Interview with Aaron Poole, actor of Small Town Murder Songs

Aaron Poole (left) with Peter Stormare in Small Town Murder Songs


The following is a transcription of an interview with actor Aaron Poole of Small Town Murder Songs where we chat about the quiet understated nature of his character Jim, what draws people into crime stories, the response of the film ans what it was like working with Peter Stormare and writer/director Ed Gass-Donnelly.

Small Town Murder Songs is set in a small town Ontario community which is strongly affected by the crime that has appeared. A powerful score, compelling characters and fantastic performances creative an extremely powerful viewing experience. The film stars Peter Stormare (Fargo), Aaron Poole (This Beautiful City), Jill Hennessey, Martha Plimpton & Stephen Eric McIntyre and opens in Toronto and Edmonton Friday February 18, 2011.

Rather listen than read? You can! This interview is on Episode 25 of the Movie Moxie Podcast where I also chat with writer/director Ed Gass-Donnelly.


Shannon: I’m here with Aaron Poole of Small Town Murder Songs and thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me today.

Aaron Poole: My pleasure.

Shannon: I’d like to first ask you what drew you to this project?

Aaron Poole: Well I was involved with it early on as a story editor, so when the opportunity came up to play the role of Jim, considering the cast and Ed’s vision of the project it was a guaranteed yes.

Shannon: It was a yes for you?

Aaron Poole: Yeah, absolutely.

Shannon: Your character of Jim presents such a beautiful, quiet calmness to the film. Can you tell us a little bit more about him and the choices you made?

Aaron Poole: from the beginning, Ed & I were interested in exploring the younger demographic in that town. Often people move away to the larger cities to pursue their career, and it’s really interesting to speak with the families that are younger and choose to stay and raise their kids there. From the beginning Jim was emblematic of that demographic. And as well from a story perspective he really plays a support role to Walter’s main plot and so we didn’t want to choose idiosyncrasies that were to drastic or over the top, we wanted him to fit subtly into the background so we created a quiet, pensive, unremarkable man. Which was a lot of fun to play and really interesting to create.

Shannon: It’s interesting that a calmer, non-idiosyncratic role was fun. For me it sounds like it was so understated, that it’s feels like a really brave choice to go there rather than to go over the top.

Aaron Poole: Thanks. Well roles with lots of weight and without teeth are really fun to play, for sure. For me the juice this time was as I say being unremarkable and just being a tiny piece in Ed’s larger puzzle. That was the juice for me, the inspiration.

Shannon: It’s interesting to see such a small town cop but one who has such keen insights and very important to the film overall.

Aaron Poole: Thanks, I’m glad you think so. Nobody walks away from Hamlet remembering Horatio.

(laughter)

Aaron Poole: But definitely from a plot perspective, from a narrative perspective, he provides some insights some essential insights into Walter’s character.

Shannon: Walter is such an interesting character, what was it like working with Peter Stormare?

Aaron Poole: It was amazing. He’s a real clown as a man. The intensity that he brings to his roles is not something you see present in his life. That sort of burning, quiet intensity that he is known for. He has an Adidas sponsorship and is always parading around in brightly covered sneakers and sweat suits, and that paired with his moustache was a pretty funny combination. He looked like some Eastern European guns dealer.

Shannon: That must have been really interesting during the filming, because it was filmed in small town Ontario, right?

Aaron Poole: It was, so we would descend upon the bar at night and it was a lot of fun being in Listowel for 6 weeks and hanging around with this famous character actor. It was a great experience.

Shannon: It’s amazing to hear the energy because there is such a solemn tone to the film from the viewers perspective. Was it a challenge at all to keep that tone while filming?

Aaron Poole: Interestingly enough I think that majority of the tone that the audience experiences is set by the frame that the director of photography and Ed, the director, choose as well as the Bruce Peninsula soundtrack. I think that while we were investigating a violent act which is new to the characters in the film, a lot of what is communicated to the audience is done outside of performance. So for us, it was just sort of living a quiet life and asking questions. It was a lot different than the final product communicates.

Shannon: It certainly does ask a lot of interesting questions and being centred in a small town where a body is found. These kinds of crime dramas and crime thrillers, what do you think draws people to these stories again and again?

Aaron Poole: You know, it’s interesting trying to figure that out. I think it has something to do with that rubber neck quality that people are always fascinated with the train wreck. It’s a dark side of humanity but one that is endlessly fascinated and reoccurring. I mean the number of cop shows on TV are a testament to that.

Shannon: And the film has already played not only at TIFF but in South Western Ontario. What has the response been like?

Aaron Poole: It’s been huge. We are doing a small town tour, we are getting constant weekly orders from Mennonite communities wanting to see it, wanting to play in their church or town hall. In Listowel it out-sold Harry Potter 6:1. It sold out in Rotterdam last week, I think there were about 1,600 seats sold out. In Torino it won International Critics Prize. It’s played to a large demographic, which is really interesting and it’s been very positive. It will be fascinating to watch what Toronto as an urban centre feels about it, it could be a lot different. I think a lot of people are responding to the accuracy of the small town portrayal, and it will be interesting to see what a bunch of city folks feel about it.

Shannon: It’s not often that we see films set in and around a Mennonite community, so the response has been positive?

Aaron Poole: The response has been positive in the small towns, because not only is it a Mennonite community it depicts small town Ontario very accurately and the rhythms of that kind of lifestyle. And I’m interested to find out whether the city is interested in that kind of thing.

Shannon: Well it’s interesting because when you think small town some times you think that there isn’t a huge diversity but it feels like there are at least 3 separate communities within the film.

Aaron Poole: Yep.

Shannon: Excluding work type community, so it’s quite extraordinary the layers that it brings out.

Aaron Poole: I’m glad you noticed that, that you feel that way about it. It’s something that we strived hard to do and in our research as writing we worked hard to encapsulate. Ed spend some time up there while he was researching the piece and worked hard to include those elements in the film.

Shannon: And you working together with him again, I remember seeing and you work together in This Beautiful City and really enjoying that. You have an extremely different role and it seems so unusual to get that from the same director, what was it like working with him again?

Aaron Poole: It was great. It was a lot different process this time. He was a lot more confident with it being his second film, as well there was a developed short hand that we had. Not only had his communications skilled improved and I suppose mine had as well, there was just a greater depth to the shorthand that we had. The size of the role I play in this film is significantly different than in the one that I had in This Beautiful City, so I really worked to be supportive not only as a story editor during development but also as a character who was servicing plot in this one. So it as very much focusing on Walter’s story being told as clearly as possible though the choices that I made with my character, if that makes sense.

Shannon: It makes perfect sense, and I an totally see it on the screen.

Aaron Poole: Cool.

Shannon: Well done.

Aaron Poole: Thanks.

Shannon: What do you hope people will take from seeing Small Town Murder Songs?

Aaron Poole: Well I think it will be different for everyone, just as it is when we go to a gallery and we see any work of art. What I took from Small Town was it’s focus on the human reaction to violent event. It was really interesting to me to observe, to be given the opportunity to observe. It sounds cliché, but the innocence of a Mennonite community and the slow transformation a violent act sort of causes in that community. So for me, that was a revelation when I saw it on the big screen for the first time. And I hope people can experience something like that, or at least as impactful.

Shannon: Wow., that’s amazing. And so Small Town Murder Songs will be opening in Toronto and in Edmonton Feb 18, what else is next for you?

Aaron Poole: I’m shooting another film in April with the same producer of Small Town and a different writer/director team, so we are working on that. I have a series that’s starting next year sometime called “King”, that is on Global or Showcase, it’s a cop procedural. And Ed & I have a couple of films in development as well, so there will be more from our partnership.

Shannon: Well I look forward to seeing that as well.

Aaron Poole: Great, thank you so much.

Shannon: Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me.

Aaron Poole: My pleasure.

Small Town Murder Songs opens in February 18, 2011 at the Royal Theatre in Toronto and the Metro in Edmonton. See the film website for more information on upcoming screenings.

