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Your new movie Freeze
- in a few words, what is it about?
In the early 1900s a crew are sailing toward the North Pole, they’re
on a rescue mission as a previous expedition has gone missing in the
Arctic. Their ship becomes ice-locked, blood-thirsty fish creatures get
aboard, the 6 surviving crew members flee into the Arctic where they think
they’ve found safety in an large cave system, but that’s where the
fish creatures live… With Freeze
being a creature feature of sorts, is that a genre at all dear to you, and
some of your genre favourites? Great monster plus great
location usually equals a good time! It’s not my favourite subgenre,
but Aliens is one of my top 3 favourite movies, and that’s got to be the
best creature feature of them all. Pumpkinhead is another one I love, also
Razorback, and a recent one I saw was Frankenfish, that was so much better
than I was expecting. Creatures are so hard at this budget, I think we did
alright with Freeze but I have to say I’m hopefully done with creatures,
until I have a great team and animatronics etc. I should probably not even
be attempting it. (Other) sources of
inspiration when writing Freeze? I
loved the AMC series
The Terror, so when 4Digital Media approached me to
make a creature feature set in the snow I knew I’d draw inspiration from
that, the series is so beautifully done, I love how bleak and miserable it
is. I’ve had a thing for fish creatures for years, there’s never
enough fishy horror, so I knew if I could have a ship in the snow then I
could bring in these fish creatures. I guess that passion comes from films
like Humanoids From The Deep and
Creature From The Black
Lagoon. Lovecraft
was the other big inspiration, we have the Necronomicon, we have the deep
ones, we have characters driven insane and we have that Lovecraftian
hopelessness throughout the film. What
can you tell us about the creature effects in Freeze,
and how were they achieved?
The body suits were made by one company and the heads were from
another, but both with a unique white/icy-blue paint scheme (to fit the
Arctic setting). The biggest challenge with these creatures was lighting
them, in fact I shot a whole day and realised that I’d really have to
change my approach to the creatures in this film, I had to keep them in
the shadows, which meant re-thinking a lot of the action scenes. The
lighting was tough and I spent hours trying to get just the right amount
of light to hit them, that sweet spot that just brings them to life
without revealing all the joins in the costumes. This meant that my
creature scenes on the ship (a museum ship where I had little control of
the lighting, it was just always very bright on there) had to be majorly
reduced, which was frustrating, I’d intended for a full scale
fish-creature invasion of that ship. But saving them for later, in the
cave, kept them in the dark. And still, creature fanatics will complain I
showed too much of them! Personally, I like to see the creature in a
creature feature a lot, it just needs to be lit properly and have a great
design, I hate when you only get 60 seconds of monster action in a whole
film!
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Do talk about Freeze's
approach to horror for a bit! Horror often gets a bad rap
for being cheap and trashy, which it can be, especially on the
micro-budget end, so it was my intention to make something more epic in
scale. Big adventure horror with huge sweeping Arctic landscapes, period
setting, the tall ship etc… so that was really exciting for me. Making
the film was an epic adventure, it was a real experience to be in those
landscapes in Norway. I was told by the investors that there should be no
swearing and no gore/violence in the film, which complicates things for
me, because I like splatter! So I’d say the film is fairly light for
hardcore horror fans, it’s an adventure/survival movie really. I do wish
the creatures could’ve ripped arms and legs and heads off, I think the
film suffers for not having that gore, it’s a huge regret. It would’ve
been easy to have had the musical score elevate the action and adventure
and horror but I often opted for unsettling dark ambient music (by one of
my favourite artists Flowers for Bodysnatchers) which makes the
film more bleak. With Freeze
being a period picture set at the North Pole, what were the main
challenges getting both the era and the location right? At
this budget we don’t have the luxury of getting into details with
historical accuracy and location accuracy, I’ve never been to the North
Pole, but I knew we could shoot in great snowy landscapes in Norway, and I
was able to shoot on the SS Great Britain, a museum in my hometown
Bristol. You go with what looks best and try to avoid any obvious
mistakes. What
can you tell us about Freeze's
cast, and why exactly these people? Some are regulars that
I’ve worked with many times, David Lenik, Tim Cartwright, Jake Watkins,
Ricardo Freitas [Ricardo
Freitas interview - click here], I just love these guys and think they’re among the best
of the indie film actors we have here in the UK. There were some newcomers
I was dying to work with, Johnny Vivash and Beatrice Barrila, they were
perfect for those roles but I didn’t write with them in mind.
