By DAMIAN K. LAHEY
While dead bodies were being stacked in coolers during the pandemic, I edited SIMPLE LIKE SILVER, a microbudget existential mystery that saw the return of Cristina Marsillach, star of Dario Argento’s OPERA, after a 25-year absence from the screen. (It’s now available on Blu-ray from Severin Films as part of their Summer Sale.) Marsillach (pictured above, and below with me) was the Holy Grail of cult actresses no one could get ahold of, and I’d tracked her down in Spain after a long and winding search and convinced her to act in my film. We shot in 2018 in St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra Beach and Jacksonville, Florida, where I lived. Given that the film festival scene was in disarray, I released SILVER on Amazon Prime at the beginning of 2020 to positive reviews and strong buzz.
Some folks reached out about possibly investing in another microbudget film. Talk is cheap, but I had other financing leads as well and felt it was a good time to proceed. SIMPLE LIKE SILVER had been more of a sly homage to art-house cinema, despite its genre elements. I’ve lived and breathed horror for most of my life as a cinephile, and had written and directed a couple of genre shorts. It was time to do a feature, and I felt I could produce this film for around 60k.
I had been developing another project with screenwriter Shawn Harwell, known for EASTBOUND & DOWN, THE CAMPAIGN and RED OAKS. I told him I wanted to do a film with Marsillach that would be firmly planted in the horror genre. He was itching to do something different, and was down.
Independent filmmaker Jane Spencer (LITTLE NOISES, THE 9TH CLOUD) had assisted me with getting in touch with Marsillach in the first place through her connection to Marsillach’s sister, Blanca. Spencer was busy editing her latest feature, but was eager to get another production off the ground. I reached out to see if she wanted to hop on board as a producer, and she was delighted to join Harwell and me.
The logline for the script, titled THE NIGHT OWL ONLY BLINKS TWICE, was this: A young mother and her son, trying to survive on a farm in the wake of an apocalyptic event, are visited by a mysterious woman with unusual powers. It would be in the vein of THE ROAD, NIGHT OF THE HUNTER and CAT PEOPLE, with dashes of Luis Buñuel, David Lynch and Monty Python. Marsillach would play the mysterious woman; her character belongs to a cult that followed their leader into a nuclear blast site, but not all of them died. Some of them came back as something else. They wander the wasteland, wraiths with no memory of what they once were, leaving grisly deaths and disfigured bodies in their wake. Feeling reinvigorated by the SIMPLE LIKE SILVER experience and the positive critical reception the film received, Marsillach was excited to work with me again.
As I was writing the script (which you can read here), I was happy with the individual scenes I was crafting, but they weren’t working when strung together. They seemed adrift and disconnected. Harwell suggested that the mom’s mission should be finding parts to get a car running. This would ground the piece in a tangible reality and allow for the more otherworldly and surreal stuff to happen around it. This was the missing contrast that we needed.
The next sticking point was the character dynamic–what ages and sexes the mother, the child and the drifter would be. Spencer suggested a young girl and an even younger brother. She even wrote some pages of voiceover for the girl inspired by A MEMBER OF THE WEDDING. We decided to change it to an older sister and younger brother. When not tied up with his own projects, Harwell would flesh out their part of the story and provide feedback for the pages I submitted. We felt casting the role of the sister would determine the character’s voice.
Spencer recommended Tori Miller (pictured above), who had a small role in her last film. I did a couple of read-throughs with Miller via Zoom, and she was perfect. A natural talent, she seemed like someone who would get along with Marsillach and me. Her being British brought an additional international flair to the project as well. Her mother mentioned that she might know some people who could be interested in investing in a horror film. I had a couple of conference calls with those contacts, but they fell through. Miller, however, was a keeper, so at least I had a viable option for our lead.
For the role of the drifter, I reached out to Cullen Moss (pictured below), a character actor mostly known for his work in ONE TREE HILL, OUTER BANKS and YOUR HONOR. Genre fans will recognize him as the rapey lollipop cop in THE WALKING DEAD. He had starred in a li’l indie I wrote and directed back in 2012, THE HEROES OF ARVINE PLACE, and was hungry to work with me again. He understood the financing and shooting logistics might prevent him from being in the film, but he wanted me to know he was on standby. I also reached out to Adonis Boyd and Lacy Marie Meyer, both of whom had acted in my previous projects, about possible roles. I let them know I’d consider them for anything that became available.
When you’re not rich, you have to be smart with your resources. I felt that my having skin in the game would give potential investors confidence in the project. I also wanted a vacation after a year in lockdown. Flights and a fancy hotel in downtown Madrid were dirt cheap; I would never get deals like that again. My friend, production assistant and translator, Alicia Lopez, put me in touch with some local crew, and I began prepping the trip.