Interview with Ed Gass-Donnelly, writer/director of Small Town Murder Songs

Ed Gass-Donnelly

The following is a transcription of an interview with Ed Gass-Donnelly, writer/director of Small Town Murder Songs where we chat about inspiration behind the film, finding the natural balance with a less-is-more approach, casting against type, the international market and recently being named one of Variety as one of 10 Directors to Watch.

Small Town Murder Songs is set in a small town Ontario community which is strongly affected by the crime that has appeared. A powerful score, compelling characters and fantastic performances creative an extremely powerful viewing experience. The film stars Peter Stormare (Fargo), Aaron Poole (This Beautiful City), Jill Hennessey, Martha Plimpton & Stephen Eric McIntyre and opens in Toronto and Edmonton Friday February 18, 2011.

Rather listen than read? You can! This interview is on Episode 25 of the Movie Moxie Podcast where I also chat with actor Aaron Poole.

Shannon: First I’d like to say thank you for taking the time to chat with me about your film.

Ed Gass-Donnelly: No worries, it’s a pleasure

Shannon: First up I’d like to hear what was the inspiration to tell this story in Small Town Murder Songs?

Ed Gass-Donnelly: The whole process came about very quickly and I only started writing the film in January 2009 and we were shooting by October of the same year. So it didn’t necessarily come out of a period of a lot self-reflection. I definitely wanted to show the ripple effects of murder in a small community, and the initial idea was I was really inspired by idea of writing a movie around a record. So that was the initial impetus. There had been a double murder on my street in my neighbourhood and there was very much a sense of loss of innocence in the neighbourhood and I think I wasn’t consciously trying to explore that but inevitable those thoughts and questions were certainly on my brain a bit, so using a small town as a way to explore the ripple effect of that kind of violence became conscious.

And then the initial idea was to have a bunch of not necessarily connected scenes that were sort of woven around a soundtrack. I just started writing it evolved more into an linear narrative and a hero emerged, and it steamrolled and progressed from then. Like I said, because it happened so quickly there wasn’t a lot of time to be really asking a lot of questions of myself as to the reason why but, was more of just compelled…

Shannon: Just go!

Ed Gass-Donnelly: Definitely, yeah.

Shannon: So with such a quick process did you have time to research the small town-ness that emerges in the film?

Ed Gass-Donnelly: No, not really. I find that that voice kind of comes to me fairly easily. I haven’t spent a ton of time in small towns, but I guess enough because my dad’s family is from Abbottsford BC so I spent some time there as a kid and the lead character was loosely inspired by a ex-girlfriends dad from Nipawin, Saskatchewan, so there are parts in the world that I guess inspired it. A couple friends of mine grew up Mennonite, so that certainly influenced the Mennonite element and they were certainly a resource.

Shannon: So you already had it in you, you didn’t have to go out to research as you already had it inside?

Ed Gass-Donnelly: Yeah, I guess. Originally it wasn’t going to be a Mennonite town specifically, but a murder in a small community. But then there was a character whose history of violence, the idea of specifically putting him in a community of pacifist became a lot more interesting to me. I’ve always been inspired by the more you can set something in a specific place, the more you can take an audience on a journey that they may not be familiar with. It just became a community with a strong Mennonite presence, became richer and more interesting to the story to me.

Shannon: And the film has such a haunting quality to it that really keeps you on edge, but also completely drawn in. I was drawn in within 30 seconds, I was like “This is fantastic”, and I find that to be really adept storytelling and Canadian. Do you feel it’s a uniquely Canadian film?

Ed Gass-Donnelly: You know, it’s funny I don’t even know what that means anymore in some ways. I guess in some ways I really strived to make an un-Canadian movie.

Shannon: Oh?

Ed Gass-Donnelly: Well, yes and no. Un-Canadian from and industry perspective because I don’t think we do ourselves a service by like branding a movie as Canadian.

Shannon: Fair play.

Ed Gass-Donnelly: Ultimately I set out to make a film for an international market. We don’t have a distinguished language from the US. We are not Quebec, we are not Greece or say somewhere in Europe where the general public have a specific affinity to seeing a film from there indigenous culture because of the fact that it’s in their language. That right off the bat is a reason to watch something versus something else. Because Canadian audiences don’t, and it’s not a negative thing, but they are happily served in English 24-7 so they don’t have to go out of their way necessarily to look for content that is there own. Unless it’s somebody who is specifically nationalistically inclined.

Shannon: Right.

Ed Gass-Donnelly: So for me, putting a bunch of maple syrup and a flag on a film don’t necessary serve your purpose, in many ways I think it can ostracize you from an audience.

Shannon: That’s interesting because one of the things I found so fascinating about the film was that it was so accessible, although there is lots of harsh content that’s not glorified or even often onscreen, but so much comes across in sheer tone so it’s accessible to a very large audience. Was that a conscious decision to keep it accessible?

Ed Gass-Donnelly: Well after my first film This Beautiful City, which is an unapologetically an indie gritty film with liberal doses of sex and violence in it, and it was definitely not a commercial film and we didn’t apologize for that. But I don’t necessary want to do the same thing again, certainly not right away so I want to do something different. A part of me did sort of want to flaunt the opportunity to branch out theatrically in countries throughout the world , so obviously I’m trying to… the goal is always how do you tell a story that interests the greatest number of people without watering down the story that you are trying to tell.

Shannon: Right.

Ed Gass-Donnelly: Because if you were to take this film and try to water it down further, not water it down, but or if you were try and make it more accessible than it is then in starts to become a CSI episode or something like that, then the film completely falls apart. It’s always finding that natural balance and just being honest with yourself, what is the story you are telling and realize what is the audience for that and in turn how much do you try to make if for as a result. If I tried to make this film for $20 million, I’d still be trying to make this film.

Shannon: Right. It’s interesting. We get a lot of crime dramas and crime thrillers, what do you think draws people to these stories over and over again?

Ed Gass-Donnelly: Well certainly the thriller drama, and I certainly would not consider this film that, the word thriller is a bit of a word du jour, in filmmaking especially these days. Because last year no one wanted to touch drama.

Shannon: Yeah.

Ed Gass-Donnelly: But then of course, movies like Winter’s Bone and Black Swan happen and True Grit, and then they succeed so there is always a back and forth. At the end of the day you can’t try and chase the market. I guess you can and some people do, maybe as a producer you can in terms of what content to trigger but from a creators perspective because the process generally takes longer I don’t think you can chase the market because by the time you finish it, something else is in vogue. So you can really only be trying to make the best films possible and have some kind of general sense about if it’s realistic. I mean, if I had wrote in a whole bunch of helicopter fights and stuff like that, would it have been realistic to the story? Would it be feasible to make? That’s my producer brain, perhaps, but I don’t really want to spend 5 years trying to get a movie made.

Shannon: For sure. I’m just trying to imagine helicopter fights in the film, and it’s not quite working.

(laughter)

Shannon: The music in the film is extremely powerful. Can you talk a little bit about it and how it played into the film? I know said it was an important piece.

Ed Gass-Donnelly: Yeah, I wrote the movie around the idea of using a specific record and I guess the impulse of that is that an album is created in a specifically time and place and has continuous themes, and it feels very much a whole. The album can often feel part of that record. So that was the idea of using the album as a soundtrack. That said, the music that I ended up using the film is not the music that inspired the film.

Shannon: Interesting.

Ed Gass-Donnelly: And I very much love the album that inspired me, but I really felt that the album had influenced the pace and tone and sort of the texture, cinematography, the tone sort of the colour of the film to such an extent that when I had the same music up against it in the edit, there wasn’t any real conflict between the images and the music. They were all to me, saying the same colour. And also I felt that I really needed a bit more abrasive to the gentle lilting to the film. I’ve known Bruce Peninsula and was listening to their stuff while we were shooting the film and was inspired with the movie begin and end with the Bruce Peninsula song, and then rest be this other album instead. Because what I really liked because their stuff is so influenced by gospel music, I was able to continue the thread through picking which songs, able to string though the spiritual journey of the protagonist without never having to necessarily talk about religion.

Shannon: Right.

Ed Gass-Donnelly: And I’m always very suspicious of things that give away to much, I’m very much a less is more school of narrative and information. Just in general but I think you can have something that’s sparse but powerful, that to me much more exciting than expositional.

