Continuing our Grimmfest 2025 coverage, we got the chance to quiz writer/director Tim Connery all about his anthology feature The Dirftless.
Welcome to Grimmfest 2025, how it’s going?
We’ve had a blast so far. Everything’s been great. It’s just from the communication, from the volunteers and the festival director Simeon, and the venues, the accommodations, like the audience, the filmmakers, like everything, it’s what you want when you, when you come out and fly out to a festival, especially, you know, at a festival, that’s not your country, so you’re going to allow your comfort zone, right? Yeah. It’s been great. And Manchester’s just been beautiful, right?
I was going to ask actually, is this the first time in Manchester?
In Manchester, yeah, yeah. In the second time in the UK, we were in the UK back in November of 2019 for a different feature film at the Soho Horror Festival. But yeah, so first time in Manchester, and yeah, it’s been great. Food’s been great. The beverages have been great, of course.
The Driftless is very different compared to Death To Metal, your previous film, can you talk about crafting an anthology?
My first feature film was also very different. So I’ve been kind of, you know, changing genres as I go, not staying in the same, you know, Death To Metal. So Black Web was kind of like, a drama, low-key drama with a sci-fi twist, Death To Metal was kind of wasn’t kind of very much a horror comedy, about a mutated killer priest on a mission to wipe out heavy metal music. And then The Driftless is very much my first, very serious horror film that’s just of serious stories and very near and dear to my heart and dealing with themes that my editor likes to call it midlife crisis horror because it’s dealing with things like, commitment and legacy and addiction, things that a lot of people deal with when they reach middle age, right? So, you know, I just knew that after Death To Metal that I kind of wanted to return to a more serious film. And I wrote all these short stories during the pandemic, kind of in a creative flurry when I was just kind of hunkered up and had nothing else to do. So afterwards, I was like, well, you know, I don’t necessarily think that these stories could translate into a feature, but that’s like the only medium I really want to spend money on because short films just don’t really have a huge shelf life. So, you know, light bulb anthology, right?
All of my stories in The Driftless take place in and around Dubuque, Iowa. So if you at the map of the United States, we’re right on the Mississipi River, where Iowa, Wisconsin and Illnois converge. So the infrastructure there, the people I know, people there. I know the city council, mayor. So, it makes getting permits. You already have kind of a brand. So when you roll up into a hotel and you need to rent out the whole wing of the hotel, so to speak, right? Like people, you at least have a reputation, right? It’s not completely cold. People have heard you. They’ve heard of your commercial business. So that all really helps and makes making movies a lot easier than, you know, going into a community blind and, you know, having no trust built, right? And having to build that trust. And usually how you build that trust is backing up the dump truck of money, right? Well, I don’t have a lot of money, I’m using my trust currency to, you know, leverage that with the production and making these things a little more feasible on indie scale.
There’s something very Stephen King about using your hometown too, I guess?
Yeah, it’s Derry, Maine.
You’ve got these different stories in The Driftless, touching on different subjects, tell us about crafting them?
My editor kind of noticed this stuff before I did. Again, quipping, he would always say, like, yeah, this is your midlife horror or your midlife crisis horror film, Tim. And, you know, I guess if you look back at it, he’s not wrong because like in the time it took to produce these stories, write these stories and then produce the film, I got engaged and married. had, you know, kind of a self- reflection on, alcohol usage and that kind of stuff. And I saw some friends really kind of just like go down a dark path
In ‘The Pool Keeper’ segment, he goes through the whole thing about, about doubts of whether success was worth it, how to keep, you know, a family together and how to steer that ship and then also just like, you know, just regrets and all that kind of stuff. Me and my wife had brought a son into this world during the same time as producing this movie. So well, a ton of just like big life events have been happening in the last five years that kind of have coincided with writing these films and, you know, obviously, as the writer as well, certainly, you know, I’m taking a lot of liberty, but these are all themes and stories that I’ve thought about.
And there’s kind of self-reflection in a lot of the characters in both the antagonist and protagonists that are from, you, things that have happened in my life or if thought of whatever.
We have the World Premiere here at Grimmfest, are nervous, excited or a bit of both?
It’s all of those things. I wish the screening was right now honestly, and we were marching up the steps to see it. These things are over in the blink of an eye, so were just trying to live in the moment and take it all in too. When you’ve spent four or five years of your life on something, you want these moments. It’s mine and my wife’s first time away from our baby for an extended period so there’s a bit of anxiety there but he’s back home in good hands.
I’m actually wearing his face on my socks!
I’m just excited to see what people have to say about the movie. I’m sure in the Q&A, I’ll get some softball reactions and that kind of stuff or maybe not. Maybe they’ll be completely sincere, but I can’t wait to see the first, like reviews online.
How hard is that for you as the director because obviously you put something, you work so hard on something for years and then you put it out there and then you wait on the reactions?
We all know that online can be hell (laughs).
Going back to the World Premiere of Black Web, back in 2012, I was 24 years old.
The review embargo lifted and we got this scathing review but there was one line that we ended up using on the poster, but it was a little devastating.
Then other reviews came out that were a little less scathing, and I thought well everyone is going to have different takes on the film, and it is what it is.
Then we made Death To Metal which was kind of a review proof movie, because the concept was so bonkers.
Now being a bit older, it’s nice to get people in a room, away from phones and other distractions and get them to watch and maybe review the film. I can’t wait for any bad reviews as I want to know things people didn’t like as we can learn as filmmakers from constructive criticism.
Post-festival run, what’s the hope in terms of a wider release for The Driftless?
We have 3-4 festivals during October and the start of November, and after that we’re actively discussing with potential distributors. We’ll probably end up on a VOD platform. Hopefully we will make a bit of money on the film which can go into my next production. I just want it to be seen and my voice heard.
The Driftless screened as part of Grimmfest 2025.
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