Exclusive: Michael and Shawn Rasmussen Talk The Inhabitants
Staci Layne Wilson
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Independent filmmakers Michael and Shawn Rasmussen, screenwriters of John Carpenter’s The Ward, along with their producing partner, international bestselling author Glenn Cooper, launched an Indiegogo campaign to help raise funds to make their supernatural horror thriller, The Inhabitants. It was a success, and now everyone can see the film on VOD October 13, 2015.
We chatted with the pair recently, and they provided us with a few new stills from the film, including one exclusive to DC.
The Inhabitants revolves around a young couple who get more than they bargained for when they purchase and renovate an old bed and breakfast in New England. A series of troubling events leads the husband to suspect that something terrible is hiding within the walls of this house, and whatever it is… has set its sights on his wife.
Exclusive Still from The Inhabitants
Dread Central: What inspired you to make this particular story, and how are the protagonists different from most horror film characters?
Michael Rasmussen: Our inspiration for this film initially came from the Noyes-Parris house. It’s one of the oldest houses in New England, and it just so happens to have been owned by the Reverend Samuel Parris, whose daughter and niece made the initial accusations that led to the Salem Witch Trials. It has such a rich history, and we wanted to integrate that into some sort of ghost story.
Shawn Rasmussen: We had been looking to write a project along the lines of The Changeling, The Haunting of Julia, and Don’t Look Now for a while. These were films that we watched as kids that really stuck with us. I think that’s because at the heart of these spooky tales were the characters. Those films were as much melodramas as they were ghost stories.
MR: We really liked the idea of this old house, and its inhabitants, coming between our couple both literally and metaphorically. We also wanted to switch up the gender roles. Dan is sort of our Final Girl while Jess, who would normally be the woman in peril, is the aggressor. I think that’s certainly one way that our characters are different from the typical horror film roles.
SR: There’s definitely a strong feminist subtext to our story as well. It was really present in our script, and I hope it comes across in the finished film. Our midwife, Lydia, was a strong woman, and the men in the colony ultimately felt threatened by this.
DC: This may seem to be coming out of left field, but I was really impressed by your sound design on the film. As somebody who watches tons of low budget horror movies, I really appreciate the attention to detail you paid here – from the turning of the pages in the book to the footsteps on the creaking floorboards. Was that something you set out to do?
MR: We’re actually glad you noticed. It’s something we worked very hard on. We’ve always felt that the success of a horror film weighs heavily on its sound design almost as much as its visuals. So when we were in post, we made a concerted effort to include each and every creak, groan, and thump. That meant layering in a lot of different tracks, which made things a little confusing for our mixer.
SR: At one point the sound design was so exaggerated that it actually sounded ridiculous, but then during the mix we were able to roll it back slightly and use the 5.1 surround to place the different elements in the space. We used two very talented sound designers – Andrew Willis (who also helped with the score) and Kenny Kusiak.
DC: How’d you find your main cast?
MR: With our previous film, Dark Feed, we held a lot of auditions to find our cast, and we ultimately found that process very depersonalizing. So when it came time to cast this film (which we intended to shoot in a very intimate way), we wanted to use people we knew. Fortunately on Dark Feed we worked with some very talented people, and two of them were Michael Reed and Elise Couture Stone (you might recognize some other cast members as well). It really helped knowing the two actors that were going to play the leads as we fleshed out the script. We were able to play to their strengths and write with the actors in mind.
Michael Reed’s Dan is the polar opposite of the Jack character he played in Dark Feed. Here he plays a supportive husband who notices something is wrong with his wife but doesn’t know how to deal with it. Elise Couture Stone plays Jess, his loving wife, who is undergoing a troubling transformation. We tried to shoot the film in order as much as possible, and it was amazing to watch Elise grow darker and darker each day we shot.
SR: We also had some great supporting actors. India Pearl, who plays our witch, was recommended to us by a friend and always brought so much enthusiasm to the set. And Judith Chaffee, who teaches theater at Boston University, really did an amazing job conveying a much older and feeble Rose Stanton.
DC: How’d you get hold of that great historic house to film in, and what was it like? Any anecdotes about the house or filming in it, you can share?
MR: Fortunately for us, the house is currently owned by one of the producers on our very first project, Long Distance. His name is Glenn Cooper. During the shooting of that film, he off-handedly remarked that he owned a house that was haunted. He told us there was a woman in black who walked the halls. At first we skeptically shrugged it off. But then over the years, we had a chance to visit the place, and the seeds for our story were planted.
SR: Shooting in the house was great, but it was also a little cramped, even with our minimal crew which often consisted of just four to five people, including us. And from a sound perspective all the creaking floorboards were a nightmare in terms of recording dialogue. But you can’t argue with the fact that this house really lent a level of authenticity to our story. We weren’t on a sound stage somewhere.
MR: Besides being owned by Samuel Parris, the house was later used by abolitionists as a stop on the Underground Railroad to hide runaway slaves. So it has all these hidden passageways that we were able to utilize. It was really amazing. There aren’t a lot of New England ghost stories that are actually being shot here in New England, and that’s too bad because the setting is completely unique.
DC: Did the fact you worked with John Carpenter in the past inform you for making your own feature film?
MR: Working with John Carpenter was a dream come true. We grew up watching his films. And The Thing is one of my all-time favorites. So the whole experience was completely surreal.
SR: John is an amazing collaborator. Maybe it’s because he’s also a writer, but he has a very subtle way of giving notes so that you don’t even realize he’s doing it.
MR: He also completely changed the way we write screenplays. Before The Ward we never really wrote with the director in mind. Now we’re constantly asking ourselves: How is this going to be shot? Is it something that a director can accomplish?
SR: Making micro-budget films requires a leap of faith, and working with John definitely gave us the confidence to just go out and make our last two films.
DC: What’s coming up next for you guys?
MR: We have a project that was part of the Frontieres Film Market in 2013 called Subculture that we’re trying to get off the ground. It’s a subterranean creature siege film set in the tunnels under New York.
SR: We’re also doing a final polish on a Lovecraftian tale inspired by “The Shadow over Innsmouth” called Black Autumn. And we’re tackling a couple of writing assignments as well including a potential remake of a Spanish road thriller with a director and producing team that we’re very excited to be working with.
In closing, Michael said, “Dread Central has always been so supportive of us as filmmakers and what we do. Even before The Ward. So we just want to say thanks. We really do appreciate it.”
Thank YOU, Michael and Shawn, for making a classic-feeling, spooky ghost story with such craft and care.
For more info “like” The Inhabitants on Facebook.
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