An Interview with Michael Thordarson, Director of The Guard Room

by Mike Haberfelner

April 2026

Films directed by Michael Thordarson on (re)Search my Trash

Your new movie The Guard Room - in a few words, what's it about?

It’s #a gritty exploration of isolation and duty, where the walls start closing in on those meant to be watching them.

What were your sources of inspiration when writing The Guard Room, and is any of it based on personal experiences?

rsonal experiences?

Funny you should ask, as The Guard Room was actually heavily inspired by my personal experience of my first security job. When the Covid pandemic hit, I was laid off from a marketing startup company and went into security to secure some income. I worked at a run-down strip mall as a swing shift officer, and my first day went down pretty close to how Hilda's did in the film. Most of the characters and interactions in the film are based on actual events.

The character "Lucas" was based on the day shift guard who trained me at the strip mall. He trained me like he's explaining how to fold laundry for the thousandth time and would use the site phone to prank text prostitutes. I remember looking through the site phone and becoming familiar with key terms used in the sex trade such as "outcall" or "incall", trying to make sense of what these messages were talking about. I was like, what is going on here?! The moment in the film where Lucas belittles and harasses an unhoused person for going to the bathroom was inspired by a moment when I was training. We were going by an unhoused person, and Lucas started yelling at an unhoused person asking them if they were doing drugs. Then he started asking if they were doing hardcore drugs. It was like, "Can we just let this guy be?" Then one day I came in and "Lucas" wanted me to look into his mouth for any signs of sexual disease since he claimed he had sex with a prostitute somewhere, and I was like "Please back up away from me." (Sadly, there was a scene based on this moment that was cut from an earlier draft of the script.)

"Patrick" was based on a coworker who was from India and did not speak very much English. He was very friendly and took the job seriously, but was hard to communicate with. After a car caught fire one day in the parking lot, me and "Patrick"  came up with the "no fire, no homeless, no car crash"-chant, which would occur whenever I showed up to relieve "Patrick". After saying this chant for five days a week, over many weeks, it almost drove me crazy.

I also learned that the guard I replaced had been stabbed and was in the hospital for trying to shut down a road show that was happening in the parking lot (he was making a full recovery so thankfully he did meet the same fate as James). There were some nights where a bunch of people would just show up and have a party in the lot, sometimes doing donuts and such. "Lucas" told me I should just stay inside the room and call the cops if the party ever got too rowdy. At this moment, I was like "What have I gotten myself into?" and thus, became the main inspiration for the plot point of the guard who died in the parking lot.

"Carter", the unhoused who chases Hilda into the parking garage, was based on an actual experience I had. One day when working, an unhoused person was going through the trash cans and being loud by throwing stuff around. He walked into the retail space where the guards were stationed and asked if I had seen a person. He then walked back to check the backroom and upon returning told me that if I was still there in 10 minutes, he was going to come back and kill me. I then went and sat in the car for the next half hour (you know, just to be safe). The unhoused person never returned.

Also I don't know if it was just a symptom of the pandemic or just the company I was employed for, but our manager rarely picked up the phone or responded to our concerns. They would not set up their voicemail, so you couldn't even leave them a voicemail. I remember texting him about a customer concern about the bike lock area and telling him I gave out his number so the customer could explain their concerns (the customer wanted to talk to someone higher up the chain since I didn't have any power or authority to address his concern). I got a text back saying that I should never give out his number under any circumstances. So we were pretty much left to our own devices out there.

I wanted to take all of these real life scenarios and combine them into a single narrative. It was an interesting challenge that was a fun undertaking. Drawing from life experience is one of the most powerful ways to imbue art with authenticity, but there is a distinct craft to transforming "what happened" into "what works" for a film. The girl in the white dress was not based on anything and was added in to tie everything together, but you never know, there might be a girl in a white dress roaming around at night that I just never saw.

Do talk about The Guard Room's apprioach to horror, and is this a genre especially dear to you?

When working security, you do have a lot of time to think. There were also strange moments which happened like the tent scene, which was inspired by an actual event where I had to deal with a tent that was mysteriously set up behind the shopping center. During the day no one was there but at night time, it was located in the darkest part of the parking lot and made me nervous about checking it out. Since your imagination starts to take over and you start picturing worst case scenarios. There was also this instance where a car was parked by itself in the dark side of the building. When I started to approach the car, its engine turned on and it backed up and left. Later that night, I was thinking about what they were up to? Was it just a coincidence they left at that time, or were they nervous I was approaching the car?

A lot of these instances fit with anticipation, dread and suspense, which I wanted to explore with The Guard Room. From a storyteller's perspective, horror is one of the most disciplined to pull off. It relies on a precise mastery of pacing, sound design and a visual atmosphere to provoke a physical reaction from the audience. So I wanted to challenge myself to see if I could do it.

