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Your new movie Home
is Where I Lay - in a few words, what is it about?
Home
is Where I Lay is about the night before Lily moves home with her husband
Jo, she has a premonition of her death. Can she stop it or will
the house take her? It needs her to know, this is his house.
Now how did the project come into being in the first place? Towards
the end of 2020, Annabella Rich had such nasty dreams during a spout
of Covid, she vivdly watched her own death occur in her dreams. I
think the moment was so real to her that she got inspired to write this
story. Once location was put in place we helped flesh out the story
and took it as an opportunity to shoot during Covid. What
were your sources of inspirations when writing Home
is Where I Lay? Outside of Bella's experiences, I really loved the idea of having the house
giving off a Shining vibe, the use of evil from the past still having
a stain on the house. Lilly is put in a home where she's not welcome.
I love psycho dramas that work as chamber pieces, in particular Polanski's
Rosemary's Baby and Repulsion, that inner trauma that's
occurring to just the main character, the rest of the world looking in
as if they're crazy. Also we took inspiration from the nasty misogyny that
is throughout the bible and the more controlling aspects of man. You've written
Home is Where I Lay together with the film's two stars Annabella Rich
and Jackson Batchelor [Jackson
Batchelor interview - click here] - so what was the writing
process like? Once Bella had the core concept, I helped develop the scares whilst Jackson
built more of a backstory for his character Joe. It's always a pleasure
to work with those two, we are fortunate to be able to communicate
the ideas across to each other despite the Covid limitations.
We built the film with that in consideration, keeping it to
minimal crew and cast. This helped the claustrophobic vibe we were going
for.
A few words
about your overall directorial approach to your story at hand? I
really wanted this film to fill you with dread from the start, we know she's going to die but how and by who? That was fun to play with, we
had a lot of challenging set pieces but as I was also the DOP I knew
I could play the film out as a slow burn, let you empathise with Lilly
and join the frights she experiences. What
can you tell us about Home
is Where I Lay's cast, and why exactly these two? Annabella
Rich can hold an entire film being in every scene perfectly, it
was her story and she was always the best choice. We've had many collaborations
in the last few years and it's worked so well. Jackson was also our first choice for Joe, Jackson being co-founder of
Trash Arts, started as an actor, he commands scenes
he's in as he did in
my earlier film Evol. This was the first time the two could act
together, and that was a chance not to miss. You
also have to talk about the house Home
is Where I Lay of course, and what was it like filming there? And
how did you find it in the first place? The
house was beautiful, we stayed on location due to Covid, just myself,
Jackson and Bella were there every day. Ryan Carter joined to do
sound on some days and Katie Johnson was our makeup on most of the shoot.
Living and shooting on location allowed us to review the
footage and be in the moment. It was a beautiful house, spacious and
gothic in its own way, something we'd need had opportunity to shoot in
before! What can you
tell us about the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere? This
was easily the hardest film I've directed, the dual role of DOP and
director would sometimes include sound and lighting. There's one scene
in small space that I literally had to do all sides of filmmaking
with the two actors, whereas some scenes Jackson would light himself,
jumping behind the camera to being in front. Despite that it
was one of my favourite shoots we've done, each challenging scene paid off! Anything
you can tell us about audience and critical reception of Home
is Where I Lay?
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We've
had an excellent response from various festivals for Home
is Where I Lay, once again it's a film with people having there own
interpretations, which is always fun! Any future projects you'd like
to share? Currently
in post production on my first body horror called Incessant. It's
a film about a sound parasite living in the woods, it slowely goes through
virus-like symptoms. This happens to a couple who are already on
the rocks, turning they stay away from home into a living hell. Anything else you're dying to mention and
I have merely forgotten to ask? Home
is Where I Lay is out on Tubi and Amazon Prime! Thanks for the
interview!
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