Shannon: Sparse but powerful, it’s definitely sparse and powerful. Absolutely fascinating to look at it that way.

Ed Gass-Donnelly: It’s fine tuning to find that balance of when you hold back information how much are you inviting people to think and participate and then at one point if you hold back too much do they just get confused and annoyed. We went to both sides of that through the edit, at times it was even sparser to the point where it’s so sparse it’s impenetrable versus too much information. It’s almost too much information to the point where if we are going procedural than we are going to need a lot more information.

Shannon: Right.

Ed Gass-Donnelly: So it can be a tricky slope of like, you say two words and then it almost wants you to say 30 and it can go on and on and on. It’s very delicate house of cards that you try and create just how much and how little information you can getaway with providing, and it what form. For me the title cards and the music were a way of imbuing scenes that had nothing to do with spirituality with a sense of his spiritual crisis. You just felt that weight continuing throughout these other scenes without me ever having to talk about it, and there were certainly times more open. It was always very sparse in the script but at time I did speak more about his spiritual struggle or just Mennonites in general but I think the word ‘Mennonite” is mentioned once in the film and it just becomes a flavour and a texture as opposed to, I didn’t want the film to become about that.

Shannon: I felt myself listening though, to make sure I had the right term, like who are we talking about here? Just for accuracy, but not so much to pin it down to something.

Ed Gass-Donnelly: Right.

Shannon: I have to ask you about the extraordinary cast who do such an exceptional job. Can you share how the casting fell into place?

Ed Gass-Donnelly: The only person I had from the beginning is Aaron Poole who played the younger cop, because he’s really talented and one of my best friends and story edits and sort of a creative collaborated on a lot of what I do. And Peter Stormare as Walter, I’ve been working with a really great casting director. In the process of jamming out ideas you create a list of 50-60 peoples, just archetypes of actors whether they are even realistic or not that you might but a Christopher Walken on there or an Al Pacino, just more about are these the kind of people? And you can say yes or no, just to get a flavour of what is the feel of the character. And what ideas could we get that are very different than I imagined. So it becomes a creative jamming out process. I’ve been a fan of his TV series “Prison Break”, and I watched that and I just happened so see Armageddon on when it was on television and saw his character in that and reminded me of how funny he is in that film and realized it was the same guy. I I was intrigued after that. I was thinking more about it and realized he was in Fargo, and the places I knew him from and I went and saw Dancer in the Dark again, and that was for me really what sold it because he was just so innocent and sweet in that film. I was a little nervous because his other characters, at least with the material because it’s so Hollywood, it wasn’t sort of the naturalism I would be going for with his performance? I mean you can’t really consider Fargo and Armageddon to be naturalistic.

(laughter)

Ed Gass-Donnelly: But there was just something I saw in his character in Dancer in the Dark that just felt very real. There was a shy awkwardness to him in that that I really liked and I got really interested and started to see more and more of his stuff. I saw this Swedish film called Varg, which means Wolf, that he was the lead in just to see as much possible. And then we just arranged for me to meet him in New York and over quite a few drinks we decided to work together.

(laughter)

Ed Gass-Donnelly: And the rest of the cast, Martha Plimpton was one of the very person we discussed for that role and we had no connection to her. We talked and the conversation for a while came back and we made an offer to her and she agreed to do it. And Jill Hennessy, it’s funny because when you make a Canadian film there is a balance of needed a certain amount of your stars to be Canadian, to assess public money. And I was at a film festival party in 2009, in the September about month and a half before we started shooting and I hadn’t cast that role yet and was talking about how I needed to find somebody. A friend of mine suggested Jill Hennessy, and I said I needed someone Canadian and I didn’t realize Jill Hennessey was Canadian. I knew her work from “Law and Order”, but I didn’t know specifically that she was Canadian. Again I got intrigued looking at more of her work.

Shannon: Great casting with her, she does a fearless performance in the film.

Ed Gass-Donnelly: Yeah, and again I’m always interested in casting very much against type. Certainly with Peter I wanted to do something very different from what we’ve seen, to be honest to the extent that sadly most people didn’t recognize him. Which is great from a creative point of view, but then you put him on a poster and it’s like “Who’s that guy?” I mean, people don’t even recognize him. His character was written with very much the intention that he would have these large glasses and big moustache that were sort of like a mask on his face. I didn’t consider the possibility that if you put that kind of a mask on someone face and it’s hard to recognize them. Which is really wonderful when people then realize who his is as they can sort of loose themselves in the story and character.

Same with Jill, the first day she was filming the note I had to give to make up was “You gotta stop making her looks so pretty.” And even though she looks good in the film, there was definitely a typical vain approach to say, a 40 year old woman in a movie.

Shannon: Right.

Ed Gass-Donnelly: You try to make her look better, try to make her look 10 years younger. And I was like you know what, let her be an attractive woman who’s 40, or 39, or whatever IMDb says. I thought, let’s make her look a little rough around the edges, we don’t need to glam her up. That was it, she started looking glam and I was like, take that down, take that down. Make it look like she’s not wearing any make up and her be more a natural character for that world as opposed to she just stepped out an episode of “Law and Order”.

Shannon: I chatted with Aaron Poole recently about the film as well, and it was great to see you two working together again on this project. Can you talk a bit about what it was like to work together?

Ed Gass-Donnelly: I’ve known Aaron for years and years because we went to high school together, it’s just a constant collaborative process. On this in addition to playing a supporting role in the film he was the story editor from the beginning so it’s always sort of more than just screen acting too, in terms of that relationship. He was in my previous film as well, being one of the leads and the story editor. It’s just a constant creative process. Because I tend to do a lot of jobs on the film, this one I was the writer/director/editor and one of two producers ,so all the more reason I feel that when I do so many jobs I need to surround myself with people I creatively trust because you need an outside eye, you need feedback constantly. Because you don’t have another editor with another writer or you don’t have the luxury of always having a second brain for input.

Shannon: Having a support team with you.

Ed Gass-Donnelly: Yeah, so for me when you start taking on more and more jobs like that, all the more reason you really need people you know and trust and really have deeper creative discussion with. And frankly, rather frequently because it could be 2 days later and I’ll have a new pass at the edit and I’ll want to bounce it off of somebody. So you really need that sort of that strong creative support structure.

Shannon: Interesting. Small Town Murder Songs has screen across south western Ontario, and also at TIFF. What’s the response been like in south western Ontario in particular?

Ed Gass-Donnelly: It’s been great. I haven’t actually been there for that many of them unfortunately because I’ve been travelling. But the response that we’ve had, and this is definitely why we started screening in small towns initially, because when we initially were getting close to finishing the edit and several of my friends are from small towns and really latched on the fact that they felt it was a really authentic portrayal of that community. Specially of my friends that are Mennonite they felt that there was a lot of authenticity that they didn’t normally see represented.

So I think on the one hand a little of the strategy was the title of the film was to creative something that was evocative and creative enough information “Small Town” and we wanted to make sure was included, then of course “Murder” and “Songs” was an odder part of the title, but a creatively evocative part . So I think we are trying to convince people to take a look in with certain genre and creative elements to it, to entice them but also ideally to feel that it’s in their community. I think inevitable people just feel people are curious, so it’s been playing really well and then some people, or the people that don’t like it who come in expecting a classic thriller, that’s been a constant struggle to make sure that the things like the trailer of the film are actually very reflective of the film.

It’s been interesting that when people either have no opinion of what they are seeing, or know what they are seeing , there is always an unanimously positive experience from person to person. I mean, maybe there is a person that says “That wasn’t a thriller!” or something totally different and I’d say “I totally agree with you.”

(laughter)

Shannon: I think it’s amazing the diversity of communities you’ve been able to capture – I was a big fan of This Beautiful City and I’m a Toronto Queen Street Girl myself I feel you really got that setting perfectly. I was wondering what’s next on the horizon for you?

Ed Gass-Donnelly: It’s a great question , I’d really like to know too. I’ve been developing 8 different movies.

Shannon: Wow.