Horror is a genre that I do love and have grown up with. My mom was a bit protective of me and when I was in junior high, I really wanted to play Resident Evil 4 since it was getting a lot of press and praise. My best friend at the time was telling me how good it was. But my mom would not buy it for me after looking at the cover of the game and seeing a dude with a chainsaw on it. Eventually, I did get a chance to play Resident Evil 4, and it did blow my mind. I also have fond memories of having my best friend sneaking over a copy of the Resident Evil Remake for the GameCube so we could play. My mom walked in when we were playing it, which thankfully we were at a moment where there were no zombies or anything on the screen, and we just told her we were playing a game called Haunted Mansion.

A few words about your overall directorial approach to yout story at hane?

My approach was to treat the room and location as a character itself, using static, wide shots to show isolation, and tight, shaky close-ups as the psychological pressure increased. I also wanted to capture the grounded, mundane reality of the profession—the fluorescent lights and the mundane quiet—to make the eventual disruption of that environment feel more jarring and visceral.

I wanted to focus on naturalistic performances to ensure the stakes felt human. We spent a lot of time discussing the backstory and inspiration of the film, so the actors felt like they truly belonged in that space before the cameras rolled.

What can you tell us about The Guard Room's cast, and why exactly these people?

The Guard Room did have an interesting casting process, since I didn't do a formal auditioning process for it. Since it was a smaller cast, I decided to go with people I had already worked with or had a connection. I had worked with Olga Molina on my previous film, Scorned Waifu, and we ended up becoming good friends after working on various projects together. I knew the lead for this project was going to have a lot of screen time and wanted to work with someone I was comfortable with. I also thought that viewing the events from a female perspective could also heighten the tension a bit.

Michael Fredianelli. who plays Lucas, was brought on since I have collaborated with him before, he's another filmmaker in the Bay Area [Michael Fredianelli interview - click here]. Dude is a talented actor and filmmaker who has a lot of experience and I knew that role would be in good hands with him. Since the production involved a road trip to Los Angeles, I wanted to work with people I had worked with before. Since bringing someone new on, you don't know how they are going to act on set or how their personality is going to mesh with the team.

You also have Holly Lazo and Mirabel Miscala, who were involved with my previous two projects. Plus Jermey Tinaco who was the lead of my last film. Working with friends and former collaborators means you don't start from zero on day one. This allowed for a level of improvisation and vulnerability that you rarely get with a cast of strangers. We were able to capture moments that weren't necessarily on the page.

You of course also have to talk about The Guard Room's warehouse location, and what was it like filming there? And how did you find it even?

So originally we were going to film the movie in a strip mall location similar to the inspiration of the story. But that came with its own challenges as we would only be allowed to film during the night and I felt like the location was a bit limited in terms of places we could shoot. We ended up changing the location of the story to a warehouse to provide more flexibility.

The main location, "the guard room", was actually a set that was near Los Angeles. I did some location scouting around the Bay Area, but found Martinsound Studios online, which has a bunch of different looking sets. They seemed to have the perfect fit for us with their stockroom set. The cast and crew are located in the Bay Area, so we took a weekend to road trip down south to film that part of the movie. It was a lot of fun, but also an exhausting trip. We were going to do two days of shooting, but the studio was going to charge us a $250 cleaning fee for each day, so we decided to combine everything into one day to help save on the budget.

A majority of the exterior scenes were shot back here in the Bay Area around San Jose. We got to do some scenes on Mare Island and Alameda Island, which are former Navy bases. That's where we got the un-renovated industrial decay look and shots. Both are pretty cool places to visit since they blend historic, repurposed buildings with significant, un-restored and "weird" industrial ruins.

A few words about the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere?

Since the cast was made of people who knew each other and had worked with each other before, the on-set atmosphere was great. Like a gathering of friends. The atmosphere was a unique blend of high-stakes focus and total comfort, if that makes sense. Because the crew was made up of people I’ve worked with on previous films, there was an incredible 'shorthand' on set. We didn't need long meetings to understand the goal for each setup and could use our time in an effective manner.

The $64-question of course, where can The Guard Room be seen?

Wow, is that a Take It or Leave It reference? It's been a while since I've been asked a 64 Dollar question.The Guard Room is not out on streaming yet, but will be later this year. Be sure to follow Magical Hammer Productions on our social media for updates, or check in with our website.

Anything you can tell us about audience and critical reception of The Guard Room?

The early reception has been very encouraging. We’ve just come off our premiere, and the energy in the room was electric. Seeing people jump to a jump scare you've edited is a great feeling since you then know it works on some level. Critics have started to weigh in, with some early reviews highlighting the 'strong ensemble work', which is rewarding after such an intense shoot. Right now we're focused on keeping that momentum going as we head into the next phase of distribution.

