Director Alberto Corredor Talks BAGHEAD
BAGHEAD bestows a classic concept and archetypal character of a tortured and vengeful witch, an original narrative and fresh approach for modern audiences. With STUDIOCANAL having just unleashed the film in Australian Cinemas, Monster Fest’s Jarret Gahan caught up with director Alberto Corredor to discuss his love of the genre, the challenges in adapting his short to feature and insights into the production process of the film.
How you were first introduced to the horror genre and what have been some of the mainstays of the genre for you?
Alberto: That’s a very good question and a very long one to answer because I’ve been into horror since I was six. I have a mother who likes to stay awake until the really early hours of the day, and she needed a partner because my brother and my father never were into it. So that was me. So I started watching movies when I was very young and movies that I shouldn’t have watched. I think my favorites would probably be ALIEN and THE THING.
Any particular filmmakers that have inspired or influenced you?
Alberto: Well, definitely John Carpenter and Ridley Scott, they were the mainstays, but also David Cronenberg and Wes Craven. I think anything that is worth its salt in the horror genre I have watched, and even some that many people wouldn’t like, I still love watching. So in a nutshell, all the influences and all the directors that you can think of. And new filmmakers, like Brandon Cronenberg and Ari Aster. I think Aster is one of the most impressive voices in horror in the last decades, and HEREDITARY, I think is a masterpiece.
BAGHEAD began its life as a short film, which coincidentally played Monster Fest in 2018, how were you approached to adapt it into a feature?
Alberto: Well, it was from the beginning when I shot the short, I spoke to Lorcan, the writer, and I told him I had wanted to do a low budget horror feature. But the script for Lorcan’s short was so amazing, that I told Lorcan, we can do this on the condition that I’m going to develop it into a feature as I already could see the potential.
It wasn’t only the story, it was the iconic character of the witch, someone who can really turn into dead people and give you two minutes of time with them, that concept was killer. And after the short’s festival run, I have to admit it, it went quite fast that we found the people who were interested. I found representation, we started moving the short and trying to find a producer and a studio to get onboard. And when we found The Picture Company, Andrew Rona and Alex Heineman, everything went plain sailing. From there, they already had a deal with StudioCanal to make I think two movies a year, and one of them became BAGHEAD and now we’re here talking about it.
What were some of the challenges you faced in expanding upon the concept of BAGHEAD from the short to feature?
Alberto: Massive, massive challenges because the main thing is how to reduce the story. Obviously you can do anything. You can do anything in a feature, it’s easy to get a bit lost by putting in too many ideas and going in too many directions. The reality is that for me, it was important that it was about grief because for me, the witch is a metaphor of grief. That was one of the main things, everyone in the story should somehow be touched by grief and that our protagonist, Iris, for me, I always saw as a young woman who has lost her family and is looking for answers. And that was, let’s say, the starting point in developing the idea, later Christina Pamies came onboard and she created the outline where with the story, we included Neil, we wanted also to have something from the short, and Neil is partly from the short and later Bryce McGuire came also onboard and gave his touch on the story. So it was a long process. It also involved 18 months of Covid and not knowing if we were going to shoot the movie or not. So it had lots of challenges.
With regards to the cast of the film, how heavy a hand did you have in the casting process?
Alberto: Well, to be honest, the moment we knew that Freya Allan was available and she wanted to do the feature and because she had already a relationship with StudioCanal, and when I was made aware of that, everything went from that point forward because I really liked THE WITCHER. I really liked what she was doing at the time in the series. So we thought even if the story was at the time a bit different, we adapted to have a younger woman in our story. And from her casting is where all the other casting happened as it all depended on the protagonist, so you have to adapt your casting later.
We also had the privilege that Peter Mulan was also available and willing to make a horror movie for once. So it was a lot of coincidences happening there in casting. But I guess it’s part of the process too. You have to be open and react to the opportunities that are coming to you. For me, it was important that I was always in the driving seat in the casting and accepting or not accepting, but to be honest, everyone who was put forward was an incredible actor. So I never had the moment where I had to say no to anyone.
And what was the rehearsal process like with the actors, given that the film itself is character-driven, how much time and what kind of process did you have with the actors in preparing them for the film?
