Lake Travis FF 2021 Interview: THE TURN OF THE SCREW’s Alex Gavin talks about the challenges of making a horror film for people who don’t like horror
Alex Gavin’s THE TURN OF THE SCREW, which just screened at the Lake Travis Film Festival takes a literary classic and with care and style, turns it around and on back on itself. Adapted from the famous Henry James novel, and set in an empty theatre over the course of one evening, Julia finds herself as a last minute replacement for another actress at the dress rehearsal of a stage play version of Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw, set in 1890. She soon discovers that memorizing her lines wasn’t the biggest hurdle to overcome in order to perform her part for this production.
The film follows in the footsteps of some classic gothic-style ghost stories, playing with our expectations and perceptions, and frankly our ideas of what the actress protagonist is experiencing – what is in the physical realm and what is not and ultimately, what is the threat she is facing? It is horror designed as delicately as a teacup and as engrossing as it can get. And, we also get the meta aspect of all of this going on during a rehearsal of the play itself, so the story turns in on itself in some wicked ways there as well.
In the interview, we talk about making horror movies for people that don’t like horror. We also talk about “using the space” cinematically – in this case shooting a film on a stage (or making us think we are on a stage) and making it interesting, if not frightening, as well as utilizing the sound design to also enhance those efforts. We also discuss the work of Greer Phillips to pull off a performance that had so many challenges to make it all work on so many levels.
