T-R PHOTO BY NICK BAUR Cast and crew inside the Mowry Irvine Mansion in Marshalltown prepare to film their new romantic horror movie, “The Safest Place in the Cosmos.”

The Mowry Irvine Mansion in Marshalltown will be making its debut on the big screen this year as a group of Iowa filmmakers began shooting their romantic horror movie, “The Safest Place in the Cosmos” inside the historic home located at 503 W. Main St. earlier this week.

The movie is being produced by Vagrant Fear Productions, a Central Iowa based studio specializing in frightful and fearsome creative enterprises.

As Director David Detlef explained, the plot follows Rob and Merrit, two young lovers on a date in an abandoned mansion for Valentine’s Day. Here, they are besieged by Rob’s recent ex-girlfriend Hailey and a mysterious caretaker, but as the story progresses, the group finds themselves trapped in the antiquated home.

“Some of the drama starts between the three lovers, but eventually, not too deep into it, they realize the house is not letting them out,” Detlefs said. “It goes from the drama of the three of them to, ‘How do we get out of here? And if we can’t figure out how, we might very well die in this house.'”

Originally conceived as a play written for the stage, the story features classic psychological twists and turns, and as Detlefs says, the horror and fear throughout is often underlined by the complex and elusive emotion of love.

“It just builds to the suspense and the mystery of what’s going on in the house, plus the terror of being trapped, and they’re still trying to come out with their relationship terms,” he said. “One of the things that Vagrant Fear tries to do is not just tell a horror story, but we like to overlay it with the human condition.”

With the house featuring prominently in the film — and practically becoming a character in of itself — Detlef says the ornate and cinematic look of the Mowry Irvine Mansion made setting the film there a no-brainer.

“When I wandered through it, the details of the house, the way the house was put together, it just kind of drew me in because there’s a lot of tight cramped spaces, a lot of things in here that are very indicative of an old house at this period,” Detlefs said. “I took one tour of it, (and) I’m like, ‘Mary (Pfantz), if you don’t have a problem, we’d love to shoot here.'”

For Pfantz, Marshall County Historical Society board member and one of the stewards of the mansion, the movie being shot inside the house was a “win-win” for the organization and the filmmakers.

“It’s been a gift for us to have it and the house has gotten a lot of notoriety through the years. It’s in a lot of publications for the beauty of its architecture,” Pfantz said. “We want the community to use this house and enjoy it like we enjoy it.”

The house remains largely the same since it was constructed in the late 19th century, but like Pfantz said, the mansion has not only been used for historical preservation, but it also has hosted a variety of community events and affairs since being donated to the society in 2017.

“We’re trying to keep it intact, and keep it being an asset to the community and then letting it be used,” Pfantz said. “So people can enjoy it besides us.”

Vagrant Fear plans to shoot in the mansion in three separate sessions with the last day of filming set for May 6. Detlef said they hope to finish the movie in its entirety by the beginning of July, and hopefully, if all goes according to plan, the film will debut in Marshalltown sometime this summer or fall.

“We want to have the actual debut here in Marshalltown if we can,” Detlef said. “So that’s our goal. If we can do that, we will, so the town can see what we did here.”

With “The Safest Place in the Cosmos” being the first film produced by Vagrant Fear, Detlef says this endeavor may not be the last the area sees of the Iowa production company.

“We have plans for the future, but we’re gonna see where this goes,” Detlefs said. “We just take everything kind of as it is. So we’re just slowly building up into something, and so far, we’ve had good responses.”

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Contact Nick Baur at 641-753-6611 or nbaur@timesrepublican.com.