Ed Gass-Donnelly: There are 2 or 3 contenders that look like they will go next. It’s always sort of exploring the US, when Variety named me one of their 10 directors to watch, that created a fair amount of attention for me in the States. So I was recently with a US manager and agent there and I’ve been working to set up a couple of the larger projects that I’ve been sort of back burning a little bit in Canada because they didn’t seem feasible to me as sort of a next film. I wasn’t expecting the opportunity to do maybe a $10 or $20 million film as a follow up to this.

Shannon: Right.

Ed Gass-Donnelly: I was focusing more on these movies for about $3-4 million, just from a business perspective but creatively I’m excited about all the stuff I’ve been working on it’s just I’m also trying to be realistic. In Canada, it’s not feasible to do a $40 million movie, so I wasn’t developing any. But suddenly in the States anything under $10 million could be a bit tricky because always needing enough elements from a business point of view in terms of cast and tech so if someone is actually going to risk $10 million, I mean $10 million is a lot of money, so that if they will actually make it back or not even make it back but make a profit. So it’s interesting whereas in Canada in the US is the hardest place to make a film between $1-5 million, and Canada is very much supportive of that. It’s not that Canada can’t do larger films, it’s just that the slate of material I’ve been developing which ranges from a supernatural thriller to a rock-gospel musical, for me it’s just really trying to think about what is the best place to try and get this movie made.

Because I’m also a dual Canadian-British citizen, I was just in Europe aggressively pursuing co-productions, so really it comes back to that I don’t want to be just a Canadian filmmaker but I want to be, I mean we are in an international marketplace and the movie is coming out in Toronto and Edmonton but it’s also going to be released in Turkey and Scandinavia as well as the US. So it’s exciting to be thinking outside of what’s my neighbourhood and what can I get financed here, sort of look a little bit broader and say what is the best place in the world for me to make this next movie.

Shannon: Well then you very much literally are one to watch because we are going to have to keep an eye on what you get up to next!

(laughter)

Shannon: Thank you so much for your time and congratulations on the film and being one of Variety’s 10 directors to watch, that’s absolutely amazing.

Ed Gass-Donnelly: Thank you very much.

Small Town Murder Songs opens in February 18, 2011 at the Royal Theatre in Toronto and the Metro in Edmonton. See the film website for more information on upcoming screenings.

Movie Moxie Podcast 25: Small Town Murder Songs Interviews with Ed Gass-Donnelly & Aaron Poole, The Eagle, Gnomeo & Juliet plus Sword & Sandal Films

Ed Gass-Donnelly / Aaron Poole and Peter Stormare in Small Town Murder Songs

On this week's episode of the Movie Moxie Podcast I had a chance to chat with writer/director Ed Gass-Donnelly and actor Aaron Poole of Small Town Murder Songs, a fantastic film which opens here in Toronto and in Edmonton on Friday February 18, 2011. Also have reviews for Small Town Murder Songs, The Eagle, Gnomeo & Juliet and Cedar Rapids as well as continuing genre exploration by taking on Sword & Sandals Films. Enjoy!

0:00 – 1:00 - Introduction
1:00 – 5:30 – News
5:30 – 28:00 – Ed Gass-Donnelly Interview
28:00 –38:00 – Aaron Poole Interview
38:00 – 41:00 – Small Town Murder Songs Review
41:00 – 48:15 – The Eagle Review
48:15 – 52:00 – Gnomeo & Juliet Review
52:00 – 54:45 – Cedar Rapids Review
54:45 –1:22:00 – Sword & Sandals as a Genre
1:22:00 –1:25:00 – DVD releases
1:25:00 – 1:26:10 – Upcoming up Next Week
1:26:10 – 1:27:29 – Outro

You can subscribe to the Movie Moxie Podcast here:
Or subscribe through iTunes here.

Show Notes

• Ed Gass-Donnelly has been named by Variety as one of 10 Directors to Watch
• Transcript of Ed Gass-Donnelly interview
  
• Transcript of Aaron Poole interview
  
• BAFTA Winners
• Before the Dawn: A Twilight Podcast recent episode where we chat up Romance Films
• Un-Traditional Valentine's Day Film Recommendations
• I mention both my romance and adventure genre explorations on previous podcasts
• Reviews of films mentioned: Small Town Murder Songs, The Eagle, Gnomeo & Juliet, Cedar Rapids
• DVD Reviews: Cactus, Hatchet II, Bitter Feast, Ong Bak 3
• DVD Releases for Feb 15, 2011
• I mentioned my Most Anticipated Films of 2011 List
• I mention the 2011 Book to Film Club which included the upcoming release of I Am Number Four
• I've also created a list of 2011 Book to Film Adaptations List

Sword and Sandal Show Notes

• Shannon's Definition of Sword & Sandals Films: Films that includes someone wielding a sword and wearing sandals, but also includes gladiator & Greek mythology as well as historically set epic adventurous and biopics set in the Greco-Roman period. They are easy to pick out, but are a micro-genre that tend to fall under the home genres of action, adventure, historical, fantasy or biopic.
• Wikipedia definition of The Peplum (or pepla plural), also known as Sword-and-Sandal, is a genre of Italian-made historical or Biblical epics that dominated the Italian film industry from 1957 to 1965, eventually being replaced in 1965 by the "Spaghetti Western". They attempted to emulate, or compete with, the big budget Hollywood Historical Epics of the time, such as Spartacus, Samson and Delilah and The Ten Commandments, just as the Spaghetti westerns were low-budget imitations of the Hollywood Western.
• Greek Mythology:Clash of the Titans (1981), Clash of the Titans (2010), Hercules (1983), Jason in the Argonauts (1963), Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief
• Historically Set Fictional Characters: Arn: The Knight Templar, Centurion, Conan the Barbarian, Conan the Destroyer, The Eagle, Gladiator, The Scorpion King
• Historical Figures / Periods: 300, Agora, Alexander, Cleopatra (1963), Julius Caesar (1953), Spartacus, Troy
• New Interpretations: Outlander, Pathfinder, Valhalla Rising (axe & mud!)
• Close, but not quite: Robin Hood (2010)
• Still to See: Sinbad films
• Recommendations by others: Hercules Vs. The Hydra, Hercules and Hercules Unchained, and Hercules in the Haunted World (thanks James from the Criterion Cast for the recommends)
• Rather watch than listen? You can check out my Sword & Sandals Marathon Wrap Up Vlog
• See All Sword & Sandal Films Reviews

Movie Moxie Podcast #7: Dark Bridges Film Festival, Resident Evil: Afterlife and Genre Look at Zombie Films

On this weeks episode of the Movie Moxie Podcast, Shannon chats with John Allison the founder and festival director of the Dark Bridges Film Festival - Saskatoon's only genre film festival! Also have an (almost) look at Resident Evil: Afterlife and continue the exploration of film genres by having a look at zombie films.

The Movie Moxie Podcast is a 100% spoiler-free film podcast

0:00 – 1:30 - Introduction
1:30 – 37:15 –Interview with John Allison, Dark Bridges Film Festival founder & festival director
37:15 – 47:15 –Resident Evil Afterlife (almost) Review
47:15 – 1:04:00 – Zombie Films as a Genre
1:04:00 – 1:07:00 –Catfish & My Soul to Take Trailers
1:07:00 – 1:09:00 – DVD reviews
1:09:00 –1:09:45 – Upcoming up Next Week
1:09:45 – 1:11:28 – Outro

You can subscribe to the Movie Moxie Podcast here:
Or subscribe through iTunes here.

Questions & comments on the podcast are welcome, feel free to comment on this post or contact me directly by email



Dark Bridges Film Festival runs Sept 24 - 26, 2010 at the Roxy Theatre, Saskatoon

• Dark Bridges Film Festival website
• Film schedule
• Festival Facebook Page
• Festival Facebook Event
• Also find John Allison's writings & webmastery at Row Three.
  
