Horror-on-Sea Interview with ‘The Numbers’ Writer-Director Andrew Elias

The Numbers (2018)

Poster by Roz Hall

Director: Andrew Elias

Writer: Andrew Elias

Starring: Peyvand Sadeghian, Lilly Driscoll, Jo Burke, Nicky Stephens, Howie Cobby

Three people in three different time periods find themselves face to face with fate.

In a new interview in the series leading up to Horror-on-Sea Film Festival, I got a chance to ask The Numbers Writer-Director Andrew Elias a few questions about what we can expect from the film.

Q. Your film The Numbers has been selected to play at Horror-on-Sea. Can you tell us what we can expect from the film?

The Numbers is a supernatural thriller, told as four short stories set over four time periods (1912, 1955, 1983 & 2018). The four stories are linked together by the calling card of a fortune teller called Madame Mimi. The film is heavily inspired by the Amicus, Tigon and Hammer anthology films of the 1960’s and 1970’s.

Q. What were some of your influences for the look and style of the film?

I wanted the film to feel and look almost like a comic book, but a comic book painted by Walter Sickert. Sickert’s ‘Camden Town’ paintings played a big part stylistically.

Q. How did you come up with the original concept when writing the script for Numbers

I’d written a script for the 1955 story, which I had intended to make as a short film. I got the idea for that story from an old lift in an old Victorian  hospital in London that I worked as a security guard in 25 years ago. My dad also told me a story about a friend of his who went to a fortune teller and was told he was going to get a visit from the Devil, and I was going to make that story into a short as well. I had the idea to combine the stories, and the script took off from there.

Q. Where there any elements of the original script which were adapted during filming?

We stayed quite true to the original script, apart from a little bit of improvising from the actors here and there.

Q. Did you experience any issues during filming?

Shooting the lift scene was tricky. We were shooting in a private house, and there were children running around, a decorator sanding the front door, and the make-up artist had a row with her partner over the phone. We had to leave the shoot without applying any make-up to Lilly Driscoll (the actor playing the protagonist of the 1955 story). Thankfully, Lilly did her own make-up, and apart from Nicky Stephens (the actor playing the protagonist for the 1983 story) having to stand behind the lift doors and hold them in place for about two hours, everything else went smoothly.

Q. What were some of your favourite moments whilst making the film?

One of my favourite moments was when we were shooting the stairway scene of the 1983 story. As we were setting up, Nicky Stephens fell down the flight of stairs. Everyone rushed to him to make sure that he was alright, whereas I shouted to Dan Parkes (the DoP) “Did you get that on camera?” It’s not as heartless as it seems, as I knew that falling down a flight of stairs is a party trick of Nicky’s. However, he wasn’t allowed to do it again!

Q. What makes The Numbers stand out as something different in the horror genre?

I think The Numbers shows that just because a film is shot on a minimal budget, it doesn’t have to include bad acting or poor production values.

Q. What do you hope people will take away after watching the film? 

I hope that people will leave with unanswered questions that they can come to their own conclusions about.

Q. Do you have any other projects which you are currently working on?

We’ve started pre-production on our next film, Tales from the Great War, which is another anthology film set against the backdrop of World War One. This one is taking considerably more planning than The Numbers, due to most of the scenes being set in the trenches of the Western Front. And that one of the stories involves a ‘beast’.

Q. If someone was looking to direct their own film what advice would you give them?

Just do it. Don’t wait for the right equipment, or conditions. Use your phone, whatever. But try to get decent actors.

The Numbers will be playing at Horror-on-Sea on Saturday 11th January at 10:00 am

You can find out more about Horror-on-Sea and purchase tickets for the festival here: