Film Name: The Pocket Film of Superstitions
Directors: Thomas Lee Rutter
Writers: Thomas Lee Rutter
Starring: Caroline Munro, Lynn Lowry, Pauline Peart, The Shend, Dani Thompson
The film is described as a weird and wonderful merging of shades of folk horror, the supernatural with dadaist humour and a quaint British eccentricities that are long gone in the cinema of today.
In a new exclusive interview on Blazing Minds, I got a chance to ask writer-director Thomas Lee Rutter a few questions about his film The Pocket Film of Superstitions which has been selected for Horror-on-Sea on Sunday 14th January at 15:00 pm
Q. Your film The Pocket Film of Superstitions has been selected to play at the Horror-on-Sea
Film Festival. Can you tell us what we can expect from the film?
A. Hi Philip! Expect an enchanting celebration of the weird and wonderful amidst a hall of smoke and mirrors. You will laugh, you will cry, you will shriek in terror!
Q. What were your inspirations when writing the script for The Pocket Film of Superstitions?
A. A wide range of things brought me to the point of making this film. The haunting romanticism of silent cinema where ghosts literally parade about the screen, the British horror films of the 60’s and 70’s, surreal and dadaist humour such as Python and the Bonzos, and also hauntological books and documentaries on the supernatral and the occult. Cultural inspirations aside I wanted to chase a sense of intuition, and convey feelings and states of mind I find deeply moving, inspiring and otherworldly.
Q. What were some of your influences for the look and style of the film?
A. As stated above silent cinema takes over half of the blame for the look; but also TV dramas and documentaries of the 1970’s; usually of the Fortean and spooky kind. The uniform look of the film enabled me to really let loose with a boundless sense of creative freedom; an ‘anything goes’ mentality that would still hold together as one.
Q. Did you make any changes from the original script during filming?
A. Script?! SCRIPT?! Ha! Initially I wrote down a long list of the superstitions I wanted to cover in the film in an order I thought might work. This was really a shot in the dark in that I figured some would be more light hearted and some darker so it was a case of striking a balance. Some vignettes were fully formed in mind so it was a case of filming those first, then working out how it would weave into the next part. I only wrote the narration half way through this way of working, so when that was a thing I started to use that as a guideline to navigate a sort of flow.
Q. What were some of your favourite moments during filming?
A. This film has been a long process full of perseverance but I can quite honestly say filming it
has been a blast. So many wonderful shoots to mention on this one – from working with the
great Caroline Munro to shooting in some of the country’s wonderful period museums.
Q. Did you experience any issues during filming?
A. Only the usual really: logistics and lack of resources. I’d like to have had another stab at certain parts so they would ‘ve been better realised in terms of detail (in my opinion) but that is the usual self critical stuff.
Q. What makes The Pocket Film of Superstitions stand out as something different in the
horror genre?
A. A gamble on this one was foregoing traditional plot and narrative in favour of something that resembles an almanac of inventory brought to life, with a sort of stream-of-consciousness flow to it. It only relies on horrific tropes when it really needs to, and instead concerns itself with the beauty and quirkiness of human eccentricities and all of its transcendent ethers.
Q. What do you hope people take away after watching the film?
A. I hope folk come out of this one with a big smile on their faces, with a sense of wonderment at the lyrical and the unknown.
Q. Do you have any other projects which you are currently working on?
A. Yes, but as I am very superstitious to mention any of them is to curse them!
Q. If someone was looking to get into filmmaking film what advice would you give them?
A. As well as having the drive and the attitude to just get up and do it, one of the main things one should do is watch as many films as possible. Especially in horror – if one wanted to contribute to the genre then one should know what is already out there. Also think outside the box! Indie should be about fresh perspectives, even if we’re not reinventing the wheel. That, and don’t be a dick.
You can follow The Pocket Film of Superstitions on Facebook
You can find out about more films from Tom Lee Rutter and Carnie Films on the following social media Twitter – Instagram
The Pocket Film of Superstitions has been selected to play at the Horror-on-Sea Film Festival on Sunday 14th January at 15:00pm
You can find out more about the Festival and purchase tickets here
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!
