Inner Ghosts (2018)
Director: Paulo Leite
Writer: Paulo Leite
Starring: Celia Williams, Elizabeth Bochmann, Iris Cayatte, Norman MacCallum, Amanda Booth
If ghosts can think and remember who they are, then the physical brain is not the only place where we store our inner selves. Helen is asked to train two young women into the art of communicating with the dead. But Helen’s days as a medium are long gone. In fact, she gave up that life 15 years ago when she lost her daughter.
Today Helen is a different woman dedicated to her career in brain research. Things start to change when a visit from the other side offers her the design of a device that can do amazing things. But to everything there is a risk.
In a new interview in the series leading up to Horror-on-Sea Film Festival, I got a chance to ask Inner Ghosts writer-director Paulo Leite a few questions about what we can expect from the film.
Q. Your feature directorial debut Inner Ghosts has been selected to play at Horror-on-Sea. Can you tell us what we can expect from the film?
It was an honour to be selected. You can expect to learn some interesting stuff about ghosts and to watch an ending that’s unexpected and different from anything you’ve seen. I like to take risks and I want to give the audience something to talk about.
Q. What were some of your influences when writing the script?
I have many influences. I love old British horror. I grew up watching Nigel Kneale, Hammer, Amicus and lots of great horror stuff. Those films and TV shows left a big mark on me. I still have them on VHS from the time I recorded them in the 80’s.
Q. What were some of your influences for the look and style of the film?
The influences here are very contradictory. We used a lot of candle light on the film. I like shooting in low light. There is nothing like the dark to bring us all closer. I could say Ridley Scott The Duellists (1977) is a big influence. I could speak hours about the light on this film.
Q. Where there any elements of the original script which were adapted during filming?
Any feature film that’s made on an extremely low budget will bump into unexpected problems. We had lots of those. However, the most serious one was the malfunctioning of a key practical special effect that happens to the main character’s face. It cost us a big chunk of our budget and yet, it failed during the shooting. We had to improvise and deal with it in post. It ended up being positive thing because the mix between practical and (unplanned) CGI made the scene even better than I thought was possible. Looking back, I am happy it happened as it happened.
Q. Did you experience any issues during filming?
We shot during the night because Lisbon is a noisy city due to construction work. Plus, outside the shooting location, there is a flee market that takes place twice a week. That would hurt our sound in too many ways. That’s why I decided we would shoot everything at night. Some people don’t like it, but I love it. It is so quiet at night. You can shoot like you are in a sound stage. So, I’d say we had a pretty quiet shoot. Not many issues.
Q. What were some of your favourite moments during filming?
It seems Banksy visited our set and applied some graffiti art in one of our trucks. I tried to tell the renting company that it was a Banksy, therefore, (laughs) the truck was worth a fortune now. They were not convinced and we had to scrub the whole truck into a boring white again.
Q. What makes Inner Ghosts stand out as something different in the horror genre?
I like projects that try stuff you haven’t seen before. That’s what I was aiming at. That’s why the story I wrote will give you some answers to what’s on the other side. I also am fascinated with 3D printing and I wanted to try a few new concepts and have fun with them. I don’t want to spoil the ending, but there is some stuff that happens to the main character that you won’t find often. In a nutshell, I’m trying things with this film that will guide me towards my future projects.
Q. What do you hope people take away after watching the film?
A mother’s love will triumph no matter what.
Q. Do you have any other projects which you are currently working on?
Yes, I just finished a short and I have four features in development. I love writing and I keep developing new stories and scripts.
Q. If someone was looking to write and direct their own film what advice would you give them?
That’s a tough question because every film is different and each filmmaker’s experience is unique. However, I feel a filmmaker should look towards having a project that will leave no one indifferent. Indifference is every filmmaker’s worst enemy.
Inner Ghosts will be playing at Horror-on-Sea on Sunday 19th January at 10:00am
You can find out more about Horror-on-Sea and purchase tickets for the festival 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!
Related Posts
