Corin Hardy
Out now to download The Hallow is one of the best horror films of 2015 that you probably didn’t see. A début film directed by Corin Hardy, the story follows English couple Adam and Clare as the relocate to Ireland with their baby son only to discover that the natives, human and otherwise, are less than welcoming.
The Hallow features some stunning performances, which coupled with a fantastic fable and creepy practical effects, combine to create a horror film with heart and emotion. We loved it when it was released theatrically and can’t wait for the DVD release on 21st March, and as such were over the moon when we were granted time with Hardy to discuss the project.
Hardy is a long-time fan of film, spending a big portion of his childhood creating super-8 movies with his friends. As he grew up he embraced his passion for special effects and studied the craft at Wimbledon School of Art, this then led him into the world of short films and music videos, most of which can be seen on his website.
His passion for both the horror genre and practical effects shines through in The Hallow and our chat had us getting to the heart of why practical effects are still relevant, where the inspiration for the story came from, and the importance of keeping a horror story grounded in reality. Read our interview in its entirety below.
Interview with Corin Hardy for The Hallow
As well as directing The Hallow, you also wrote it, where did the idea come from?
Well it was something which came out being a big horror fan and genre fan and wanting to make my mark on a horror movie. Initially it started about ten years ago, looking at new mythologies or new monsters or something that we hadn’t seen before. Something that we didn’t really know how it behaved. I was looking at fairy tales. I was inspired by reading and being read them as a kid. Particularly darker, kinder weirder ones from some seventies illustrated books.
I had this feeling that there were all sorts of mythologies in fairy tales that had just so much to take from. This idea for then wanting to tell a fairy tale grounded in reality as opposed to the gothic, fantastical one. What would it be like if these things were real. So it came from fairy tales and then it was a case of trying to figure out what I could use from their mythology and translate it into literal, gripping reality.
Interview with Corin Hardy for The Hallow
You’ve made a lot of short films and there are several sequences within the film that could have easily made a great short, what was it about this story that made you decide it had to be a feature?
I did actually have some sequences in my mind as shorts I was going to use as a test, or tease, or a short film. Particularly this idea of a man getting stranded in his car at night on a country lane, with the sun going down and there being something in the forest, then revealing there was a baby in the car. Then gradually making it feel like it was related to fairy mythology, baby stealers and changelings. But I’d been working on five different feature ideas and wanted to figure out which one would be my first début film and The Hallow lent itself the most in that at least I thought it was a contained concept. Being that it was on paper a couple and a dog, and a baby and a house, by the wood (laughs), but it turned out to be less contained in the sense that as I got into it I really wanted to visually render those creatures particularly in a way that you’s get to see them at some point and to do that and not let the film down. Then it was a bigger prospect, it was the film I most wanted to make out of my ideas.
Interview with Corin Hardy for The Hallow
You have a passion for for practical effects, in todays CG obsessed age, how important is it to still represent things physically?
Well I’m a big fan. I grew up watching those movies of the seventies and eighties, when they didn’t have CG and in the best of those they completely stand up and have an effect on you. I think emotionally and they still feel relevant. I wouldn’t do it if it was just for nostalgic reasons. I think its like anything, like performing a magic trick and you chose slight of hand, and different manipulations and in this case different styles of technique to pull off an illusion. So although I’m a big practical effect fan its really about mixing up techniques to achieve the desired overall effect.
I wanted to ground the movie in a practical way, in an organic way, use real locations, try to get the best actors and create a movie that felt beautiful cinematographically. To have the effects grounded in that practically initially but then to use compositing. We used practical effects, puppetry, prosthetics, animatronics and costumes, but we also used compositing and some CG, some green screen. It’s very much a case of choosing your effects and your sequences and figuring out the best technique to achieve an illusion that you can’t pin down.
Interview with Corin Hardy for The Hallow
Personally I didn’t doubt at any point that the baby wasn’t real, which is impressive when you consider bigger budget films like American Sniper came under fire for using an actual doll instead of a baby.
I’m really proud of that. People have mentioned it, but I haven’t seen American Sniper yet so I can’t comment on it, but I’m very proud of what we did. It was quite daunting actually approaching the shoot and realising what a lead character this five month old baby is. In the film he’s in almost every scene.