• Festival Trailer:

Zombie Genre Show Notes:

• Shannon's Definition of Zombie Film: zombie films are films where zombie play a vital role in the film which is centred on human vs zombie conflict or interaction. Zombies in this context are defined as humans that have dead and then been reanimated into brainless existence.
• Wikipedia description of zombies: Zombies are creatures usually portrayed as either a reanimated corpse or a mindless human being. While zombie films generally fall into the horror genre, some cross over into other genres, such as comedy, science fiction, thriller, or romance, even animated films. There have even been developments in zombie-specific sub-genres, such as the "zombie comedy" or the "zombie apocalypse".
• Wikipedia List of Zombie Films
• Shannon's Archive of reviewed Zombie Films
• Shannon's recommended zombie films: Night of the Living Dead (original), Pontypool, Grace, [REC], 28 Days Later, Zombie Girl: The Movie and Mulberry Street
• Shannon's not quite zombie film but still recommended as a close fit: The Last Man on Earth

Zombie Resources:

• Renerd.com
• Toronto After Dark Film Festival
• Toronto Zombie Walk

Regular Show Notes:

• DVD releases for September 14, 2010
• See more Upcoming Films here

Catfish Trailer


My Soul To Take (spoiler free until 1/2 way point)

Movie Moxie Podcast: Episode 5 - The Last Exorcism Interviews with Eli Roth, Ashley Bell & Patrick Fabian

On this 5th episode of the Movie Moxie Podcast, Shannon interviews producer Eli Roth and actors Ashley Bell & Patrick Fabian of The Last Exorcism, as well as reviews of current theatrical releases The Expendables, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, The Human Centipede, has a look at the trailer for Black Swan, checks out current DVD releases as well as looking ahead to next weeks theatrical releases.

Click here to download MP3 of podcast

The Movie Moxie Podcast is a 100% spoiler-free film podcast

0:00 – 1:45 - Introduction
1:45 – 18:45 – Eli Roth Interview, producer: The Last Exorcism
18:45 – 34:35 – Ashley Bell & Patrick Fabian Interview, actors: The Last Exorcism
34:35 – 39:30 – The Last Exorcism Review
39:30 – 47:00 – The Expendables Review
47:00 – 51:00 – Scott Pilgrim vs. The World Review
51:00 – 53:00 – The Human Centipede (First Sequence) Review
53:00 – 56:10 – Black Swan Trailer
56:10 –1:01:40 – DVD reviews – Harry Brown, Survival of the Dead, The Wild Hunt
1:01:40 – 1:03:00 – Upcoming up Next Week
1:03:00 – 1:04:08 – Outro

Show Notes

• Rather read than listen? See transcriptions of interview with producer Eli here, and interview with actors Ashley Bell and Patrick Fabian here.
  
• Film review of films discussed: The Last Exorcism, The Expendables, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, The Human Centipede: First Sequence
• Interviews with Eli Roth and Ashley Bell & Patrick Fabian were roundtabled with Seán Francis Condon from MSN Canada. Check out his take on Eli Roth and the film here.
• Additional films mentioned: Crank, The Losers, King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
• DVD Reviews: Harry Brown & George A. Romero's Survival of the Dead
• DVD Recommendation: The Wild Hunt (on my list of best films of 2010 so far)
• List of Aug 31, 2010 DVD Releases
• If you like paranormal tv, check out Hexed: Sisterhood of the Supernatural, a weekly tv podcast co-hosted by me and my sister Suzie.
• Next weeks wide releases include Machete & Going the Distance
• See more Upcoming Films here

You can subscribe to the Movie Moxie Podcast here:
Or subscribe through iTunes here.

Questions & comments on the podcast are welcome, feel free to comment on this post or contact me directly by email

Next week I’ll be reviewing the Danny Trejo revenge flick, and voted as most anticipated September release, Machete!

Black Swan Trailer:

Interview with Ashley Bell and Patrick Fabian, actors of The Last Exorcism

Patrick Fabian as Cotton Marcus and Ashley Bell as Nell Sweetzer in The Last Exorcism

The following is a transcription of an interview with Ashley Bell and Patrick Fabian, actors of The Last Exorcism when they were in town for the Toronto premiere of the film on Monday August 16, 2010 at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival. We chat about what drew them to the project, their characters, the physicality of the roles and a whole lot more. This interview has been edited to be spoiler-free.

The Last Exorcism is a documentary-style film following Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian), a non-believing preacher set out to debunk exorcism. Then he meets Nell (Ashley Bell), an earnest and sweet-as-pie girl whose Dad asks for help as he's started to see all the signs of her being possessed.

Rather listen than read? Scoot over and listen to the interview on Episode 5 of the Movie Moxie Podcast here, where I also chatted with producer Eli Roth & also review the film.

Shannon: Well my first question is what drew you to this project?

Ashley Bell: I was immediately struck by the character of Nell Sweetzer from the first time I read the character breakdown. I think she’s such a complex character, and to have the opportunity as an actress to research and prepare for that and play it was just so huge. It’s something you dream about, a role you get to play.

Patrick Fabian: I love playing a preacher. That idea totally attracts me because a preacher is for the most part a dramatic larger than life character anyways, it’s a knowit all, somebody who has the ego to stand up in front of people and say “I know the way” and give me a little bit of money on the way. So that is absolutely fun. Plus, it’s a scary film. I always want to be a part of something like that.

Seán: I noticed with both characters, I think we are probably both close in age…

Patrick Fabian: 45.

Seán: Yeah, I’m 45 as well. But it’s a situation where both characters in their own way gifted as children really. And you’ve sort of got to the point where I don’t think you are cynical at all, I think you are just facing your own family realities, economic realities and everything like that. And you are sort of still on this more optimistic, trying to figure our your world as well, you are kind of in this home. But there is this place where these characters meet unexpectedly, and I’m wondering if it’s based on the idea that you are still searching for something in your 40’s and you are just getting through your teens in this film.

Patrick Fabian: I think when I first encountered her, when I first interviewed her, I’m so taken by her because of her innocence. I think a lot of my anger and angst is really at the father in the situation, because here is this girl and you’d like to save her from maybe the fate that I had, which was sort of being trapped in the monkey cage of what I was doing. Like her art that she shows me on the wall, and her room there are so many great things that she had that were precious and wonderful.

Ashley Bell: I love those drawings, that was a total surprize. I showed up to set one day and they had done all these drawings and I said “What a gift! Who made these? This is incredible.”

Patrick Fabian: So there is something about wanting to save her, I don’t know if it’s emphatically by saving her I save myself. But there is a sense of redemption and that I’m searching for something, clearly at the crossroads of my midlife, clearly trying to accept my responsibility to my family. And it’s the leap of faith that says I can no longer do what I’m doing, I don’t know what is out there and I don’t know how I’m going to pay for it but I’m willing to severe my past in anticipation and faith that I will be provided for in the future. And she becomes that conduit, that lynchpin into it.

Shannon: Both of the characters have a certain duality to them, not only in combination with the vérité /documentary style and the narrative style, but Nell with the literal possession as well as being herself; and then your character with believing and non-believing. Were there challenges to, or excitement about that kind of duality?

Ashley Bell: Yeah, there was tons of excitement actually. When I was preparing for both the audition and I had about a month before we all went to New Orleans and it was cool to try to prepare two different characters. Both Nell before her possessions and then during her kind of episodes or possessions. You know, she’s a 15 year old girl from the backwoods of Louisiana, extremely religious and I just started asking myself questions about who is she? Why hasn’t she left? She’s never had the need to leave that area. What has she been exposed to? What hasn’t she been exposed to? And that was so fascinating figuring that out and kind of pitting that character against the possessed Nell and using them to manipulate Patrick and the outsiders that come.

Patrick Fabian: And it was great to be able to both of hers (laughter). It really was. You know, I’ve said this before and I’ll said this again, without Ashley and her talent the film is a house of cards. If you don’t believe her as being innocent, then you aren’t going to believe her as being possessed and if either one of those aren’t being authentically portrayed, then you get suspect and then you are out. I think anytime you get into a horror film, or any time you get suspense or anxiousness in it, audiences are looking for that thing to hang their had on and say “Nope, that’s not good.”, and they are out, they check out quickly.

