The Barge People (2018)
Director: Charlie Steeds
Writer: Christopher Lombard
Starring: Kate Davies-Speak, Mark McKirdy, Makenna Guyler, Natalie Martins, Matt Swales
Set on the canals amid the glorious British countryside, two sisters and their boyfriends head off for a relaxing weekend away on a barge, unaware of the flesh-eating fish mutants lurking in the water, ready and waiting to feed.
Dead Air (2019)
Director: Geoff Harmer
Writer: Peter Hearn
Starring: Stacy Hart, Charlie Bond, Kate Davies-Speak, Johanna Stanton, Dan Palmer, James Hamer-Morton
Set on a plane traveling to a final gig, Dead Air tells the story of Monster Kitten, an all female punk rock band who end up on a flight with some nasty little creatures with all hell breaking loose at 30,000 feet.
In a new interview in the series leading up to Horror-on-Sea Film Festival, I got a chance to ask The Barge People and Dead Air actress Kate Davies-Speak a few questions about what we can expect from the films.
Q. You appear in two films which have been selected to play at Horror-on-Sea. You play Kat in the feature The Barge People and The Bassist in the horror short Dead Air. Can you tell us what we can expect from each film?
Hi there! Thanks for taking an interest in two films that I am so proud to have a part of and very eager to support. Both films are pretty different within the horror genre, one being a comedy horror and one being a slasher/backwoods horror. But one thing that ties them both together (other than that I worked on them both) is that both are old-skool creature features, retro throwbacks to classic 70’s/80’s horror and both use practical effects…
Dead Air is a total fun-ride (a short film) that is basically a merger of Josie and the Pussycats (2001) and Gremlins (1984)/Critters (1986); girls, planes, creatures and a brilliant soundtrack, it whizzes by but grips the viewer from the funky-cartoon start to the gory finale! I loved working on it very much and was pleased to see how it turned out.
The Barge People is a low budget feature horror films mainly aimed for fans of movies such as The Hills Have Eyes (1977), Friday The 13th (1980) and The Texas Chainsaw (1974) franchise; friends heading out to get away from City life with the intention of enjoying nature and the great outdoors, bonding as a family unit and stumbling across monsters as less-than-desirable-humans too… (my kind of horror!)
Q. What originally attracted you to the film Dead Air and the character of The Bassist?
I loved my character in Dead Air, she’s very much the bad-ass, strong, silent type ad a lot of fun to play. The Bassist (whose name is Eve Hallows in the feature version- If we get to make that) mainly resented me the opportunity to do some of the type of acting that I mostly enjoy, physical fighting, chucking myself about, smashing creatures in the face and her bass guitar, I couldn’t pass it up. The team asked me to be involved quite early on and I also auditioned for the role of The Singer and The Guitarist too but was thrilled to play The Bassist whom I believe had one of the funniest lines in the film. When the team (lead by Geoff Harmer the director and Peter Hern the writer) told me bout the style of the film, the set (on an actual aeroplane) and the other cast members, there was no way I was going to turn it down. I often base my decisions on projects as to whether or not it’s a film I would pay good money to go and see, this definitely ticked that box so I didn’t hesitate to take the role.
Q. Your role as Kat in The Barge People was written specifically for you. With that it mind does the character incorporate some of your own personality and does that make it easier to encompass the role?
Kat was written in a way that I guess would frustrate some horror fans, at first, she’s pretty realistic and that’s what I enjoyed about her. What I mean by that is that I often play action girl roles, tough women, fighters, those who have a hard edge to them. Kat was quite the opposite at first and that was so refreshing for me. She may get the viewer shouting at the screen as she appears not to rise to the occasion and fight for survival…At first anyway.
I enjoyed how her backstory showed that she’s actually been through a tough time and that her tougher side was more in line with staying strong for the sake of protecting and caring for her younger sister, the death of their Mother had hit her hard but that Kat was the type to always manage to bounce back, to stand back up after a knock. This starts to become relevant once the horror kicks in and Kat is forced to fight for survival and to become the protector. Taking Kat on this arc throughout the film is something I relish as an actress, I get to explore different sides and throw some grit into the role too. I would say that Kat is certainly one of the characters that I have played throughout my career as an actress whereby I have genuinely felt we are very similar people, she’s straight forward, wears her heart on her sleeve and only fights when she’s defending the people that she loves.
Q. You play two very different characters in the two films, but what sort of preparation did you do for each role?
I always get ‘in shape’ for a part, no matter what the role is. I am a fitness coach (my other job when I am not acting) so whenever I have the time leading up to a shoot I will do a lot of physical training, running, keeping fit, lifting weights etc. This makes sure that my mind and body are ready for whatever my directors want to throw at me. Otherwise I really always wait to establish what the other actor’s are doing with their characters and when we start doing a readthrough I focus solely on listening and reacting to them, concentrating on relationships and bouncing off one another.
Q. Did you make any changes to either of the character from how it was written in the original script?
No I tend to keep them as intended, my best mate Chris Lombard wrote The Barge People and I guess if we needed changes we’d have ironed them out during the many years of discussing the character and story, sometimes small changes happen on set but usually it’s to suit the conditions and logistics of the low-budget shoot as opposed to changing things for the sake of it. We did add a couple of small, additional scenes a year after filming but they were also written by the original writer, we just wanted to make some parts a little longer or explain a thing or two.
