Women don’t feel safe anymore, that’s the impetus of the new Donna McRae film Lost Gully Road. We had the chance to ask her about the film and its origins. Here’s what she had to say.
Just the title alone sounds creepy. How many different names did you play with for the ‘road’, though? I imagine quite a few?
Donna Mcrae: Yes, my co-writer Michael Vale and I played around with titles for a little while but nothing stuck. Strangely, we were listening to traffic reports and they were always saying that Green Gully Road was so busy and to avoid going that way. Green Gully didn’t really have a certain ring to it, but then Michael thought that Lost Gully may serve us better. And that was that.
And have you discovered since that there is a Lost Gully Road in Australia?
DM: We have found out that there is a Long Gully Road, but not Lost Gully Road yet. Eek, hopefully there isn’t one.
Is what we see in the film pretty similar to the terrain you grew up in?
DM: I grew up in the Mid North of South Australia which is the Flinders Ranges and beyond – so beautiful rolling hills, amazing skies, fantastic wildflowers and wide open spaces. I then moved to the city and became part of the urban sprawl. I am aware that the Australia that we see in film is either that or the desert, and I was keen to show another part of it – the lush rainforests that we have everywhere. These places still hide secrets and they are inhospitable to some, but it is a different terrain of Australia that I was interested in showing. I asked my second unit to find a kangaroo and they came back with shots of a wallaby, so I was very happy.
What is it about these back roads and fauna-cloaked paths that makes them so scary?
DM: It is the isolation that contributes to this. Australia, like America is a place of vast distances, and most people live around the coastal areas. So you may be the only one out there if you venture out into the deserts or forests. Some people love this, and a good many don’t – many horror films feed into this anxiety, as you know. There are always reports of someone going missing in these challenging terrains, which usually doesn’t end well. Australia is also home to many dangerous species, so put that in the mix and it all becomes unbearable.
When you think Australian horror, you usually think “Wolf Creek” – of which this film shares some similarities. Was that film an influence on yours? It, like your film, seemed to get a lot done with a little (budget).
DM: Australian Horror has a surprising history – and there are many films that have shared this territory. I was working in a cinema when Wolf Creek was released, and many people ran screaming once the first signs of the real Mick Taylor were revealed. Wolf Creek had a much bigger budget than Lost Gully Road, but thank you for saying this. We share isolation and the anxiety of an evil force that you have no power over.
Would you compare the storyline to anything we’ve seen in earlier films? Anything you can say is an intentional homage?
DM: Lost Gully Road is a film about how women don’t feel safe anywhere, and the enablers that make that possible. I am a fan of classic psychological horror films that show and don’t tell with dialogue. I prefer that the audience imagine the monster which is far more scary than what I could show on a very limited budget. Val Lewton excelled in this and I love all of his films, especially Cat People. Polanski’s Repulsion is another one that I lean on heavily – the world of one character imploding. Finally, Sidney J Furie’s The Entity is something that I studied, and give more than a nod to.
Do you write with a budget in mind?
DM: Yes, definitely. I need to keep it simple so I can get the ideas across. At this stage I’d rather have a smaller film that works than something that doesn’t because of aiming too high. There is no way the film can compete with another film made with more money, so I try to make a film that can work on its own merits.
Has it all gone according to plan for you? Anything you’ll do differently next time around?
DM: Yes, the film has hit it out of the ballpark. It has won International awards, been sold to television, has worldwide distribution and I was nominated for Best Direction from the Australian Directors Guild. It’s the little film that can. As this film was designed to be for a tiny budget, there is not much I would change – however in saying that we are all critical of our own work. Next time around I will be working with a bigger budget, so I am excited that finally I will be able to have a longer shooting period (LGR was 16 days) and the storyworld will be more complex than a small cabin in the forest. But I am thankful for Lost Gully Road and the great team that made it. They are wonderful.
What can we expect from the DVD? Any extras?
DM: Nothing at this stage.
Lost Gully Road is now available on DVD and Digital.