Bruce, this is your first horror film since Pontypool in 2008. What brought you back to the genre?
McDONALD It’s funny – people go, “Oh, how come it’s taken you so long to make another horror movie?” I don’t know, you know? You just do what you do.
How did you come to cast Chloe?
McDONALD We saw 40, 50 girls, and at the end of it the two producers, the writer and I were all like, “Who did you like?” “Chloe Rose,” “Chloe Rose,” “Chloe Rose,” “Chloe Rose.” You just look at people and you know it when you see it. She’s great. She’s a natural, she looks great on camera, she’s got a great presence.
Chloe, how did you feel about taking on such a challenging part? You’re running around terrified – and increasingly pregnant – in every scene. It couldn’t have been an easy performance.
CHLOE ROSE I was excited because I hadn’t done anything like it prior to this. I’d done some sci-fi stuff – guest-starring on TV shows – but this was, like, an animal of its own. And with Bruce there was a trust there, and it worked out really beautifully.
You shot more than half of Hellions with an infrared camera. What was the appeal?
McDONALD It just reads things differently. It makes the skin tones different. It creates a parallel universe thing, so that was fun.
And you used practical effects rather than digital creations.
McDONALD It’s more organic and it’s more unified – people who are in the moment on the set, they can react to it rather than talking to a ball on a stick or that sort of thing.
ROSE Yeah! We tried to create the world around us as much as possible. I mean, obviously the infrared wasn’t happening [live], but I had seen the tests and the colour-correction lady just let me watch over her shoulder. I had an idea of what it was going to look like. I wasn’t in the dark in that way. We had the Hellions on the set, and I hung out with the kids. It came to life in real time. It was very cool.
Bruce McDonald on the evolution of Hellions:
Chloe Rose on auditioning for the role:
McDonald on not wanting to make a traditional horror movie:
Don’t miss our review of Hellions here.
normw@nowtoronto.com | @normwilner
