A follower of all things Bigfoot since age 12, he was mere months into renovating the home he purchased there when he sensed he was not alone. The former owner who died there apparently wasn’t ready to leave the dwelling just yet.

It is the former owner’s story and the unexplained presence of some rather disturbing occult items discovered in the basement during the renovation that are at the heart of the movie,” A Haunting in Blue Hill, A Paranormal Mystery,” on screen at the Rivoli 3 Theatre in Hastings at 7 p.m. Thursday.

Presented as “A Haunting in Blue Hill Live,” the event features a paranormal presentation from actor and podcast host Steve Berg and founder of Midwest Paranormal History Tours Jamie Nestroyl, along with a question-and-answer session with cast members and crew from filmmaker Twisted Tree Films in Denver. An accompanying traveling exhibit features some of the actual items uncovered below the 130-year-old residence during renovations.

For Collins, the discovery of spirits lingering inside the home was simply another example of how paranormal activity has become almost commonplace in his life.

While such activity is far more prevalent than most people think, not everyone has the insight to pick up on it, he said.

“It’s not the situation you go into, it’s the person who goes into the situation,” he said. “I just have a connection to that kind of weirdness.”

Filmed over a two-year period, the documentary by director Alan Megargle made its premier in Estes Park on Oct. 13, 2023.

The previous homeowners were devout Lutherans who occupied the residence for more than half a century prior to the husband’s passing in 2008.

The wife died in 2019. It was her spirit’s purported friendly communication with Collins that eventually led paranormal investigators to bring a film crew to the home to document that connection.

“I had a lot of interactions with her while I was remodeling the home,” he said. “I realized something was wrong when I found this basement door painted with (seemingly occult) graphics. When I uncovered that wicked door, things took off.

“I started getting more activity after that. I found a box that contained a goat doll with horns and a 180-year-old satanic book. That’s when I called some producer friends and told them, ‘You guys need to come out here and do a movie at this house.’ “

Though a dark presence continues to occupy the basement, Collins doesn’t believe it has anything to do with the most recent occupant, whose presence was friendly through all their purported interactions.

“She connected with me,” he said. “There are some touching moments filmed in the basement. It is a story of how I fell in love with her and how she really wanted to get hold of me.”

Through use of a special paranormal voice box during filming, Collins is shown to connect with the woman’s spirit in conversation. But while the woman was said to “cross over” and be with her family in the afterlife, not all spirits sensed inside the home followed suit. A male voice also reveals itself during the filming. The identity of that spirit is unclear to Collins, but he allowed that it may belong to a more distant past occupant.

“The house still has activity,” he said. “On one occasion, my computer clicked on by itself at 2:30 in the morning. Another time I had a plate of food pushed on my lap. My dogs sometimes whimper or stand perfectly still staring at the basement. I believe evil spirits are still there.”

As unsettling as the documentary’s premise may be, not everything about it is disturbing, Collins said.

“Going in, you expect it will be a creepy ghost story,” he said. “In reality, it does start out that way. But by the time it makes its way to the end, you see a love connection to a past presence and the release of that presence to her family. (Viewers) just need to come in with an open mind, watch the movie, and see if by the end they believe in the paranormal and that we can connect with it.”