Last year The Horror Channel premiered
Simon Rumley’s stunning piece of award-winning cinema, The Living And The
Dead and this month they are giving his equally astonishing
and controversial movie Red White And Blue
its UK TV premiere on Oct 20 at 10.55pm
Rumley talks about his
deeply shocking yet tenderly moving film, what it was like shooting the movie in
America and why distributors are
confounded by his work.
Red White and
Blue is very different to your film The Living And The
Dead, where did the idea come from?
SR: It came from a mixture of
personal fears, reading about crazy events on the internet, wanting to do
another horror film that wasn’t obviously classifiable as a horror film and also
wanting to make a film that was, like The Living And The
Dead, equally tragic and disturbing…
Why set it in America?
SR: I'd been wanting to shoot a
film for a long time in America and it seemed like the
perfect setting for the film. Some films can work well in different countries
but some are very country specific and I felt this wouldn't work in the same way
in the UK as it would in
America. There's a filmic classicism
to neon lights and wide open spaces and the flipside of the American Dream
which, naturally, we don't get in the UK.
What was it like shooting in
Austin, Texas?
SR: Fantastic. Austin is such an
excellent city and the people are so friendly and welcoming and laid back and
cool in the best possible sense of the word. One of the reasons we went to
Austin was
because my friend Tim League and his wife Karrie, lived there. They own a bunch
of cinemas called the Alama Drafthouse and pretty much know everyone there is to
know so I knew if we ever got into trouble or needed help they'd be able to help
us. As well as filming in peoples' houses and diners and bars, we also had a ton
of local extras and our whole crew apart from the DP and editor were locals. It
was a tough shoot and they really stepped up to the challenge really
well.
It's a raw and very gritty piece,
set very much in the real world. Would you agree this is where horror works
best?
SR: Absolutely - escapist horror
can be fun at times but for me, if I don't believe the situation and the
characterization then usually I'm not emotionally affected which means I'm not
scared and/or I'm not disturbed. Certainly for me, most my favourite horror
films are based in a believable reality whether it be Freaks or The
Omen.
The cast is outstanding, Amanda
Fuller as Erica and Noah Tyler as Nate bring a brutal and heartbreaking honesty
to their roles. Did you write the parts with these actors in
mind?
SR: No; I'd never heard of Amanda
before we cast her in the film but when I saw her audition and then met her, it
did feel like the part had been written for her. Once I'd written the script and
we started casting, Noah was my first choice for Nate. Although most people are
bowled over by his performance, they're also slightly dumbfounded by the initial
casting of him as such a character. I've been a massive fan ever since I saw him
in his debut feature The
Year My Voice Broke and although he's never played anyone so dark, I
always felt he had a quirkiness and a darkness that hadn't been previously
explored.
The characters are very "damaged"
in different ways and you don't pull away from showing the audience how much. Do
you censor yourself at all as you create a script?
SR: Good question! I generally
don't censor myself but after Red White And Blue and my two anthology features
I've done in the last few years (Little Deaths and
The ABC's Of
Death) I'm now making a deliberate effort to work on scripts which
aren't as 'tough' because although they go down well with the audiences, most
the film industry, that being sales agents and distributors, are usually
confounded by my films because they're so uncompromising. I'm now writing
scripts which are still very much my ideas but which are more 'identifiable' as
product that can be bought or sold; sadly, what directors make is and always
will be seen as a commodity by many.
What was the atmosphere like on
set?
SR: It was actually pretty great.
Everyone was really friendly and did their job really well. Initially people
were a bit sceptical that we'd get everything shot in time but when we started
picking up the pace, everyone loved it and had no time to do much apart from
concentrate. Both the producer and I agreed it was the most harmonious set we'd
worked on.
There's quite a twist to the
story, was this to give it an extra layer, a moral in
fact?
SR: Yep, absolutely - if it's the
ending you're talking about - the very last shot in fact. I thought that
justified Nate's actions even more and made the whole thing even more tragic;
personally I thought it was a pretty devastating ending although I'm not sure
what everyone else thought!
Red White And
Blue is getting its UK TV premiere on the Horror Channel, how do you feel
about that?
SR: Very excited. The
Horror
Channel used to be a bit goofy but nowadays it has the best
selection of both contemporary and older horror of any channel in the
UK so it's a must for any
self-respecting horror fan.
What's your honest opinion of
horror cinema at the moment, is it in good health?
SR: I think there's more
interesting and unique horror directors around now than there have been in a
long time and all you have to do is look at the ABCs Of Death to view
the breadth of what's on offer. That said, I think much horror is still stuck
repeating older formulae as well working on remakes and sequels. Even though
there haven't been many fantastic horror films in the last few years, I still
think it's a very exciting time generally for the genre.
So what projects are you working
on at the moment?
SR: Well, as discussed, I've just
finished The ABCs Of
Death which premiered at the Toronto film festival. Beyond that I have a few
projects which seem close to happening and a few which I'm still
developing...
Simon Rumley, thank you very
much.
SR: Thank you!
Red
White And Blue
premieres on the Horror Channel Oct
20 at 10.55pm
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