THN Gets Bloody ‘Before Dawn’ With Director & Star Dominic Brunt

He’s perhaps best known for his loveable role as village vet, Paddy, in the ITV soap drama, EMMERDALE, but THN has discovered actor Dominic Brunt’s darker side. With the help of his real-life wife, Joanne Mitchell, Brunt has made the leap from TV favourite to feature film director. Not just any feature film though, because Brunt is a self-confessed obsessive when it comes to the zombie subgenre. THN caught his new film, BEFORE DAWN, at a horror film festival late last year, and deemed it a disturbing, mature and refreshing addition to the convoluted genre.

The film, which is released on DVD today, centres on an estranged couple on a quiet break in the countryside, who find their weekend interrupted by an outbreak of the undead. Brunt and Mitchell play the duo struggling to save their marriage, which is made all the more difficult when Meg (Mitchell) is attacked, and returns to their rented cottage forever changed. While we may have seen scenes of zombie attacks and transformations countless times before, few have had the emotional devastation of Brunt’s low-budget, but chilling effort.

Here’s what happened when THN caught up with Brunt to talk about BEFORE DAWN, and his love for the genre:

Where did the idea for BEFORE DAWN come from?

The idea came from my wife. We tend to have differing opinions about zombie films. I’m quite happy to have shallow story lines with people being chased and changing into zombies, then they can chase people and turn them turn into zombies. I just like the fact they’re great chase films. She tends to watch more European-style cinema and she had the idea of something three-dimensional, and I really liked it. Then a friend of ours who’s a screenplay writer, Mark Illis, turned it into a screenplay. We  thought it might take us a while to get the backing, but Left Films came through for us. It was a bit of a shocker really. We didn’t expect to be making a film, we just thought we’d have this script and somebody else might make it, or we’ll just leave it lying around for years. We’re really proud that it’s out there now and it feels surreal.

Was it always going to be more of an emotional piece rather than your bog-standard Zombie flick?

I think so. I don’t think Jo would have written it like that. I think because zombies are an allegory, it’s neither here nor there. It could have been ghosts, werewolves or vampires. It could have been anything as long as they were attacking, so it was more to do with the situation of the relationship really. I was obviously in charge of the second half of the film (laughs). You can’t have a love story with zombies in it and just have polite violence. The violence has to come through quite strongly. I’m a fan of horror films, so I was not going to let it wither away. I wanted the strong violence to go with the solid character and plot.

Was it always the plan to direct as well as star?

No. We’d asked a couple of directors to direct but they were expensive (laughs). Then one director said “Yeah, yeah, I’ll do that. I’m available then,” but he hadn’t even read it. So, because we were on fire about it, we thought we should have a go. Marc Price, who directed COLIN, was really encouraging from the beginning. He just said “You should direct. You should have a go at it. Don’t worry about it.” He knows I watch a lot of films and I work on a TV set everyday. So, as long as I planned my shots, nailed it to the ground and prepared properly… we had six months to plan it out, so we felt that was enough time. I was quite confident in the end, and I was really excited going into it.

How tough was it juggling both jobs?

I wouldn’t do it again! I think it slows the job up. We had 15 days from beginning to end to get the external shots, with no days off, because we had to get the crane back on the one day we did have off. The first day was just pouring down with rain. It was just too stressful, because once I’d done my thing, I had to jump behind the camera, look at the monitor and decide it’s alright, or let’s go for another one, and it’s very hard to criticise yourself. I’d rather another director say “No, you weren’t quite right on that one, you’ve got to do this.” You’re never going to admit to yourself you were terrible. It’s only in the edit you go “I should have done that.” For my acting, I’ll stick to EMMERDALE, but I’ll definitely keep directing other people. I’ve got the directing bug, but I wouldn’t act and direct ever again. It’s just too tough to ask one person to do.

How did you work round you television schedule on EMMERDALE?

