IR Interview: The Cairnes Brothers For “Late Night With The Devil” [IFC Films/Shudder] - Part II - video Dailymotion

The Inside Reel

Brothers/Filmmakers Colin & Cameron Caires talk to The Inside Reel about inspiration, design and characterization in regards to their new horror film: "Late Night With The Devil" from Shudder and IFC Films.

Transcript

00:00 [Music]

00:11 Ladies and gentlemen,

00:13 [Music]

00:15 Now,

00:17 [Music]

00:18 Here is Mr. Mitch "Dark Jack" Downey!

00:22 [Music]

00:29 Late night with the devil.

00:33 Was there a lot of like back in Australia in those days?

00:36 Were there a lot of those people on like talk shows

00:39 or in the country that influenced you in that way?

00:42 Or that you saw?

00:44 Yeah, look, no, we didn't get Carson or Cabot over here,

00:47 who, you know, we sort of researched extensively

00:51 through the writing of the film,

00:53 but we had our own guys to draw on.

00:55 One guy in particular, Don Lane, who was, yeah,

00:59 I mean, there were situations on his, guests on his show

01:03 who, you know, might resemble some of the characters in our film.

01:08 He used to have James Randi on.

01:10 Like this is in Australia in the 70s when it was, you know,

01:13 it was a long way and expensive flight,

01:15 but he would fly James Randi, the Warrens, Doris Stokes,

01:19 Gary Geller.

01:20 We'd fly them over because we were total suckers for that stuff.

01:23 We were such, we were so naive back in the day.

01:27 And Don, you know, I mean, we've said it before,

01:30 but he was quite interested in the supernatural paranormal.

01:35 He kind of, I think he was a believer.

01:38 And so he would do, you know,

01:40 and it's unthinkable that Carson would do a one-hour special

01:43 on some dodgy, you know, psychic from the UK, but Don did it.

01:49 He would just dedicate a whole episode to the psychic.

01:53 And if anyone dared question them, he got quite irate.

01:57 He wanted to believe it.

01:58 He wanted the rest of Australia to believe it as well.

02:01 We're going to have to take a quick break, folks.

02:03 When we come back, though, one of the old friends of our show,

02:05 who are we?

02:06 [Screaming]

02:09 Christy.

02:10 [Gasping]

02:12 Something very intense here.

02:14 [Gasping]

02:15 Perhaps, are we getting another message from Edmund?

02:17 No, no, this is--

02:19 [Screaming]

02:23 I'm getting the name Minnie.

02:27 Does anyone here know a Minnie, please, accept?

02:30 Does this name mean anything to anyone in the studio, no?

02:33 But there's so many things, like, obviously,

02:35 the whole, the reason this works so well is because you feel the dread.

02:39 You feel his desperation.

02:41 And I mean, you mentioned the Warrens,

02:43 and I remember going up to meet her up in Connecticut

02:47 when The Conjuring first came out, before she passed away,

02:51 and her husband had already passed, Lorraine.

02:54 And it's interesting because you--

02:56 they talk about it, it's just life.

02:58 It's not--they don't look at it as supernatural.

03:00 It's just life.

03:01 And that's what's interesting here,

03:03 is that David's character, he's--this guy is traumatized.

03:07 And there's almost no way out, and you capture that dread.

03:11 Is that something that you found sort of as you were writing,

03:15 or is it something that's sort of built after you shot it

03:19 and into the edit?

03:20 All those things, I would say.

03:22 Yeah, it was--I mean, it was something we were hoping to achieve,

03:25 and it's hard to get across in the writing.

03:28 You're just hoping that--just focusing on each moment

03:30 and what that means, that it will add up at the end of the day.

03:33 But, yeah, so it happens on set, it happens in performance,

03:36 and to a degree in the post-production, the sound design.

03:42 We do--there are certain little tricks we employ there

03:46 to help with that.

03:47 But, yeah, we always felt that that sense of building dread,

03:50 that something is going to go wrong, and there's suspense

03:53 in not knowing how or when was key to the success of the film.

03:58 And having that little prologue as well maybe helps.

04:01 Some people are probably going to have a different opinion,

04:03 but we felt that that was a good way of helping to establish

04:06 that sense of dread, that, you know, that fateful night.

04:10 Here we go. Let's see what happens.

