
Greetings, all. Ambush Bug here. Reporting from the Film4Fright Fest, Doc Charlie Oughton caught up with John Fallon. Known as an actor and scriptwriter on features including SAW 11, THE SHELTER is his first self-directed feature starring Michael Pare (I reviewed the film a while back here. It’s a story about a man with a past who gets trapped in a house that forces him to face his demons, as John and the Doc discussed. You can catch up with the Doc on Twitter @DrKCOughton
Take it away, Doc!

JOHN FALLON (JF): It was purposefully picked. When I went location scouting in Louisiana, it’s an environment that’s bathed in Christian iconography. I went out of my way to shoot as much religious statues as possible. There was a scene in a park where there’s a saint looking down on the lead and while that wasn’t in the screenplay, we shot it while we were there. The saint is watching him.
CO: How did you decide to show the outright surrealism versus some of the images of the supposed haunting that we see within the house?
JF: That’s an interesting question. That just came out of the writing process. It was just instinctive. There are tropes, like doors creaking open, but even that has a double meaning. There are mainstream elements and non-mainstream elements. That’s just how it came out.
CO: How much did you talk with Pare about how he would play that character?

CO: Was there anything else that changed between the script and what was shot?
JF: The religious imagery. There was a statue of Christ and I do little ‘push ins’ on it. When I walked into the house location, the man who owned it is a hardcore Christian and it was filled with religious imagery everywhere. Everywhere. EEVERYWHERE. It was a shrine to Christ. And I was like, okay, we’re in the right house.
CO: Did you tell the guy what kind of film it was?
JF: We were in Louisiana where everybody’s Christian and we did a prayer before the shoot. I was telling them it was a religious movie and they were like ‘Well, it’s not the kind of religious movie I know about’ and I was like, ‘Well, it is’. I don’t know if the man who rented us the house would have done so if he knew. There was something actually, at one point we have a fire pit that explodes. Initially there was a wooden cross there and a crew member said ‘I don’t think we could light a fire on a cross here’ and he said ‘you’re going to offend people’. I just saw it as symbolic rather than desecration. It’s only afterwards I put it together. I mean, thank God I didn’t burn a cross, man!

JF: I gave them some scores and said I wanted stuff like this. When some things didn’t work, my sound designer, who is also an accomplished musician, he basically composed some things to gap what otherwise hadn’t worked. I knew that sounds were going to be very important for the movie. Everything was no accident. The soundtrack is there to augment moments. I use it as clues.
CO: Such as?
JF: Oh, I can’t give ‘em away – you’ve gotta find them! Oh, okay, I’ll give you one. The second time you see the bust of Christ there’s an ominous sound that backs it up and points at something.
CO: What’s next for you?
JF: THE SHELTER has kinda been born now. We’re running with that and trying to seek distribution for it and a lot of territories if you talk about God they get a little touchy about it. I knew it would be hard and I’m fine with that. At the same times I’m developing my next film as a director which is totally different. Bigger budget. It’s a barbarian type thing – like Conan the Barbarian. I love that stuff!
CO: Thanks, John. Look for another interview from the Film4Fright Fest 2015 later this week!