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Your new movie Stalkers - in a few words, what's it about?
Stalkers
follows the intersecting lives of Kate and her daughter Charlotte. Kate,
once known as the porn star Tabitha Swann, gave up Charlotte for adoption
as a teenager. Now, Charlotte’s adoptive family is brutally murdered,
throwing her into a nightmare. As the killings intensify and the past
closes in on them, Kate has to uncover some dark moments in her own past,
and rise to the occasion as parent to Charlotte.
How did the project come into being in the first place,
and what made you want to direct it? The
idea for Stalkers
originated in 2013 when I, along with writer Luke Sneyd
and producer Ricky Jang, created a pitch teaser for a Canadian contest.
At the time, captivity or torture seemed to be popular in the genre of
horror, and I wanted to start with that but shift my focus to fully
realized characters. Though the project was put on hold after that
contest, the characters stuck with me, and it was something I wanted to
go back to. During the pandemic lockdown, I started to feel like life was
too short and uncertain to wait for someone to come along and give us
permission to make this film, which is why I moved forward with making it
as a fully independent production. What can you tell
us about Stalkers' writers Maryna Gaidar and Luke Sneyd, and what
was your collaboration with them like? I’ve known
Luke since our college days when we took several film courses together.
We’ve always worked well together—there’s no ego between us, so we
can shoot down ideas or build them up without tension. Luke excels at
taking characters into dark places, exploring their vulnerabilities
alongside their strengths. When I decided to revive Stalkers
years later,
Maryna came on board. She’s an accomplished and talented writer in a
few fields, besides just screenwriting, and it was amazing to get her
take on Stalkers, working with both myself and Luke to hone the focus and
structure, and asking insightful questions about our characters. Do talk about Stalkers'
approach to horror! I’ve been
wrestling with whether or not Stalkers
is pure horror or maybe more a thriller with some slasher elements. The film features intense death
scenes that definitely set a dark tone, blurring the lines between
genres.
With Stalkers
being a horror movie, is that a genre at all dear to you, and some of your genre
favourites? I love
horror probably more than any other genre. There just seems to be so much
freedom by filmmakers to experiment and push boundaries that allows the
genre to continually reinvent itself. Though i would probably
cite the early entries in the slasher subgenre like Halloween and its
precursors like Psycho as favorites, if
I had to name 2 films I go back
to every single year, it’s Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter and
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers. Though both are 3rd
sequels in some up and down franchises, they seem to be able to go back
to basics with Corey Feldman and Danielle Harris providing a human heart
to their respective movies, and it makes them classics to me. Back to Stalkers
- what can you tell us about your directorial approach to your story at hand? Sometimes
you set out to make a film with a bunch of visual references or some plan
for the style of the film that will inform most of the decisions. In this
case I think the goal was to go for a naturalistic approach with fairly
classical camera movement. We used our Chapman Pee-Wee dolly almost
everywhere, thanks to the generous support of MBS Equipment in Toronto,
and occasionally a crane to keep the camera moving in a controlled
way. This approach kept the focus on the emotional journey of Kate and
Charlotte and not on camera gimmicks. Do
talk about Stalkers' cast, and why exactly these people? We didn’t
start with anyone in mind for the roles, but casting was one of those
processes where everything seemed to fall into place. Olivia Stadler, who
plays Kate, came in for a call-back, and I remember watching her read
opposite producer Mitch Roberts over and over. Even in those grainy
audition tapes, I could see she was Kate—she embodied the confidence of
Tabitha Swann, but she also had this tender, vulnerable side that was
essential to the character’s arc.
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Olivia’s
counterpart in the movie is Scarlett DiCaro who plays Kate’s daughter
Charlotte. With young performers there are a lot who are more accustomed
to kids content and have a certain performative style which was not what
we were looking for. Scarlett showed a skeptical guarded side which was
what we needed from a 13-year old who has lost her parents. We soon
learned this was all performance as she is a really positive and keen kid
in person. Olivia and Scarlett really hit it off during rehearsals, and
that chemistry carried over on set. They became inseparable, which added
authenticity to their mother-daughter bond on screen. We were also
incredibly lucky to work with other talented actors like Allisha
Pelletier, Sam Wexler, and Hannah Mae Beatty. Each brought something
special to their roles, whether it was Allisha’s insight into Kate’s
friend Justine, Sam’s charismatic take on Corey, or Hanna’s
infectious energy. A
few words about the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere? Shooting
Stalkers
was a real indie experience—every day presented a new
challenge. We initially planned to wrap in 3-4 weeks, but thanks to COVID
shutdowns and an off-set kitchen accident involving Olivia’s foot and a
knife, the shoot stretched out over two years. Despite these setbacks,
the crew remained positive and motivated. Our cinematographer David
Nguyen was incredible—he kept everything running smoothly on set.