The producer at the time, Gavin Blyth, let me go and do INBRED, and he’s a horror fan, fortunately for me. In the case of BEFORE DAWN, I said “If I get the time off, and It doesn’t affect EMMERDALE in any way, would you let me do this”. I thought he would probably say no, but he read it and said “It’s fantastic, so go, if you can get it done, do it”. Then they gave me 15 days off. I finished work on the Friday night, began working on BEFORE DAWN on the Saturday morning, and we finished two weeks later on the Sunday night. I was back at work at half seven the following Monday morning.

Were you able to nab any help from the crew of EMMERDALE?

Chris Grieves. He’s a dub mixer, who looked at it once we’d graded it. He said “We’re gonna strip it down, put it into pieces and get a few sounds re-recorded, moved-up and juggled around, as it’ll make the picture shine better.” He spent weeks and weeks and weeks of his own time on it, and his daughter is the emergency services voiceover as well, so he was massive help. He really made the sound amazing and he made it a 5.1 mix as well. I didn’t realise just how important the sound was until he messed around with it, played it back through these great big speakers and I thought, what a difference.

One of the most striking aspects of the film is the music soundtrack. Can you tell us a bit about that?

Tom Ragsdale, who worked on the music is a genius. I know some of the criticisms in the reviews were saying “Dub step doesn’t go over music and fights,” but it was our project, so we could do what we wanted. I said to Tom at the time “It’s made the film into something it would never have been.”

Was he someone you’d been familiar with through your acting?

Actually, I’m really into his band. He’s got a band called Worriedaboutsatan and I know his music. What we’d really like to do is release it as an album as well, because I think it stands out on its own. I was shocked when I heard the first few tunes he put over the top of it. I said “You’ve got to do it all. You’ve got to score it. You’ve got to do this!” He really got it and was very passionate about the film. It’s encouraging when someone who has no vested interest in it feels that way.

You’re obviously a genre fan. Any favourites that you drew from?

DAWN OF THE DEAD! I always feel like you should come up with something obscure, but I was 13 and my mate’s dad owned a videoshop, so I know THE EVIL DEAD and DAWN OF THE DEAD back to front. That made me find NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD after that. Romero’s a genius, he really is. It’s a shame because people seem to only fund zombie films for him, but he’s capable of more than that.

So what’s next for Dominic Brunt the director?

I’ve directed a short film which is going to do the festival runs this year, then I have a break, then we direct a feature in October/November time, and we’ve also got another feature coming out as well. We’re doing as we did with BEFORE DAWN, all the pre-planning and pre-production, then we just want to keep the ball rolling really. We’ve found another story we’re just as passionate about that we can do on a larger scale, not cutting corners, but being more efficient. We learned so much on BEFORE DAWN so it would be a shame to put that education to waste really.

Were you surprised at how much support you received from the festival circuit?

Yes. We were absolutely stunned. We said we’d be happy with a DVD release, and to show it at our own Leeds Zombie Film Festival. However, we showed it at Cannes and Berlin, then FrightFest took it on and it just ran away with itself. Now it’s being dubbed in Japanese, German, Belgian, and released in Canada, America, New Zealand, and Australia. It’s amazing and strange because we’re really proud of it, but a bit bamboozled by it all as well.

I love going to Frightfest, Grimmfest and the Bram Stoker festival, and it’s a thrill showing your own film at the festivals you’ve been going to for years. Then when we got into the ‘normal’ Leeds Festival, we were just overjoyed. It couldn’t have gone better and we’ve fulfilled our own hopes and dreams. On the downside, although we’ve been getting 9 out of 10s and 4 out of 5s from some reviews, when you get a bad review and it’s kind of tough to take. When it’s EMMERDALE you know we’ve got some more episodes coming up, and maybe it’s just the director, but because you invest so much of your heart and soul into your own project, and it’s taken so much of your effort, it feels like you’ve been stabbed in the heart (laughs). It’s hard to shrug off and you may read eight or nine reviews, but the one that’s really bad can prevent you from sleeping that night. You’ve just got to get a thicker skin, and fortunately there are amazing reviews too, especially from yourselves.

THN would like to thank Dominic for his time.

BEFORE DAWN is released on DVD from today. You can read our review here and view the artwork and trailer below.