Film Name: Decline
Director: Sam Mason-Bell
Writers: Ryan Carter and Sam Mason-Bell
Starring: Jackson Batchelor, Ryan Carter, Russell Churcher, Spencer Craig, Steven Dalmon
Ian lives a life full of hate, alone and lost he takes it out on the vulnerable people he sees around him, stalking the seedy streets of Portsmouth, looking for his next kill, never learning from his past, only fuelled by it.
In another interview leading up to the Horror-on-Sea Film Festival, I got a chance to ask writer/director Sam Mason-Bell a few questions about what we can expect from Decline which will be playing at Horror-on-Sea on Sunday 16th January at 17:30hrs.
Q. Your horror film ‘Decline’ has been selected to play at Horror-on-Sea. Can you tell us what we can expect from the film?
A. Decline gives you an insight into the psychotic mind of Ian and his refusal to move on from the past only to feed it into hate. A bleak downwards spiral in the scuzzy streets of Portsmouth.
Q. What were some of your influences when co-writing the script with Ryan Carter?
A. Me and Ryan had not shot a feature with each other for at least 7 years, Ryan really wanted to dive into a dark psyche but a film that had romantic undertones. I wanted to explore toxic masculinity with a killer who believes he is an outsider. I wanted to emulate something that had the vibe of 80s street movies with some of the simplicity and intimidation of a killer like Michael Myers but more of a character piece like Henry: Portrait of A Killer (1986).
Q. Did you have any actors or actresses in mind to portray any of the character when writing the script for the film?
A. No we were completely open with casting, which was kind of nice! Katrina had contacted us wanting to work with us and this seemed like an excellent fit for her, the rest of the cast we wanted victims that didn’t feel just like cartoons to give them fuller life, we looked to work with people who had a comfortability with improvisation and naturalism.
Q. What were some of your influences for the look and style of the film?
A. We wanted to use mostly natural lighting or lighting that wasn’t hyper real. As the film is subjective to the killer it mostly plays in the real world until his mind starts to slip. We wanted to give the vibe of always following the characters into the action, so we can see a bit of their life before Ian destroys it. Society was a big influence and its constantly downward spiral and lack of care for the vulnerable pushed us further to show who these people were before Ian adds to his kill list.
Q. Did you make any changes from the original script during filming?
A. The beauty of improv is things can always be changed or be added to the narrative, in the edit we started to change the placement of the story and saw a need for more of Katrina to lead him into his distorted memories, but thankfully the story you see on the screen is the one of we crafted.
Q. What were some of your favourite moments during filming?
A. The shoot was split into two chunks. We did two days with Katrina which was a mad rush but so much fun, I remember the first scene her and Ryan had to do together, it was a screaming argument in the car. Neither had met before but as soon as they stepped into the roles they nailed it, thankfully! Watching Ryan embrace every element of this nasty character, that was my favourite moment. I loved a lot of our set pieces, shooting around Portsmouth finding grotty areas I had yet to film!
Q. Did you experience any issues during filming?
A. As the film was split into two parts, there were many challenges. We wanted to film in environments that were real not sets, in populated areas without the general public playing close attention, you got to a be ghost ninja and that’s always challenging!
Q. What makes Decline stand out as something different in the horror genre?
A. Decline keeps you in the mind of the killer, to step away from his violence and see a disturbed mind, but it’s still a slasher to me, we just spend a lot more time with the killer than with our victims. A slasher that’s also a character study ha ha. Ian is terrifying to his victims, but we see him at his weakest moments, his most vulnerable, this to me is certainly different in what we see in a slasher killer.
Q. What do you hope people take away after watching the film?
A. I want people never to forget the time they spent inside these disturbed killers mind, to wonder if they should feel empathy to this killer, to feel a bit grubby
Q. Do you have any other projects which you are currently working on?
A. This year we have our surrealist nightmare Senseless starring Ryan Carter starting its festival run alongside our religious horror Home IS Where I lay starring Annabella Rich. I’m excited to see the response of those. We have a few projects in pre-production including some folky witchy horror and a horror project based on the sound phenomena of the hum… should be an interesting year!
Q. If someone was looking to write and direct their own film what advice would you give them?
A. Take the risk, we all learn in different ways who we are as a filmmaker, but it all starts by taking the risk and learning from those mistakes, owning them and focusing on being better. Inspiration can come from anywhere so don’t be scared to look into areas you have personally fear… use any sense of misery and hopelessness and let it loose on a horror script.
You can find out more about the Horror-on-Sea Film Festival on the website https://www.horror-on-sea.com/
Published in various websites, Philip is a reviewer who is best known for his interviews and media coverage of independent projects including; films, books, theatre and live events. Always on the lookout for something different to cover!
