Exclusive: Writer/Directors Jeremy Gillespie and Steve Kostanski Talk The Void
Drew Tinnin
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Now only a week away from release, The Void is finally wrapping up its festival run at the 19th annual Boston Underground Film Festival. A masterpiece of “Weird Fiction,” the film introduces us to an indifferent evil intent on invading and grotesquely transforming our own bodies to devour our humanity and banish us into the cosmic abyss.
Harkening back to those bedtime fairy tales that pulled back the curtain of reality to uncover a vast dreamscape, The Void (review) works as a far-reaching telescope that reveals a dark new planet through the eyepiece.
This was not an easy film to make and, speaking to dual writer/directors Jeremy Gillespie and Steve Kostanski, both seem a little road-weary after such a long and arduous undertaking. As a reminder to them, pain is temporary and monsters last forever.
DC: What can you say about the evil unleashed in The Void that gives some insight into what happens over the course of the film? Or is that something you want to leave to the viewer?
JG: There’s a definite meaning behind it all, but there’s also an element of dealing with the unknowable, so we made a conscious decision in the beginning that we wanted to be meticulous in how we presented it, putting the audience in the same position as the characters in the film. I’m personally a fan of art that gives you some latitude to fill things in yourself because that’s always more powerful than if it’s just explicitly told to you.
SK: Personally I think the less said about the film, the better. Where the movie starts is not where the movie ends up, and I don’t want to ruin those surprises for people.
DC: It seems like crowdfunded films usually have more success reaching their goal when the team involved has more of a reputation for comedy. Do you think if Astron-6 was mostly known for horror, it would have been more difficult to raise what was needed?
JG: This isn’t an Astron-6 movie, and we never sold it as one, so I don’t know if a lot of the people who contributed were even aware we had done comedic stuff in the past. In this case I think it had more to do with the practical creature effects, combined with the “Lovecraftian” vibe, which there seems to be a big appetite for all of a sudden. It wasn’t something we planned on capitalizing on when we came up with the idea years earlier. Just serendipity, I guess. It’s nice to know that people, especially in this day and age where you can download a movie in a second, are still willing to put money into something.
SK: I think our crowdfunding campaign was successful because of its clear intention of putting the funds towards our creature effects. It seems like campaigns with super broad mission statements don’t go as far. Practical effects have been experiencing a bit of a renaissance over the past few years, so that gave us a nice hook to draw people in.
https://youtu.be/F8-PgUzkUU8
DC: The Editor was lampooning Giallo films, but The Void is straight horror. Did you find it was easy to switch gears and find a more serious tone?
JG: Well, we didn’t make The Editor, so it was pretty easy to switch gears away from that. But making a more serious, “straight-ahead” movie was definitely a new challenge. It’s easy to make fun of something or be self-reflexive to distance yourself from your material, but when you take that away, you really have nowhere to hide. Even though there’s endless crazy things going on in The Void, it’s a super-sincere movie.
SK: It was tough since our instincts usually lead us into comedy territory. But our intention with this film was to challenge ourselves and present a more serious story, and we committed to it because this kind of horror film wouldn’t work any other way. You can’t effectively generate dread in a film if your characters are winking at the audience.
DC: What films inspired The Void?
JG: The movies I referenced the most were Alien, The Shining, No Country for Old Men, and Jacob’s Ladder. But we took inspiration from a bunch of different things. The music of Lustmord was a huge influence. For me a bunch of weird fiction books by people like Laird Barron, Thomas Ligotti, and Mark Danielewski. The early Silent Hill games. My cats.
SK: I’d add Phantasm and The Keep to that list. Basically any weird movie that commits to its own bizarre mythology. Exorcist III. The Resurrected. Jer’s cats.
DC: I’m growing tired of the need to call something a “throwback” just because a film uses practical effects. This film feels fresh and modern as well. Did you want to make The Void essentially inside a vacuum so the classics of the Eighties didn’t become a benchmark?
JG: Totally. We really didn’t want this film pushed as an 80’s nostalgia trip, but we don’t have any control over how it’s marketed. I think the association people make when they hear “practical effects” is “old fashioned.” But that couldn’t be further from the truth. I have no patience for people talking about movies like they’re just collections of influences or a game of spot the reference. It’s hard not to cite things like The Fly, The Thing, The Blob, etc., when talking about creature effects, but that has everything to do with the craftsmanship and nothing to do with the decade they were made in.
As far as when the story in The Void takes place, we tried to make it exist in a small town, non-time. Ninety-nine percent of the set dressing was stuff we found at the various locations.
SK: We drew inspiration from a lot of different mediums, and we didn’t want to limit ourselves by just making an homage to movies we liked. The Void works because it stands on its own and doesn’t rely on other movies to exist. If anything, we were inspired by the tone of certain movies, not necessarily by the movies themselves.
DC: Are you looking to expand upon the ideas in The Void to explore the other dimensions and the cult surrounding this other world? I love the movie so much that a sequel set in the void dimension is really appealing.
JG: Well, we don’t own the rights, which is an unfortunate reality of getting a film made. So I wouldn’t hold my breath. If they magically reverted back to us somehow, I think there’s definitely more things we could explore there for sure. We also talked about maybe doing it in the form of a graphic novel. But certainly nothing set in stone.
SK: We’ve spent so many years buried in the universe of The Void that the idea of going back into it isn’t super appealing right now. But there’s definitely other stories to tell.
DC: This film opens you guys up into an entirely new world of filmmaking. Are you looking to stay in genre or do something completely different?
JG: I love the realm of cosmic horror so I’d never rule that out myself. But I like all kinds of movies and genres. There were so many unnecessary complications with getting The Void made that I think the real issue will be figuring out a better model for doing it – still having some money and not filming in a garage, while also avoiding an unending world of bullshit that’s completely out of our control.
SK: I’m into anything that isn’t a soul-crushing nightmare to make like The Void was.
DC: Would you do a heavy practical effects film again, or was the day-to-day too difficult? Or do you feel like you’ve done it all after The Void?
JG: All depends on the idea.
SK: Monsters and effects are the whole reason I got into making movies, so I imagine they’ll always be a part of the stories I want to tell. The Void was a great learning experience, and I’d love to take those lessons and apply them to something bigger and crazier.
From Screen Media Films, The Void arrives in theaters on April 7th. The film stars Aaron Poole, Ellen Wong, Kathleen Munroe, Stephanie Belding, and Kenneth Welsh.
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