Ted Geoghegan Interview
If you’ve walked into a store recently you’ll have been inundated with the message that Santa and his sleigh are on the way soon, but before that we’ve still got Halloween, Bonfire Night and Thanksgiving (if you’re American of course). Halloween is next; we love any excuse for a good scare, as October and all it’s horrific home entertainment releases always keep us entertained.
One such release is We are Still Here, written and directed by Ted Geoghegan. The film stars scream queen Barbara Crampton as a grieving mother who after losing her son relocates to the wintry landscape of New England. It wasn’t just the script that was scary though, the shoot also has it’s share of bumps in the night. We stole a few minutes of writer/producer Ted Geoghegan‘s time to find out just how frightening events got.
For those that know nothing about the story, what’s the basic plot of We are Still Here?
We are Still Here is a story about a grieving middle-aged couple who have lost their son in a auto-mobile accident. They relocate to a sleepy town in New England and very quickly discover that the house that they’ve moved into has something kind of strange going on in it. They first believe it might be their son, as events get darker they start to realise that it might be something much more nefarious.
Originally you were writing We are Still Here for director Richard Griffin, what was it about the story that made you decide you had to direct it yourself?
Well Richard had originally come to me and said that he was interested on working on a film that was essentially a reworking of Lucio Fulci‘s House by the Cemetery, a film that both he and I loved quite a bit. I took that and went with it and wrote the script based on that idea and I just fell in love with the story. Richard is a very prolific film-maker, he makes several films a year it seems and I know his schedule was quite packed. He had told me if I had any desire to shop the script around and see if it was something I could make myself I had his full blessing. So I just started asking around all my industry pals and it struck a chord with producer Travis Stevens from Snowfort Pictures who brought it to Dark Sky Films and we made a movie.
It kind of just came from the fact that the more I wrote of the screenplay the more I fell in love with it and realised it was something that I really wanted to do myself.
Ted Geoghagen Interview
We are Still Here is your first feature as a director, what was the most challenging aspect of this new role?
I’ve been a writer and a producer for quite some time now and so I thought that I knew my way around a set, but it’s very different when you’re directing. You really are the captain of the ship and you take on a lot of responsibilities that I don’t think you can ever fully realise until you’re in that position. Even as someone who has spent a lot of time on film sets I was quite surprised by the number of new concepts that were being thrown my way that I had to take care of. All in, it was a very new experience, nothing was over-the-top terrifying or challenging. Overall it was new, I guess that’s the better way to describe it.
Would you do it again?
Oh yeah, in a heartbeat. I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to get another film off the ground in the not too distant future and can pursue this again.
Was there much that was cut from the script?
We had shot a few additional scenes that didn’t make the final cut of the movie. Mostly just because of pacing, we wanted the film to have a specific tone and a few of the scenes we felt might come off as a little too late. Some came off as a little too talky and we wanted to preserve some of the mystery behind the film. One of the key elements that I really embraced quite heavily is the fact that the film leaves you with way more questions than answers. I really love that. I feel like the majority of films I grew up watching were similar, they left you wanting more. So once we had gotten the first cut of the film together we actually went through and discussed which scenes we could remove or which pieces of dialogue we could remove and still keep the film fun and exciting, but also at the same time preserve as much of that mystery as possible.
Ted Geoghagen Interview
The film is set in the seventies how hard was it to get hold of period specific props, how much research into the time period was done?
I did a lot of research prior to shooting the film. I had a lot of style boards and I had concepts that I showed our set and costume folk, just to get them in the mindset of what I was looking for. Really what’s quite amazing, given our budget and the fact that we shot the film in rural up-state New York, was just how lucky we were to have access to all of those things.
Basically the entire, even interior, of the house was built basically from the ground up. Even so much as adding in the wood paneling and small details that we thought would really help sell the era of the film arguably, but at no point in the movie do they say what year it’s set in. For all intents and purposes its 1979, but the other idea was we wanted it to almost feel ambiguous, enough that someone could quite easily watch the film and not realise its a period piece for quite some time, or possibly at all.
Ted Geoghagen Interview
We are Still Here is a haunted house movie; I heard that there was a haunted moment on set where you abandoned your producer, what happened?
(Laughs) That is true. I am not one to believe in the supernatural, but it was a kind of funny little moment where my producer Travis Stevens and I were in the cellar of the house discussing one of the shots that we were doing. We had stepped aside into the far off reaches of the cellar to talk and as we were talking we could both hear very audibly this sound that sounded like footsteps. It was so loud that it actually stopped our conversation. We both stood there looking at each other wide eyes as well heard these footsteps and with not a second thought I just turned around and walked right out of the cellar. After ‘escaping’ I look back at Travis and he’s standing with his arms out and his eyes completely agape, you know ‘you abandoned me man’, (laughs).
There’s a very good chance it was a drop of water or something that just perfectly echoed through the cellar but for that one moment it certainly was an eerie little bit. I can’t argue with that. While I’m not one to believe in the supernatural I guess just like they say in X-Files, I want to believe. It’s much more fun if we keep ourselves open to quirky, strange things.
Ted Geoghagen Interview
Ghosts have always been linked to a decrease in temperature, cold spots etc., yet in We are Still Here they are burning hot. What was the thought process behind this change?
Because the film is set in the winter we wanted to have a really strong juxtaposition between temperatures and how they interact with each other. I had the idea of making the ghosts hot as opposed to traditionally thinking of ghosts as cold spots. This idea that these people were trapped in this cold wasteland and the only thing keeping them warm are these strange spirits. Of course it ties back in with how the Dagmar family was killed, they were burnt alive in this house, but ultimately at the end of the day stylistically the decision was made as a stark juxtaposition to the white, snowy landscape, fiery black ghost.
How was it working with scream Queen Barbara Crampton?
Barbara is a real dear friend of mine, I’ve known here for several years. I’m a film publicist and I actually was the publicist on You’re Next, and I got to know her very well on that. We just totally hit it off and quickly became friends, and of course family friends, whenever her family would come to New York we would have dinner. I often jokingly said ‘If ever a make a movie you’re going to be my star right?’ and she said ‘of course I am,’ and low and behold it came together.
Working with her is an absolute treat, she’s one of my favourite people in the world. It’s so nice to have her back in the genre that really made a name for her in the eighties. It was an absolute joy, I was very fortunate to work with many people that I consider close friends. Larry Fessenden who plays Jacob in the film is also a very dear friend of mine who lives here in New York city as well. My producer Travis Stevens and my cinematographer Karim Hussain, even my special effects team at Autopsy Effects were all people that I’ve known for years. It was wonderful on a directorial début to have so many people there who not only have your back, but you can actually genuinely consider them dear friends.
Ted Geoghagen Interview
The film aired at this summer’s Frightfest, what was the reaction from fans?
It was amazing! I was actually quite nervous when I first screened it because I heard just how smart the fans are there and I wanted to make sure that it was going to land with them. I’ve never experienced a stronger reaction, actually on social media, the social media just exploded with people who liked it. I was very humbled. I’d heard so many amazing things about the festival and it lived up to all of them, both in terms of how they present the films and the fans who go to see them.
The horror genre seems to be fighting its way back at the moment, what horror movies from the last couple of years have grabbed your attention?
Well there’s been a lot, for everyone saying they think horror is kinda dead, I think horror – like you say – I do think that it’s coming back pretty full force. I quite loved E.L. Katz‘ Cheap Thrills, which maybe isn’t the traditional horror film, but it’s horrifying enough. Actually I think it’s much more horrifying than most straight horror movies out there. I just think its a stunning piece of cinema, I think he [Katz] should be beyond acclaim for it.
It’s a few years old but I really do love Ti West‘s The Innkeepers, I think its an absolutely beautiful film, and I think that the two lead performers, Pat Healy and Sara Paxton are sensational.
I actually just watched on Netflix the other night The Taking of Deborah Logan, which is a found footage film. I kinda passed over it because it was found footage, but I’ve heard so many good things about it that I decided to give it a go and it was really fun. Just a fun, creepy possession movie. So that was a pleasant surprise.
It seems like we’re getting more and more [good horror films], it seems like we’re having films pop up quite regularly that are a complete blast. I love the fact that we’re also getting films that are genre films but they are genre defying; movies like Turbo Kid for example is part horror, part science fiction/fantasy, part children’s film, and it all just comes together in this really wonderful good horror sort of way. I want to see more of that. I don’t think horror has to be so pigeon-holed as just one thing. I think that genre fans are very open to whatever you give them and as long as they are made with a lot of heart, usually they are well received.
Ted Geoghagen Interview
We are Still Here arrives on DVD in the UK just in time for Halloween, why should reader’s pick We are Still Here for their Halloween scare?
Because it’s a film that people do not typically see any more. It is a very straight-faced, melodramatic, classic haunted house movie that plays with a lot of the tropes of seventies and eighties horror and just does something different. Hopefully the way its structured will lull people into a sense of complacency and then scare the Hell out of them with some well placed ghosts and gore.
And if they want to make it a double feature what would go with it?
They should absolutely watch Lucio Fulci‘s House by the Cemetery. It is the 100% best film to watch back to back. We are Still Here is heavily inspired by House by the Cemetery down so far as to the fact that both have almost identical plots and all of the characters in my movie are named after actors, actresses or characters of House by the Cemetery.
What’s next on the cards for yourself?
Right now I am working on a screenplay – I’m not allowed to talk about what is it – but it’s another horror film. I’m not actually going to be directing it, I’m just writing it. Then I have another project that I’m looking forwards to getting off of the ground hopefully early next year, hopefully with some of the people that I worked on with this one.
We are Still Here arrives on Blu-Ray and DVD from 19th October.
