Interview Blair Erikson
The Banshee Chapter 3D had its European premiere at this years Film 4‘sFrightfest we managed to catch a few words with Director Blair Erikson
Tell us about The Banshee Chapter
It’s about looking at projects the US government have done and the theme of the past coming back to haunt us. Katia [Winter] did a phenomenal job really bringing the terror into her performance. To the point in which you really believe it. Ted [Levine] the Blackburn character absolutely devours the character alive and we weren’t really sure if he wasn’t actually in peril at the time he’s that good.
The film is based around factual events
Yes, pulled together from narratives of things actually done in America to its citizens
Was it a personal choice to film in 3D?
Yeah it was a part of several choices we made we wanted to use as much natural lighting as possible so it felt right and didn’t have that studio feel. And we wanted it to feel as immersive as possible so we have these nice long takes and 3D was just an extension of that .
Did filming in 3D have an effect on how the film was shot?
The way its shot it has to look very document style very naturalistic but in fact the camera is a 100 pound rig to make it look this hand held documentary style was quiet a big deal. Our cinematographer carried the thing himself, hauled this 110 pound rig around. But the effect it has feel s very natural you wouldn’t know unless you saw the thing your self
Were you ever tempted to do any first hand research on the drug side of it to help with the realism of the hallucination in the film?
I’ve had several people offer me a variation of the chemical used in the film and I always refuse, I’ve done too much research to try it
Banshee chapter is promoted as horror but having a documentary style would you also class it as a horror film?
It has horror elements but it’s more a thriller but has those elements. It’s more about psychological scariness. When [horror] it goes to the gory its loses its effectiveness so this is more about getting inside people’s heads
Why do you think the horror genre works best for The Banshee Chapter?
Because I think horror at it’s a great medium to explore political issues look at the original night of the living dead which works about civil rights issues and dawn of the dead and consumer capitalism. The saw movies about how our country was getting in to torture. The domestic spying program yet again our intelligence community is doing creepy things to us. This stuff never really goes away so we thought about looking back to something we had done in the past and what if that past came back to haunt us because it never goes away. Just like what is going on now
So the movie’s really selling America for the rest of the world then?
I think people will be shocked when they stat goggling some of the stuff we bring up in this film
So are you worried that when you get home there be the men in black waiting at your door?
I am a little bit more careful about what I say [laughs]
Interview and Photos By Ashley Mansfield
Tell us about The Banshee Chapter
It’s about looking at projects the US government have done and the theme of the past coming back to haunt us. Katia [Winter] did a phenomenal job really bringing the terror into her performance. To the point in which you really believe it. Ted [Levine] the Blackburn character absolutely devours the character alive and we weren’t really sure if he wasn’t actually in peril at the time he’s that good.
The film is based around factual events
Yes, pulled together from narratives of things actually done in America to its citizens
Was it a personal choice to film in 3D?
Yeah it was a part of several choices we made we wanted to use as much natural lighting as possible so it felt right and didn’t have that studio feel. And we wanted it to feel as immersive as possible so we have these nice long takes and 3D was just an extension of that .
Did filming in 3D have an effect on how the film was shot?
The way its shot it has to look very document style very naturalistic but in fact the camera is a 100 pound rig to make it look this hand held documentary style was quiet a big deal. Our cinematographer carried the thing himself, hauled this 110 pound rig around. But the effect it has feel s very natural you wouldn’t know unless you saw the thing your self
Were you ever tempted to do any first hand research on the drug side of it to help with the realism of the hallucination in the film?
I’ve had several people offer me a variation of the chemical used in the film and I always refuse, I’ve done too much research to try it
Banshee chapter is promoted as horror but having a documentary style would you also class it as a horror film?
It has horror elements but it’s more a thriller but has those elements. It’s more about psychological scariness. When [horror] it goes to the gory its loses its effectiveness so this is more about getting inside people’s heads
Why do you think the horror genre works best for The Banshee Chapter?
Because I think horror at it’s a great medium to explore political issues look at the original night of the living dead which works about civil rights issues and dawn of the dead and consumer capitalism. The saw movies about how our country was getting in to torture. The domestic spying program yet again our intelligence community is doing creepy things to us. This stuff never really goes away so we thought about looking back to something we had done in the past and what if that past came back to haunt us because it never goes away. Just like what is going on now
So the movie’s really selling America for the rest of the world then?
I think people will be shocked when they stat goggling some of the stuff we bring up in this film
So are you worried that when you get home there be the men in black waiting at your door?
I am a little bit more careful about what I say [laughs]
Interview and Photos By Ashley Mansfield