IndieCork opener gets scary in Bantry as Damian makes the most of hometown connections
A scene from Caveat, which opens the IndieCork film festival this weekend.
Much like that pink bunny with the long-life batteries keeps going on and on, the 'bunny rabbit' in will have a long life — in your nightmares. The film will open the upcoming IndieCork film festival, which is pretty good timing for getting into the Halloween vibe.
As well as taking place in the cinema, there will be a new online festival hub where many of the festival films can be viewed from home. But this one is to be screened in the Gate Cinema on Cork's North Main Street on Sunday, October 4 at 8.30pm (and online for streaming an hour later). Many of us have been deprived of cinema visits for some time now. But the 'basics' remain the same: arrive on time, no feet on the seats in front, and be quiet.
However, director, Damian McCarthy, doesn't want total silence for his films; it's the nervous laughter as a viewer's nerves are stretched taut while watching a character make some classic horror 'mistakes' of entering that creepy building or turning their back that he's interested in.
Basically, without giving too much away, we have Isaac (Jonathan French) who takes a job as a 'minder' for a disturbed young woman for a few days. Cold hard cash seems to be his motivation in opting to come to this arrangement with the slightly wheeler-dealerish Moe (Ben Caplan). Though there's not enough cash in the bank to get me to agree to travel to this place of work and pop on the 'uniform'.
Isaac's charge is understandably a little skittish in her creepy old house and doesn't want a stranger coming into her room so she'd like him to agree to be restrained for the duration of his shift. There are plenty classic horror elements so far: lonely setting, dingy paintings, and mysterious bumps. But some of the most unsettling moments are fleeting did-I-just-see-that scenes.
McCarthy attended St John's Central College in Cork but developed his love of film years earlier — as a child in Bantry in fact. Not that he comes from a 'film family' in the Hollywood sense: "My family had an electrical shop with things like hairdryers in the front but it had a VHS section so I saw all the films, big ones like and , I started there."
"I liked films and writing but going back to the 90s, before digital and YouTube etc, it would have been an impossible dream, you really would nearly have had to come from a film family to get into the industry," he notes.
He still worked with 8mm and 16mm film before digital and honed his ability to work within tight confines: "You only have so many feet or minutes to get what you want done. Digital is great, technology just gets better and better."
Like his father, Damian is an electrician, and his dad, who still runs John McCarthy Electrical in Bantry, was among the family and friends drafted in to help with this film: "Everybody I am close to I had to ask for some favour."
Friends supplied transport and the superbly creepy location too. "My friend Sam White's family owns Bantry House where we filmed. Actually, the house was way too nice, it's so beautiful, for what we wanted for this film so a lot of it is sets built outside."
His sisters were also involved: professional make-up artist, Miriam McCarthy, and Linda, who had many roles even including supplying hot-water bottles to actors who got chilly during filming in winter. McCarthy explains: "We had very little money so we were trying to hook people with the script — to just get it out there." The film is funded by private investors.
He is very pleased with how casting went. Ben Caplan acted in for five years and also has , and to his name. "Ben has years of experience on much larger budgets but he liked the script so that was great."
Jonathan French is definitely noteworthy as the stoic bearded character who takes on the extremely dodgy job. Somewhat appropriately for a film called , he suffered a leg injury during filming:
While Jonathan was accidentally injured, there is one character who was intentionally mutilated and abused: creepy toy bunny rabbit. "Ah yes," McCarthy laughs. "I always had an interest in wind-up toys and I sourced this on eBay."
He stripped all the pink fur from this poor fellow and then dispatched him to costume and prop builder, Lisa Zagone, who is based in Cork.
"She sent me a picture of what I thought she was going to aim for with this rabbit. I thought it was perfect and said that if she could get it looking anything like that then I'd be happy. So I was thrilled when she told that was the actual rabbit toy she had achieved for me. It did what we wanted it to do in the film and it actually 'died' on his last take," says McCarthy.
It wasn't all sinister all the time though, McCarthy has plenty praise for the gorgeous scenery of West Cork where they filmed, pointing out that the actors enjoyed going for walks around Bantry between filming.
And in a sweeter touch, the credits do note that there were two 'production babies': Dylan and Amelia. Dylan is McCarthy's nephew and Amelia is producer, Justin Hyne's daughter.
Work on started four years ago and now Damian just wants to get it out there — it will be screened at other film festivals, including London's FrightFest. He may take some time to relax when he turns 40 in January but notes that many of his favourite horror writers and directors achieved their greatness when they were much older. In the meantime, don't say you weren't warned about .
- The closing film is , a documentary on the late Fergus O’Farrell, the Cork singer who had muscular dystrophy, and was the charismatic voice of the band, Interference.
- : This is an intimate portrayal of Autumn, a stoic, quiet teenager and her more outgoing cousin, Skylar, in rural Pennsylvania. Faced with an unintended pregnancy and without viable alternatives in her home state, they scrape up some cash, pack a suitcase, and board a bus to New York City. This was a Silver Bear Award winner at Berlinale, 2020
- Homemade: Lockdown Stories: Various film-makers document aspects of life during lockdown.
- , a period drama directed by Tom Sullivan and set in Ireland, 1845, on the eve of The Great Hunger.
- IndieCork Music: The IndieCork Sessions We may not be able to gather together in numbers at the moment, but IndieCork is offering the next best thing; an immersive sonic experience at the centre of a live musical performance. IndieCork will be making binaural recordings of three live performances during festival week. Binaural recoding collects sound in 360 degrees rather than stereo, and when listening on headphones it gives the feeling of being at the centre of the room, with the musicians all around you. The concerts will be filmed by Harry Moore and the audiovisual result will be streamed, and broadcast on radio stations here and in Britain. The first performance will be by Karen Power, Eimear Reidy and John Godfrey in the Glucksman Gallery.