We had to pre-plan, I had to cast a pair of twins in the local area, which in the wilds of Ireland was quite difficult to find a pair of twins that would be the right age when we needed to shoot the film. I had to photograph them, the special effects department had to sculpt off of the photos and then imagine what they would look like in two months time. Then we made a full animatronic baby that you can see online. It was designed by Chris Clarke who did War Horse for Spielberg, he did an incredible job in a short space of time. We also had a silicon rubber sort of ‘stunt’ version which was the same size, weight, it had joints, everything. It didn’t move but the actors could puppeteer it, in a lot of shots that one was being used actually, so tribute to the actors Joseph Mawle and Bojana Novakovic for actually and giving a performance whilst almost pupeteering the child in their arms. Then we had a changeling baby and there was some CG additions to that and also I had a baby of my own who was born two weeks before the shoot. I had a daughter and when we did some re-shoots at the end of the filming the boys in the film were too old and so my daughter stands in for the baby. So there’s six babies in total being that one baby.
Interview with Corin Hardy for The Hallow
And how was that being a brand new father at the same time as ‘birthing’ your first film?
It was so kinda crazy that it all levelled out. It was the best thing ever in that it made me feel quite… I’m spent many years anticipating making my first film and you grow anxious and fearful of doing it right. Then having a baby, though obviously I didn’t have to do as much that was my girlfriend, but it puts everything into perspective and it meant that when I went to make the film I sort of felt stronger in some ways. I also felt more informed because I was going through the same thing that the couple I’d been writing about for the last few years leading up to the film. I actually knew what they were going through a little bit more.
Exactly. When your writing your creating characters and your doing research but when you actually have a child and your… it was always going to be about a relationship in a certain crisis struggling to cope with a new baby and the decisions they have to make magnified upon when something from the forest encroaches on them and tries to take the child. When I was going through at least the real human part of that it just helped me work with the actors, it was an unexpected blessing.
Interview with Corin Hardy for The Hallow
Most DVD releases these days have maybe a generic ‘behind-the-scenes’ extra that’s a few minutes long with some clips chucked together, the release of The Hallow is different as you created an in-depth documentary for the disc. It charts the whole life of the movie from inception through to screenings, what made decide to go down that path and share it with the fans?
I’m really proud of the extras. Basically I’m a nerd who loves all that stuff, behind-the-scenes, extras etc. I think it can be very interesting and informative and I particularly love the making of’s for movies are for whatever reason more personal, ragged, more intimate. The ones that make you feel like you’re there as opposed to the glossy ones which like you said have a generic feel and everyone just says nice things and you don’t really feel like you’re on the set.
I recorded all of the pre-production, creating the creatures, location recee’s, rehearsals with creature performers myself and then when we got into the shoot I gave my camera to my assistant. He filmed on set everyday, it was very sporadic in terms of what we got, sometimes it was too dark to film, we were in the middle of the forest. I just said ‘look just get everything you can and see what we get at the end.’ I really pushed to try and get that kind of little documentary made. I’m more of a fan of that kind of stuff myself and I hope that people will enjoy going through this sort of experience, we called it ‘Surviving the Fairytale’ and it was a little bit like survival making the film.
Didn’t you save somebody’s life a couple of times?
(Laughs) Yeah more than a few, there were some very strange occurrences and there’s a couple in that making of. You can see one of them which my assistant managed to capture on camera when the gaffer was like a proper horror movie, he was standing on top of a ladder in the kitchen and his leg actually went through the step. The kinda thing that happens and you go ‘that never happens’ but he was holding a heavy light and his foot went through the ladder step and he just fell from the top of a ladder. From a distance I managed to dive and catch him (chuckles), and its on film, you can just about make out what’s going on. There were a few other strange occurrences too.
Are you still involved in The Crow and if so what can you tell us?
I can only say that I am still set to make The Crow and that we are awaiting the Relativity situation to settle. Until that happens I’m just waiting. I’m a huge fan of the original and I’ve done a lot of work already and I’m excited to get going.
Interview with Corin Hardy for The Hallow
What are audiences going to get from The Hallow?
They’re gonna enjoy watching a imaginative, scary, and thrilling horror movie that is not just scary ghost girls, or possessed people. It’s hopefully something that they will hopefully find more in and want to watch more than once, that would be really great. Hopefully it will tap into their emotions a little too.
It’s kind of an amalgamation of movies that I admire. I wanted to find my own movie and story to tell, but its definitely nodding at some of my inspirations.
The Hallow is out on DVD on March 21 and available to pre-order now. It’s also available on digital platforms now.
Read our 4-star review here.
