Hall is a film set during a viral pandemic. And no, before you ask, it isn’t like Host which was made during the UK lockdown. It was already in post production when the pandemic struck. The story follows two women, and their families, whom are staying at a fancy hotel. Although strangers, the women share a commonality; both are seeking to distance themselves from the abusive men in their lives. Before either can claim their independence, a shadowy man unleashes a super-virus into the building. The women then face a race against time to get out of the hotel via the hallway, which is packed to bursting with those stricken by the virus.
The film will get its world premiere at this weekend’s FrightFest, playing on Sunday, and is the first time feature of Francesco Giannini. Intrigued by the pandemic slant of the film, we sat down with Giannini to find out more about the project.
How did you get into film-making?
Since a very young age, I was always at home watching films and reenacting them, specifically horror and action. My interest began with that type of genre. I was always creative and a dreamer. My imagination was just always running wild as a kid. Creating little scenes and skits at home. It’s been part of my youth since I can remember; just me and my brother in our basement.
Horror was probably one of the first genres I started watching. Films like The Fly, Fright Night, Child’s Play. I was a big fan of Ghostbusters. I think Ghostbusters was one of the films that I really told myself, ‘I really would like to make a film like this one day.’ As a kid, that was always my dream. It stayed with me throughout my teens; it’s just that life catches up on you. Work, university, relationships, you kind of lose sight of that, but it’s always been ingrained in my spirit and soul. It’s just who I am. I’m a storyteller.
So where did the idea for Hall come from?
The idea came from a friend of mine, Adam Kolodny, who’s a visionary storyteller with a wide range of imagination and an enormous amount of ideas. He presented me with a script about three years ago, it was called Hall, and I really fell in love with the premise of it; I was more in love with the premise than the actual story. I found the story was a little weak. So I started working with him and we reworked the script. It went through maybe ten-fifteen drafts; it became a ghost story, it became a murder mystery, a zombie/virus flick. It went through all types of story-lines and genres. It was difficult to pinpoint what I wanted. I knew that I wanted to stay in the hallway for the majority of the film, in terms of the story-line and the plot, but it wasn’t there yet. It had some weaknesses. So finally I added a second writer, Derrick Adams, who was very talented and who I thought would help structure and refine the script. He’s a horror fanatic so I knew he’d be the best guy for the job.
Together we thought a viral pandemic could be interesting. Not necessarily a zombie flick, but a viral pandemic where people get sick. I was always curious of the whole aspect of pandemics because of the H1N1 virus and some others over the last hundred years. There have always been different sorts of viruses that have hit the planet, or certain countries. It was always an interest because I was sceptical about taking the vaccine back then for H1N1. I thought about pharmaceuticals making profits…I always question what the government is trying to impose on us, sometimes for their own sense of control or monetary value – not just for vaccines or in the pharmaceutical industry – but just in life in general. I’ve always been a fan of questioning the media. Questioning what the television tells us. So when the virus idea came out I said to myself, ‘I think this is it. I think I really want to touch on this topic. It hasn’t been done in a while and not in this format. Not in this creative structure of a hotel hallway for the majority of the film.’ I thought it was unique and we went with it.
We had the premise and the idea about a virus pandemic, but we were missing character development. We needed to implement something with the characters. That’s when the whole abusive relationship concept came out. We used it as a metaphor. An abusive relationship is similar to a pandemic, if you don’t stop it or contain it, it could overpower you and maybe kill you. The story of the abusive relationship was definitely a great connection to the whole virus element on a metaphoric sense. I told myself I didn’t just want to tell a story about a pandemic, I wanted some character depth and development. I’m a big fan of that, especially in horror films. I like to have the viewer follow the characters and care for them on their journey. I thought that this was the perfect fusion of abusive relationship and pandemic. And of course having the women leads with their children. Both the female protagonists, our leads, both had an attachment to their child. I thought that viewers were going to have a great attachment to that, having a mother and a child attachment, which is a very unconditional love that’s very powerful. So I thought that a combination of the two was ultimate.
