Exclusive Q&A with Haunt Director Mac Carter

Haunt was recently released to VOD and, with its theatrical release coming up later this week, we had director Mac Carter take part in our latest Q&A feature. Continue reading to learn about his experience working on his first feature film and what he'd like to tackle next:

Great job on your first feature! I thought you did a wonderful job keeping the story from feeling like every other haunted house movie- it has some nice twists. Can you talk about what drew you to Andrew’s story originally and what your approach to the material was as a storyteller?

Mac Carter: Kind words. Thank you very much. The script for “Haunt” came to me through a producer friend, Ronnie Eisen, who knew of my enthusiasm for the genre. I make no secret of my deep love for all things genre and comic books. All my friends know I’m a deeply proud geek. There was some solid industry buzz around the draft and the writer, Andrew Barrer, so I was intrigued.

I dove in late that night, sitting alone in my office (the absolute best way to consume any horror script!). I read it cover to cover. Three times in a row. And it scared the shit out of me. The draft was thick with atmosphere and dread, a real skin crawler. It had the right sort of self-conscious touches and a subversive climax that tickled my narrative fancy. But even more impressive to me was the relationship between the two teen leads at the heart of the story. It was tender, touching, and tragic.

I remember describing it to friends as a Romeo and Juliet horror story. Eventually, my friends convinced me to stop describing it in such cheesy terms but the impression lingered in my thoughts. I became convinced with a love affair like that at the center of a ghost story, we might have something special. After persuading the producers to give me the directing gig, I made job number one preserving that special relationship between Evan and Sam. Above all else, I was determined to get that right.

You worked with a pretty large ensemble here with a lot of stunts and a bunch of great practical and visual effects moments too- because you were a first-time director, how did you get through the more challenging moments you faced along the way?

Mac Carter: Genre filmmaking at this budget is an incredibly creative process. The biggest lesson I’ll take away from my experience on “Haunt” is the level of unbridled energy and laser-beam focus you need to take into every shoot day. Attack, attack, attack! You don’t let up until the producers call wrap and drag you off the set. You also need to be prepared for every eventuality. It seems obvious, but it’s so true. You bring strong ideas for how you want something to look or feel but you must be ready and flexible enough to recognize the better idea or the need to adjust. I can give you an example…

The original draft was set during the summer. We found an amazing location near Salt Lake City–an old house hidden deep behind a dense stand of lush, green woods. The week before we began production the area got hit by an early season snowstorm. In the foothills where we were shooting it dropped more than a foot of powder. Great for Snowbird, not so hot for “Haunt.” I remember speaking with the producers on the phone and explaining to them that I literally could not see my hand held up at arm’s length through the falling snow. Other productions might have taken a weather day or run for a cover set. But not us. Our budget wouldn’t allow for it. To the producers’ credit, they insisted we shoot through it. It was hell on the crew and the shoot schedule but it gave us this striking icy look. Without question, it’s one of the most memorable things about the movie. And it was all because we were forced by Mother Nature to adapt or die. Dealing with the skinny-dipping scene was slightly more problematic but we got around that one, too. That’s what I mean: It’s exciting, seat of your pants filmmaking, and there’s no other way to succeed but to commit and dive in head first.

Haunt is a very character-driven movie and I thought it was nice to see a horror film take some time to develop its characters for a change- how was it working with your cast? Jacki and Liana were particularly great.

Mac Carter: For me, characters you can relate to within unbelievable circumstances make for the most compelling horror. You fear for them as their world comes crashing down around their ears. It’s that simple. And that was the notion that guided me as I began casting the film. We were very fortunate to have superstar casting director John Papsidera agree to do our film. He was instrumental in helping me to find Harrison Gilbertson and Liana Liberato. They’re both young and early in their careers but they brought such great energy and commitment to their performances. They had very strong opinions about their characters, Evan and Sam, and how they might respond in a given situation, especially with respect to their romantic feelings for one another. And they obviously had great chemistry. Their input was really invaluable in putting believable teens at the center of the supernatural story of “Haunt.” I couldn’t imagine the film without them.

Ione’s part was smaller, but in her typically understated way she walked into the circumstances and really grounded them. Her wail at the end of the film—you know the one I’m talking about—still sends shivers down my spine. That’s her gift as an actress. She was a pleasure to work with. Jacki is Jacki. Sweet, soft-spoken, and mischievous—the perfect mix for this part. You couldn’t ask for a more patient and giving actor, but to also have someone with her experience and reputation was beyond a dream come true, especially being a first time director. She brought this combination of incredible pain and fury to her character, Janet Morello. The success of the horror behind the mystery succeeds solely because of Jacki’s bottomless talent. And in case it’s not obvious enough from her crazed warning or weirdly malevolent grin, she has a wicked sense of humor, too. And that didn’t hurt. This cast was wonderful to work with, and from the beginning every one of them was dedicated to putting a believable family in that creepy house. I think that’s exactly what they did.

