[
MM Blogger Sasha James interviews the director of Oculus, Mike Flanagan. ~The Editor]
Tim Russell (Brenton Thwaites; the upcoming Maleficent)
has spent the majority of his life in a psychiatric hospital after the
brutal and mysterious family tragedy that claimed the lives of both his
parents. Convinced his father is to blame, Tim is released from hospital
only to discover that his sister Kaylie -- played by Doctor Who darling Karen
Gillan -- has spent the intervening years tracking down the real
culprit: a cursed mirror with a 300-year murder streak. Oculus also stars Battlestar Gallactica fan favourite Katee Sackhoff and Rory Cochrane (Argo, Dazed and Confused).
Before its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, we were able to geek out with director Mike Flanagan (Absentia) about Doctor Who, The Shining, and Midnight Madness' rowdy reputation.
SJ: Oculus is based on a short you made in 2006 called Oculus: Chapter 3. How did you expand your short into a feature-length film?
Mike Flanagan: That
was actually really challenging. The short is just one man alone in a
room with the mirror and a few video cameras. Finding a way to expand
that into a feature took a long time, and really needed the right
producers. My writing partner Jeff Howard and I kicked around several
options, including allowing that story to simply be one act of the
feature and bookend it with two other half-hour stories -- kind of like
an anthology film. There was a lot of interest early in expanding the
short into a feature, but most companies were leaning toward a found
footage approach because of the cameras in the room, which was a
direction we never really wanted to go.
It
took us a little while to hit on the idea that it was actually two
people in the room who share a troubled past and have different
interpretations of what is happening. The Mulder/Scully dynamic really
felt right, and things took off quickly from there.
When
Intrepid Pictures came on board, they had a similar vision for an
expansion of the short. They didn't want to do found footage -- which
was a relief -- and they really embraced the idea that we'd take
everything about the short we loved and try to genuinely expand the
universe around it. We developed the script with Trevor Macy, Marc Evans
and Anil Kurian at Intrepid, and very quickly hit upon the concept of
the siblings locked in the room with the mirror, interwoven with the
(possibly unreliable) story of their childhood.
That
allowed us to remain true to the tension and contained nature of the
short while expanding the universe and characters in ways that added
tension and allowed for us to really play with the non-linear aspects of
the story.
SJ: Where were you first introduced to Karen Gillan? Are you a fan of DOCTOR WHO?
MF: I'm a huge fan of Doctor Who.
I pitched her to the producers on the first day that we started talking
about casting. We auditioned a number of actresses and it took weeks
for us to get in touch with Karen, as she was shooting Doctor Who
at the time. I used to come into casting sessions and open with "Have
we heard from Karen Gillan?" We were just about nearing the end of the
casting process when she surfaced. She loved the script and the short
film, and suddenly she was a realistic possibility for Kaylie.
We
arranged a Skype [interview], which was a fairly embarrassing moment
for me when I realized, at the end of the call, that I'd been drinking
coffee out of my TARDIS mug the entire time. I pulled selections from
episodes of Doctor Who to show members of our team who weren't
familiar with her work. I found out she was in LA shortly before [San
Diego Comic Con in] 2012, and I ran out of our production offices to
meet up with her and try to talk her into doing it -- also an
embarrassment as I just happened to be wearing a Doctor Who shirt that day and completely forgot until she noticed. I'm such a nerd.
The
couple of weeks in between making our offer and closing her deal was
one of the highest stress times of this entire movie for me. She was
just perfect for the role -- such a rare blend of strength, attitude,
and vulnerability. Once we had her though, I knew the movie was going to
work. There's a sequence in it where she presents the history of the
mirror, and it was an intimidating amount of dialogue for any actor to
handle. She dominates it. Not many actors could pull off what she does
in this film.
I'm also a huge Battlestar Galatica fan, so, when we cast Katee Sackhoff, I was officially in geek heaven.
SJ: It's rare to have a film with a brother/sister team-up, and I find it incredibly refreshing to see this relationship in Oculus. Why do you think there are not more brother/sister films?
MF: Honestly,
I think it's because people tend to lean on sexual tension to develop
characters in genre films. Having main characters who are, were, or
might be banging is an old genre staple. Which is odd because, if it's
me, sexual tension is the first thing to disappear in a situation where
lives are in danger. Kinda hard to sustain the mood, you know?
I
get why it's done that way so often, and it can be done very well. But
siblings -- hopefully -- eliminate that dynamic entirely from the
equation and, in my opinion, replace it with much more interesting
subtext. These are people who know each other very well, as opposed to
still figuring each other out; who are comfortable enough to be
themselves without pretext; who love each other, truly accept each
other. There's nothing frivolous about it. There's no politeness. They
can say what they really think without fear of damaging the
relationship. That ease of honesty is fascinating to me. Their emotional
investment in each other and in their survival is so much deeper than a
romantic one. For me, it's so much more dynamic.
It was such a blast for me dealing with a sister dynamic in my last movie Absentia that
I was really eager to dive further into a sibling relationship for this
one. I also have a terrific relationship with my younger brother, and I
am always struck by [how] our interactions with each other are
different than my interactions with even my closest friends. There are
films that use the sibling dynamic to great effect, and I wish there
were more of them.
SJ: Were there any films that influenced you while directing Oculus? The Haunting and The Legend of Hell House strike me as influences.
MF: Those are certainly two of my favourites. I also spent a lot of time revisiting The Shining -- I would sometimes refer to the mirror as a portable Overlook Hotel -- as well as recent hits like Insidious and foreign fare like A Tale of Two Sisters.
I was also influenced by Stephen King's short story "1408", which
remains one of the most frightening stories I've ever read. I love a
contained space, and I love stories that build upon a long history and
mythology for their supernatural entities.
SJ: Before Oculus was selected for TIFF, were you aware of Midnight Madness and its rowdy reputation?
MF:
Absolutely. I've been a fan of Midnight Madness for years just because
I'm such a genre fan. It always has such a fascinating lineup, and the
audiences are legendary. It was kind of surreal hearing that we were
accepted, as I'd always viewed Midnight Madness as the pinnacle platform
for exciting, unique genre films to meet their intended, enthusiastic
audience. I'm still kind of pinching myself to be included in such
amazing company.
SJ: What films are you looking forward to watching at the Festival this year?
MF: I'm really psyched for Horns. I love the book and am dying to see how it translates to the screen. I'm also lining up for All Cheerleaders Must Die; I'm a big fan of Lucky McKee. I'm really curious to see The Station; I love a good creature feature. I'm dying to catch Josh Waller's McCanick, which was put together by some very good friends of mine. I'd love to see Errol Morris' The Unknown Known. And, of course, Gravity. That trailer knocked me over.
Mike Flanagan's
Oculus
stars Karen Gillan and Katee Sackhoff, and premiered at this year's
Toronto International Film Festival within the Midnight Madness
programme. Further information about the film can be found on the
Festival website.
Sunday,
Sept 15th, 6:00 PM SCOTIABANK 11
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