That’s how Hall came to be. It was a huge process, it took time. But it ended up being a complete coincidence about the actual virus pandemic. It was in the thought process at the back of my head, but never in a million years would I have thought it would have happened for real so soon (chuckles).
Given the current climate, I suppose that the film will take on a different meaning to people watching it than perhaps you originally intended?
Absolutely. It wasn’t intended to be something that I was pushing the audience to believe in. It was never that intention, but now it’s become that type of film because there are elements in the story line of Hall that do touch upon elements of Covid, little subtle scenes, dialogue, ideas. It’s a science-fiction film too, it wasn’t in my mind to say, ‘this is what’s really happening. The government is imposing virus toxins on the planet to do tests on humans’, but in a way, when you look at it, there’s some possible truth behind it. It’s just an idea to have people say to themselves, ‘oh you know what, I didn’t look at it this way. This is a possibility’. Today there’s tons of articles and people talking about the conspiracies of Covid – it’s not just about a freak of nature just appearing. It could be something that the government controls, related to so many other aspects of life in terms of economic growth, economic power. Related to 5G and 5G implemented systems – the list goes on. The idea is it just leaves that question open for the audience to take it as they please. But of course, it’s still a science-fiction, a fiction story no matter what. But there are some elements that could be really relevant to today’s situation.
Given your almost prophetic skills, have you started playing the lottery?
That’s what we said, ‘I think we have better chances of winning the lottery than making a film about a pandemic during a pandemic’; we were laughing about that. It took a few weeks for us to realise that our film was about this situation in part. Elements of our film are talking about what’s going on. This is insane, it’s surreal. Unimaginable, impossible to prepare for, but that’s life right? Life imitates art, art imitates life, it’s all relative now.
The film tackles the topic of domestic abuse, and does so in a more subtle real way than some of the over-the-top stories we sometimes see. How important was it for you to portray it in a realistic manner?
It was very important because like you said it needs to be believable and sometimes films lose sight of that. They focus too much on the horror and the scare factors and they forget about the story-line and the characters. The characters for me, when I watch films, and I’m sure for many viewers… want to feel something for the characters. We’re rooting for these women to get out of this hotel and save their child, and themselves, so I wanted it to be as realistic as possible in so many ways.
I personally was never in a physically abusive relationship, but I have been in a verbal and psychological one so I know a little bit about it, but I wanted to be as honest and sincere as possible. There are relationships where people feel trapped and have a hard time escaping, and this is a moment in time when both of these women decide that it’s time to go and save themselves from it, in whichever way they can. Sometimes it takes a radical situation to be able to run away, and the film is realistic in that way. It was very crucial and we did our best to portray that within our characters in such a limited amount of time because we wanted to balance the story-line, get enough of their character and story combined with the actual horror factor of the pandemic itself. I think it was a good mix and enough of a balance for it to get the point across, and for the audience to get involved and onboard with the ride, the experience. I think Hall was built in a way that I wanted the viewer to feel like it was an experience throughout the whole film as much as possible and not necessarily first act, second act, conclusion, it was just more of an evolution of a situation and slowly we’re going through the whole ride with the characters from beginning to end, almost like a roller-coaster.
Your child star, Bailey Thain, is pretty remarkable. Where on Earth did you find her?
We auditioned a few girls and it was very difficult to find child actors. It’s always tough, especially someone who really performs under these sort of circumstances and this type of script. We went with Bailey because we felt that she did a great audition, and she’s a warrior. She’s tough, she’s a professional. She had all the elements that we needed and she proved that. Of course there’s challenges working with a child actor to keep them composed and keep them focused on the story and performance. But she managed to pull that off on every scene, every day. She was amazing. We couldn’t have done it without her. She was a local actress from Montreal, but I think she’s a rising star. It was a blessing for us to have found her.
Is it hard working with a child on a horror film? You want them to act scared, but you don’t want to actually scare them.
