SCREAMFEST 2015: Bait, Estranged and The Girl In The Photographs, and an interview with writer/director Nick Simon

- By Bryan Stumpf

Though I’ve lived in Los Angeles for almost a year, and live within a block of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, attending this year’s Screamfest Horror Film Festival, I stepped inside the famous TCL (formerly Grauman’s ) Chinese Theatre for the very first time. And what a fitting cinema palace for Screamfest, one of the largest and longest running horror film festivals in the world.

Celebrating its 15th year, Screamfest annually showcases student films, independent productions, and directorial debuts, domestic and international, all selected for the promising talent of their filmmakers and the caliber of their visceral impact. Screamfest, after all, is where Paranormal Activity premiered — launching a franchise, making Blumhouse a household name, and popularizing the found footage genre. And I wouldn’t currently be a screenwriter in LA if not for Paranormal Activity inspiring me to write The Making of Merciless.

Not quite having time to attend all the screenings of the ten day festival (Oct 13 - 22), I chose just a handful of feature films for my field report to The Slaughtered Bird: two horror-thrillers based in the U.K., Bait and Estranged, and the American neo-slasher The Girl in the Photographs, appearing on the seventh night of the fest and garnering positive the word of mouth.

While I found Bait, directed by Dominic Brunt and written by Paul Roundell, for the most part flimsy and unalluring, it did feature one of the more rare boogeymen of the horror genre: the loan shark. Midway into Bait’s first act, you may feel like you’re watching an episode of EastEnders, as Bex (Victoria Smurfit) and Dawn (Joanne Mitchell) bicker and fret about how they’ll ever be able to afford the coffee shop of their dreams. Yet we get more and more glimpses of the ultra-vicious psychopathic tendencies of the local loan shark. Eventually, the loan shark snags the interest of Bex and Dawn, and things get rather bloody. Midst the third act carnage, you might wonder if Chum would’ve been a better title.

The other U.K. production, Estranged, featured a much higher production value, due in no small part to filming on a spooky, ancient estate owned by an Earl of Durham. (I get so envious of U.K.’s plethora of creepy, decrepit manors. The most difficult part of filming my horror short Ghost Walks was location scouting in Upstate New York for creepy, old lakeside cottages, and finding them quite scarce. If only I knew some horror-loving blokes based in seaside Britain, familiar with local, historical buildings. Eh, Blue Took and Folklore?)

Bryan and the beautiful Nora-Jane Noone.

Estranged - about a young woman returning home after an amnesia-inducing accident, to re-discover the terrifying reason she left home six years earlier - proves to be a sharp production all around: punchy, clever writing, finely tuned atmospheric directing, and riveting performances. James Cosmo plays a truly intimidating paterfamilias. Yet most intriguing to me was the mousey, yet wicked performance by the always enthralling Irish actress Nora-Jane Noone. I’ve been a fan of Ms. Noone since her performance as uber-tomboy Holly in The Descent — although she’s known by most Descent fans as “the one who gets eaten first.”

Without much gore splatter, Estranged gets quite dark, disturbing, and unpleasant. The filmmakers hit the right balance of tension, mystery, and dark family dysfunction with subtlety, class, and American-style snark. This latter ingredient proved to be unsurprising, when it was revealed during the post-screening Q&A that the director was a Yank from Southern California — expatriate Adam Levins worked with an almost entirely English cast and crew for his feature film debut.

The other big reveal at the post-screening Q&A — director Levins would be joined on-stage by many in the primary cast, including none other than Ms. Nora-Jane Noone. After the Q&A, I emboldened myself to get a pic with Ms. Noone. And though I’ve chatted with several film industry luminaries while in Los Angeles, this was the first time I was totally tongue-tied.

I left the festival that night quite certain I had hit my highest high point of Screamfest 2015. But then I attended the screening for Nick Simon’s The Girl in the Photographs.

Cranston, Stumpf and Alice Eve on the set of Cold Comes The Night.

Before I moved to Los Angeles, I knew of Nick Simon from my experience on the film production for Cold Comes the Night. In The Slaughtered Bird, I’ve mentioned before my work on this film, particularly the auspicious task of being Bryan Cranston’s body double. And while the always generous Mr. Cranston mentored me a bit with my Annulment screenplay, an equally instructive experience was watching director Tze Chun break down a written scene to its essential truth for the camera — an essential truth Chun should know well, being one of the screenplay’s three writers. The other two writers? Osgood Perkins…and one Nick Simon.

