Richard Harmon And Alexandra Essoe Talk Wilderness Terror, Character Trauma, And Survival In ‘Pitfall’

There are few places more naturally suited to horror than the wilderness. Miles from civilization, even a peaceful hiking trip can become dangerous with one wrong step. In director James Kondelik’s survival thriller Pitfall, that sense of isolation becomes part of a calculated and increasingly deadly game.

The film follows a group of hikers whose remote wilderness trip takes a horrifying turn when Scott falls into a concealed pit trap and is left severely injured. As his companions search for help, they begin to realize that the forest around them has been deliberately rigged with traps. An unseen hunter is watching their movements, testing their instincts, and manipulating the group as they attempt to find a way out.

Pitfall is directed by Kondelik from a screenplay written by Kondelik and Victor Rose. The cast includes Marshall Williams, Alexandra Essoe, Richard Harmon, Jordan Claire Robbins, Matt Hamilton, and former UFC champion Randy Couture.

Essoe, known for projects such as Midnight Mass, Doctor Sleep, Starry Eyes, and The Pope’s Exorcist, plays Ashley, a woman carrying unresolved guilt, grief, and complicated feelings about the people closest to her. Harmon, whose credits include The 100 and Final Destination: Bloodlines, plays Lars, the group’s sarcastic and instinct-driven wildcard.

Geek Vibes Nation spoke with Alexandra Essoe and Richard Harmon about filming in the Pacific Northwest, creating tension around an unseen threat, the emotional and physical demands of the production, and the most important rule their characters should have followed.

What Drew Them To The Story

Geek Vibes Nation: Pitfall places its characters in a controlled, deadly environment where they’re being hunted and tested. What first drew you both to this story, and what stood out about it compared to other survival thrillers?

Alexandra Essoe: What drew me to the story was the human drama—the dynamics between the characters, their relationships, and their history. That made it stand out among other survival thrillers to me. I actually cared about the characters and what happened to them.

Richard Harmon: My first thoughts were primarily about the level of fun I thought I could have with it, and I felt like I could have a great deal of fun with Lars. I think the emotional weight of the family storyline added a nice zing to the tale.

Creating Fear Around An Unseen Threat

Geek Vibes Nation: The film leans heavily on tension created by an unseen threat. How did you approach building fear and urgency when so much of the danger is off-screen or implied rather than directly shown?

Alexandra Essoe: Playing pretend and making believe are two major aspects of my job. An actor must rely heavily on, and get lost in, their imagination. It’s the strongest tool we have. Plus, a lot of the projects I’ve worked on involve reacting to unseen threats, so I’ve had some practice.

Richard Harmon: We filmed in the woods and in the rain a lot, so I suppose the real threat was our artistic ambition all along. Playing the discomfort, at the very least, was pretty easy.

The environment may have helped the cast access the necessary fear and exhaustion, but sustaining that intensity required them to balance several different performance demands at once.

Balancing Physical And Emotional Demands

Geek Vibes Nation: For both of you, what was the most challenging aspect of your performances? Was it the physical demands of the environment, the emotional intensity, or sustaining suspense over long shooting periods?

Alexandra Essoe: I think the challenge is in juggling all of those things simultaneously. We must fulfill the emotional demands of the scene while contending with the physical demands of that scene, the environment, and the shooting conditions. We also have to do it in a way that creates tension and maintains suspense.

It is a massive output of energy, often while exhausted, but it beats working for a living.

Richard Harmon: I think Lars didn’t have to carry too much of the emotional load in the film, but keeping the suspense up through those late-night shoots can sometimes be challenging. Luckily, we could all lean on each other.

Richard Harmon On Embracing A Horror Archetype

Geek Vibes Nation: Richard, you’ve played characters in high-stakes and genre-driven projects such as The 100 and Final Destination: Bloodlines. How did your role in Pitfall differ in terms of tone or character psychology?

Richard Harmon: In Pitfall, I really wanted Lars to be that sarcastic horror movie trope of a character. I’ve always enjoyed watching those characters. It was fun to play someone with only a few basic instincts like that.

Lars’ sarcastic personality gives Harmon an opportunity to bring some levity to the increasingly grim situation. However, the character’s humor also exists alongside personal feelings that complicate his place within the group.

Alexandra Essoe On Ashley’s Guilt And Helplessness

Geek Vibes Nation: Alexandra, your work in projects such as Midnight Mass and The Pope’s Exorcist often explores characters under extreme emotional pressure. What emotional or instinctual layer did you focus on most in Pitfall?

