions. “He’s worked on some of the biggest movies made in the last fifteen years,” Klasfeld notes. “He’s seen how those films are put together.”
That experience proved valuable in shaping the film’s escalating action and suspense. “I was just so happy to work with him,” Klasfeld says. “He brought a lot to it.”
Sound design was equally crucial, particularly in conveying the cavernous emptiness of the Paragon. “Getting the sound of the space was just as important as getting the visual right,” he explains. “You’ve got this massive empty space, and the echo helps you feel it.”
The film’s ensemble cast had to function as a believable group of thrill-seekers while still giving each character a distinct personality. “We spent a long time casting,” Klasfeld says. Once assembled, the actors rehearsed together extensively before filming. “We all sat in a very small room in Bulgaria for weeks,” he laughs. “We rehearsed, ad-libbed, talked about the script… we worked really hard.” Those sessions helped the cast build chemistry—even if they came with an unexpected side effect.
“We all got COVID because we were all in such a little room together,” he admits.
The film’s most unsettling presence, however, belongs to actor Javier Botet, whose uniquely elongated physicality has made him a sought-after performer in genre films. “I couldn’t believe there was somebody who looked like this,” Klasfeld says. “He’s physically so unique.” Despite Botet’s eerie on-screen appearance, the director says the actor himself couldn’t be more different. “He’s such a sweet man. He’s got such a good heart.”
After more than two decades away from narrative filmmaking, DO NOT ENTER marks not just a return but a new chapter.
Klasfeld is already developing another horror project. “It’s a different sort of horror movie,” he says. “More hardcore… a concept horror film.”
Working with modest budgets, the director says his goal is always to deliver a cinematic experience that feels larger than the resources behind it. “I want to ensure that the experience and emotion match what you might get from something with a lot more money.”
For Klasfeld, the challenge of achieving that scale—and the thrill of telling a story visually—are exactly what drew him back to features in the first place.
With DO NOT ENTER, Marc Klasfeld makes a welcome return to feature filmmaking after more than two decades—and he does it with a haunted hotel, a crew of livestreaming thrill-seekers, and enough Jersey Shore mythology to make locals smile even as the scares start piling up. Between Meyer Lansky mob whispers, a hidden fortune, hurricane ghosts, and one very unhappy creature stalking the Paragon’s halls, curiosity proves just as dangerous as the film’s title suggests. And when Klasfeld slips in a haunting image of that Seaside Heights roller coaster sitting broken in the Atlantic—a memory many of us still haven’t quite gotten over—you know he’s not just making a horror movie. He’s tapping into the ghost stories of the Jersey Shore itself.
by debbie elias, Exclusive Interview 03/11/2026
DO NOT ENTER releases in Theaters, On Digital, and On Demand on March 20, 2026.