Alberto: The reality is that you never have enough time to rehearse. It’s also, sometimes not that good to rehearse before you’re shooting. What we did have was a few calls and we were always discussing the characters with the actors. I had lots of calls with Freya where we were kind of creating the backstory of Irish to make it work for the film. Because for actors, it’s really important to know who they are playing because otherwise they end up playing themselves in different movies in different stories. So the rehearsal is more talking through the backstory of the characters and talking about some of the scenes. We did rehearse for all scenes where there was set pieces and so on because you have to do them. But normally it’s on the day where you are finding the feeling of the scene. That’s what you do. The actors do a lot of this work on their own. And it also depends on which actors. Some actors want to have more rehearsal before the scene, and some actors don’t want to have any rehearsal at all. You have to adapt always to who you have in front of you.
And what about the process of fleshing out the design for the BAGHEAD witch? From working with the concept artist to the practical effects technicians and in post-production with the augmentation of the witch with CGI?
Alberto: Yeah, the good thing is I already knew from the short that we had an incredible starting point. All the costume design, the hands of the witch, because I didn’t want to have the classical long dark nails and cackling voice and laugh and so on. I didn’t want to have any of that. So we transplanted everything from the short into the feature and pushed it a level up with Mona May who did the costume, the final costume design. But also Birger Laube, who was the prosthetic guy, and he did a phenomenal job because before hadn’t seen what was underneath the burlap? How is the face of the witch? And that’s something that was very important to me because it’s something that makes or breaks the movie. And Birger did a fantastic job in terms of creating the prosthetics and so on, because we wanted to show for all the pain she went through over the years. The pain of becoming the witch, what was her backstory, and to reflect that on her skin, on the scars, on the eye that is missing and all of these things that are the small details that make a character design.
Something you mentioned earlier with regards to the film’s theme, in dealing with grief. It’s evident that’s reflected in the visual aesthetic of the film from its production design to the cinematography. What was the process like working with your crew particularly your cinematographer, Cale Finot, to achieve that distinct look?
Alberto: It was an absolute pleasure to work with Cale, the director of photography. From the beginning, we were very aligned in what we wanted to have. There was a very distinct look to the short film already. We couldn’t go that far in the feature, but I can tell you from the beginning, I really like to have high contrast, almost expressionistic way of working. For me, the shadows are very important, they are part of the character of the movie. And we wanted it to be dark. I know many people complain it’s too dark. Well, it’s a basement in a pub, what are you expecting? But it was a combination of working with that and then in the colour grade to extract as much as we could of the color without making it black and white to show a contrast between the outside world and the inside world within the basement. And I think that combined with the production design from Marc Bitz, it really works a treat to create the atmosphere of that basement, that feels like a place that is not of this world.
Absolutely. Have you had an opportunity to watch BAGHEAD with an audience yet and if so can you describe the experience?
Alberto: I’ve had the experience a few times. We had test screenings and I have to say I hate being in the room. It’s nice to see people reacting and reacting to the parts that you think they’re going to react to. But for me, it’s always nerve-racking. I think when you’re creating something, when it’s out, in my case, I would just like to go to my basement, lock the door and wait until everything has passed because you feel so exposed when what you do is out there. For me, it is very difficult to cope with that, to be honest.
If BAGHEAD were to lead to a sequel, would you return to helm it?
Alberto: Everyone is asking me this question and it’s like, at this moment, it’s been overwhelming because it’s been seven years of my life with this project from the short until now with the feature opening in cinemas. So I would say maybe I need to move on. But obviously if there is some willingness in terms of the studio and the audience to have more, well, maybe I need to sit down and face the witch again, but that said I probably would like to go backwards, not go forwards. I am more interested in how she came to be and telling that story. Then what happens later.
Do you have another project in the works?
Alberto: As a director, you always have to have some projects in the making. At the moment, I have a project that is looking for cast. It’s a story that piggybacks on the reality of the Russia Ukraine conflict and how that is bringing us back into a Cold War era. And I have another one that I’m finishing the script. It’s more a dystopian family-driven horror movie. So always something in the works and fingers crossed, that one of them comes forward in the future.