Exclusive Interview with TRIGGERED Director Alastair Orr
Josh Millican
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Look for the (literally) explosive techno-horror Triggered to arrive on VOD later this week beginning November 6th. Check out the trailer and synopsis a spin below.
Synopsis:
Nine friends, all harboring a dark secret, go camping in the woods. After a wild night of partying, they wake up with SUICIDE BOMBS strapped to their chests, all with varying times on their countdown clocks. They decide to work out how to disarm the bombs or find help – until they discover they can ‘take’ one another’s time by killing each other.
Triggered is directed by Alastair Orr from a screenplay penned by David D. Jones; the film stars Sean Cameron Michael, Liesl Ahlers, and Reine Swart.
Dread Central was lucky enough to sit down with Orr for a deep-dive into Triggered! Give our conversation a read below.
Dread Central: Where did the idea for Triggered come from? What films influenced you?
Alastair Orr: I was looking to do something a little different after House on Willow Street and Indigenous. I never really injected my personality into any of my previous films; I was always trying to fit a mold with varying levels of success – and by varying levels I mean between 4.4 and 4.8 on IMDB! I was looking for something different from the get-go, but also something that we could afford to fund ourselves. I had come across David Jones on the internet and we’d been trying to get something off the ground for a while. When one of our bigger projects fell through, he pitched us this idea that was basically 9 kids running around the woods trying to survive, and the hook is that we wouldn’t need a big, expensive, scary bad guy. We’d have something so much worse – we’d have woke, SJW millennials going after each other. Triggered wears its influences on its sleeve, with heavy nods to the work of James Wan, Kinji Fukasaku, Greg Maclean, Kevin Smith, Drew Goddard – who all inspired me when making this film.
DC: Talk about the dual meaning of “Triggered”: the literal and figurative meanings of the word and how they reflect the film’s themes.
AO: Well “Triggered” is a word that millennials use to describe being enraged or hurt or offended, and then “triggered” also means something that’s been activated – both of which happen in this film! So I guess, it’s running through the film in its event narrative and its emotional narrative. The characters literally have bombs on their chests that are about to go off, and then they’re also triggered emotionally because so many truths about them come to the surface that they wouldn’t have had to face otherwise.
DC: Did the cast know the “twist” the entire time or did you keep them in the dark?
AO: No they knew all along! That’s if they read the whole script, which I don’t think most of them did. As soon as their characters died off they probably stopped reading right there.
DC: How long did it take to film Triggered and what were your biggest challenges?
AO: The film was shot over 17 days but it rained for about 5 of them so our schedule got radically reduced. We didn’t even have proper Shooting safely in the rain in the middle of nowhere was extremely difficult. You’re tempted to take shortcuts to move faster but you just can’t, you have to be safe and responsible. So dealing with that was incredibly tough. We didn’t have weather insurance so we had to get creative in how we dealt with the schedule and the time delays. It’s really hard to even make a bad film; people really don’t know how tough it can be. Lot’s of dark, wet moments of the soul during the production of this film.
DC: What are you most proud of about Triggered?
AO: I’m really proud of the look we achieved with a limited budget. And I’m proud of the performances we got from our young cast!
DC: What are you working on next?
AO: Triggered was my little segue into more action-orientated films and I’m busy developing a bigger action film down in South Africa. It’s another genre-bending film with the same team behind Triggered. We should be announcing casting very soon!
Are you excited to check out Triggered later this week? What did you think of our exclusive interview with Alastair Orr? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram! You can also carry on the convo with me personally on Twitter @josh_millican.
Categorized:Interviews News
