Ivan Kavanagh, The Canal

Evans plays a cinema archivist who is drawn into a nightmare when he views some old footage. The Canal premiered at Tribeca and opens in the US this week [October 14] day-and-date theatrically and on VOD through The Orchard. Jinga Films represents international rights.

Self-taught writer-director Kavanagh waxes lyrical on his love of horror, the real horror of shooting in a public toilet in a heatwave and protecting young child actors.

What inspired you to write The Canal?
The starting point was the urge to make a horror movie. Some of my most vivid memories from childhood are of watching films I shouldn’t have been watching, like Rosemary’s Baby, which absolutely terrified and traumatised me, but really fired my imagination and later on led to me writing my own stories, filled with that same sense of dread and fear that I felt as a child.

Because the genre, at its best, can be so nightmarish and dreamlike, it allows you complete creative freedom too, which is, of course, very liberating for a filmmaker. You can be as experimental as you like – quite abstractly sometimes – with sound, picture and editing and I wanted to push these things almost to breaking point. I wanted to make a horror movie that would be a visceral experience, where the sound and picture would have equal importance.

Story-wise, I always thought a cinema archivist would make a great protagonist for a film, because he investigates the past for a living and in this film he’s not only investigating the terrifying history of his house, but also himself too. It would also allow me to have fun including my passion for early cinema in the story and to make a film that was, in a way, about the power of cinema and the overwhelming sense of fantasy that it can create, for good or bad. Most of all I wanted to make a film that would be dripping with atmosphere, and that would hopefully linger in the minds of the audience, long after they have seen it. 

Did you have to fight to direct it?
No, I’ve always written and directed all of my own films and AnneMarie Naughton [producer] and I have worked together on two films previously and we have a great working relationship. We trust each other and so there was never a question as to whether I would direct it or not. 

When and where did it shoot?
It was shot in the summer of 2013 in Dublin and Wicklow, Ireland. I originally wanted to shoot the film around the canals of a suburb of Dublin where I grew up. When I was a child they were quite dilapidated and run down, quite frightening places to be as a child, but attractive as well for the very same reason. The memory of this was another inspiration in the writing of the film.

But when I returned there I found that they had been renovated and looked beautiful and idyllic. I was devastated! It no longer had the same terrifying atmosphere that I wanted and so we had to go in search of a replacement location. It was harder than we thought. Unfortunately for me, they’ve done a terrific job of renovating the canals in Dublin! We eventually found the amazing stretch of canal that you see in the film, which is in an industrial area of the city and although it isn’t as run-down as I remember from when I was a child, it had a wonderful atmosphere that I immediately knew was right for the film. 

How did financing come together? What’s the budget? 
My producer AnneMarie Naughton raised the money locally, mainly through the Irish Film board, and the Film Agency Wales in the UK, alongside a small amount of Dutch money, private investment and some other additional sources she secured. The budget was about €1m. 

Any anecdotes from the shoot?
There are a few sequences in a public toilet in the film – in one review I think they called it the most disgusting toilet seen in a film since Trainspotting – and we shot most of these sequences during the hottest day of the year in Dublin. It was a real abandoned toilet and not only were we all suffocating from the heat in this poorly ventilated building, but the smell was overwhelmingly awful.

We shot for nine hours in there and poor Rupert [Evans] had to kneel, lie and crawl through it for hours on end. We really didn’t think we were going to survive and none of us could really stomach lunch that day, but I think it looks absolutely fantastic in the film and is perfect for the story. 

How do you direct a young child on a horror film?
We auditioned about 300 children for the role until we found five-year-old Calum Heath. I wanted a child that would seem like a real child and not a “movie” child; that would be capable of learning lines and also of improvising. I knew this was a big ask, but we found him in Calum. He really is extraordinarily intelligent and talented and I knew at once it had to be him. I could give him the most nuanced change in lines and he would remember it no matter how much time had passed. Also, when you look at children acting – especially one that young – you can really learn a lot about the craft, as they are totally and utterly in the moment.

Calum never knew what type of film he was in and he still doesn’t – he won’t be able to watch it for another 15 years or so! We treated it like a game, and tried to keep the atmosphere as upbeat as possible when he was on set. We would shoot the scary shots, then take him out of the room and shoot his shots and so he never saw any of the real scary stuff. He became so attached to Rupert during the shoot and it was so sad to see them part. Calum had a great time and he was very sorry to see it end. 

The film is very slick and atmospheric. Who are your influences?
Atmosphere was paramount on my mind while making it. I wanted it to have the look of the films that I loved and still love from the 1970’s, especially Don’t Look Now, which we used as a visual reference. I wanted to use slow zooms and heightened colour and to have a grittier look than you normally see in other films shot on the RED camera. Piers McGrail [director of photography] and I would meet for hours at a time in the months running up to the shoot and planned the look, mood and feel of the film very carefully. We went to great lengths to get the look that I wanted. We used lenses from the 1970’s and even shot the old films using a hand-cranked 35mm camera from 1915. 

Is there a horror/genre scene in Ireland?

I’m not sure. I certainly don’t feel part of any scene, but I think it’s undeniable that there are very interesting genre films coming out of this country now and it’s very exciting. It’s funny though: when you are making a film – and I don’t know whether other filmmakers feel this way – you feel, in a strange way, as if you are working in a bubble. I get so wrapped up in my own work that I’m not aware of any other films being made around me.  

Do horror films generally do well at the box office?

I think, like other countries, certain horror films, usually those with the studio clout to push them, do quite well in this country. I’m guessing, but I imagine that the horror films that do exceptionally well are those that crossover from just the horror fans to the regular cinema-goers too. But they are rare. I do think however, that this film, given the opportunity, could have that crossover potential, as I’ve watched the film around the world with all kinds of audiences and the reaction has been incredible each time. They’ve all been scared – some people audibly screaming in the audience – but many people have reacted to it emotionally too, whether it’s the father-and-son relationship or the very dark subject matter that we unfortunately see everyday on the news that is at its heart. I don’t want to give anything away! The film is just about to open in theatres in the US and it will be released in the UK and Ireland early next year. 

Did you have formal film school training?
I didn’t go to film school. I just started making my own films when I was in my late teens. I shot them on a low grade Hi-8 video camera and would edit using back-to-back VCRs. Then once the digital revolution hit, I got a bank loan and bought my own camera, sound recording and editing equipment and once I owned my own equipment I could make an unlimited amount of films. I made 10 short films like this, which did well at festivals and then self-funded my first three feature films, which were my own film school in a way. There is no better way to learn about every aspect of filmmaking when you have to do almost everything yourself. Then Simon Perry [former head of the Irish Film Board] saw one of my films and we started a dialogue on other ideas for films. From then on the Irish Film Board have generously supported all of my work, including The Canal.

What are you directing next?
Ever since the film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival this year, I’ve had quite a few writing-directing offers from America. I secured a US agent too [Paradigm], who are amazing. I’m also writing another couple of films, which I’ll do with AnneMarie Naughton of Park Films, who produced The Canal. In the case of one of them, I don’t think I’ve seen anything quite like it and so I’m very excited about unleashing it on the world.

There’s also a western called Never Grow Old, which I’ve been working on for a few years and hope to shoot sometime next year with Dublin-based company Ripple World Pictures. And there’s also talk of a very exciting TV project, which hopefully will go into development very soon. So there’s a lot of stuff in the air. I’ll just have to wait and see what project lands first.