04:12 Perhaps a name--it sounds like Minnie.

04:13 Maybe it's like a Millie or a Mandy.

04:15 I had a great-aunt Molly.

04:17 It's Minnie!

04:19 Please, who will accept?

04:22 So much sadness.

04:24 I see a wedding ring.

04:29 An unmarried man with a wedding ring.

04:32 The spirit needs to talk to you!

04:34 Who are you?

04:38 It's okay, folks.

04:39 It's just old Clark Hans acting up.

04:42 But it's also a meditation on ambition

04:44 and how far we'll go to capture things.

04:47 I mean, there's so many of those things in it.

04:49 Could you talk a little bit about, you know, the importance--

04:51 not necessarily--I'm not talking about a message,

04:53 but those overall themes is what sort of pushes

04:56 any kind of horror film because you know that people

04:59 are going to go way farther than they ever should,

05:01 and that's the--it's a cautionary tale in many ways.

05:05 Yeah, I think a lot of good horrors are, really.

05:08 But yeah, and it's Jack--I mean, that's Jack's trajectory

05:11 in the film, but it's also--I think for all the characters,

05:14 and probably in particular June, you know, played by Laura Gordon,

05:17 who has similar sort of moral quandaries there.

05:20 She is, you know, effectively mother to Lily.

05:23 There's a very maternal relationship there,

05:25 very protective.

05:26 But then she's also concerned about furthering her own career,

05:29 and, you know, she's got a book to sell, and is she prepared

05:32 to exploit this child that I think she loves in order to get ahead?

05:38 Can she have both?

05:39 Can she have a cake and eat it?

05:40 And yeah, I think it goes for most of the characters in the story.

05:45 There are kind of all sort of reflections.

05:47 Gone.

05:55 She's gone.

05:58 She's gone.

05:59 Leo.

06:03 We're going to take a quick break, and we're going to be right back

06:10 after these messages.

06:11 [applause]

06:13 [music]

06:15 That's why the skeptic really works, you know, having that aspect

06:26 of perspective and perception, because, you know, in many ways

06:29 at that point, it's about the unreliable narrator sort

06:33 of leading forward.

06:34 And that misdirect is great.

06:36 I won't give it away, but, you know, can you talk about sort

06:39 of finding that element of, you know, you have him as the skeptic

06:43 to be able to sort of test the waters.

06:46 It's about logic and emotion in many ways,

06:49 and how people react.

06:50 Yeah, absolutely.

06:52 You know, it's funny.

06:54 I think audiences tend to latch on to different characters,

07:00 you know, according to their belief system.

07:03 Like my partner, for instance, is an atheist, a skeptic,

07:08 and, you know, her hero is Carmichael Hay.

07:12 And she's really disappointed in the end.

07:16 I won't spoil anything.

07:18 But, yeah.

07:20 And then we've had audiences say, "Oh, who's this Carmichael Hay?

07:25 What a nasty, bombastic individual."

07:29 Yeah.

07:30 You know, so it's interesting getting those different perspectives.

07:33 It does make people, yeah, kind of reflect on their own points of view.

07:37 But I think, you know, going to a movie like this, you know,

07:40 most of us are probably sceptics and, you know,

07:42 consider ourselves rational people.

07:44 But when you're in that, in the darkened room, you're hoping

07:47 that it - you know, you put that aside for 90 minutes and hope that,

07:52 you know, spirits are real and that the devil is real,

07:55 just for that brief window of time.

07:58 So, yeah, we certainly play with that a lot, you know.

08:03 Yeah, I think that's part of the fun of the film.

08:05 No one's going anywhere.

08:06 How could you let it happen, Jack?

08:07 How could you let it happen?

08:09 Please be warned, anyone with young children in the room.

08:11 Good information!

08:12 You're about to see.

08:13 You okay, Jack?

08:15 It's profoundly disturbing and shocking.

08:18 You get out there, Mr. Midnight.

08:22 And you knock him dead.

08:27 (SCREAMING)

08:29 (SCREAMING)

08:31 (SCREAMING)

08:34 (SCREAMING)

08:37 (SCREAMING)

08:39 [BLANK_AUDIO]

IR Interview: The Cairnes Brothers For “Late Night With The Devil” [IFC Films/Shudder] - Part II

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