From Freedom Cinema, and director James Di Martino, comes face to face with The Faceless Man this summer. Premiering on Demand August 28, the Australian horror film took home 6 major awards at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival including Best Director and Best Film.
The plot follows Emily, a recovering cancer survivor of three years. Faced with her fear of getting sick again, her best friend Nina plans a weekend away. Six friends venture out to a country holiday house to party over a weekend. Cut off from the rest of the world they soon learn the inhabitants are unsettling red neck individuals who terrorize and humiliate travelers. At the same time a para-normal monster seen as the faceless man haunts the house pushing the friends to their limits.
We had a chance to talk with James about the movie and how it was made. Here’s what he had to say.
When and where did the idea for “The Faceless Man” come up?
After my 6th short film Five O’Clock, I decided it was time to make a feature film. I had two ideas. One was a horror film with a monster and the other was a gangster film about a deadly Russian chasing after two girls who stole a large suitcase of cocaine. I realized I had to make one of these films and not write both. Thus, I decided to test and see if it was possible to blend these ideas into one. That was when The Faceless Man was idea came about. I was also heavily inspired with Get Out and how that was an elevated horror film. Then I started mapping the film out and wanting the film to be a unique experience. One that goes through different genres and at its core; a deconstruction of the slasher films and creature features. I wanted the experience to weave in black comedy to create a very offbeat adventure. At the same time have a looming presence of evil.
The film is a mix of psychological thriller and horror -do you think it helps to personally be ‘into’ these types of films to make one?
I feel it helps a lot to just have a very good understanding of film. Knowledge of many films means to watch a lot of films and analyze them. Film research is part of my daily routine But when I watch films I mentally make notes of what I liked and what I did not. I take note of directors I like and watch all their films. But going back to the question I feel that it helps as a director/writer to enjoy or watch the films that you end up making. You’re stuck with it for 2 years or more so you have to enjoy it.
Did you sit down and watch any similar themed films before kicking off work on this one?
I watched a lot of Ozploitations films, and lots of horror. I watched The Evil Dead movies for some inspiration. I mainly stuck to horror and did a lot of prep. I knew from the get go that this film would have a lot of references to other films so I needed to select the films I wanted and to use my favorites in ways that would work. Watching Quentin Tarantino always helps and I knew I would put a few of my favorite scenes from his film remixed into The Faceless Man.
Being a genre pic, is it hard to ground? How do you maintain that balance?
Yes It’s very hard . . . Genre filmmaking is hard by nature and one where criticism just seems to contradict each other. Some people understand your work others do not and can be very harsh. I set out to make a film that was different. One that had not been done before. One of the first cuts came to nearly 3 hours so a lot of grafting and trimming got that running time lower. It also helped I had a number of alternative takes to create a steady balance. When doing this and people are not open minded, they can instantly attack the film and I have had my fair share of criticism. Some of these people have gone back and watched the film again and say they really enjoyed it the second time. The film has a lot of layers, and one viewing may not be enough. It’s a bold move and one not many first time directors would take. I had to be careful of when I placed the comedy beats to not impact too much on the horror elements, which were always apparent. Even then, there will always be someone that does not like what I did and I understand you can’t please everyone with genre filmmaking. At the end of the day I have to be happy with the balance I found for my film. And ultimately stand by it.
By the same token, what kind of pointers do you give your actors that they don’t play it too over-the-top?
I like to think I choose the best actors so I do leave a lot of it up to them. I try and get as much coverage as I can for the edit and try many kinds of alterations and thus can weave a performance how I want in the editing suite.
Tell us about putting together the cast. Who gets the credit there? And there’s a couple of very recognizable Australian actors in there too I believe?
As the director and writer I had the main say in who I wanted. Andy Mcphee was always intended to play Eddie. It was written for him once I started writing and we met up to discuss the film. That is where I convinced him to play the character. Roger Ward was someone I really wanted to work with, and he loved the character of Dougie and agreed to be in the film. Lucas Pittaway did Snowtown, which was quite amazing, but had not done a feature since 2010. Thus, I got him interested for a complex part with much more speaking than he usually does. Sophie Thurling, the lead, came in for an audition and killed it. She did a cold read on the monologue with a lot of emotion and surprised me. That proved to work well as she grew her performance very well over the shooting of the film.
How did you go about seeking distribution for the film?
The film was selected for a few film festivals including Monster Fest and the Haapsalu Festival in Estonia. It’s unfortunate I couldn’t go their but Hewes Pictures contacted me and wanted to see the film. They liked it a lot and the rest is history.
Where can we watch the film?
Thanks to Freedom Cinema the film can be seen in all English-speaking territories on Amazon Prime, Vimeo on demand, Gumroad and Reelhouse. A TUBI release will follow in 3-4 months.