Producer Mitch Roberts and Vincent Shiu also played crucial roles in
keeping things on track. Even though it was tough, the atmosphere was
great—everyone believed in the project, and that made all the
difference. The
$64-question of course, where can Stalkers
be seen? Stalkers
is
currently making the rounds on the festival circuit, and we’ve had some
great responses so far. We’re looking at a streaming release in 2025,
and there’s hope for a limited theatrical run around the same time.
Anything
you can tell us about audience and critical reception of Stalkers? The audience
response has been overwhelming. We’ve been fortunate to win several
awards, including Best Thriller Feature at the Toronto Independent Film
Festival and Best Canadian Indie from the Montreal Independent Film
Festival. Olivia Stadler also received Best Actor/Actress at Tucson
TerrorFest. Watching Stalkers
with an audience has been incredibly
gratifying—hearing their reactions to certain moments confirms that
what we set out to achieve is landing the way we hoped. Any
future projects you'd like to share? Right now,
I’m still focused on getting Stalkers
out into the world, but I’ve
got a few other projects in mind, including maybe even a Stalkers 2? I’d
love to explore this world further, perhaps with a more straightforward
slasher approach. I also have ideas in different genres that I’m
playing around with. What got you into
filmmaking in the first place, and did you receive any formal training on
the subject? My journey
into filmmaking started with an interest in the technical side of things,
but it evolved into a passion for storytelling. I took Film Studies into
grad school, but after a while, I realized I wanted to be on set, not in
a classroom. I’ve spent over 20 years working as a technician in the
Toronto film scene, which has given me the chance to work closely with
some iconic and legendary filmmakers, including George A. Romero, Richard
Donner, Ronny Yu and Guillermo Del Toro. Those experiences have inspired
me to tell my own stories. How would you describe
yourself as a director?
I’d like
to think of myself as an actor’s director. My primary focus is on the
characters and their arcs, making sure each scene conveys the emotional
beats of the story. I don’t rely too much on storyboards or
pre-visualization, and on an indie like Stalkers, where I wore multiple
hats, I didn’t have the luxury of being a director who’s only
concerned with shots. I was also handling scheduling, equipment rentals,
and production tasks. So for me, it’s really about working closely with
actors and trusting my crew to handle the technical side. Filmmakers who inspire you? In terms of
pure inspiration to go out there and just make a film, it was Robert
Rodriguez’s book Rebel Without a Crew that made me go out and
make my first short. Aside from the big names like Hitchcock, Spielberg,
Tarantino, I’ve always gravitated towards independent genre films.
It’s hard not to be inspired by the success of the Terrifier franchise,
where a filmmaker just made a film for a specific subset of horror fans
and actually launched a franchise that is now part of the horror canon.
George A. Romero was making industrial films and used that same style to
make a no-nonsense masterpiece in Night of the Living Dead and then
follow it up with one of the G.O.A.T.s, Dawn of the
Dead. Your favourite movies ... and of course, films you really deplore?
My personal pantheon of films is something ever changing so I’d be hard pressed to
name anything. I love movies and am generally willing to go see ANY movie
in a cinema.
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When it comes to hating any film, I can’t quite do
it… mostly. I don’t think anyone ever sets out to make a bad movie,
so I’m not going to dump on the failures. If anything the kind of movie
I deplore is one that is pandering to fan service or is compromised by
studio involvement. It’s the great thing about indies - we don’t have
limitless resources, but at least nobody is giving notes to the filmmaker
or worried about their stakeholders. Your/your movie's website, social media,
whatever else? You can
check out Stalkers at our
website stalkersthemovie.com. We’re also on
Instagram at @stalkersmovieofficial, and you can follow me at @videobypt.
We’ve got a Facebook page too: facebook.com/stalkersmovie Thanks for the
interview!
Thanks
for having me! Stay scared!
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