On Christmas Eve, an innocent couple become hosts to a malicious unknown entity that takes its form as an ominous glowing light. The two make their way into a family’s house, terrorising them throughout the night in unimaginably violent, disturbing and supernatural ways. These demonic possessions mark the beginning of a worldwide supernatural takeover.
Behind every intention is reason. Michael finds himself powerless to the horrendous suffering of his innocent family as they pay the ultimate price for his selfish and cowardly actions. His demons spent far too many years laying dormant in the depths of his troubled past, waiting for the perfect moment to rise to the surface and destroy everything he loves. The deeper you bury your secrets, the more impatient they become.
This is the plot of new genre movie Hosts, a film from writer/directors Adam Leader and Richard Oakes who built a large buzz within the YouTube community after becoming renowned for the climbing success of their Filmmaking Channel (Dark Fable Media). They decided to take crowdfunding to the next level by offering their YouTube fanbase the opportunity to invest in Hosts in return for shares in the profits. Within a matter of weeks, they’d successfully raised all of the money (£25,000) to green light the production.
We caught up with them to chat about the film.
Congrats on the film guys, can you tell us where the idea came from?
Adam – I was at home with my ex one time and she complained of seeing some blue orbs in the garden by the window. Slightly alarmed by this I went outside to investigate (with a knife). Realising there was nothing there, I came in and got on the phone to Rich to suggest that this experience might make for a really cool scene or opening to the film. We spent the whole night brainstorming, and by the end of it, we had a list of weird and wonderful scenes from start to finish. So I went away with that and wrote the first draft of the screenplay.
You screened at Sitges during the pandemic, can you tell us what that was like?
Rich – It was an amazing experience! This was our first film so we were over the moon to be selected at such a prestigious event. There was a lot that was affected by Covid of course, the cinemas were at 1?3 capacity and we had to wear masks 24/7 so meeting and chatting to people was difficult. So there was a feeling that we didn’t get to experience the festival in its full glory. Next time.
Adam – It was extremely surreal to watch our own film playing on a gigantic screen in front of us at a big cinema. Not to mention, getting to go to Spain, hang in a hotel and eat Spanish food was a huge win.
You used an interesting model for financing the film, can you explain that please?
Rich – Yes we were kind of sick of the crowdfunding platforms and decided to do it differently by not just offering you a £50 mug with the directors face on it but offering investment opportunities to the subscribers on the Dark Fable Media YouTube channel. That way everyone who invested got their money back and will share with us the spoils of profits of the film, as and when they come in.
Adam – And it worked like a charm. Can’t begin to express how special it felt to have such a beautiful handful of people that believed in us so much that they literally put their money where their mouths were. We owe it all to them.
Releasing a film during a pandemic must have been stressful, can you tell us how it affected the release of Hosts?
Rich – We had just wrapped the movie before the pandemic hit so we were lucky on the production side. However it did seem to open doors for us as distributors became keen for new content. So for us it felt quite plain sailing.
Adam – I think the only thing that could have affected this was the fact that places like Cannes and AFM weren’t really happening, so sales pitches were resorted to phone calls or at best, Zoom meetings. However, it still did well and thus far, we’ve sold to a nice handful of countries and counting!
What was the casting process like?
Adam – Neal Ward and Nadia Lamin were already cast. The film was written with them in mind because they’ve always been good to us and we wanted to give them something back by offering them the opportunity. Plus, they’re both awesome actors. The rest of the cast were mainly via connections we had already. The only two that auditioned from outside were Jennifer Preston (who plays Cassie) and Samantha Loxley (who plays Lucy), and both of them absolutely smashed it!
What were the biggest influences on the film?
Rich – For me the main inspirations were films like Ringu, Funny Games, Strangers, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Poltergeist.
Adam – The Exorcist, Hereditary and probably a little piece of every other horror movie I grew up watching. If you look closely, you’ll find them.
What’s next for you guys?
Rich – Big things but shhhh!!
Adam – Very deep into the screenplay for film number two. But yes, that’s all we can say right now… Apart from the fact that it’s utterly shocking.
