By DEIRDRE CRIMMINS
The now-steaming, Nick Frost-written folk horror comedy GET AWAY puts a nuclear family of four at the center of an awkward and dangerous holiday. Maisie Ayres and Sebastian Croft star as the two teen siblings on a remote Swedish island trip with their casually cuddly parents (Frost and Aisling Bea). Normal teen angst is plentiful and occasionally has its run-ins with the less-than-friendly locals who are gearing up for a secret annual celebration. An embarrassing pair of parents can be enough strife for two kids trying to put up with forced fun instead of a summer hanging with friends, but the strange island makes this vacation far from ordinary. Director Steffen Haars led the cast through potential murkiness of hybrid genres in foreign lands and struck the tone of the film to keep the audience on edge and laughing the whole running time. RUE MORGUE sat down with Ayres, Croft and Haars to talk about how they created the sibling relationship on-set, what scares them and the unspoken value of shoving your cast together in a car early in a production.
At what point in the production did you each get involved?
Steffen Haars: For me, there was a point when Nick had written a script, it was financed and we chatted about film; it was a great chat. And then I think it still took a year or something that we started shooting. So, at the stage of the finished script, that will be my point.
Maisie Ayres: I auditioned for it, so I got sent sides through and then had to tape for it and I didn’t have a full script or anything at that point. I just had, I think it was two scenes, and I loved the script. I just did my best guess at what vibe I got off the character and then did a chemistry read with Nick, and Steffen was there and directed us. I had no idea how it went, though. Zoom is really a weird medium to audition with, but it clearly went okay.
Sebastian Croft: I am fortunate enough that I worked with Nick twice before. We did Horrible Histories together a while back and then more recently a film called How to Date Billy Walsh. While we were on the set, we sat waiting while they were changing a setup and Nick was telling me about the script he was writing and about this character. It sounded amazing. I didn’t know if it was a real script or if it was an idea he was playing with. And then maybe three months later I got an email with the script, and he was like, “Let me know what you think and if you want to chat about it.” Obviously, I grew up loving Nick’s films and I think the genre that he operates and kind of created is so unique and amazing. To read a script that feels like one of those Nick Frost films that I loved watching as a kid was crazy. And then I think I had a Zoom with Steffen and Nick, and we spoke about the character and it sort of happened.
Until you’re actually on the ground, were you wondering if this was really happening?
SC: Honestly, even till the day before filming. It was so surreal and then as soon as we were in it, it was like, okay, this is happening. Let’s do it.
How did the three of you work together to shape the interesting relationship between Sam and Jessie?
SC: We wanted to do … I can’t say that. I was going to make a joke about wanting to do a sex scene, but we can’t say that because (A) that’s quite dark and (B) maybe a bit of a spoiler. Maisie, you go first while I rethink my plan.
MA: I remember when we first arrived in Finland, we sat down and were talking through our characters and that kind of sibling relationship, because they’re very different people. They have similarities being young and they’re both very unamused by the island and the holiday, but also their attitudes are very different. I think we spoke a lot about how they contradict each other, that Jessie’s blunt and I think Sam’s a bit more in his feelings. And it was quite fun playing them off in a scene together. It was great we got to improv a little bit and play with it, especially the scene in the bedroom.
SC: Without saying anything that’s a spoiler, it was a much more complicated relationship and family dynamic than you’d normally have. And I think what was fun was building that up all the way back to the beginning of the film, if that makes sense. Getting into the weeds of where they came from and the history of the character which you have so much liberty with. I think characters like the ones that we play in this film – where there’s so many interesting moments and dynamics and beats – I think when we rehearsed it with Steffen, he really encouraged us to lean into not packaging something up and knowing what it was. Just sitting in the beats of a scene or leaving a pause – those kinds of moments almost muddy the waters even more.
MA: And always explaining it away also. Not having to give an answer when things were weird. It was like, we’re not going to tell you why things are weird. You have to just deal with this uncomfortable relationship, which was fun to do.
SH: My biggest thing was I needed this family to be believable. I mean, there’s not a huge budget, so we’re shooting outside everyone’s country, and we only have a couple of days. It was only a couple of days before shooting when we were all together for the first time. Before that, there were conversations, we did some rehearsals, but the first day of the shoot was sort of the perfect thing to get it all together. We started out with a family with the opening of the film driving the car, and we had a full day of these four amazing actors who were stuck in this car and that’s when we were really going to see how this would work. And it was terrible, in a way! I was just trying to give direction, but these guys were having such a great time and they were becoming this family on the first shooting day. This would be a tip for other directors: Get your cast, throw them in a car for a day and then at the end of the shooting day you have your perfect family. That was so much fun to see.
Just put your whole cast in a car.
MA: That’ll do it. Yeah.
What scares you?
SH: There’s one thing, always. It is always the same dream I have when I start starting a shoot. It’s always in one of the first days and I wake up sweating in my bed and it’s always the same dream about being on set with the whole crew with a great cast. There’s budget, everyone is just ready to go for it, but there’s no script and I don’t have anything to come up with. That would be frightening – to shoot a film without a script.
SC: If anyone would make that interesting, I want to see this now!
SH: Let’s do this. I mean, it’s always good.
SC: I think that’s an offer, Maisie. I think we’ve got our next film.
MA: Mine is a massive object submerged in a deep body of water, even more frightening if it has mechanical elements. The deep ocean, in general, absolutely terrifies me, but the idea that you are in the deep ocean, you’ve been dropped in and then suddenly there’s this massive statue in the ocean. It’s like meters and meters tall. I know it’s niche, and I hope that’s really specific. I think there’s a name for that fear. I don’t know why, but that just makes my blood curdle.
SC: Mine is, and I actually saw a video about this today, this idea that what if we’re living in a simulation? It always freaks me out and then you start thinking about things and you’re like, “We could just be AI.” We could all be existing in some sort of simulation/computer kind of thing. And then I become very aware of my surroundings and … is this all real? Is this interview I’m doing right now even real? Then the other thing is there’s a British TV show – a comedy called This Country– and there’s a scene in it where an actress forgets to breathe. When you forget to breathe and then you have to consciously breathe, that always scares me. Then you’re like, will I ever forget to breathe? Will I always have to consciously be breathing again?
So does The Matrix terrify you, Sebastian?
SC: I love The Matrix. I think The Matrix scratches that itch. It’s like an exploration of what that would look like.
And there’s the idea of what is real, but what is not real.
SC: Even if this was fake, I’m loving the interview.
GET AWAY is currently streaming on Shudder.