I thought the way you framed the story of Haunt made it feel like this sort of creepy old tale you’d tell around a fire to try and creep your friends out but you also did it in a very contemporary way. Was it challenging to you at all as a storyteller to bring those two styles together?

Mac Carter: Andrew’s script always opened and closed with a tip of the hat to the genre through a creepy voice over that acknowledges that ghost stories follow certain well-worn paths but don’t always end the same way. I thought it really got to the heart of the notion of the film: we’ll give you something that feels familiar but frightening, but know that at any moment we may pull the rug out from under your expectations. That was the idea anyway. That self-consciousness felt contemporary. But was it a challenge to blend that idea with the actual filmmaking? Yes. No doubt.

Some of the tropes had to be cut for various reasons, some remain in the film, and some simply changed. Here was my approach… If a moment in the script felt like I had seen it before, then I did my best to execute it as well as I could given my restraints. As an aside, there was one great change to a featured trope. The script originally called for the teens to communicate with the dead using a Ouija board. A familiar device, and one Andrew felt winked at the audience in a really playful way. I get his point. And maybe had things gone differently that’s exactly how it would have played in the film. But several days before we were scheduled to shoot those scenes, Hasbro refused to give us permission to use the board. While the producers and I banged our heads against the walls, Andrew went to work. He brought us the ghost box the following morning. What a killer idea! And how much better is the film for it? It’s practically the centerpiece of the film. We featured one less trope (or avoided a cliche, depending on your point of view) but got handed a great consolation prize—the “Haunt” ghost box.

Were there any haunted house movies that you drew inspiration from? There was one great moment during the flashbacks that felt reminiscent of The Innocents but that may have just been me.

Mac Carter: Of course! My whole life has been steeped in this genre. Seriously, if I haven’t seen “Poltergeist” and “Insidious” fifty times each, it’s an even hundred. I love genre, always have. But maybe that’s a cop out. So, I’ll give you a few films that I leaned on creatively during the production. The relationship at the center of Alfredson’s “Let the Right one In” was one that I thought about often while working to develop the love affair between Evan and Sam.

Many of these haunted house films begin with a family moving into their creepy new digs. Nobody does family better than Spielberg. That’s carved in stone somewhere. So, “Something Evil” and “Poltergeist” and “Jaws” and “CE3K” and, and, and… Of course there are a ton of haunted house films that had to have influenced me along the way: “The Haunting,” “The Changeling,” “Burnt Offerings,” “The Amityville Horror” (’79), “The Shining,” “The Orphanage,” “The Others,” and many more. There’s no way that I don’t owe a great debt of gratitude to all those filmmakers and all those great films. They provided the beef and turnips for the wicked stew bubbling in my noggin.

Can you share with our readers your favorite on-set memory?

Mac Carter: There are so many. But I’ll give you this one and I haven’t mentioned it anywhere before now—when Harrison and Liana sat down in front of that ghost box in the back room of the attic, when they opened the heavy lid and cranked it to life, when the tubes lit up and the speaker squawked with static, and when the haunting voice emerged, finally, through all of the radio claptrap, I knew we had something special working for us. It felt all at once like we had found the moment that the film was all about: two troubled teens delving into a mystery, knowing full well there would be grim consequences. I could almost hear an audience screaming to the characters on screen, “Don’t open that box!”

With Haunt wrapped up, do you have another project lined up to direct?

Mac Carter: Right now, I’m trying to get “Haunt” out there to an audience that I think is going to really enjoy these characters, their story, and some great scares. I do have plans, though. I am deep into an adaptation of a really frightening short story. It’s another haunted house tale with great characters and, if we get it right, a mind-blowing twist. I’ll be taking that out to the industry very soon.

Beyond that, I’m a huge fan of Lovecraft. Who isn’t?! I created “The Strange Adventures of HP Lovecraft” published by Image Comics. I optioned it to Universal for Ron Howard to direct, I wrote the first draft of the screenplay before handing it off to a way more accomplished screenwriter, but now the property has reverted to me. I own it again. And now, I want to make it. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos needs to be put on screen. It’s unlike everything else out there—a blend of horror and sci-fi movie audiences have never seen. My story has a unique perspective on the man and his work, a more accessible approach to his unimaginable, unknowable horror. I’d like to be the director that finally introduces HPL to a mainstream audience.

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"A family of five moves into a beautiful, sprawling dream home. One problem: it’s cursed, having caused the deaths of the previous family to occupy it, leaving only one survivor (Jacki Weaver). The moody 18-year-old son and his mysterious new neighbor/girlfriend inadvertently awaken something in the house while also violently shaking the many skeletons in the many closets. Mac Carter’s atmospheric debut feature is an unusually character-driven haunted-house film that isn't afraid to take the action outside. An IFC Midnight release."