Q. You often playing strong female characters in your films, are these the sort of characters that you enjoy portraying in your films?
I guess I was always enticed by these types of characters from when I was a kid, Ripley, Sarah Connor and Lara Croft are just some of my idols, I enjoy adding little elements of their toughness into the characters that I play. I mainly just enjoy playing women who aren’t a push-over, it’s fun to be the hero too. I don’t mind playing victims (it happens a lot in horror) but I don’t enjoy the type who just scream, run and fall over, the audience has to connect with them and I always hope that my fellow females will relate or enjoy the women that I play.
Q. What makes The Barge People and Dead Air stand out in the horror genre?
I mainly just hope that fans of the older horror VHS moves will enjoy the practical effects, the soundtracks (our Barge People soundtrack is very John Carpenter in style) and the focus on character building. Both films make up for the lower budget in utter bucket-loads of passion and genuine commitment from both film-teams to stay true to the retro style.
Q. What were some of your favourite moments during filming?
Dead Air was a total blast from start to finish, I really enjoyed being on set and also some of the ground-work before the shoot, it was the first time that I had ever had a ‘face-cast’ done before (when your entire head is submerged in plaster so make prosthetics easier to mould and apply once filming). It was great getting to know the other ladies of ‘Monster Kitten’ (our band) too, we hung out all the time and even stayed over at Stacy’s house (lead actress) which gave me even more chance to bond. I loved every second of working with all of them and we all deeply hope we get to do so again, especially if the feature version were to get brought into reality. I did have a funny but painful moment when the fake wee was sprayed all over my face by the makeup team, it stung like hell but it was funny too.
The Barge People was very much like being on holiday with a bunch of friends, we shot on location (we hired a barge which we sailed and filmed on for a couple of days, even sleeping over on it) and we also had a barge set which was built in Cornwall and housed on a farm where we also all stayed together. It was so important that we all got along (which we did) and that we were all ready to shoot at any time of the day or night, it was a bunch of exhausting fun, I think some of our greatest scenes were shot in the early hours of the morning once we were tired, emotional and the weather was utterly awful, it did make us all work really well though.
Q. Did you experience any issues during filming?
Dead Air went pretty smoothly although I think that on one of the final days we had a location issue with the cockpit scenes as it was housed right where some people were getting married, I had to leave set that day as I’d wrapped so not sure how they managed to resolve it in the end. There was also a panicky moment during the head-casting’ day when we all thought that Joanna was struggling to breath under her full-head-plaster (it was pretty scary) but it turned out that she was actually just trying to stifle a sneeze, she’d not been able to speak to tell us so it looked like she was flapping about in a panic, this terrified me as I knew it was my turn next and I am a bit claustrophobic and already concerned abut getting the head-cast done. It all turned out ok though.
The Barge People issues, ha ha! The first scary one was when we accidentally upset one of the real barge residents and they got quite angry and aggressive at our director (it was our fault for not fully understanding or complying with Barge etiquette) we’d been driving the barge too fast late in the evening and it creates a ripple on the water…Basically we upset a guy who chased us a bit down the embankment and we genuinely spent that whole night afraid they were going to come and have a go at us (we slept just a quarter mile away down the river). Also we had one night shoot which we had to film during a real hurricane (unplanned) so we shifted the scene inside a barb instead of the woodland, you can still see the crazy effect of the wind in the scene but it made it look pretty interesting and quite exciting so it made it into the final cut.
Q. Do you have any other projects which you are currently working on?
I took some time out this year to have my baby (he was born in October- My favourite Month!- Future birthdays for him will always be Halloween themed) but I shot a film earlier in the year called Out Of Mecca which was a very fun action, sci-fi drama, that’s getting a release in the new year so I’ll be promoting that and going along to screenings. I also just agreed to shoot some scenes in Charlie Steeds next film a Werewolf film, even my baby has a role! so we are excited to get working on that. I am also set to play Artemis in Gods Among Us (a modern telling of the battle of Greek Gods) i’m looking forward to that, a pretty dreamy role for this action lady! I am also going to throw myself back into looking for the next projects now that I feel ready to take on more work again.
If someone was looking to get into acting what advice would you give them?
If you are keen on it, get out there and work with lots of people who share your passion. Find a film ‘family’, work hard, try out many new things, network and definitely SUPPORT other filmmakers and actors, watch a load of work and enjoy the ride. It’s not a competition, it’s not a short ride it’s a very long game. Keep working on your craft and be kind to everyone on and off set.
The Barge People will be playing at Horror-on-Sea on Sunday 19th January at 20:00 hrs
You can find out more about Horror-on-Sea and purchase tickets for the festival here:
You can see my original interview with The Barge People director Charlie Steeds here
Dead Air will be playing at Horror-on-Sea on Sunday 12th January at 10:00am
You can find out more about Horror-on-Sea and purchase tickets for the festival here:
You can find out more about Dead Air on the following Social Media Twitter – Instagram – Facebook
You can also read my previous interviews with Director Geoff Harmer here writer Peter Hearn 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!
