Hello ladies and gentlemen, Muldoon here with a rather straightforward Q&A session with Nick Jongerius, director of the new horror film THE WINDMILL. While I had the opportunity to catch a screener of the film roughly a week ago, it's still circling around in my head with memorable scenes lingering in my noggin. Nick does some pretty cool things with the film that aren't necessarily expected, spelling out he knows the rules of the genre and intentionally ignores a few while simultaneously sticking to others to a T. (That's not really a spoiler or even an anti-spoiler.) Ultimately it felt fresh, and possibly a good flick to check out before Halloween hits. In full sincerity, will this film rock your world or blow your face off? I'm sure it will for a few folks out there. At its core, it's a spooky film that's beautifully shot, well acted, and completely enjoyable as far as lower budget horror films go. I found it interesting and appreciated the filmmakers allowing me to screen the below clip. Thanks again to Nick for taking time out of his schedule to answer a few of my questions! The film came out yesterday on iTunes and hits theaters this Friday in time for the holiday weekend!
"Jennifer is an Australian girl on the run from her past who washes up in Amsterdam. In a desperate attempt to stay one step ahead of the authorities, she joins a coach-load of tourists embarking on a tour of Holland's world famous windmills. When the bus breaks down in the middle of nowhere, she and the other tourists are forced to seek shelter in a disused shed beside a sinister windmill where, legend has it, a Devil-worshiping miller once ground the bones of locals instead of grain. As members of the group start to disappear, Jennifer learns that they all have something in common - a shared secret that seems to mark them all for doom."
Let's jump on in to a full Q&A, eh? Here we go:
How much time did you have to prep? Specifically with the amount of interesting locations, it feels like you must have had quite a bit of time to find “just the right” locations. Was that the case? Of your locations, which one was the biggest “get” for you?
Our prep started when we decided to shoot our ‘proof of concept’ teaser back in August 2013. Once we’d shot the teaser and had started development on the script, the DP and I looked for locations on and off. You are absolutely right: it was key for me to find authentic locations that looked Dutch, but also had an international look and feel.
The film starts off in a typical Dutch landscape: Amsterdam, the polders and dikes, however slowly but surely the film moves into another territory, something that is a bit larger than life. We found those locations around a couple of the big rivers that cross through Holland (actually they start in Austria, but end in Holland). It was very hard to get permission to shoot at certain locations so it took a long time to clear everything.
The windmill itself was our biggest challenge. We couldn't afford to build one, so we had to scout it. There are about 1100 working windmills in Holland and I visited around 300 of them, all across the country. It is so hard to film in Holland if you are looking for places that appear remote. It is a densely populated country, so in fact it’s really hard to get lost here ;-). Every windmill lies near a house or a highway so we had problems with sound and light spills. But our early prep really helped us. Once pre-production started, a month and a half before shooting, almost all of the main locations had been found and approved, which was a big relieve for me.
There are quite a few characters in your film. What’s one thing you think they all share, despite their different backstories?
Chris Mitchell (screenwriter) and I were very fond of the idea that all the characters have something in common, something that draws all of them to this place they end up being stuck in, instead of mere chance. Our references were the Amicus horror films and old disaster movies. It really appealed to me to have flawed characters in the story. You don't necessary have to like them or feel sympathetic to their position as long as you understand them. They have all done something terrible, but try to suppress the truth and have hidden agenda's or even identities.
What compelled you to create this film? What was it about the story that you found exciting, something to spend so much time bringing to the world?
Making this film was a journey for me to find out what triggers and interests me. After Frankenstein's Army I decided I wanted to direct a feature and I intuitively chose horror. I have a soft spot for horror. I looked for an arena that I found creepy and landed on windmills. Windmills intrigue me. They look strange and they don't have a lot of windows (or very small ones), which makes them mysterious and ominous. I was born on a street called The Saw Windmill Street near an old creepy windmill and where I live now there are also a lot of windmills, so you can say windmills follow me.
After I chose this arena, I shot the proof of concept with the idea in mind of a real flesh and blood miller killer, but once it was finished I found out that this wasn't what I was looking for in a feature film. I like horror stories with fantasy elements in them. Grimm fairytales, also some of the hammer horror films like Bride of Frankenstein and I'm really inspired by the work of Guillermo Del Torro. That became the visual and dramatic angle of the film.
Considering your film is called THE WINDMILL, I’m curious as to how you landed on the final design of the actual windmill in the movie. Were there many iterations or was this a pre-existing windmill that you utilized?
I'll be honest: if we had the budget I would have made more alterations to the windmill we chose. In an ideal world we would have created the mill from scratch. But this wasn't the case so we worked with what we got. Actually, the mill we ended up using was the only one we could use, since most windmills are located in open plains so they catch enough wind, but the DP and I wanted a mill that was surrounded by forest, which would make it spookier and more abnormal. The windmill we shot at, was the only one that had all that.
We made slight alterations to the mill though, for example the wooden bridge was built to give it an extra edge. We also used old wood to cover up the windows and to make the mill seem more crooked. Actually a windmill is considered a monument in Holland and most windmills are very well looked-after, as was this one. The millers who managed our mill even did and extra paint job a week before shooting, because they thought they would help us this way. My production designer, DP and I had a big cry once we found out ;-) We had to work extra hard to undo all their work.
How did you find your cast? Which of your leads did you lock in first and how far away from filming did that occur?