It was challenging, but we had discussions about it. We talked about ways that we could make it work for her workflow, and for her to feel comfortable. She isn’t a person who’s scared of horror films in general, she had just come off of Pet Sematary, the Stephen King remake. So she was familiar a bit about horror films, but she definitely had a bigger role here. She manged to really get into the character and really understand what I was trying to get at. She had that mix of naivety, but yet understands the situation of what’s going on with the parent situation and the relationship. She just understood the script, understood the characters. As the days were progressing, she got more into the role and it was just flowing perfectly. It was an honour and humbling experience to work with such a great child actress. She also has a little resemblance to the star in Poltergeist. A lot of people are making that reference. When I saw her, I thought she reminded me of her and it’s a little homage to those series.
This is totally random, but can I commend you on your choice of teddy bear? It’s a brand called Jellycat and they are the best in the world.
She brought that to set as her own prop and we threw it in. It wasn’t written into the script, but we made it a character and it worked well for us. She brought it one day and I asked if she was attached to the bear and cared for it, and she said, ‘I really feel comfortable with this around me. I have it around at the house, it brings me comfort’. I thought it was perfect and was going to work well with the character, and it did.
Hall screens as part of this year’s FrightFest digital event, how are you feeling about the screening?
I’m excited. Over the years I’ve always heard so many great reviews and people speak so highly about it. It being one of the top genre festivals in the world, so for me it was a no-brainer. I needed to have a world premiere and I chose FrightFest over my local Fantasia Film Festival. We all agreed that FrightFest was the place that we wanted to debut our film at. We’re very excited. We’re excited to see the feedback, just the viewer’s reaction. I’m excited just to have a festival after everything that has been going on! The fact that there is one, is a blessing, even if it’s not physical.
People are in the process of picking their FrightFest films, why should they take a chance on Hall? What are they going to get out of it that they might not get from some of the other films playing?
What I’m really proud about with Hall is that first of all, it’s my first feature, and I’m very proud of what I did for a very small budget. I think we did something really cool, definitely relevant to what’s happening today. So that’s definitely one hook. To get a taste of the pandemic from a different point of view, which I think is definitely a selling point for people to get on board.
But in terms of the genre itself, I’m very proud to say that I’m inspired by many filmmakers over the years. Like Cronenberg from Canada with The Fly, Hitchcock and The Shining. From all these legendary filmmakers, there’s a lot of inspirations. So within the film, whether it be through the story-line, aesthetic of the film, the scare factors whether they use diopter shots… these are all inspirations that come from legendary filmmakers. I created a homage to them indirectly. People might spot them and people might not, but what’s important is that they’re present, and I tried to put them in a way that’s refreshing and not so in your face.
I think it’s a relevant topic, it’s an exciting experience of a film and it pays homage to a lot of filmmakers in terms of the genre itself. It also has a mix – it has suspense, it has thrills, it has horror. It has a mix of genres, I feel. That’s what I loved about it.
Have you been using your locked down time productively and started working on the next project?
I’ve just signed onto another film called Limo, which was a finalist at the Nicholl’s Academy screenwriting competition. I optioned the script and I got a company from Vancouver to sign on, and we just locked the contract down a couple of weeks ago, so this might be my next project. It’s called Limo and it takes place ninety percent in a limousine. It’s a thriller, suspense film as well, so I’m really looking forwards to that project. That should be happening in 2021, depending on Covid of course.
I’ve also been working on a personal film of mine, an Italian film, which is outside of the horror genre. It’s more in the fantastical realism drama. It’s called The Golden City. I’m shooting in the hometown of my father and grandfather, so it’s a film dedicated to my Italian heritage and culture. It’s a different direction, but it’s very personal to me.
Also Hall was created with potential sequels in mind, like the Saw franchise. Hall has an open ending of sorts where we could go into the depths of the characters and different locations in terms of the virus spread, and it could grow from that. So we built it in a way that we could have Hall 2 in the near future. I’ve been on Hall for the last three years so I’m looking forwards to it being into the world and move on to the next adventure.
Hall will screen at Arrow Video FrightFest on Sunday 30th August 2020. Tickets are available here.
