Richard Brake is one of the best actors working in modern horror. His ability to consistently choose fascinating, and oftentimes bloodcurdling, characters to play is second to none. As such, we at THN never pass up an opportunity to watch a project he has been involved with. His latest film The Gates, is out now in both the US and UK, and transports the viewer back in time to the year 1892.
When the depraved murderer William Colcott (Richard Brake) is finally caught, he is sentenced to death by electric chair – one of the first convicts to be executed by this new method on trial from America… but before the execution, the evil killer puts a curse on the whole prison and upon everyone who dwells within The Gates. When two post-mortem photographers, turned paranormal investigators, Frederick Ladbroke (John Rhys-Davies) and Emma Wickes (Elena Delia), take on a new assignment, they become embroiled in a strange investigation with a mysterious medium, Lucian Abberton (Michael Yare). Can they stop William’s malevolent spirit from escaping Bishopsgate Jail… or will the gates of hell be opened and unimaginable terror be unleashed on Victorian London?
In the lead up to release, THN caught up with Brake to find out about his latest killer creation.
What was it about the script that made you want to be involved with The Gates?
My agent sent it to me right before Christmas in 2021. Not exactly a Christmas read is it? I just really thought it was an original script. First of all, for when it was set – Victorian England. Mostly, if not all of it, in the prison and that in itself I haven’t seen before or at least in quite some time. It had a real Gothic feel to it as a result, a kind of old-school horror which I love.
I get sent a lot of scripts and the horror films that always appeal to me most are the ones that have something to say, they aren’t just about giving you a good scare. I really felt this had a lot to say about society, the way we treat people. I also look for bad guys that aren’t just psychotic for no reason. There are some people that are pure psychopaths and I’ve played them. But what I loved about William Colcott was that honestly; he just loved his wife so much that he couldn’t let that go. He had to bring her back, no matter what it took. Right away that just appealed to me. I think that was probably the number one thing that got me wanting to do it.
Post mortem photography is fascinating, the protagonists in The Gates do it as their profession. It was traditionally the only photo that some would have due to lack of money, but then a serial killer’s image is kept for prosperity. I guess that was the start of society’s fascination with them?
Now that’s really a great observation. I think it is and even when in the prison for the brief time he’s there, he takes on a kind of mythic proportion. Everybody’s talking about him throughout the film and in a way that sort of ties into one of the things that really drew me to the film was that, I’m physically only in it for the first part. I knew that I had to create such a level of terror in those twenty odd minutes that would sustain the remainder of the film where you don’t see very much of me, and yet my presence as it were is figuratively and literally, it has to motivate the fear and the movie. That to me was a challenge that I really wanted to do, try and create as much fear as I can in a very brief amount of time, to really sustain throughout the rest of the film.
In a way that’s sort of what you’re saying too… serial killers, they create such a vivid terror within us that we become fascinated by them outside of whether they’re not even alive anymore, like Jeffrey Dahmer. So many of them are still in our psyche at some level.
Although you’re primarily in the opening, this being a story of curses and entities, means that there are sequences of possession. This means that your work sets up this character that others have to follow. Did you work together at all to create William?
I didn’t work with anyone directly, but I do know Claire [J. Loy] who played Marie, she was fantastic. I know she worked very hard prior to filming to get down my mannerisms. As I understood it she was watching films of mine and trying to really get a sense of the same sort of physical movement. I think her performance is fantastic as a result of that. She put in a lot of effort to really be William Colcott when William Colcott was no longer there. It definitely paid off because she terrifies me when I watch it.
Prior to haunting the prison, William is apprehended and put to death in the electric chair. You’ve died on screen a lot of times, not quite to the level of Sean Bean, but still a lot. How do you prepare to perish on screen?
I guess not as many as Sean Bean, I’d love to know what his number is. I’ll have to look my number up, but it’s quite a lot. I often say there was a time when I died in everything. So that, when I would go to an audition, my wife would say to me, “does your character die?” and I was like “no” she goes, “well, then there’s no point you going, you might as well stay here with the kids.
This is a very odd statement, but I love dying on film. I find it’s such a fun challenge to try and make it look as real as possible. I remember in Halloween II, that scene in the car where I die, all I wanted to do was make it look as real as possible. It’s personally, one of my most terrifying ways of dying. That to me was actually quite a challenge and I love doing it. This one in particular, being executed… actually, when I was younger, I used to have constant nightmares about being electrocuted and having a death sentence, and having only a few hours left, it was a recurring nightmare as a child. So to actually have the experience of getting to go through it, in pretend, but nonetheless, pretend to go through that was an incredible experience.
I actually did a lot of research on what that’s like, to die in the electric chair. Not pleasant. Forced myself to watch some extremely unpleasant videos. Not too many of them because I can only take so much, but to really just try to make that as real as possible. For William Colcott obviously, he approached it maybe differently to how I would. It was actually one of my favourite scenes to film, as challenging as it is. It’s definitely an experience I won’t forget. It was a scary looking chair.
