Three teens blackmail a serial killer... a chiller set in the 'burbs and forests of Queensland.

BD: First of all congrats on making it into Midnight Madness, my favorite genre fest!

JH: Yeah, it’s the lucky break we’ve been hoping for. I’ve always been a huge fan of Midnight Madness (I created the poster for oz apocalypse classic SMOKE ‘EM IF YOU GOT ‘EM which screened in the very first MM 21 years ago!) and when we finished ACOLYTES we all agreed that it was the ultimate festival forum for our movie. When Colin Geddes emailed me to say we’d been selected – well, thrilled is an understatement! And the kicker is we’ve also been invited to Fantastic Fest in Austin Texas straight after Toronto, so we’ve nailed the two coolest genre events on the calendar.

BD: We’ve been covering this film for a long time as it’s a darclight title, did they help get it off the ground?

JH: Absolutely. Darclight were in at script stage and MD Gary Hamilton is an executive producer. He’s expat aussie and a real supporter of this sort of material down-under. So darclight handle world sales for the film.

BD: How long have you been trying to get ACOLYTES made, or did it come right after DARKLOVESTORY?

JH: I was in the edit of DARKLOVESTORY when producers Richard Stewart and Penny Wall approached me with the script of ACOLYTES. They’d been developing it for a few years and needed to attach a director to move forward. I got involved and also worked on many re-drafts of the script. After almost 2 years we were finally in production. Because DLS is one of my underground/guerilla productions, I put that on the backburner for the intense (and paid!) ACOLYTES experience. I’m right-now just locking the edit of DLS and hope to deliver it early 2009. Of course, I’ll be letting you know about it when it’s done!

BD: The synopsis is pretty vague for the film – a group of kids blackmail a serial killer – what else can you tell us about the film?

JH: It’s about a trio of fucked-up teens living on the edge of the city who are driven by the desire for revenge on a guy who has brutalized them all their short lives. Then suddenly, an opportunity arises where they can blackmail a killer to deliver vengeance upon this nemesis. Of course, it all goes to shit.

I like stories to be layered, freaked with subtext. So on the surface ACOLYTES is a chiller - a story of twists, turns, shocks and reveals that inhabits that edgy generic territory found between drama and horror.

But what lies beneath is a desire to experience the unfamiliar and unknowable through cinema, to achieve insight through storytelling, to fathom truths through art. So ACOLYTES becomes a work about the conflict between the primal and the human; a meditation on the normalcy of aberration; a dramatization of the banality of evil; a paean to innocence consumed by abuse, revenge and violence.

BD: How much input did you have in the final draft of the script?

JH: The originating screenwriters Shayne Armstrong and Shane Krauss had produced a very strong and evocative story, but the script was still a long way from being financed. You’ve got to jump through a lot of hoops and respond creatively and sensibly to feedback from the people who want to make the film with you – so that was my job. As the writer of all my previous films, I was also keen to inject a bit of myself and my obsessions and interests into the story. So I had a dramatic impact on the shooting draft of the script. For me, scripts are ultimately a blueprint for something else, and they are constantly changing (hopefully for the better). Then, when you get actors in locations and start rehearsing and shooting, the script transforms again. For me, that’s essential. So ACOLYTES the movie is quite different even from the shooting script - it’s much better!

BD: Do you know what inspired this film? What inspired you to bring it to life?

JH: The two Shanes based the original story on their experiences growing up in that particular Queensland landscape, being bullied at school, meeting freaks out on the highways and so on. I introduced a few more extreme elements and twists and turns. And we were all influenced by the early 1970’s exploits of oz serial-killer couple Catherine and David Birnie - totally depraved psychos living behind a veneer of normalcy. Australia has a history of monsters that is second to none!

BD: Your actors are a mix between newbies and experienced workers, was there a conscious decision in casting everyone?

JH: The director’s main job is knowing who to cast. I try to keep a close eye on what’s going on down-under with regard to actors. I’m married to a great actor (Belinda McClory) and I see a lot of theatre, so I knew who I wanted in all the older roles. But the leads are teenagers so we had to find them through a broad and rigorous casting process – Hanna had just turned 16, Sebastian had just turned 17 and Joshua had just turned 18 when we shot ACOLYTES in May 2007. It was the first feature for all three.