Do talk about the
shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere! This film was
hard work, you’re taking people out into extreme environments and trying
to make a film (which can already be hard enough at times). Norway was
below freezing, the sun and snow was blinding so I couldn’t even see
what we were shooting at times, the wind was brutal which was shaking the
camera constantly. Then the cave was almost just as bad, 12 hour days in
darkness, it was damp, cold, dusty. But these locations were amazing from
a cinematography perspective, I couldn’t have asked for better locations
to light and shoot, I was absorbed in making the film look the way it
does, I was hard at work which meant not so much fun and not so much
engagement with the rest of the team, which is unusual for me. Anything you
can tell us about audience and critical reception of Freeze? I’m
not sure many people have seen the film, it takes a lot of work to
successfully market a movie and I’ve no idea if it’s reached fellow
horror lovers. When I shot the movie I had hoped it would play at 2 major
festivals (I submitted to both and it played both), that’s the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival
in Portland and FrightFest Halloween in
London. At the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival the audience were
incredible, clapping and cheering through certain moments of the movie,
and then they presented me with the award for best film, that was really a
great experience. Any
future projects you'd like to share? I have 5 films in
post-production, 4 in pre-production, what I’d love most is just for
horror fans to subscribe to my Dark Temple Motion Pictures YouTube channel
and see what’s coming up! I have an aquatic horror coming out, a slasher
film shot in Tennessee, another werewolf movie, I produced a vampire movie
for another director. If people follow me on Twitter and Instagram,
they’ll see all the latest updates of what I’m working on.
What got you into filmmaking in the first place, and did you receive any formal training on
the subject? I’ve been a film geek since childhood, I
picked up a camcorder when I was 12 and just haven’t stopped making
movies, I love it, I’m addicted to it. I’m lucky enough that it’s
been my full time career for 6 years now. I went to the Met Film School
in Ealing Studios and got a degree in Practical Filmmaking,
I guess I learned stuff there but I constantly complained about the way
they did things. I basically know what I know by just doing it over and
over again, just keeping making films, trial and error. What can you tell us about your filmwork
prior to Freeze? I’ve
been making micro-budget horror movies in all different subgenres, the
best of which have been my haunted house movie An English Haunting,
my blaxploitation-style thriller Death Ranch and my horror comedy A
Werewolf in England. Freeze
was unique because I was offered a lot of
control over the subject matter of the movie, so it was designed (by me)
from the outset to produce results I knew I’d be pleased with, which is
not always the case. Going through your filmography, one can't help but notice you never stray too
far from the horror genre - coincidence, or is horror a genre especially
dear to you, and why (not)? I’m a fan of all movie genres
but horror is what I feel I can do, as a writer and director, it’s where
my own creativity sparks. I love films like Paris Texas or Almost
Famous or As Good As It Gets (3 favourites!), I like watching
them but I’m not sure I’d be driven to make something like that
myself. I wouldn’t know where to start! I’d love to make Westerns
though, I think they share a lot in common with horror films, the ones I
like anyway, stuff like Death Rides a Horse. But above all else, I’m a
horror freak, I’m obsessed with horror and that’s my passion.
How would you describe
yourself as a director? The people I work with say I’m
very chilled, very peaceful, there’s no stress in it for me, I never
shout or loose my cool. There’s a certain level of chaos and just
winging it at this budget level, the most important thing for me is that
everyone is having fun and everyone feels comfortable. Filmmakers who inspire you? Quentin
Tarantino is the reason I picked up a camera in the first place, I saw Reservoir
Dogs and wanted to start shooting movies right away. Tim Burton
got my initial interest as a child, his wonderful weird style that was so
recognisable. As a filmmaker now I find inspiration from Rob Zombie
(there’s so much to learn from his making of The Devil’s Rejects,
which is my favourite film, he really knows what he’s doing there,
that’s perfect directing), Stanley Kubrick, Lucio Fulci [Lucio
Fulci bio - click here], John Carpenter, Mario Bava [Mario
Bava bio - click here], Ridley Scott, Stuart Gordon, there’s
all so much to learn from these guys. Your
favourite movies? Already mentioned The Devil’s
Rejects and Aliens, but I’ll add The
Shining, Django Unchained, Terminator 2, the Lone
Wolf and Cub series, Manhunter, The Hitcher, Day
of the Dead… Jack Hill movies, John Carpenter movies, Lucio
Fulci movies and Italian Westerns. ... and of course, films you really
deplore?
I don’t care for superhero movies at all, just
don’t get it. I liked Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movies as a
kid so I’ll watch Spider-Man stuff, but that’s it.
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Your/your movie's website, social media,
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@DarkTempleFilms and www.darktemple.co.uk Anything else you're dying to mention and
I have merely forgotten to ask? Freeze
is out now on digital (Prime, iTunes, GooglePlay etc.) and on DVD in the
USA if you order via Amazon. Please check it out! Thanks for the
interview!
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amazon.com
amazon.co.uk
amazon.de
eThaiCD.com