After the screening of The Girl in the Photographs, there was a cast and crew Q&A, moderated by Elric Kane, co-host of the Killer POV podcast, long-time friend of Nick, and one of LA’s perennial champions of all things indie horror. Of the cast and crew in attendance, one of the standouts was cinematographer legend Dean Cundey. As explained during the Q&A, while in development for The Girl, Nick discovered, to his jaw-dropping delight, that Cundey, a long-time collaborator with John Carpenter, was looking for an independent production to work on.

After the Q&A, I approached Nick and discovered that, while The Girl in the Photographs proved to be one of the more brutal films of a fest notorious for brutal films, Nick is one of the kindest, most gentlest souls you’re likely to meet. I asked Nick if I could interview him for The Slaughtered Bird, and true to his kind-hearted nature, he graciously accepted —

Hello Nick, thank you for being interviewed for The Slaughtered Bird. I very much enjoyed your film The Girl in the Photographs. At an early age, was there a movie and/or experience that convinced you to go into the film industry?

When I was in the 2nd grade I became obsessed with Escape from New York. That was the first film that really made me aware of movies. I was already a big Star Wars nerd… but those films were different. Escape made me want to make movies. It was a major inspiration to me as a storyteller. I loved the anti-hero on a mission. I made so many dumb little camcorder movies in Jr. High and High School based on that type of thing. I have been obsessed with filmmaking since. I hope to make a film like it someday.

Could you talk a little bit about where the inspiration behind The Girl in the Photographs came from?

Oz and I had a conversation one day about 80’s slasher films and how it would be fun to do one… but make it a little different. Also, this was right when Instagram was launching and people seemed to be posting selfies all the time. We wondered, is it a good thing to be noticed?

Nick Simon.

You’re originally from South Dakota, and you base The Girl in the Photographs in the actual South Dakota town of Spearfish. Why did you decide to base the story in your home state, and in Spearfish particularly?

I think one day I was on Facebook and someone posted a map of the United States and what horror films took place in each state. South Dakota didn’t have one. Also, it was easier to write for a place that had locations that I was aware of. In earlier drafts there was a C story that involved the Sturgis Bike Rally. I’m glad we lost that.

Your writing partner on several films is Osgood Perkins. How did you meet Perkins, and how would you describe your writing partnership?

I met Oz while I was in my first year at AFI. I cast him in a short we made which we turned into my first feature, Removal. The Girl in the Photographs is the last thing we collaborated on.

One of my first film production jobs was a PA on Cold Comes the Night, a film directed by Tze Chun, and written by you, Perkins, and Chun. I really learned a lot observing Chun, blocking the scenes from the script. How did Chun get involved with Cold Comes the Night, and how would you describe Chun’s contribution to Cold Comes the Night, as a co-writer and its director?

At the time, Tze, Oz and myself all shared the same manager. I was brought on to collaborate on the script in early phases. Tze is an incredibly smart guy and insanely hard worker. I have so much respect for Tze and Cold Comes the Night is his vision and his film 100%. Tze is a fantastic director. He is great with actors. I loved what Alice Eve did with the character. I was lucky to be a small part of it.

You’ve been a writer on several features, but this is only the second one of your screenplays you’ve directed. Was their anything about The Girl in the Photographs that compelled you to be its director?

I always wanted to direct Girl as my second feature because I’ve always loved 80’s horror… especially slasher films. I wanted to do something that influenced who I am as a storyteller and push me out of my comfort zone. I really wanted to tell a current story with current themes, yet have it feel like a throwback film to the movies I love.

The film ends with a tribute: “For Wes.” Could you talk a little about your relationship with Wes Craven, how it began, and his involvement with The Girl in the Photographs?

I met Wes through the WGA mentor program. I was lucky enough to have him as my mentor. After the year was up, he read The Girl in the Photographs and loved the script. He asked if he could help get it made. Wes was involved in every step of that production. He gave us notes on the script. He was involved in casting… In fact, I can’t tell you how many lunches we had with different actors for this film. He was instrumental in helping us get our casting director, Nancy Nayor, to cast the picture. He came to the table read and watched dailies every day. When we were editing the picture, he would watch the cut weekly and give notes. He was involved all the way until the end.

As a writer/director, what are you plans and goals for the future?

My goals are really to just keep working and telling stories that people hopefully like. I love this business and I love genre pictures. I hope to continue to work in that field.

Anything else you’d like to share with The Slaughtered Bird’s primarily U.K.-based readership?

I had the great pleasure of working with Toby Hemingway on The Girl in the Photographs. He is an amazing actor from the U.K. He brought something to the character of Ben that wasn’t on the page. He is a master at his craft. Thank you for interviewing me and talking about The Girl in the Photographs. It was a true labor of love and I’m happy with the end result. I hope that your viewers like the film.

Thank you very much for your time, Nick.

@bryan_stumpf