We were very fortunate to work with Daniel Hubbard. He was the casting director for Paul Greengrass on Jason Bourne and Green Zone. He also loves horror and knew us through my producing partner Daniel Koefoed. Working with him opened up a broad range of amazing actors. I first had my eye on Charlotte Beaumont. I saw her in Broadchurch and I thought she was both fantastic and perfect for the role. This was purely based on my gut feeling because we cast her without an audition. She was the first to sign on. The rest of the cast came together through regular castings. Tanroh Ishida's audition was absolutely fabulous; he was exactly how I imagined Takashi. Fiona Hampton really surprised me during her audition. I was looking mostly at ex models for the part, but Fiona's performance was so on the money that I chose her. Ben Batt came in with so much charisma. He doesn’t have a big part but his presence is amazing. Noah Taylor signed on about a week before shooting. I was getting really nervous if we were able to cast the role and when Noah was interested I flew to London to meet him. I was excited because he has such a track record and this was my feature debut, but he was so gracious and supported the film and myself a hundred percent. It was a delight working with him, as it was with all the cast.
Can you describe your most challenging day on set?
The days on which we shot the kill scenes were toughest. We wanted every kill to be different and all of them were a complete disaster to shoot. I nearly turned grey because of them. It was so much work for our SFX team Rob's Prop Shop to make everything as real as I wanted. They did a fantastic job. We didn’t want to use CGI in the special make-up effects shots. We wanted to do it as old school as possible. It was great because you saw on set if things worked or not, but it took meticulous scheduling and storyboarding to make sure we got everything we needed. Those were long nights.
Which scene would you say was your favorite, a scene that ended up exactly how you imagined it to be, if not even better?
The doctor kill I'm very proud of. Like I said all of the kills were very hard to do but when I saw the shot of the scythe appearing in front of Noah I was like... OMG this is so cool and better then I expected. When we added the music and sound effects to that scene, I got goose bumps. It was awesome.
Given the film is practically all set at night, and includes a hefty amount of gore – what films did you look to or reference visually?
Weirdly enough I looked at old films like Night of the Hunter and Psycho. I like shadows and images with high contrast. Se7en was also a big reference as was Sleepy Hollow and Game of Thrones. In the end I think the film’s exteriors scenes have a unique look & feel that I don't link to an existing film (maybe you have an idea?). The interior scenes with the potbelly stove really intrigue me. I like them very much, probably it has to do with the high contrast.
How did you come to hire Bart Beekman on this film and what do you think he brought to the table that elevated the project?
Bart and I go way back. We studied at the Dutch film academy together in the same graduation year. I loved his work then and also worked with him on the two features I produced prior to The Windmill: Dead End and Frankenstein's Army. When The Windmill came in to play there was no one else who I toughed of. Not only does he like the same things I like in terms of style and look & feel, but he is also a good friend. He did so much extra work on this film. I'm going to regret this probably, but if you are a director or producer and want to hire a really great DP, you should think of him.
The film very much doesn’t play out like your standard horror film – avoiding spoilers, you do a few things that completely go against expectations. In terms of cracking this story, how did you balance the needs to satisfy character arches while still trying to do something fresh without getting too experimental? To put it simply, what was the writing process like with this film?
Thanks. I'll take it as a compliment ;-). I both love and hate ‘ensemble’ films. It's great because you can create a diverse and interesting group of characters and it's hard because you have to divide your attention and don't have a lot of time to develop characters. Very early on, we decided that we needed a lead character, someone with whom we could go on this journey. We didn't want characters that were just up for slaughter and when Chris came up with the idea to give each of them a sin it opened up a lot of opportunities. What's hard with a horror film is that your plot consumes a lot of time and is not always as interesting to watch. I love the idea that the plot in this film is told by the only person in the room who nobody understands (the Japanese character Takashi). Chris and I were constantly looking for these kind of solutions to keep it fresh. On the other hand, we sometimes had to embrace the clichés I liked the fact that we don't explain everything in the film, such as the flour and the role of Abe in the backstory of the mill. I love working with Chris. We work well together and he writes fierce and fast.
Certainly there are only so many places you can go with a sequel, but is that something you’d even consider? Do you have a story in this universe that you want to tell?
If it will ever come to that, I’d like to explore more of the origins of Abe. I think he is just this wonderful character and I’d like to see more of him. Bart Klever, who plays Abe is such a great actor and he also had so much fun playing it, we should certainly consider that. Of course it would also be fun to come up with a lot of new cool new kills!
A step further, what’s next? What have you got lined up that you’re excited about – or – what have you got tucked away in a drawer that you’re dying to make, but might not be completely funded at this time?
Chris and I are nearly done with a science fiction thriller script called The Abductee. There is real interest from a sales agent too and we are in the early stages of casting. If everything goes as planned we hope to start shooting next fall. Fingers crossed.
There we have it, ladies and gentlemen - a rather candid Q&A with NIck Jongerius. Clearly one on one chats in person or on the phone are always a little less... cold? But truth be told, when you've got a filmmaker like Nick who clearly sets a little time aside to give thought out responses like the ones above, that takes the cake and gives us all a nice view into the mind of a film's creator. I very much appreciate Nick's answers and feel he's given some solid advice and some rather interesting anecdotes here today. I hope to see more from the guy and am shooting positive vibes his way for THE ABDUCTEE.
- Mike McCutchen
"Muldoon"
Mike@aintitcool.com