Before my arrival, Sara de Andres, my cinematographer in Madrid, went out and took some world-building photos (see a few below) to illustrate how Spain could work for the movie, as well as provide options for us to shoot when I was in town. I booked Callback Studios in downtown Madrid for rehearsals and costume, hair and makeup tests. Marsillach was in great spirits when I arrived. We had a fun few days of shooting and exploring the sites our DP had scouted for us. This included an abandoned asylum that was supposedly cursed. It was being used by a cult in the area, and we stumbled upon one of their animal sacrifices while shooting.
With a trip like this, it’s about what you learn, not what goes right. For example, we learned that possible locations that appeared to be right off the highway were often not accessible unless you took an exit and drove all around the country to get to them, which limited us in our location scouting.
The trenchcoat I ordered for Marsillach was too small and the wrong style. We needed a longer overcoat. Marsillach acknowledged she had put on some COVID weight that she had kept on for a play she had recently appeared in, but planned on losing it for the film. I told her not to starve herself, but a slimmer figure and gaunt look would work better for the role. Rehearsals revealed that it didn’t make sense for her character’s inner monologues to be in English, since her character was Spanish. Duh. Her thoughts would be in Spanish and her dialogue spoken in broken English. Lopez would need to translate these sections of the script into Spanish after our trip, but it would make it much easier for Marsillach to memorize and deliver her lines. The cheapest item, the wig, was the only thing that went off without a hitch at $4 and change, ordered from Amazon.
Spain definitely had what we were looking for. Miller’s family also had a home close to Madrid, which would be extremely convenient if she was cast in the film. However, I was concerned about how spread out things were, and the lack of infrastructure conducive to low-budget filmmaking. Ultimately, it was a productive and enjoyable trip. An electric combination of filmmaking, great food and spending time with friends old and new.
Back home, I put together some photos and footage from the trip and sent it off to a couple of financing prospects. Keep in mind, all of these potential investors were warm leads, hence the luxury I had to develop the project in this fashion. If these were cold leads, a fully completed script as well as pitch materials would have been assembled. The folks that had originally reached out to me had begun to act skittish. Not uncommon, but in late November when the Omicron COVID variant hit, some of these would-be investors bailed altogether.
I had recently interacted a bit on social media with actress/writer Emily Bennett. Her indie horror film ALONE WITH YOU was picking up steam. I thought it might be prudent to add someone else to the cast besides Marsillach with some genre cred, so I reached out to her. Bennett was professional and extremely intelligent, and I saw her more for the drifter role, which opened up additional possibilities for the narrative. After some correspondence, I told her I’d be back in touch when and if things firmed up.
A makeup artist I had worked with recommended a local model she felt might be perfect for the film. I spoke to this young woman about the project on the phone, and she agreed to meet. She had a unique look I thought could really add to the casting dynamic. On the way to the meeting, however, she texted me demanding payment, saying her time wasn’t free. She wanted to be paid up front or she wouldn’t show up. Pretty ballsy for someone with no acting experience and a couple of modeling gigs in Jacksonville, FL. I didn’t bother texting her back.
A gentleman offered to shoot world-building footage in North Carolina as a way to “audition” to be my cinematographer. His communication and work was erratic, and he let me know he was microdosing LSD to inspire his creative visions. As rock ’n’ roll as that sounds, after he proved unable to upload simple .jpeg files to me, I had to let him go.
Then on February 22, Russia invaded Ukraine and the stock market cratered, costing me some of the money I would have put into the film and scaring off the remaining investors. One thing became clear: There was no combination of elements affordable to me in order to produce the film and do it justice. Harwell and Spencer had also become tied up with other projects, which was understandable. When there are no checks being cut, you have to be respectful of other people’s obligations.
Why not crowd-fund, you ask? I’ve got nothing against Kickstarter or any of those platforms, but it’s not something I was comfortable doing. There are thousands of charities and causes more deserving of people’s spare change than my indie film. And at that time, many had family members and friends still reeling from COVID, and I thought it would be in poor taste. I’m not saying I won’t go that route in the future, but I felt it wasn’t right for this. I had a couple of other projects that were coming to fruition and felt enough time and money had been spent on THE NIGHT OWL ONLY BLINKS TWICE.
If you’re not careful, projects can become anchors. Be mindful you’re not throwing yourself off a bridge with one of these things tied around your neck. You have to know when to cut ’em loose and move on. Sometimes you can revisit them. Other times, you can mine the scripts for other projects. Even those at the top of their game in this business spend most of their time developing projects that never happen. It’s all part of the experience. That’s why, as you chip away at your dreams–make sure to enjoy the ride!
