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As a producer, this is a dream project. A real life horror story, with a cinematic quality, in a single location.
Making the underlying superstitions credible to a modern audience is a primary challenge. This is true both creatively and from a production/budgetary point of view. The storytelling scenes give an indication of our approach. This also gives us an opportunity to “step outside” the cottage and into the world of believes. I see these moments as where the key production tradeoffs will occur. This is where we must get the greatest “bang for our buck”. Even if the audience don’t believe in fairies, they must fear them.
Another focal point is the portrayal of violence. The balance is between honestly portraying what happened to Bridget, while being aware of our audiences tolerances. We are agreed that holding back, makes the moments you do show violence all the more impactful. All of these decisions will be made before principle photography.
Although we’re designing and marketing this as a horror story, we’re sensitive that it's a true story. A 26 year old young woman, was murdered by her husband. The horror elements are all there, we didn’t invent them, yet the story has so many layers: Extreme domestic abuse; social contagion; family; class; religion and superstition. It’s a microcosm of society, played out over a few days, in a cottage in Tipperary. There are characters that will appeal across divides of age, class and gender. This could tempt us to be too broad in our marketing approach. However, with marketing, as with filmmaking we must focus spending. The 18-30 year old audience is a natural fit but we’re passionate that viewers will find this far richer than a slasher story and the box office will reflect this.