BD: How realistic is ACOLYTES? Does the situation in the film seem like something you can see any group of kids involved in?

JH: I think truthfulness in casting is the main ingredient to creating a realistic and believable universe in a movie. It was very important that the leads were the ages they portray in the story. There was pressure to cast older “better-known” actors in the teen roles but thankfully I was able to avoid that disaster. The actors breathe life into the characters and that makes the story real. As long as the audience believe the characters, then you can sell almost any situation. So far nobody who has seen the film has questioned its veracity.

BD: Was it difficult working indie and on a low budget? What was the film shot on?

JH: The combined budget of my three previous features is less than 15% of the budget of ACOLYTES, so the shoot was never less than a dream for me. Even when it was at its most difficult, it was still a breeze compared to doing it underground with no budget!

We shot on the Thomson Grass Valley VIPER in filmstream mode - Viper’s own proprietary beyond-HD system, a tapeless path straight to hard-drive. David Fincher used it on ZODIAC and BENJAMIN BUTTON. It’s an incredible camera, and in the hands of an artist like my friend DP Mark Pugh, nothing short of extraordinary. I think we’ve achieved one of the best looks of any digital film made to date.

We open ACOLYTES with a statement - a long-take pan across a breathtaking landscape vista shot in broad daylight in cinemascope - theoretically a shot that you can only do on 35mm film. It’s one of the most beautiful and pure shots in the movie.

BD: The film appears to have a very unique look, can you talk about that?

JH: We did a lot of work in the grade to create a look that was resonant of the work of the great Australian photographer Bill Henson. His color palette, particularly his use of darkness and black, was hugely influential on the look. I like symmetry. I wanted the film to start bright and colorful and gradually get darker and spookier as the story progressed toward doom. Also the movie starts at dawn and ends at dusk, the timeline is Monday to Friday, and so on - symmetrical things like that give me a kick.

BD: How bloody is the film, just how much blood will the gore hounds get to see?

JH: ACOLYTES is a slow burn - we give a taste of treats to come in the opening minutes (a half naked girl terrorized in the forest; a punishing stunt) before we settle into our story of fucked-up teens living on the edge of the city. But the story ramps - ominously, believably, inevitably - to an extended climax of shocks, reveals, twists, ultra-violence, gore and death. So hang in there for car-crashing, head-smashing, crossbow-skewering, knife-slashing, screwdriver-stabbing, serial-killering mayhem!

BD: What type of horror subgenre would you say this is?

JH: I call it a chiller – a mix of thriller and horror. The nuances, twists and turns of story and characterization have precedence over the horror elements - that is, until we explode in the last third of the movie!

BD: What extras can we expect on the DVD release?

JH: A shitoad! We’ve got two alternate endings – completely different outcomes for the story. There’s also 17 deleted scenes as well as a heap of docos and insights - like the building of the 308 V8 HQ Holden that stars in the film. It’s also going to feature readable versions of the script so you can see how it developed, plus a separate audio track of composer David Franzke’s incredible soundscape.

BD: What’s next? More horror?

JH: I’m keen to see what might turn up out of Hollywood – I’d love to direct the remake of BATTLE ROYALE, or William Castle’s THE TINGLER.

And of course I’ve got my own crazy down-under indies:

X is a thriller about two prostitutes who go through a night from hell (the second film in my Kings Cross trilogy - DARKLOVESTORY being the first). VAMPYR is an experimental horror film about a brutalized woman who disintegrates into homicidal insanity. Heavily influenced by the films of Maya Deren, most of the film is being shot by just me (on the red camera) with the star Belinda McClory. My aim is to make the most beautifully brutal and violent film ever!

BD: What are you looking forward to the most at TIFF 08?

JH: Watching ACOLYTES with a Toronto audience. There’s a direct reference to Canada in the movie and I’m keen to see how that pops. Also itching to scope all the incredible Midnight Madness films, especially JCVD and MARTYRS. And throwing a party with other oz MM inclusion NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD – hopefully with lots and lots of beer and aussies letting go!

BD: How many people have asked you if you’re related to Thomas Hewitt, aka Leatherface? (I know, bad joke!)

JH: Thomas Hewitt is better looking than me! I get asked more about tennis ace Lleyton Hewitt (no relation). I think it’s very cool sharing a surname with that classic family of fiends.