As much as you know it is all pretend, there must be the odd moment of creeping doubt that starts to wander in…
The worst time that happened was in Hannibal Rising. I’ve got a rope tied around my neck and it’s attached to a horse. That really was the case. There was a rope around my neck, and around the tree, and it was attached to a horse. Behind me was a stuntman who said, “look, don’t worry, there’s a break in the rope, so if the horse bolts, it’ll break.” But I took that on faith. We’re in the middle of the shoot, the cameras rolling, I’m thinking, “what if he’s wrong? What if the break isn’t done well enough?” So when you see terror on my face, it’s real in that one. I was genuinely starting to have a slight panic.
William Colcott is another evil character for your resume, will you ever do a nice wholesome rom com or some Disney project that the kids can see?
C’mon somebody put me in his love interest in a rom com, no one seems to have bitten yet. I did have The Munsters come out, that’s definitely geared towards a younger audience. We had a lot of fun making that. It was nice for all of us that make movies that are not geared towards a younger audience, to spend a couple months making a movie for the kids.
The Munsters was filmed during the pandemic meaning you were all locked in together..
Literally, we were all living together in Budapest and working together. It was one of the first films I shot after the pandemic. It was still going on, but it was a hell of an experience. I think in some ways it has benefited from the fact that we were together so much because we’re just laughing all the time off set and on. It was a great experience.
Last year was a busy one for you in terms of films released, The Munsters, Vesper, and Barbarian all arrived. Vesper is stunning and required you to play two roles: one purely vocally, the other physically only, how did you approach the separation?
The biggest challenge was trying to express what’s going on inside me when I can’t move anything but my eyeballs, which is one of the big reasons I did that film. It was challenging, but the directors were very, very good and very demanding. If they didn’t believe what was coming out, they would do it again, and do it again. It really paid off. What was coming out was just what was in my thinking. I just had to let my thinking somehow come out through my eyes. It was sort of the ultimate acting exercise and I loved it for that. We then later did all of the voice-over with the drone. That was in itself a challenge, really because I’m doing it six months later and sitting in a studio trying to create all that.
I was so happy when I saw it. I thought the film itself was wonderful. Eddie’s [Marsan] brilliant, Rafi [Raffiella Chapman], so it was a great little independent film, we’re really proud of it. I’m really pleased that it had a great reaction, and it’s got a nice audience out there.
And Barbarian did phenomenally well. It’s always a fun one to watch with someone new who has no idea where it’s going. I imagine that was a great script to read?
My God, I was on a plane to Lithuania to shoot Vesper, and they sent me that script and I read it on the plane. It blew me away. It’s the best horror script I’d read in such a long time. The plane landed and I was on the phone to my agent saying, “I’m going to do it. Yes, 100% percent.” I just thought it was absolutely brilliant. I was literally, like you watching it, on the plane going. “Oh my God. What’s going on now?!” Then it was a fantastic shoot, wonderful director. We shot that segment of Frank in a couple of weeks and Zach knew exactly what he wanted to do. We talked it through, he gave me some wonderful films to reference. Frank’s probably the most psychotic human being I’ve ever played. Even though you don’t see me do anything, he’s one sick individual.
I knew it would do well,l but I didn’t expect what would happen. Zach called me and I thought when he called he was going to tell me that Frank had been cut out. I Thought “I bet the big old producers had gone “let’s just move onto the deaths.” I said to him, “you’re telling me I’m cut out aren’t you?” and he said, “what are you on about? No.” The film had tested, and just tested through the roof, so they obviously decided to release it theatrically. The phenomena that it became, I was so happy for everyone involved. It’s great to see something you read that’s brilliant, then on the film you have a brilliant experience, and then it has a brilliant reaction from an audience. It’s really very rewarding. I was very, very grateful to be part of that.
There’s yet more movie treats coming out, The Last Stop in Yuma Country sounds especially great. The cast along with yourself includes the brilliant Barbara Crampton and Jim Cummings…
What an amazing cast they put together. You know, they had such a small budget. I’ve been involved quite early on because I just love the director, and I love the script; it’s an amazing script. And then we were getting Covid and a lot of things pushed it and I would just keep getting updates on the cast from the director and it was just one amazing actor after another. All of us signing because the script is so good. I’m looking forward to everyone seeing that.
Is there anything that you can tease about it?
I’ve seen a very rough cut of it and it’s a really great roller-coaster of a film. Jim Cummings is amazing. It’s a real old-school, bit of Tarantino Vibe. It is independent film at its best. I think a lot of people are going to really dig it. I can only tell you I don’t play the romantic interest.
The Gates is out on Digital HD now.