I think the film works because she brings that full. And a plus, it makes my job easier because there is no acting involved when I walk in and she’s in the full throws of being possessed. It’s a whole lot of reacting saying “I am legitimately creeped out, I am legitimately afraid for her and I legitimately do not know what to do.” She doesn’t meet me half way there, she comes like 90% over and then lets me walk over and have some water. It’s really wonderful, you know.

For my character to be both sides, I think any man of faith or any man who stands up there ultimately, intrinsically has to have that. Yes, I’m a man of faith. Yes, I believe in God. Yes, I believe other things. But more often than not, act in very ungodly ways, taking money and sleeping around and all those sort of things. I think that is just built in being part and parcel of being a preacher.

Ashley Bell: My job was made ten thousand times easier by the environment that Daniel created on set. He made it so safe to try anything and to welcome our ideas, and to ask if we had something in mind to try. And then the whole cast, Patrick and I would be sitting for hours, him interviewing me, and to have someone that is so generous and so there. It makes me feel safe to try anything, it’s all everyone else.

Patrick Fabian: I think that shows up in the film too. There is a relaxation, there is a reality and comfortableness of the situation, then through we are … not pitted against one another but certainly I’m here to discover the puzzle that is Nell. But she’s so open, so seemingly open in giving me “I want you to discover the puzzle too”. Yet every time she opens up to, that it leads me down a corridor that runs into a wall or runs into a that doesn’t make sense thing. Something is not adding up here.

Seán: That struck me as well going in at first, I was going “Oh, god, they are going down to the south, we’ve got some… “ (laughter), but you are taking Nell at face value right off the start, because it’s kind of what you want, too. You think you see everything there.

Patrick Fabian: Right. Story over, nice and clean.

Seán: But I find the early bridge in this is Caleb, but as an actor as well with him in drawing the three characters together, never mind the father Louis as well, but how important was it for you three to be working together to be on the same page throughout this?

Patrick Fabian: Well I just know that the first time I was working with Caleb (Landry Jones), first off Caleb is a very talented young man and he’s definitely going places. As a matter of fact he’s going to be in the new X-Men film as well. And he has a wonderful quality where you are a little creeped out standing next to him, and I think that is because he’s playing a creepy character not because he’s a creepy guy by any stretch.

Ashley Bell: He’s the sweetest.

Patrick Fabian: Yeah. But him & I, certainly we are odds with one another as characters and he just didn’t let me off the hook, and made me uncomfortable and I think that shows up. Consequently, I think that he is on her side, because they are brother and sister but I don’t know if he really is.

Ashley Bell: Yeah, there are almost two different teams. And I think that whole feel of whole the plantation, and certainly filming on location in Louisiana was so great. I mean, the humidity was at 100% humidity and we walked outside and it hit us like a big, warm, wet blanket (laughter). It just engulfed us.

Shannon: And it was so great? (laughter) Atmosphere.

Ashley Bell: But it was! The house was an actual plantation that had just been redone before Katrina, so everything was polished, but warped. So you still saw the waterlines, and the stairs ran crooked and the floorboards. All that helps so much and the Sweetzer farm and/or compound was just isolated out there, and just so claustrophobic. I think being down there helped a lot.

Patrick Fabian: Yeah.

Ashley Bell: And also to bond that with Caleb and Louis.

Patrick Fabian: I mean when you think about it, when we first drove up it looks like you would find these people there. And it feels like you are intruding, even though – why would you be intruding? You are just going to a farm. And yet it feels like you aren’t supposed to be here. And that is a great feel, that’s great. That worked just driving up, there is no window dressing for that, it just like “Let’s go the other way.”

Shannon: Both of your characters have some pretty interesting physical feats. You with the literal physicality and you with the slight of hand/magic type stuff. What did you do to prepare? Or do you have a movement background?

Ashley Bell: Yeah, I’ve done a lot of ballet, I’m double jointed… I like to pull that at parties. No, Daniel nailed my boots down and pushed me over and yelled ‘Action!’

Shannon: Wow. What was the experience like being in those crazy positions?

Ashley Bell: Honestly, it was so much fun. To get to play a character that physically demanding like that was a lot of fun. And Daniel made room for that one set, he kind of welcomed it. That night before the exorcism scene we were talking and he asked if I had in mind for the next day. And, first of all you just dream that anyone would ask you that as an actor, so I shared the back bend and several other physical things I was working on and he said “Yes, let’s do it. Let’s put it in.” So it was exciting.

Patrick Fabian: Fun for her. For us and the camera crew we were like “OH! Stop doing that! No! No!” (laughter), and she just smiled and go. It was wonderful to work on that. The tricks that I did and stuff like that, the slight of hand, that all plays into the idea of he’s a showman first. His real passion is magic, he happens to be a preacher. His day job is preaching, but what he really wants to be is a magician and it happens to reinforce that, I think thr one informs the other. And they had a great guy on set, they had an actual local magician who came and helped with the things that we did, and there were other things that we tried to do, but I think that was one of those cases where the magician was really good at it, and then they hoped that the actor could pick it up in 5 minutes (laughter). And we’d try it in film and I’d see Daniel be like “Oh, that not so good. We move on” (laughter).

Seán: What you were saying about Daniel asking you, you’ve got a writer/director team with Huck & Andrew, they’ve worked together before, they know each other really well. Probably at this point they probably really instinctive with each other too. But in doing something in such a vérité manner, and really with limited cast, how much did you stick to the page and how much started to evolve and things maybe taken in slightly different direction as the film went on? Did you film in sequence, by the way?

Patrick Fabian: Virtually, yeah.

Ashley Bell: We did pretty much film in sequence, which was so helpful.

Patrick Fabian: Yeah. I can’t imagine having it juxtaposed.

Ashley Bell: Yeah. But we pretty much stuck to the script and Huck & Andrew wrote such an incredible script with so much humour in it. When we saw it for the first time I was surprized by how much humour there was, and in just the right places. And then in some of the more emotional scenes, certainly the exorcism scenes and some of the physical stuff, I was allowed to have a little bit more freedom to go off and improvize with that. Daniel was encouraging if we were going someplace, to go there.

Patrick Fabian: We did a lot of takes. We did like 20 – 30 takes for a lot of the scenes, not most of the scenes. So consequently when you start to do that you start discovering things. I was saying that Huck & Andrew wrote a great script and it’s our road map and sometimes we take exits to other parts of the scene and Daniel and those guys were really good about saying “Let’s go there.” And if that became the scene, that is what would happen. But just by the nature of the beast, by talking all that much things start morphing and start growing. Sometimes not so great, which is why you have the director come in and say “I know you think that is a wonderful moment, but we are going to get rid of that now, alright?” (laughter).

Shannon: With it being a combination of sort of documentary/ vérité style and more narrative, where there challenges that came up with that?

Patrick Fabian: I think sometimes we would feel like we would get good takes, or at least what we were talking about in terms of electricity we wanted out of the scene was being had, but by the nature of having Zoltan Honti (cinematographer), who is chasing us down for everything, you are just sometimes not going to get the framing you want. And even though it was loose, it was very controlled loose. He really knew what was going on, and he wanted to show what he wanted to show. I know there were a lot of times where we would feel, well I can only speak for myself on this point, where I feel like “That was it, man! That was really good. Boy, wasn’t that on fire?” and they were like “Yeah….well, we don’t have anything on that one. That’s no good.” And then you get frustrated and stuff like that, but then it gets real because of that. Because you really start to really let it go, and I guess I’m going to do this scene all goddamn day, that is what I’m going to do, just shoot! Keep shooting! And they will find what they need.

Ashley Bell: On the note of Zoltan, this has obviously been a style that has been done so many times before but he is so smart.

Patrick Fabian: Yeah.

Ashley Bell: And the angles he found, and what he was able to do! I saw it for that first time and I was like, what Zoltan was able to do so differently. And the communication that he had with Daniel on set, I think they worked almost silently sometimes. They just knew each others thoughts, they knew exactly as they had worked together before and they knew exactly where to go, or what to do, or where to come in from, or where to spy from.

Patrick Fabian: I think he sets a new standard for that kind of handheld stuff. I don’t think you’ll be able to tolerate less than from here on out. The whole idea of “Hey, I have a camcorder” sort of jerky thing, doesn’t play unless it’s deliberately chosen to play like that.

