Fast 5 Questions for Axelle Carolyn About Soulmate
Staci Layne Wilson
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Axelle Carolyn, perhaps best known now as the wife and partner of film director Neil Marshall (The Descent, “Game of Thrones”), actually made a good name for herself as a writer and journalist in the field of genre films and horror long before she married Mr. Marshall. She knows her stuff.
And it shows in her feature directorial debut, Soulmate. Unfurling slowly and insidiously, not unlike a Hammer film of yore, Carolyn’s supernatural romance is both haunting and heartfelt. The story follows recently widowed Audrey (Anna Walton), who retreats to an isolated Welsh cabin after a failed suicide attempt to recuperate. Still haunted by the death of her husband and struggling with her psychosis, she begins to hear strange noises… but are they just noises, or does she have an unwanted housemate?
Dread Central: As a writer, and a lifelong fan of the genre, you must have had a lot of stories you wanted to tell and many directions in which you could have gone – so what was it about Soulmate that made you decide this was the one you wanted to go all-in on?
Axelle Carolyn: It’s a combination of two things. One is, it’s the first story I wrote with budget considerations in mind and a better understanding of how to keep a budget low. Most writers know that writing a story with aliens and spaceships and alternate universes will be expensive, but few think of things like nighttime exteriors are expensive to light, for example. This story was basically two people in a room, so it seemed doable without compromising much.
The other thing is some themes are very close to me and very personal, and I found it hard to let go and give it to someone else to direct. The movie deals with grief and finding comfort in the supernatural – I don’t believe in heaven or hell, but if ghosts exist, it means your loved ones could still be somewhere. It’s a reassuring idea…
DC: The movie has been shown at several festivals – including the wonderful Etheria Film Fest in Hollywood, where I saw it. What has been the most common thread that your fans have connected with?
AC: Yes, we’ve been lucky enough to show the movie in about 20 festivals this year, including Ehteria, which was a real highlight for me, and also London’s FrightFest, Sitges… I think people enjoy it most when they know not to expect a conventional ghost story. Nowadays ‘ghost story’ seems to imply fast-paced, jump scare, nonstop terrifying situations, but while we have a couple of good jump scares here, the movie takes you in a very different direction. It’s a supernatural drama, but selling it as a horror is a bit misleading. It’s very much character-based, psychological; I often describe it as a spooky Jane Eyre. If you’re open to that, you’ll enjoy the different directions it takes you into.
DC: I understand the film ruffled some feathers in the UK because of a suicide scene in the very beginning. It seems ridiculous, given the things we see on British TV series! But – did it help add to the mystique of the movie? Did the opposition actually help you in finding a horror audience?
AC: The UK censorship issues have certainly brought us some attention, which at this budget level is invaluable. But on the other hand, it gives the wrong impression of what the movie is. If you watch it expecting a video nasty – gore, sex, shock – you’ll be sorely disappointed. I find it very funny that for all the scares and gore Neil’s had in his movies, and all the efforts he’s made over time to give the censors something to talk about, I’m the one who made the film that gets mandatory cuts with this little Gothic romance… It’s very rare that they request cuts to allow a release. The Hostel movies, Martyrs, Saw… they were all given certificates without any cuts!
DC: You have a really great cast in the film. Anna Walton is especially good as a really timeless beauty… I could see her as the governess in The Innocents, easily. How did your cast come on board, and in what order? (I’ll bet Anubis [Carolyn’s own pet dog, who’s a scene-stealer] was VERY hard to get!)
AC: Anubis shows up wherever there’s treats for her. I’d worked with Anna on my short film The Halloween Kid, and she was the first one on board. It was fantastically lucky because I’d easily describe her as my acting/directing soulmate. She was so close to that character, so close to how I’d envisioned her, it was almost scary. And she takes direction fantastically well. Tom Wisdom, the ghost, was cast really close to the shoot, but he turned out to be an equally great coup: He’s excellent at conveying the ghost’s weird, changing personality, he’s extremely likable, but he can look very scary too. Nick Brimble and Tanya Myers also joined the cast fairly late but were just perfect to bring that touch of Hammer madness to the story.
DC: How do you feel about the reviews stating the movie is a slow-burn and similar to the Ti West formula? Was that your intention, or was it just organic to the way you have always told stories?
AC: Well, the movie definitely is a slow burn; it’s very European in a way… I’m fine with that. We’re dealing with someone’s state of mind and a burgeoning relationship… these things can’t be rushed. I don’t think audiences need to be talked down to; they can handle a more deliberate pace. Movies these days also seem desperate to establish early on that their protagonist is super-likable; I made no such effort here, but you grow to like her quickly anyway as you pick up the pieces of what happened to her and why she’s reacting the way she is.
Axelle Carolyn’s feature debut, Soulmate, is available now on VOD and DVD.
The film stars Anna Walton (Hellboy 2), Tom Wisdom (300), Nick Brimble (A Knight’s Tale), and Emma Cleasby (Dog Soldiers) and was penned by Carolyn, who has acted in Neil Marshall’s Centurion and Doomsday.
Soulmate is produced by Claire Otway and is a Neil Marshall (The Descent, Dog Soldiers, Centurion) presentation for production company Sterling Pictures. Executive producers on the film are Michael Riley, John Wolstenholme, and Doug Abbott for Screen Projex alongside Belgian co-producer Title Media.
Synopsis
Soulmate follows a young woman who retreats to a remote cottage after a failed suicide attempt. She soon discovers the cottage is haunted by its previous owner but decides to remain, hoping to find comfort in the ghost.
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