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Your new movie
Death Among the Pines - in a few words, what's it about?
Death Among the Pines is about a
woman named Angela who lives in the Scottish countryside. One night a
stranger knocks on her door claiming his tyre is bust and can he come
in to shelter from the heavy rain. Soon after Angela lets him in, a
policeman turns up looking for an escaped criminal. Angela puts the
two together but is everything as it seems? I thought that was quite a
nice idea for a synopsis and it's one of those that you know won't be
as straightforward as that.
What were your sources of inspiration when coming up with the
story for
Death Among the Pines? I had the idea quite a number of years ago now but it was in short
film form. When I moved onto features the idea was sort of abandoned
but I watched a film called You'll Never Find Me on
Shudder and it
reminded me of the idea. It has loosely the same stranger knocking
door during storm set-up but the genders are flipped. That and movies
like Dial M For Murder and other Hitchcock movies that have a nice
catchy intriguing logline. Do talk about
Death Among the Pines' screenwriter Tom Joliffe [Tom
Joliffe interview - click here], and what was your collaboration
like? I've worked with Tom three times now with
Death Among the Pines being the third -
and we have more in the works hopefully! I enjoy writing too but Tom
thinks of things or brings angles to characters and to the story that
are fresh to me and it is nice to direct someone else's script, it
makes you think about it a little more. Tom and I have very similar
tastes in movies and a similar range in terms of what we like to
watch. Tom likes pot boiler thrillers as well and I mentioned this to
him as an idea and he got on board with it. It's always pretty easy
collaborating, we never seem to do more than two drafts before we're
both happy.
You've worked with Tom Joliffe before - so do
talk about your previous collaborations, and how did you two first meet
even? Really random but we actually met on a Dolph Lundgren
forum years ago, probably more than a decade ago now. I can't even
remember how we started chatting, it's one of those ones that you just
have mutual interests and enjoy chatting about film. I don't even know
where the time has gone. We've only met twice in person but we're breaking
tradition soon and I'm going down to London to work on a script with him.
Will be weird developing a film face-to-face rather than WhatsApp voice
note! Our first film was another thriller called
When Darkness Falls -
that was way more expansive than the claustrophobic nature of
Death Among the Pines as it was mostly vast exteriors. And the second was gothic
horror The Baby in the Basket. Back to
Death Among the Pines: What can you tell us about your
movie's approach to the thriller genre? For us we wanted to do quite a contained chamber piece. A lot of
the films I've done have been quite broad in terms of the number of
locations packed in, especially for indie features. So it was nice to
do something claustrophobic and almost like a verbal cat-and-mouse
chase set mostly in the one location. It's a three hander for the most
part with other characters dipping in to fill out the flashbacks. It's
a little bit like a jigsaw the way pieces fall into place as the film
progresses. To me there isn't one huge revelation in terms of twists,
it's almost little twists and the idea was every time the audience's
mind goes in one direction, it juts off in the other. A few words
about your overall directorial approach to your story at hand?
To be honest most of the directing is on the page in a sense, I
didn't have to do too much in terms of the characters and direction.
Nicolette McKeown, Stephen Kerr and Olly Bassi brought the characters to life and gave them
depth and really took what was on the page and ran with it. For me
though it was about trying to keep up a constant sense of atmospheric
tension throughout and creating the sense that the situation was a bit
of a powder keg. You also play one of the leads in
Death Among the Pines - so what can you tell us about your
character, what did you draw upon to bring him to life, and have you
created him with yourself in mind from the get-go? I'm not
going to lie, I do usually have myself in mind for a specific part anytime
I'm developing a film or Tom and I are developing a film. I enjoy acting
too much to step back from a film entirely, from that perspective. I play
the Stranger in the film. I love characters that are ambiguous, morally
complex and in this case, you're not sure of their intentions or whether
they are good or bad. In fact that's what is most interesting to me in
film that I like to explore characters that aren't black or white but are
more complex. In terms of bringing the character to life I think I just
had fun with it, tried to keep him unpredictable but consistent and play
it with a bit of charm yet an underlying danger.
What can you tell us about the rest of your cast, and why exactly these
people? Stephen Kerr I'd worked with before and knew that he would nail the
character of Donny. He's great at giving these complex performances,
lots of nice facial expressions that don't give away too much but make
his characters really interesting, and I knew that he would have fun
with the character and be exciting to watch. Nicolette McKeown I've known for a few
years but never worked with and she just had the right look for the
character, a bit of mystery and again the ability to bring some
complexity and ambiguity to the character. Both Nico and Stephen have
the ability to bring a depth to the characters and a sense of
intrigue. First time working with Olly Bassi too, and likewise he was great
in his role and very believable. You also have to talk about your main
location, and what was it like filming there? And how did you find it
even? We were looking for a cottage that was quite quaint and old
fashioned and had retained some nice features. A lot of properties
have now been modernised inside and have slabs of glass and LEDs
everywhere; we wanted something rustic. It look a lot of searching to
find something unique, and the film is set in a slightly non-descript
period between the mid 80's - early 90's. So it was important not to
have lots of modern features as the story doesn't work as well in
present day. It was a great location to shoot in and it was pretty
remote at least as far as there being very little in close proximity.
I suppose it brought a sense of realism and isolation to the shoot too
- which made it authentic. Do talk about the shoot as such, and the
on-set atmosphere!
I enjoyed the shoot, I think it was an interesting one watching the
characters develop and unfold, and it is always nice to get your teeth
into some meaty dialogue. The cottage shoot was intense and pretty
claustrophobic but again I think it added to the authenticity of it.
There wasn't any tension on set but hopefully there is in the film!
And I think actors (including myself) were challenged in a positive
way by what was on the page. Anything you can tell us about
audience and critical reception of
Death Among the Pines?
So far it has been pretty positive all round, fortunately almost
all of the critics have understood exactly what we were going for
(including yourself!) which is always nice when someone understands
the picture you are trying to paint. Similarly the audiences have been
positive for the majority and it was nice to see that people were
surprised by the twists, especially since I thought people would have
it all worked out 15 minutes in! Any future projects
you'd like to share?
We're currently putting together a couple of movies and are hoping
to shoot something new later this year if everything goes well. We had
three releases in 2025 including this one right at the end so it was
nice to take a step back for a few months. But now we're fired up and
raring to go! Your/your movie's website,
social media, whatever else? You can find
Shepka Productions on Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin
where we post all of our news re upcoming releases and a look
behind-the-scenes! Anything else you're
dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask? Nothing at all - thanks again for another great interview!
Thanks for the interview!
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