New parents get potentially deadly new neighbors in The Ones Below, the feature film directorial debut of David Farr (AMC's The Night Manager, Hanna). With The Ones Below coming out in theaters and on VOD today, we recently caught up with Farr, who discussed working with David Morrissey (The Governor on The Walking Dead), the inspiration behind his new film, and much more.
David, thanks for taking the time to answer some questions for us, and congratulations on your fantastic new film, The Ones Below. How did you come up with the idea for your latest movie? Is this is a story that you’ve been thinking about for a long time?
David Farr: The film was inspired by a conversation I had in 2011 with a great friend about the anxiety of parenting. I was directing him in a Harold Pinter play at the time. We both have children. He’d had some serious illness issues with his young daughter. We talked about the terrible fears around birth and a child’s well-being. The sense of almost metaphysical terror, like nothing else on Earth. I awoke the morning after our chat with the story in my head, almost from beginning to end. It was almost like a dream and I tried to keep that quality all through the process of making the film.
The Ones Below marks your feature-length directorial debut (and an excellent one, at that). What made you want to get behind the camera for this story?
David Farr: Well, I’d directed over forty theatre productions, mainly in London but also in New York and other places, of Shakespeare, Pinter, Kafka and so on. And then, as something of a tangent, I co-wrote the Joe Wright film Hanna, which became a big hit. And so someone joined up the dots. I have to say that cinema was my first love as a teenager. I feel a little like I have come home after a long journey.
From Hanna to The Night Manager and beyond, you always take great care in your work to tell compelling, character-driven stories. How important was it for you to build believable characters first and foremost in The Ones Below?
David Farr: I like great stories and I start with story. I feel you should be able to tell a good story in really just a few sentences. Like to a child. But then as I write, character takes over. If I don’t get involved in the characters, then I lose interest and I suspect, so would my audience. It feels to me that genre filmmaking, to call it that, is really an extension of character into extremity. My characters make decisions we all make—about love, life, future, past—but the consequences of those decisions in these sort of stories are much more devastating or momentous—sometimes even a matter of life and death.
Many horror fans know David Morrissey from his tremendous portrayal of The Governor on The Walking Dead, and Morrissey is just as menacing and equally superb in The Ones Below. Did you always have him in mind for the role of Jon, and what was it like working with Morrissey to bring that character to life?
David Farr: I was thrilled he said “yes.” It was really the moment I knew the film would happen. This guy is a great actor. He can be vulnerable, he can be terrifying. It’s all going on inside that head. He’s a smart man with great integrity. About Jon, he said this simple thing: “That guy really loves her, doesn’t he?” When everyone was saying, “Oh, he’s scary, he’s evil,” David just quietly pointed out the important thing. This film is about love and what we will do in its name.
Do you have any favorite movies, TV shows, or books that influenced or inspired you while making The Ones Below?
David Farr: I admire Hitchcock, possibly too much, but I do. He’s the master of this kind of moviemaking. He has a twisted mind, of course, and knows we do too. He’s a little wicked in that way. I also looked at David Lynch, Nic Roeg, and Polanski, of course. The hard thing is to make a genre film in the UK, the land of social realism. We have no mythic nature to our worldview, unlike you Americans. You really do see your country as a fairy tale that sometimes goes very wrong. That’s great for cinema, for Westerns and for contemporary adult stories. We’re weary and cynical, so it’s harder.
Where did filming take place and what did that environment add aesthetically and atmospherically to the movie?
David Farr: All in London except the end, in France. We spent five weeks in one house. It became the “other” character. It was intense, Clémence Poésy in particular, who plays Kate, had to go through some pretty tough and grueling scenes. But the house helped. It became our routine. It became work in a good way, like a rehearsal room. Let’s go to work.
What was the most challenging scene to shoot?
David Farr: The canal scene at the end. It’s tough and horrible. Steve Campbell Moore nailed that scene and it was early in the shoot. I still don’t know how he did it. He just found something in himself. That’s what great actors do. They go there.
Looking back at your time on set, is there a particularly funny or memorable moment that stands out to you?
David Farr: Well, there I was thinking the baby was going to be tricky and the baby was great. The baby (or babies, we used twins), was terrific, a consummate performer. But the cat. Ask a cat to leave, it will enter. Ask it to enter, it will leave. Cats just know how to screw you.
The ending of The Ones Below sticks with the viewer long after watching it. Did you always have that twist in mind? Was there ever a different fate planned for Kate and her baby?
David Farr: Never, no. I wanted people to feel there were other options, but in my mind, no. Cinderella always fits in the shoe and the wicked witch always burns in her boots. That’s kind of how stories are. They take over.
With The Ones Below coming out in theaters and on VOD beginning May 27th, do you have any projects on deck that you can tease for our readers? Where can they find you on social media?
David Farr: Okay, so I’m on Twitter, but I’m shy so I’ll leave it at that. I do have another movie I wrote coming out soon, HHhH starring Jason Clarke, Rosamund Pike, and Jack O’Connell. Should be good. It’s about the killing of a top-ranking Nazi in Prague in 1942. And then I’m lead-writing a big new BBC series called Troy: Fall of a City. It’s the Homer story but from the Trojan point of view. Should be… epic.
Raised on a steady diet of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Derek has been fascinated with fear since he first saw ForeverWare being used on an episode of Eerie, Indiana.
When he’s not writing about horror as the Senior News Reporter for Daily Dead, Derek can be found daydreaming about the Santa Carla Boardwalk from The Lost Boys or reading Stephen King and Brian Keene novels.
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