Seán: Me, when I was kind of rolling my eyes about what I was walking in to, first thing, I grew up in a town about 70 miles from here, so this in not endemic to the south at all. You know so anything dealing with religion and film in any manner, like Last Temptation of Christ I had to drive 50 miles to go see it in another town. Life of Brian I had to go to the United States kind of thing to see it. It was that kind of town. Whenever a film comes out that is involving an exorcism, there is usually some sort of human cry somewhere. It’s usually probably lower than it has been before but I don’t at first, if someone is going to roll there eyes at this, to me, it was not really a mock at religion but you worry that things get lost in translation. Can you even worry about controlling that sort of thing?

Ashley Bell: I don’t think so, no.

Patrick Fabian: I think ultimately, no. But I think because people are going to take what they want. But if you are a believer in The Bible and God and that the Devil is real, and exorcisms are real, I don’t think there is anything in this film that is going to dissuade you from that and/or necessarily put a damper on that. So you have both points of view that whole way.

* Seán Francis Condon from MSN Canada, who was included in the roundtable interview. Check out his take on Eli Roth and the film here.


Ashley Bell and Patrick Fabian at the Toronto Premiere of The Last Exorcism at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival

Interview with Eli Roth, producer of The Last Exorcism

The following is a transcription of an interview with Eli Roth, producer for The Last Exorcism when he was in town for the Toronto premiere of the film on Monday August 16, 2010 at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival. We chat about how he got involved in the project, what draws people to horror film, the films PG-13 rating and a whole lot more. This interview has been edited to be spoiler-free.

The Last Exorcism is a documentary-style film following Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian), a non-believing preacher set out to debunk exorcism. Then he meets Nell (Ashley Bell), an earnest and sweet-as-pie girl whose Dad asks for help as he's started to see all the signs of her being possessed.

Rather listen than read? Scoot over and listen to the interview on Episode 5 of the Movie Moxie Podcast here. where I also chatted with actors Ashley Bell and Patrick Fabian & also review the film.

Shannon: Alright, I’m curious what drew you to this project?

Eli Roth: Well it was actually the producer Eric Newman, who brought it to me. He had about 3 or 4 years ago, had an idea to make a film that would be a pseudo-documentary about an exorcism gone wrong. And he hired Huck & Andrew to write the script and they were originally going to direct it, and I was a big fan of theirs and loved their movie Mail Order Wife. And Eric & I had partnered and formed a company called Arcade to make genre films, so it wound up being a co-production with Arcade and his company Strike, and he gave me the script and it was truly one of the scariest, most compelling, interesting scripts I’d ever read, not just as a horror film but just as a movie, as a screenplay. The characters were so well written and the story, I had no idea where it was going. He didn’t tell me anything about it other than it’s this documentary of this exorcism. I mean I couldn’t put it down.

As soon as I finished the script I called him right away and said “I have to be involved in this.” And it was Studio Canal had said to him “If Eli puts his name on it, we’ll finance it. That’s the only name we want.” So, my name was able to give us the freedom to cast Patrick Fabian and Ashley. Once I was involved we could put anyone we wanted on it. And the writers actually dropped out at the last minute to make their film The Virginity Hit, which is coming out in September and a very funny movie that got green lit by Sony. So, I was in Berlin at work on Inglourious Basterds, and Eric Newman and the team at Strike found this director Daniel Stamm, and it wound up being the greatest thing that could have happened, because I think he did such a magnificent job.

But I’ve always wanted to make an exorcism movie. The Exorcist traumatized me when I was 6 years old. I couldn’t sleep for years after I saw that. Part of it was my father was a psychiatrist, a psychoanalyst and a professor at Harvard and I always approached everything from a very psychiatric point of view and then I saw this movie and I was like “What’s this possession?!? You never told me about that!” And he was like “Well, were Jews, we don’t believe in that” and I was like “No! You are hiding it from me, so it must be true. You just don’t want me to be afraid of it”. But I always thought, how can you top The Exorcist? It’s truly regarded by many as the scariest movie of all time, and the answer is: don’t. Don’t try to top The Exorcist, just make something that is different and original and make it great.

I thought what’s great about the documentary style is that you can acknowledge The Exorcist and in that first exorcism play on all those clichés, the shaking bed, the voices, and when you are in that room there is no make up. There is no CG, there is nothing, it’s purely Ashley Bell. And when she’s twisting her neck and the veins are bolting, and back bending, that is all 100% her. And it’s terrifying. Either way, this girl is possessed or she completely insane, and either way it’s bad. There is a whole other level of tension going on, and I just love the way the movie, the script just kept the audience guessing.

Because at its core the film is truly a psychological thriller about a girl who might be crazy, might be possessed, and about the clash of science and religion. But what I thought was so clever was that the scientific point of view, it’s the Reverend who has the scientific point of view. And it’s the father who’s the devout Fundamentalist. And both of them want to save this girl, but they are completely approaching it from the opposite ends and neither one of them will see the others point of view.

I just thought it was really great kind of microcosm for the way that science and religion clash in America, and certainly in the North and South the way people see different things. But I loved that the movie really does present both sides fairly. That if were a devout Fundamentalist, you would see this movie and agree with everything the father says and if you didn’t believe in any of that you would believe everything that Cotton says but yet you can also see the others’ point of view.

Seán*: Yeah, and I think there is a sense in argument now that that the two camps can’t be mutually exclusive and I don’t believe that at all. I think that everything is on a case by case basis and you sort of have to sort have to ration out percentages and figure out strategies by being able to listen to people.

Eli Roth: Right. Nobody listens, and that is what’s interesting. They are so unbending and unwavering. But I think I wanted to make a film that was thought provoking and worked on many levels, and wasn’t just a straight up horror movie. For me, to put my name on it as producer and really see it all the way though it has to be something I truly believed in.

Shannon: Well, it has a PG-13 rating and I don’t think a lot of people say Eli Roth and PG-13 in the same breath.

Eli Roth: Nobody does.

Shannon: What do you think the response is going to be from your fan base?

Eli Roth: I think the fans, you know it’s my job to communicate to the fans that this is not Hostel III. That this is a film about possession, not power tools and doesn’t expect that. Every story has its appropriate level of violence. When you see Piranha 3D, that is a movie that takes full advantage of the R rating, it is the most blood, it’s a gore-gasm and it’s beautiful. And that’s what you want – bodies being ripped apart, blood everywhere, stuff popping out of the screen, it’s wonderful. This is not that movie. This movie is much more at The Grudge, The Ring, paranormal end of the horror spectrum. More actually close to District 9 in terms of how the story unfolds.

As long as the fans know what they are getting, if you order steak and chicken comes you can be really angry, even though it’s delicious chicken. Fans have to know what they are in for, so we’ve been very clear in the marketing saying “Yes, this is PG-13, but you know what? So is Cloverfield, so is The Ring, so is The Grudge” and I love those movies. Those are fantastic movies. Cloverfield was the movie that made me think “Wow, you can really be very scary and still be PG-13”, because as I proudly push the boundaries of R rating, PG -13 is growing along with it. The PG-13 today is not what PG-13 was in 2002, just as R today is not what R rating was years ago, so more violence has become permissible in a PG-13 film. But I also feel like, if you are going to make an R film, make it R and have a purpose for doing it. And we didn’t decide on a rating when we made it. We said let’s make the best film possible but and once you realize that they are on a farm with a religious family, they aren’t going to swear, there is no sex in the film and a lot of the violence is off-camera, it’s not really about that. It’s about whether or not this girl is possessed or crazy.

Seán: I was going to ask about that too, you mentioned getting your up there on top, when you look at the final list of course of production credits there are a load of other names in there, lots of money comes from here and there, there are also the audience expectations like you were talking about. How scary is it to have your name up there? And once it’s up there on a project and you’re not happy, can you pull that off?

