Beallsville Chapel Backdrop for Lifetime Movie (PHOTOS)

For a little while in Beallsville there was a woman possessed by the devil wandering around.

PHOTO |Courtesy Debbie Smith

Fortunately for this community, she was an actress playing a part in a Lifetime series reportedly due out in July called, “I am Possessed” and the film crew used the Monacacy Cemetery Chapel in the show.

The chapel on West Hunter Road sits on a property that also includes a cemetery. It’s maintained by Superintendent Debbie Smith who for a few hours on Wednesday also became an actress.

“I told my son your mother is going to be a movie star,” Smith said.

Film crews showed up about 11 a.m. Wednesday for a few hours turning the chapel first built in the 1800s then rebuilt in 1915 after it burned down, into a movie set. Smith got to play the chapel’s organ player and her family members played church parishioners attending a service.

That’s when the woman possessed ran down the aisle and charged after the actor playing a preacher.

“We all had to act like we were in shock when she tried to choke him,” Smith said.

Smith said this isn’t the first time the Monocacy Cemetary grounds appeared on film. Last year, a company used the chapel as a dressing room and the cemetery grounds for a thriller. There are about 5,400 people buried in the cemetery.

“We are getting a lot of media and film because they love the country and the cemetery because it’s old,” Smith said.

Smith said the company donated money to the Monacacy Cemetery Inc. Attempts to reach the film crew were unsuccessful.

According to local historian Glenn Wallace, Monocacy Cemetery occupies the property that was the former Chapel of Ease of All Saints parish of Frederick County, known as Monocacy Chapel, which stood as early as 1747 in which prayers for peace were offered during the Revolutionary War. In 1770, when the parish of Montgomery expanded, the St. Peter’s Episcopal Church took possession of it. During the War of 1812, it became a camping ground for the American forces. In 1849, the congregation moved to a new church in Poolesville, leaving the old church to fall into ruins.  During the Civil War, Union soldiers occupied the deteriorating structure and used the wooden sideboards and pews for firewood.

In January of 1872, the vestry of St. Peter’s transferred the churchyard property over to the newly-formed Monocacy Cemetery Society of Montgomery County.  A new chapel was commissioned in 1915 by the Daughters of the Confederacy and is still standing today, 100 years later.

About Krista Brick

Krista Brick is a multi-media journalist with Montgomery Community Media.

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