Last weekend Grimmfest returned to the physical realm as it took over Manchester’s Odeon Great Northern. The event screened a plethora of new horror films including The Righteous from Mark O’Brien. A black and white film, The Righteous joins a grieving couple Frederic Mason (Henry Czerny) and Ethel (Mimi Kuzyk) as they take in a strange man, Aaron (Mark O’Brien), for the night. As the evening progresses, Aaron’s intentions are revealed and things get weird. The Righteous is a beautifully constructed and atmospheric tale, perfect for autumnal viewing. We exchanged emails with O’Brien to find out more about the project.
The Righteous has finally started to be screened at festivals, how does it feel to finally have the film out in the world?
It’s a great relief. I’d wanted to make a film for so long. Unfortunately, film festivals were pretty mitigated and/or canceled for a year or so, so it required some patience. But every film has its own path, its own life and at the end of day, I couldn’t be happier.
Where did the idea for The Righteous originate?
As I get older, I find myself thinking more and more about confrontation, mostly of the past. There are things we all have to face before we can move on or find ourselves truly liberated. I find it fascinating that one can commit an immoral act, that they themselves know definitively to be immoral, and believe they can run away from it. Well, you can’t. You can’t run away from your own conscience. And if you have any belief in God, you certainly can’t run from that. From there, my imagination took over and it became what it became.
As well as writing you also act and direct, how do these other skills help with your writing process?
It helps immensely. When you’re writing a film and you know you’ll be directing it and acting in it, you’ve just cut down the communication workload by a wide margin. The story is intrinsically yours, so you can shape it with your artistic expression instead of explaining to someone else your creative motivations and how they should achieve them. I strongly believe in the auteur theory, combined with healthy collaboration of people you can trust. Writing also involves cerebral images, and only the the author of the work can truly know the intricacies of those images and how they’re married to the story. It kind of makes the execution a straight line as opposed to a zig zag, because you’re working from the origin point of those images.
Similarly, in what ways does your own experience in front of the camera help you to communicate with your cast?
It’s quite helpful because I know what it’s like to be on camera. I can relate. Directing is about getting the best out of people. Actors play so many different characters throughout their careers. This creates an understanding of different types of people. And if you can understand many different types of people, you know how to relate to them. Actors are observers. They pick up on behavior. They know what works and what doesn’t work. That’s our job. So for me, I guess that experience helps me see what an actor needs and what I need from them and how to get it, while keeping them emotionally available and comfortable.
With a main cast of just three it’s incredibly important that the right people were cast, what did Henry and Mimi bring to Federic and Ethel?
They brought everything! Once I write the script and hand it to them, it’s now up to them. It’s kind of like bouncing a ball back and forth. I give them the script for them to show me their interpretation, then it’s up to me to tune that so that it fits the story and the tone. But honestly, I didn’t have to do much. They’re such pros and so willing to do whatever is necessary for the truth of the moment. I learned a lot from them.
It’s a very dialogue driven film, what techniques did you employ whilst shooting to keep these moments fresh?
Well everything can’t just be wide, medium, close-up. But at the same time, the words are so important so you also don’t want them to get lost by doing distracting camera moves or shots. It really just comes down to each scene and what’s required to get that feeling and emotion across. Sometimes it’s a slow push in. Sometimes it’s cutting to profile shots. Sometimes it’s just a quick insert. It’s a fine balance between keeping the audience engaged, while not distracting them. You want your audience active, not reaching for their phone. Sometimes a line of dialogue keeps them wanting more, and sometimes it’s an insert. If you know your story, it’ll present itself.
The Righteous has a monochrome color palette, what informed that decision, and what do you think this choice brings to the film?
This story is told from the point of view of Frederic’s subconscious. And to me, our subconscious is certainly not in technicolor. It’s murky down there, indecipherable. It’s the reason why it isn’t in our consciousness. We don’t quite understand it, it’s festering from beneath. There’s a mystery to those things we’ve hidden, and black and white captures that most effectively. When things are in black and white they’re harder to trust, to understand. So to tell the story properly, it had to be in black and white. I always felt as though Frederic sees things in black and white, while every other character sees in color.
Why should people The Righteous, what does this film have to offer that some others might not?
This film isn’t about gore, gratuity or a series of jump scares. It’s about dread, which I find endlessly more fascinating. Dread creates the idea that something awful will happen, we just don’t know what. I want audiences to be leaning in and feel like a participant. They’re part of the story as they take on the ambiguities for themselves. The film is a bit of a puzzle. It makes you want to know more, need to know more. And that’s a rare thing nowadays.
What are you working on next?
I’m finishing up a 16 episode limited series for AMC called 61st Street. It premieres early in 2022. I’m starring opposite Courtney B. Vance, which is a great treat. Aside from that, I have three scripts that I’ve been working on for a few years. It comes down to whichever one flips the switch first!
The Righteous screened at Grimmfest 2021.
