Director James Bushe, who brought us the fantastic Cannibals and Carpet Fitters, is back as one of the co-directors of brand new horror anthology Lore, which is set to premiere at Frightfest next month.
We caught up with James to find out more about the project.
What can you tell us about the genesis of Lore?
The concept for Lore came about a few years ago, when myself and fellow director Patrick Ryder was looking for something to do together, preferably in the horror genre. We both wanted to do a feature, but knew how hard that can be to get going. So this was when I thought of the idea of maybe doing an anthology style feature, where we could actually tackle it by shooting individual short films, hopefully making things a little easier regarding budget, scheduling and crew etc. We spent a good few months working out what stories we should have, and then the bookends and arc to tie everything together so it wasn’t just 4 random short films slapped together, but a movie with a overall story connecting them. We then teamed up with Adam Bouabda who would come on to produce it and helped to bring everything together, bringing his experience and connections to the film.
I take it you, Patrick and Greig told different stories for Lore?
Yes exactly. So Patrick and I roughly had 3 stories and the bookends planned out. Each short film would need to be different from the others and not go over the same ground, so one could be a traditional ghost story, another being horror comedy slasher etc. We decided to write and direct one story each individually, and then would co-direct the 3rd story and bookends together, which was great. We knew we needed a 4th story and Adam brought on board Greig Johnson, to write and direct a segment, which was a perfect fit with the rest of the other stories.
How did you ensure the tone remained consistent?
Well the tone of the individual stories actually varies from each other, from creepy to gory, serious to comedy etc. Basically as much variety as we could squeeze in. But the campfire scenes help to tie in all the stories so they all feel natural and the film flows nicely. We also had Scott Coulter, an amazing cinematographer, shoot all of the segments and the bookends which gives it the feel of consistency whilst still giving each story its own visual look and style. We shot all the films using the same Arri cameras to also keep that consistent feel too.
This seems quite a departure from Cannibals and Carpet Fitters, how was that?
Haha actually not so much.. One of the segments I co-directed is a comedy, and the genre is still horror so I felt right at home. It was also tackled very similar to shooting a short film, and so went with that frame of thinking. It was my first time co-directing and I actually found it very fun and collaborative. Working with Patrick was a pleasure and was great getting to tackle any creative issues together. The biggest change would be when it came to post, me being quite a hands-on person when it comes to this. But it was more of a group process between all the directors and producers, while all being rather far from each other. But I am very happy with how well the film has come out, and look forward to people getting to finally see it.
What can you tell us about the filming process?
Well when we finally got around to shooting, it was when the world was living with covid restrictions. So we were working around lockdowns and precautions. This made our schedule quite scattered over months and a little tricky. Luckily as the film was broken into 5 blocks, we were able to focus on one at a time, when we could. It did cause some problems losing cast or crew last minute, but a positive was we were able to shoot in an Odeon cinema for one of the stories (having written pre-covid we obviously hadn’t thought through how we would get to use one, so that worked out phew). We tried to keep as much of the same crew over all the films, too, which helped bring a kind of family mentality to the shoot and made each block a bit of a reunion too.
What does it mean to premiere at Frightfest?
I’m very excited that we will be premiering at Frightfest. It is one of the biggest and well-established horror festivals in the world and one I have tried to get into before, so it is great to finally be there this year with so many other amazing films. To have the film’s first public screening in front of a crowd of horror fans is very exciting and I hope they enjoy what we’ve cooked up. It has a little bit of everything in there.
What are the plans for release post-festival run?
We are planning to show Lore at some more festivals leading up to the end of the year then hopefully a general release some point next year. We are talking with several distributors at the moment who are very excited by the film, so it is looking promising. Watch this space.
You have a lot of projects in various stages of production, what is next?
Yes I have several that I am hoping will move ahead in the near future, all in the horror genre. One project I am very excited about is ‘The Fort’, a psychological horror feature set during the Wars of Scottish Independence in the mid 14th Century. The film plays on the isolation and paranoia of a group of soldiers, as they battle something they cannot see, whilst fighting to keep their own sanity.
Another is ‘Uninvited’, which follows a group of small time criminals who take on a job to stage a robbery at a old manor house as part of a scam. But the job is not as simple as they thought and soon the group is thrown into a horrific game of cat and mouse as someone, or something, begins hunting them.
And lastly is ‘The Devil’s Lair’ which is a gritty action/horror that follows a SWAT team that is sent to take out a religious cult but find themselves trapped in a labyrinth of tunnels and fighting for their survival against something inhuman.
I am also attached to direct action horror ‘The Mine’ which will shoot in the US next year if all goes to plan.
Bloody Flicks 