Legendary horror director takes on story of Allan Legere

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New Brunswickers tuning into NBC’s new horror anthology series, directed by one of the genre’s most legendary figures, will see Hollywood’s take on one of the province’s most infamous killers.

Episode two of “John Carpenter’s Suburban Screams” shares the story of Allan Legere as told by two men who lived through the convicted murderer’s killing spree in Miramichi in 1989.

According to Showcase, which airs the show in Canada, Carpenter – the mastermind behind such horror classics as The Fog, Halloween and The Thing – is behind the six-episode series, which explores true stories of the terrors that sometimes lurk in the shadows of seemingly safe suburban neighbourhoods, told by the people who experienced it.

Legere committed his first murder in 1986, when he took part in the beating death of shopkeeper John Glendenning. In May 1989, while serving time for that murder, Legere managed to escape custody during a visit to the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont University Hospital Centre in Moncton, where he was being treated for an ear infection.

He fled to Miramichi, where he evaded custody for more than six months, killing four more people during that time.

The show’s executive producer said when their researchers found the story of Legere, he immediately thought of Carpenter’s iconic 1978 slasher movie.

“It was the premise of Halloween,” said Jordan Roberts.

Roberts directed the episode, working with Carpenter to bring the story from small-town New Brunswick to the screen. He wanted the episode to put the audience in the mindset of the community at the time – to make them feel as though they were being hunted.

To help capture that sense of fear, Roberts said the team used a lot of handheld master shots for the scenes recreating moments from the time period to evoke the feeling that what the viewer is seeing is happening to them.

“Once you mix that together with the real news reports and the real interviews, it’s scary,” he said.

The interviews in the Legere episode are with David Cadogan, who was the owner of the Miramichi Leader at the time, and the newspaper’s former editor, Rick MacLean. The episode, titled “A Killer Comes Home,” focuses on the paper’s work to tell the town’s story as Legere continued to kill.

MacLean, who still lives in the city and teaches at the University of Prince Edward Island, said he was preparing to put away his files on Legere when he got a call from the show’s team in January. In February, he was flown to Los Angeles to share the story of Miramichi’s darkest period.

MacLean co-wrote two books on the Legere case. He said he chose to relive the experience on the show, in part, because of Legere’s 2022 parole hearing, during which MacLean was told the killer spent a significant amount of time talking about him and “none of it was complimentary,” he said.

“He had been moved from the super-maximum prison to the general population maximum security prison, which is a pretty big step. The fear that remains for anyone who lived through what Legere did in 1986 and then again in 1989, especially in ’89, is that he will find a way to put himself in a situation where people underestimate who and what he is, and he will try to escape again,” he said.

“The community wants him someplace where he can never get close to us again and my belief has always been that the government will make sure that happens if they are aware the public is watching. The authority in positions like the National Parole Board will hopefully be influenced by it too.”

‘He’s unrepentant and a psychopath’: Legere’s parole decision lauded

During the episode, MacLean discusses Legere’s mounting anger toward him as the paper continued to publish stories about the killing spree – something he said has not changed during Legere’s time in prison.

“He has made no secret of the fact that if he ever gets out I’m somebody he would like to visit, and you don’t want a visit from Allan Legere,” he said.

MacLean said there is concern about being in the spotlight, knowing he is still one of the killer’s targets, but believes it’s important to continue to be an advocate for keeping Legere behind bars for the remainder of his life.

“You want to move on like the rest of the community has, but Legere’s still alive. Legere’s still in prison and in a prison that is less secure than the one that he was in originally,” he said.

During the episode, scenes from 1989 are recreated, including the moment MacLean’s wife receives a letter that Legere managed to send from prison. In the letter, Legere alluded to watching her and her infant daughter in their home in 1989 and promised to visit again.

MacLean said the letter was signed Nick, an old name for the devil.

“There was nothing subtle about the letter,” he said.

MacLean said the episode did take artistic freedom with some of the details, including making him the reporter at the scene of Legere’s first killing in 1986. He said while some details were fictionalized, one thing the show got right was the feeling in the community in 1989.

“Did it capture the fear in the community? Yes … It captured the horror Legere inflicted upon his victims,” he said.

MacLean said he was also impressed by the archival footage the show dug up for the episode, including news clips of interviews with himself, with former Newcastle mayor Peter Murphy, and clips of members of the community celebrating Legere’s capture.

At the end of the episode, MacLean looks back on headlines like “Escaped”, “Captured”, and “Guilty”, which all made the front page of the Leader in 1989. He said the next headline he is waiting for is “Dead.”

“As long as he is alive, of course, the community can’t feel safe,” he said.

The episode is now available on the U.S. streaming platform Peacock and will air on Showcase in Canada on Oct. 25.