AN EYE FOR SUSPENSE LANCASTER HIGH SENIOR WRITES, DIRECTS THRILLER.

Byline: KAREN MAESHIRO Staff Writer

LANCASTER -- Like Steven Spielberg, he started making movies at an early age with friends. His works have been compared to those of M. Night Shyamalan.

He is Lancaster High School senior Andre Felix, who, before he got his hands on sophisticated camera equipment, made trailers for movies he would like to create one day. People who have watched the trailers say they would like to see the movies.

``Andre is the most promising student that I've ever seen,'' said Tom Mayton, Lancaster's movie-production teacher. ``He's got an innate ability. He's got a great eye for suspense and camera angles and those kinds of things. I keep joking that in 10 years he will be in charge of his first multimillion-dollar movie.''

For his senior project, Felix wrote and directed a 30-minute psychological thriller with a twist. There are the motifs of high school teens and murders on campus, an homage to scary movies he admires.

``Notes'' is about a girl named Christy who finds mysterious notes that tell where, when and how a fellow student will be killed before it happens.

The film contains scenes designed to jolt viewers or make the timid cover their eyes: black-gloved hands that shoot up and grab a victim; Christy home alone and searching for an intruder in a darkened house; a panicky victim fumbling with her car keys as she tries to get away from the approaching killer.

The suspense is heightened by music excerpted from the scores of two other films, ``The Exorcism of Emily Rose'' and ``The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,'' that Felix bought and matched to scenes in his movie.

The film premiered the night before Halloween at the Lancaster High School auditorium before a receptive crowd of more than 200 people.

Their curiosity had been aroused by the airing of the film short's sophisticated trailer the previous week over the school's morning broadcast program.

``I've been interested in filmmaking since I was about 9 or 10,'' said Felix, 17. ``I've always wanted to make movies. I always made home films of family and friends with a video camera. One day I woke up and told all my friends, `Let's make a movie.' I asked my mom if I could use the video camera. Ever since, I have never put it down.''

He said his first movie probably consisted of his friends and him running around in Halloween masks and trying to scare one another.

To cast ``Notes,'' he held open auditions, which he advertised on MySpace.com and through school announcements.

The lead role is played by the president of the school's drama club. Christy's childhood friend is portrayed by another student whom Felix has known since youth soccer-team days. Christy's mother is played by Felix's aunt, Monica Garcia, an actress who has had roles in ``Lost,'' ``E.R.'' and ``Grey's Anatomy.''

Shooting took place over two weeks in October at Lancaster High, at a cast member's house and at a relative's house. Felix appreciated the opportunity.

``It takes a lot to let a bunch of kids and equipment in. We are not there for five minutes; we are there for five days. It was long, grueling shoots,'' Felix said.

Felix said his passion has long been for horror movies. His favorites are the ``Scream'' trilogy by Wes Craven and John Carpenter's 1972 ``Halloween,'' which Felix said is a classic.

``My parents hate scary movies. None of my family embraces horror films. I'm probably the black sheep,'' he said. ``When I was little, I read the `Goosebumps' books, creepy books for little kids. That's when it started.''

His parents have no connection with the movie business. His father is a real estate agent and runs a martial-arts school. His mother is studying dental hygiene. He has two sisters, ages 10 and 11.

``My parents loved (`Notes'),'' Felix said. ``They saw it for the first time at the premiere.''

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Photo:

Andre Felix, left, 17, teacher Tom Mayton and Christy Alvarado, 17, work in Mayton's movie-production class at Lancaster High School. Felix's senior project was a short horror film.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer