Writer/Director/Producer Jeffrey Scott Collins
Is Exactly Who He Thinks He Is at The Caged Premiere
We were on the carpet for Jeffrey Scott Collins' The Caged, which premiered last night, Saturday, October 10th, at The TCL Chinese Theater as part of Screamfest 2026. Here's what happened:
The Caged is inspired by true events that took place in 1500's England, during a period of time when witchcraft was punishable by death. Ursula Kemp was one of fourteen women accused of witchery and hanged in 1582. Leading up to her death, she was allegedly held at a St. Osyth, Essex prison called "The Cage".
The village prison was eventually converted into a private home, and that's when stories began circulating that it was haunted. Residents who moved in claimed to see shadowy figures and unexplained blood splatters on the floor. One former resident alleged that they were pushed by an unseen force.
In Collins' film, he places a family of four from the 1980s directly into The Cage.
Robert Smith, played by Edmund Kingsley, is a struggling writer who moves his wife Emily, played by Tamzin Merchant, and two children, Isabella and Liam, played by Raffiella Chapman and Callen Carter, across England for a fresh start when weird things start happening. It's a common trope in horror films-- family leaves the city and moves into a creepy house in a small town, then a doll starts talking, but apparently that's completely normal, so they stick around. The Caged doesn't do that. It starts slow with a menacing, eerie first half buildup, and then goes completely buck wild for the second half, leaving you wondering, "Seriously, what the fuck?"
When asked what inspired Collins to tell the story of Ursula Kemp and The Cage and why he set it in the 1980's, he said, "I woke up one day with this idea that hit me 'I have to write a horror movie in England' I have no idea where that came from, but I went with it. I Googled most haunted places in England, then this story came up, and I couldn't believe there wasn't a movie done on it yet." As for the '80s time placement, he answered, "When I envisioned the film, I just saw the '80s, and there's something so nostalgic about it. The Shining is one of my favorite movies. I love what they did with Stranger Things. There's just something nostalgic about that period that just felt right."
STORY BY CHRIS LARUE
PHOTOGRAPHY BY AGGI ROSELLI
OCT 11, 2026
Collins is also no stranger to lightning-fast production times. The Caged wrapped principal photography in a very speedy twenty days—but if you ask him, that’s nothing. In 2020, for his very first directorial feature, Poor Greg Downing, he wrapped filming in an unheard-of fifteen days. We might start calling him Jeffrey Efficient Collins.
Also on the carpet, spending her nineteenth birthday nonetheless, was English actress Raffiela Chapman, who played the very annoyed teenager Isabella in the film. We got a chance to sneak a few questions to the young British star, and when asked if she had any plans to make the move from the motherland to La La Land, she made it very clear that won’t be happening anytime soon.
Eventually the carpet wrapped up, and the attendees were ushered into the theater to watch demonic possession at its finest. As for us? We disappeared into the night down the road of lost dreams… Hollywood Blvd.