Any future projects you'd like to share?

Right now I am working on a movie called Stuffed Death in post production. The movie is about a stuffed animal metal band that comes to life and influences the mind of a child. It's a very funny and charming film, since I worked with an actual family of actors for that one. The mom and dad are actors, which helped convince their daughter to join the project. The more it comes together in post, the more excited I get about it.

I came up with an idea for a trilogy of sorts, that represents my influences as an artist. You can call it the Anime-Metal-VideoGame Trilogy. You have Scorned Waifu, which is the anime film which is already out and on platforms like Tubi. Then Stuffed Death, which is the metal influenced film which will be the 2nd part of the trilogy that is currently being worked on. Finally, one day I will get around to Suffocating Backlog, which is the video game influenced one. (And yes, they are have titles that start with a S as a weird coincidence.)

In terms of what comes after Stuffed Death, I have a movie that is about emojis with the script almost being finished. It's my most ambitious and epic script to date, but I'll save the details about that one for later. I'm always coming up with new ideas for movies, so I don't ever worry about running out of ideas.

What got you into filmmaking in the first place, and did you receive any formal training on the subject?

As a kid, a video camera captured my imagination. What started with home movies and puppet shows slowly grew over time into what it is now. The medium of film kinda acts as a canvas where all other artistic disciplines converge. You have writing, performance, music and movement coming together to tell a story. So I think the range of the craft really appealed to me.

I did attend a film school, the Academy of Art in San Francisco, to study filmmaking, which did help with some connections and basics of the craft. But truly the only way to master filmmaking is to take it head on and do it. Making a short film is one thing, but making a feature film is like making 11 short films. So you get a lot more experience and learning time on a feature.

What can you tell us about your filmwork prior to The Guard Room?

I have two films prior to The Guard Room, my first film, Sophie and the Serial Killers, is a full blown musical about a serial killer battle royale. My 2nd film, Scorned Waifu, is about an anime body pillow that comes to life to get her revenge. Both films can be seen on platforms such as Tubi and Amazon Prime.

How would you describe yourself as a director?

I would say my style is defined by a balance of preparation and spontaneity. Because of having worked in high-stakes environments, I am very disciplined and focused on sets. I come with a rigorous plan ahead of time so that when a 'happy accident' happens or an actor finds a new beat, we have the structural freedom to chase it without breaking the schedule or getting lost. Being a problem-solver who uses limitations as a catalyst for creativity.

With each script I write, I always write a tiny bit beyond my abilities or what seems comfortable and easy, in order to push myself. I made a musical for my first film as many indie directors don't start with that genre, and worked with an animator on my 2nd film to create 2D animation sequences, which was also a tough but fun challenge. Whenever I feel a bit discouraged, I look back and remind myself of what I have already accomplished to help fuel me up for the next challenge.

Filmmakers who inspire you?

I would say filmmakers like Monty Python comedy troupe, Steven Spielberg, Jim Henson, Hayao Miyazaki and Liam Lynch really influenced me during my childhood. I probably watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail like 40 times when I was a kid. These days you have directors like Zach Cregger and Jordan Peele putting their own spins on the horror genre which I respect. You also gotta give a shout out to Christoper Nolan, who's one of the few directors working today who can get an enormous budget for a movie and successfully sell it to a lot of people while doing something original in the process. Also any indie filmmakers out there grinding to get their movies finished also totally deserve a shout out.

Your favourite movies?

Always such a tough question due to the vast amount of options to pick from, but a few of my favorites are Scott Pilgrim vs the World, Alien, The Emperor's New Groove, Labyrinth and Kiki's Delivery Service.

... and of course, films you really deplore?

Hahahah, that is a funny question. But I wouldn't say I deplore any movies (maybe just the ones that are made with 100% AI). Having made a few movies myself, I know how much time and effort goes into making one. The artform can be brutal, it is an expensive, logistical puzzle that keeps you on your toes. But the cool thing about it is the script gets interpreted by a bunch of artists, each adding their own flavor over the course of the process.

Feeling lucky? Want to search any of my partnershops yourself for more, better results? (commissions earned)

The links below will take you just there!!!

Find Michael Thordarson at the amazons ...   amazon.com   amazon.co.uk   amazon.de Looking for imports? Find Michael Thordarson here ...   eThaiCD.com Your shop for all things Thai

Your/your movie's website, social media, whatever else?

https://www.magicalhammerproductions.com/

https://www.instagram.com/magicalhammerproductions/

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61579137753884

Anything else you're dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask?

I think you asked a great range of questions and we covered a lot! Thanks again for taking the time to check out The Guard Room and asking some questions about it. Until next time, take care.

Thanks for the interview!

© by Mike Haberfelner

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