Hell Hath No Fury Like A Villager Scorned

Village residents are the kind neighbors you need on your side — fiercely protective, totally devoted, annoyingly uppity, curmudgeonly crotchety and probably some of the last people you’d want to piss off with a movie shoot:

During a visit to the [I Am Legend] set on Mon. Oct. 30, it was clear what sort occasional inconveniences residents face. They range from the minor, as in not being able to walk down certain sidewalks near the park, to the medium, like having to use the back door to enter a couple of buildings, to the major, like fumes from the fiery explosions wafting into apartment windows all night from the pyrotechnics below.

“My dog got sick,” said Kim Hastreiter, a neighbor. “He’s nervous about lightning and thunder, and they set off explosions every 20 minutes from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. one night. It shook the building.”

Hastreiter said that the first few days the filming was cute, and the first week was sort of exciting, but by the second week it was annoying and by the third she was angry.

“I haven’t slept for three weeks,” she said. Hastreiter turned down the production company’s offer to black out her windows with Duvetyn — an opaque fabric that will block the bright movie lights. Many residents have taken them up on it, but Hastreiter said it’s not just the lights.

“They yell at you if you walk your dog on the sidewalk in front of your own building,” she said. “If this were outside of the mayor’s house this wouldn’t be happening.”

So what’s one to do? Take it out on the lowly P.A., of course:

It’s not all roses for the production people either. The majority of the production assistants are college age, yet face the daunting task of dealing with complaints from a variety of people. Some people have even physically threatened the P.A.’s, according to one “Legend” production assistant who refused to give her name.

“We’re not responsible for this, but they take it out on us,” she said.

Watching the way members of the community interacted with the P.A.’s on “lockdown” — the production people who block off foot and motor traffic — it was clear that some were a bit hostile.

At one point a man had a 5-minute argument with one young female P.A. about why he had to cross the street on the opposite side and then recross the opposite way to get to the corner he needed.

Look, I know it’s wrong but it feels good to kick the dog every once in a while . . .

See also: All I Have To Say Is This Will Smith Vehicle Better Be Fucking Brilliant; “Big Willie Style” — Read: Two-Story Luxury Trailer.