Alexandra Essoe: For Ashley, I wanted to focus on her root feelings of guilt, helplessness, and longing. People sometimes project to the world the opposite of how they feel inside, especially when dealing with loss or trauma.

It’s usually the part of themselves that disgusts them the most—a part that all of us try to avoid confronting because doing so would simply be too painful.

Those underlying emotions become especially important as the group is pushed further into a situation where trust, communication, and cooperation can determine who survives.

Building Trust Before Exploring Distrust

Geek Vibes Nation: The film centers on a group dynamic under pressure, where trust becomes increasingly fragile. How did you and your castmates develop that sense of shifting trust and survival instinct on set?

Alexandra Essoe: We were able to explore those dynamics with each other because we started from a foundation of trust, generosity, and respect for each other as artists. We were always on each other’s side, and we always supported each other.

That makes it much easier to explore difficult social dynamics with people because you trust them to go into the trenches with you.

Richard Harmon: We all bonded very quickly, so I think the trust was there pretty intrinsically from the beginning. As far as distrust goes, you just hope to sell that in a look.

Filming In The Pacific Northwest

Geek Vibes Nation: Filming in a wilderness setting can often turn the environment into its own kind of performance partner. How did the location shape your scenes and influence your approach to the material?

Alexandra Essoe: I would definitely say that working in the actual conditions of a cold, dark forest had a palpable and tangible influence on our performances.

Richard Harmon: Oh, massively. We filmed up here in the Pacific Northwest—the most beautiful place in the world, they say—but it’s also known for its treachery and bountiful traps. We rode with that through those long nights.

I’ve been lucky enough to film in those woods a good amount, and it truly is lucky because they offer so much to any film visually.

Rather than attempting to recreate the discomfort of an isolated forest on a controlled soundstage, the cast was able to use the cold, rain, darkness, and natural unpredictability of the location as part of the performance.

The Fear Of Being Watched And Manipulated

Geek Vibes Nation: Pitfall explores the idea of being watched, tested, and manipulated. Did that theme resonate with you in any unexpected ways while working on the film?

Alexandra Essoe: That theme is something that has always resonated with me. Some of my favorite horror movies ever explore that very theme. The Witch is a great example, as are Assault on Precinct 13, Jaws, and Lost Souls.

It’s a universally interesting theme because it speaks to our innate and primordial survival instincts.

Richard Harmon: I feel very fortunate that those feelings are not something I’m too familiar with, minus being an actor, where all of those things are sort of part of the job. Thankfully, it didn’t resonate with me in a real way.

What They Hope Audiences Take Away From ‘Pitfall’

Geek Vibes Nation: Without giving anything away, what do you hope audiences take away from the film’s ending or its overall message about survival and human instinct?

Alexandra Essoe: What I hope people take away from this is a great and entertaining experience with friends. I hope that among the suspense, terror, and incredible carnage, people will also leave with an appreciation for the people in their lives that they care about.

Richard Harmon: I truly hope that people are entertained. When I first read it, that’s certainly what I saw in it—its entertainment value. I hope we accomplished that.

The One Rule For Surviving ‘Pitfall’

Geek Vibes Nation: Finally, if your characters had one rule for surviving Pitfall, what would it be, and do you think they actually would have followed it?

Alexandra Essoe: I would say to just not go camping in the first place, but I have a feeling Richard already took that one.

Richard Harmon: Lars’ rule for surviving a pitfall would be not to harbor secret feelings for any of your bunkmates. He did not follow said rule.

A Survival Thriller Rooted In Character

Although Pitfall delivers the traps, bloodshed, and relentless pursuit expected from a wilderness survival thriller, both Essoe and Harmon were drawn to what existed beneath that setup. The characters enter the forest with personal histories, unresolved feelings, and fractures in their relationships long before the physical danger begins.

For Essoe, Ashley’s struggle is rooted in guilt, helplessness, and an inability to confront the most painful parts of herself. For Harmon, Lars offered an opportunity to embrace the sarcastic horror archetype while allowing hints of something more complicated to emerge underneath the jokes.

Once the group realizes that someone is watching and manipulating them, those emotional vulnerabilities become another weapon that can be used against them. Their survival depends not only on avoiding the physical traps hidden throughout the forest, but also on deciding whether they can trust one another when fear begins to take control.

Pitfall is directed by James Kondelik and stars Marshall Williams, Alexandra Essoe, Richard Harmon, Jordan Claire Robbins, Matt Hamilton, and Randy Couture. The film is available on digital and video-on-demand platforms from Cineverse.