Gerard Johnson Talks Hyena
Drew Tinnin
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London-based director Gerard Johnson already made a splash in the genre world with Tony: London Serial Killer, and now, with the gritty crime film Hyena (review), he’s made a somber, gut-punch of a movie that blurs the line between what is corrupt and what is justified once you’re beyond the city lights and encased firmly inside the belly of the underground. Johnson took some time out during his visit to the Tribeca Film Festival to talk about the extensive research he did for the film and why the graphic violence in Hyena was a necessary evil.
At the end of our chat with Gerard, you’ll find the film’s current release schedule.
Dread Central: Why call the film Hyena?
Gerard Johnson: Even before I’d written the script, it was always Hyena. I’m interested in hyenas as an animal; they have an incredibly bad reputation of just being a scavenger, but they are a very efficient predator. What interests me about hyenas and particularly to do with the nature of the film is that they’re a pack animal. They’re very powerful when there’s a lot of them; when they’re on their own, they’re less powerful. So you could put that to Michael’s journey in the film… when he’s with his gang, they’re all powerful, but one by one there’s a downward spiral. He’s less powerful when he’s on his own. Also, the origins of the word “hyena” is from the Greek, and in London we do refer to the police as “pigs.”
DC: What did your research tell you about cops in general, and where and how did you research the film?
GJ: It was a lot of research, it was four years it took working on the film from beginning to end. So a lot of that was spent meeting corrupt police, non-corrupt police, traffic organizations for trafficked women, and also trafficked girls and people in the Albanian community. Your script develops through that and obviously reading a lot and everything else. Meeting certain policemen, we spent a lot of time with the drug squad and the vice squad, and they were very helpful. It was very useful to see how they work and how they pull off a raid or how they do a stakeout. A lot of that stuff, those guys were actually doing a very good job. With the corrupt police that I met, they would never have it that they weren’t good at their job even though they used methods that, let’s say, weren’t completely legal. They would always be very proud of the fact that the streets were safer from the people they arrested because they didn’t go after innocent people. They just went after people that were guilty, but instead of maybe they couldn’t get a conviction, they’d make sure that they did by planting some more stuff on them. For them, they would not see that as a bad thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq3kcltXWTQ
DC: Were there graphic moments in the film that didn’t make it, and do you think the film is graphic enough for you?
GJ: Yeah, there were a few moments that didn’t quite make it. There was a torture scene that I wasn’t happy with involving an iron. The required amount of steam wasn’t coming off the iron so I didn’t buy it. It didn’t work. It’s tricky; obviously there’s those moments that should be shocking and should be violent but only if it does serve the film itself and the narrative. It should be used to really sicken us. If it does that, if it has the impact to make us come away from it and be shaken up from it, then it’s a good thing in this case. I’m not a massive fan of torture porn stuff, it’s almost too much for me. I can’t watch it. People would find that hard to believe that I’ve made an ultraviolent film, they’d find it hard that I would not want to watch certain violent movies myself. For this as well, I did a lot of research looking at things on the internet which you sort of wish you hadn’t seen.
DC: Also, just the fact that you might not like seeing things like that, if you do include it in your film, it makes it all the more justified.
GJ: Yeah, and I’m not saying that I’m prudish. A lot of my favorite films, people would class them as violent movies. I met a traffic girl and I spent a lot of time talking to her, and for me, it really touched me so deeply, what she went through. I wanted to show that in all of its horror.
Tribeca Film has acquired the North American rights to Hyena and will be releasing the film in select theaters as follows:
Columbus: Gateway Film Center – opens May 1, 2015
Chicago: Facets – opens May 1, 2015
Louisville: Village 7 – opens May 1, 2015
Los Angeles: Arena Cinema – opens May 1, 2015
Pittsburgh: Hollywood Theater – opens May 1, 2015
Atlanta: The Plaza – opens May 1, 2015
New York: Cinema Village – opens May 15, 2015
Categorized:News
