An action-thriller described as Black Hawk Down meets Panic Room, Home-Sitters fixes on a young broke woman that is hired as a house-sitter for a mansion in the middle of huge gardens and ends up defending it against crooks. The French film hails from Chris Rakotomamonjy, who spoke to us about it ahead of the film’s Prime Video release.
How long had you been looking at bringing Home-Sitters to the big screen? Been a long journey?
I first started working on “Home-Sitters” while working on distribution for my previous film “An Horror Anthology” in 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic. At that time, I had a rough idea of what it would be about. When it became a little bit more precise, I launched auditions, it was during a curfew, so it went all digital. In the meantime, I was scouting for a location, a beautiful house with no neighbors, ideally in the woods, so I wouldn’t scare anybody with the SWAT guys and their machine-guns. When everybody was fine, it was about time to shoot. I secured a window between two curfews, and I shot in 10 days. After struggling with post-production guys and changing them many times, it was about time to think about distribution, which I always consider seriously. I didn’t plan on working with the same distributor I worked with before, so I started from zero, did some research, sent tons of emails. And I’m very satisfied with the ones I am working with. From “I want to make a new film” to “Oh my, it’s now on Amazon Prime Video”, it took about one year and a half.
When did you first put pen to paper on it?
I started the very first version in 2020 during the nationwide curfew in France, after watching and rewatching tons of films I have in DVD. When I found a house for shooting, I rewrote the script specifically for it. After auditioning the actor, I wrote a new version to include new characters and remove some. Suddenly, the owner of the house cancelled, so I had to search for another one, which I ended up finding. And I rewrote a new version of the script, because the new house was pretty different, with not the same rooms, the same floors… Finally, I fixed some minor things a few days before shooting. And the result you can see is pretty close to this version.
How would you describe the film?
Before starting production, I described it as “13 Hours” meets “Panic Room”. I pictured something huge, with lots of shootouts and fights, with one girl versus an army of mercenaries. I believe there is a kind of gap between what I had had in mind and the released version (laughs). But my main inspiration is John Carpenter’s “Assault on Precinct 13”, which is to me a masterpiece. With “The Night of the End of Days”, I already tried to make a horror version of it. For “Home-Sitters”, “Assault” is an inspiration, but I never contemplated making a clone. So, to answer your question, a rather accurate description is: “Assault on the Little House on the Prairie” (laughs).
Is there anything you had to compromise on for budgetary reasons?
Oh my, there are so many things! (laughs) I don’t even know where to start off. For example, when the bad guys arrive on site, I wanted them to land from a Chinook. But you must be aware that it’s not easy to get. When I wanted to try to get a tourism helicopter, the owner wanted to make me pay as if it was a Chinook. Then, the bad guys ended up arriving in a van. Also, I had planned an extra ending, involving what happened after the final sequence but because I ran out of cash and the pandemic issues, it was not possible to organize properly. And I wanted much more mercenaries, but many of them cancelled their participation, although this time it has nothing to do with money! Above all, during the final brawl, I wanted to have a full devastation of the house. But I don’t know why the landlord didn’t approve (laughs)
Where was it shot?
It was shot at Arnas, in the heart of the Beaujolais region, a 40-minute drive away from Lyon. In France.
Are you big on doing as many practical effects as possible?
I expected to go as much practical as possible. I prefer the man-in-suit version of Godzilla rather than the recent big one. That was then what had been planned. On set, as I was doing almost everything, I quickly realized it would be difficult handle the practical effects. Actually, all of them. You can naturally see lots of CGI but everything that could’ve been made practical was.
Did you lead need any stunt or fight training?
I worked with Jorge Lorca, a veteran fight choreographer. He has worked for many productions of all sizes, from the made-for-Youtube short to some blockbusters. This guy can be set on fire, keep smiling and kick asses. He’s the French Jeff Imada (laughs). He designed all the fights, trained the actors and I supervised all of this. He was also there to bring a realistic point of view for my wishes. He was really cautious about safety while I didn’t care at all, I wanted it to go full-throttle (laughs). Ah about budget again, Jorge had to work with actors who weren’t stuntmen. So he had lots of training on set prior to shooting every day.
I forgot to ask, did you have to shoot this during the pandemic?
Exactly! All preproduction was during the lockdown. Then the country re-opened and I could organize the auditions. And finally, we could shoot because we were locked on site for 10 days.
Did theater closures, and other kafuffles, cause a dint in your distribution plans at all?
Not really. Actually, it’s the opposite. I had never considered releasing “Home-Sitters” to movie theaters, simply because it is jammed and difficult for indie productions to get a window. Fortunately, today, you can go all digital, because there are many many platforms for all genres all over the world. Right now, it’s a great opportunity, as those platforms look for original and different contents because once you secured “Fast and Furious” in your catalogue, you need fresh blood. But soon, they are going to tighten their content and focus on their in-house productions with names. It has already started. And I’m considering a DVD release as well, because I believe it’s important to keep this market alive for the few people like myself who keep buying them.
What’s next for you?
I’m working on a drama. A bloody one with horror flavors. It’s like “Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer” meets “Scarface”.