Eli Roth: Oh yeah, I mean there is no fear whatsoever. You don’t put your name on a project unless you are really confident, and that you love it and believe in it. And that’s something where I’m there as the insurance policy to make sure that the movies scary. And when the movie is financed, it’s financed on my name. So I’m there every step of the way making sure it’s going as planned. And I was there in the editing room and there were scenes where the director did an amazing job but just didn’t have the experience of cutting scary scenes the way that I did. And I could see why certain scenes weren’t working as well as we want them to and I could say “Just change this music cue, you’re giving it away a beat early here, cut to a shot of that”, you know really helping show Daniel how to build tension in certain scenes. But Daniel did an amazing job and needed very little help.

I was there in the way that Quentin was there for me when I made Hostel, he wasn’t there during the shooting but in the editing room he came in and helped me take 7 minutes out of the film. And even though District 9 is very much Neill Blomkamp’s film, you can feel Peter Jackson’s influence. So for me, I always want to challenge myself and do something different. You know, it was actually scarier to do be on a poster for Inglourious Basterds, I mean people are going to be like – with producing it’s always like what did anyone really do? It’s always this nebulous thing. But when you are acting on camera it’s like that is what you did and there you are for everyone to judge.

But this, I feel great about it, I’m excited about it and I’m also excited to launch the career of Daniel Stamm, I think he is an amazing talent and I’m also to if the film works it’s just a victory for independent film in general that you can make a movie with total control and cast the best actors, you don’t need stars, and shoot it on a budget and get it in theatres and fans will love it. You know it really will help, just like Paranormal (Activity) did, it keeps the genre alive.

Shannon: What do you think draws people to horror films?

Eli Roth: I think that there is no place left that’s really socially acceptable, where you can be terrified. We are not allowed to be terrified at home. We are not allowed to be terrified at work. We can’t walk around on the street and scream, but we all have fears we just absorb and they come out in weird ways. And when you see a horror movie, it’s basically saying that for the next 90minutes you are allowed to be scared and to feel that terror. So the terror that you’ve stored up for all kinds of other things and it’s very cathartic to let it out and to have that adrenaline rush. And they are also great date movies. If you want to get your date to hold your hand and sit in you lap, take your date to a horror movie. There is always one person that doesn’t want to sleep alone, so you say ‘stay over at my place,’ and in 9 months there’s The Last Exorcism babies.

But, you know I think that there are things that people are afraid of that they don’t necessarily want to admit they are afraid of, that they think of. And when they go and see it with their friends and discuss it, it’s a way of dealing with fear and the terror of death and the unknown, but all done if a very, very safe way. But I really think that release of screaming, it’s like when you go to a sporting event you can get that scream, but it’s more of a cheer that a scream. But really there is no other place that you are allowed to let yourself be terrified without feeling like a coward.

Seán: About the idea of horror films too, and like you are not going to re-make The Exorcist or anything like that, with all the elements that you got here I actually didn’t find myself thinking it overall as a horror film anyway.

Eli Roth: No, it’s truly a psychological thriller. A drama.

Seán: It’s a situation too where you know I’m at a such an age when I go in skeptical to a lot of things, unfortunately, because it’s not something I’m proud of to be honest, to go into something skeptical.

Eli Roth: Nobody likes to feel jaded.

Seán: Yeah, but I think Cotton is an interesting vehicle for moving forward that skepticism and have it kind of be evaporated, blown away as things go on.

Eli Roth: Thank you.

Seán: For me, he is kind of the guy that I’m attaching myself to.

Eli Roth: Oh, for sure, he kind of wins you over. And what’s great about the movie is what is so clever is, that if this was a movie about a guy conning people, you kind of feel bad. You kind of feel guilty laughing at Louis. But because it’s a confessional, because he’s saying this “I am making this to then show everybody”, it allows you to enjoy it. You don’t feel bad about laughing, because you know he’s doing it and he’ll never do it again and everything he is doing and the people he is doing it to, everyone is going to learn and going to have to pay for that. You know he is going to have to squirm when he has to actually sit there and say “Sorry.”

And there is something that feels like “Wow, this guy is confessing his deepest, darkest secret and he’s going to spill it”, and you have to kind of admire that he’s doing it and he’s just going “Sorry, I’m throwing in the towel and spilling my secrets and it’s all a game. I lied to everybody.” And you really realize he really cares for Nell/ That this isn’t someone just taking advantage of, but he feels terribly.

So they are both going about it completely the wrong way but he’s so sympathetic because you can tell he really does care and he really does feel terrible, and he really wants to help and he feels like he’s goofing around has completely made a mess and he feels terrible about it. But you also see how terrible Louis feels, and how Louis doesn’t want to do this either.

But it’s just a very interesting study with their unwavering faith can also get them into trouble. I’m glad you said that because we wanted to make a film that would broaden beyond just the horror fans, that the horror fans would go out and see and say that was more than just a scary movie, that that was a very, very interesting psychological thriller, it’s and interesting drama, it’s an interesting study on religion versus science and really make something that people can watch over and over that would really prompt discussion.

Shannon: With it being a combination of sort of documentary/vérité style and a more narrative style, what were the rationale to combine them both as opposed to going with one or the other?

Eli Roth: Well, it doesn’t combine them both, it is documentary style. There is found footage, and then there is documentary. Cloverfield is found footage, Grey Gardens is a documentary. American Movie is a documentary. Brother’s Keeper is a documentary. King of Kong is a documentary. All of those documentaries are edited and scored, and photographed beautifully. Fred Wisemans films: Zoo, Titicut Follies, those are vérité documentaries that are edited and shot but do not have music or narration. So within documentary, there’s different styles of documentary. So we said … let’s say we were making Gimme Shelter, Grey Gardens, Brothers Keeper, if we wanted to make the best story with Brother's Keeper we would have scored it during dramatic moments and darkest moments. We would have a composer do this movie, to bring along the emotions that we want the audience to feel. And we thought if he’s doing a documentary about a girl who is possessed, why wouldn’t he score it?

But we also like raising the question of who put this together? We wanted to kind of inspire that discussion as well. We kind of said just because Cloverfield was handheld and didn’t have any music, there is no reason – why should we stick to their rules? That’s what worked for their story. What worked for our story is that we want to tell a dramatic story in a documentary style. And documentaries have music so, so will we.

Seán: It’s a case to like how you were saying earlier about talking with Daniel about sort of communicating and establishing a rhythm and language as well. Is a lot of that instead of coming through the page, end up coming through the editing room? You were talking about the editing process earlier.

Eli Roth: Sure, well it was all written. It was all written on the page, the docu-style, incorporating things. But Daniel certainly added, he said we should have the sound girl get more involved. She wasn’t a character but that way Cotton has someone to play off of a little more. Than we made the conscious decision to slowly make the camera man a character. But that is really the audience, we wanted him to be the voice of the audience, he is kind of the voice of reason.

Going with that vérité style, that was Daniel and his vision and his understanding of how to embrace that. It was one the page but he added so much more once we started shooting. Even in post-production and in editing we could add in ADR a line about this, just certain things to make it feel more vérité, that was all though the editing room.

Shannon: With the title of the film, it has certain finality to it.

Eli Roth: Yep.

Shannon: What was the rationale behind that or were there other titles in the running?

Eli Roth: The original title was The Ivanwood Exorcism. Then, we changed the title to Cotton. And then in editing I came up with the title The Last Exorcism, and I liked the double meaning of it. And I liked he’s doing this as “Hey , this is my swan song and we are going to film it and this is the last exorcism”. But there is something – you know, Cotton, you really have to educate people “This is Cotton, a movie about exorcism”. Cotton we’d have to blast like District 9, nobody knew what it was, then you saw spaceship and they really branded it. The money to branding it just so people know what it was, then the next step was to get them interested.

The title The Last Exorcism, instantly you know what space you are in. And I think when it comes to horror, people want to know what they are in for. If it’s a zombie movie, they want to know it’s a zombie movie. If it’s a vampire movie, they want to know its vampires. If it’s possession, people want to know what they are getting themselves into. And we just liked the immediacy of the title, that we could then just focus on getting people excited about the film, rather than educating them on what it is.

* Seán Francis Condon from MSN Canada, who was included in the roundtable interview. Check out his take on Eli Roth and the film here.