FrightFest Glasgow attendees, get ready for the very first Lithuanian slasher! Director Jonas Trukanas has delivered a blood-splattered shocker which will satisfy any gore hound out there! Here he chats about the movie before its UK premiere at the event.
NYX: Have you always been a fan of the horror genre?
JT: Absolutely, back when I was a child horror cinema was not easily accessible in Lithuania, it was more of a rarity. It was even considered to be a little bit wicked in a way, which I guess was why I was really drawn to it. I very clearly remember how we’d discuss an “Exorcist” in hushed voices in a school so teachers won’t hear us. And although my relationship with horror started as a way to test boundaries, the more horror films I have seen the more I felt drawn to it, I guess because I found answers there to my own adolescent fears.
NYX: Was Pensive based on any old myths or legends you heard about as a child?
JT: Myths and legends not so much maybe, as it was based on a fact that wooden folk sculptures that depict either folk legends or Christian figures can be found all around Lithuania, which was one of the main visual inspirations for us. Like, you could be driving in the middle of nowhere and then just across a wooden sculpture with a distorted face. But that is only a part of it,Pensive is of course inspired by some of the slashers that we have loved growing up – both Texas Chainsaw and Friday13th, but more than anything it is really based on mine and my co-writer’s memories of our graduation ceremony,which looking back retrospectively was a very weird time. School graduation is meant to be this passage into the adulthood, the whole new life was about to start – it is meant to be joyful, but for us it was exactly the opposite.
NYX: You co-wrote Pensive with Titas Laucius, what was your writing process? Did you write in the same room or do bits independently etc?
JT: Interestingly, we wrote most of Pensive during a COVID lockdown. Our writing process consisted of countless zoom sessions, sometimes we would even eat lunch together in zoom.The bulk of work was done while sharing ideas through these sessions, really discussing the idea, characters and plot-points. After this we had quite a good understanding what needs to be written. Then we did a draft each – Titas wrote the first one, I then took over for the second and so on. Titas, by the way, isa brilliant writer and also director who’s own work is mostly comedy, so the fun in the film comes absolutely from his side.
NYX: Did you have a cast in mind whilst writing?
JT: Not really, actually it was quite the opposite, even while writing the characters, we cared not to overwrite and leave some space for the actors to put their own spin on them.Cast mostly consists of young actors, who are either studying in the Lithuanian Theater Academy or have just graduated. While at this – our casting process was also quite a long one, first we literally asked a bunch of younger generation actors to record an introduction to us where they spoke about what are they most afraid of and then we have moved through a more traditional casting process with those who inspired us.
NYX: There’s a strong theme of the “fear of missing out” syndrome which is very much a thing at the moment, was this always the intention to highlight this trend to an extreme?
JT: Yes, absolutely,although putting it down to FOMO would be too simple. For us the main theme was really a search for one’s identity in a world where everyone is someone, or has a very pronounced concept that they lead themselves on. Our main character, as a lot of people at 18, doesn’t have a clear set of characteristics or pronounced hobbies, therefore he feels left out, unseen. He will actually also be unseen by a killer, which for him is what really makes him unique.
NYX: The cast really do bounce off each other, did they have much time to rehearse at all?
JT: We had quite a limited time to shoot a film, so my approach from the start was that we will rehearse a ton and till we really know each other. It was really important to create a sense that these characters know each other for twelve years, they has histories, they have been friends and enemies, lovers, they all have opinions about each other and memories. While rehearsing we have spent a weekend in our actual location with a whole cast, sharing the stories and bonding in a cabin in the middle of nowhere, just to get closer to the world that we aimed to create.
NYX: Was it all shot on location?
JT: Yes, all of it is on location – we had a base, which was cabin that actually belongs (or belonged because we trashed it) to one of the film’s producers. The location itself was just an old cabin that has not been lived in for five years, so it really had a somewhat sinister soul of it’s own.
NYX: Who created the amazing statues and have you kept one?
JT: It was our Production Designer Paulius, who actually spent a month almost on his own in the location,fixing the cabin and then carving the sculptures. It is inspired by a folk tradition, but we tried to really get into the mind of the villain of the film– as in our narrative he has carved them out. Painful, contorted creations. And unfortunately, one sculpture weights more than hundred kilograms, so I have nowhere to put it at the moment, but I really hope to eventually own a cabin in the woods myself and it would have a sacred place there.
NYX: Were you inspired by other “cabin in the woods” movies?
JT: Obviously, we love Friday the 13th, Funny Games, Cabin Fever, the Italian gem Bay of Blood, even Tucker and Dale and stuff like that. But also in the way, a lot of “cabin in the woods” films are really coming of age movies – so this is something that inspired us as well.
NYX: Is it true that this is the first slasher movie to be made in Lithuania?
JT: Second ever horror film and first slasher! In Lithuania horror filmmaking was never that popular, but I think we will see more and more horror films coming from our region.
NYX: Do you get nervous when your work is shown at events such as FrightFest?
JT: The scariest was really a premiere in Lithuanian film theatres, I was so nervous then I can hardly remember anything. After visiting few festivals though outside of Lithuania, I am less nervous and more interested in how the audience will perceive it, because it is very different from country to country. I am excited about the FrightFest, because I am myself a big fan of the festival, visited quite a few times while I studied in UK and also the audience there is the audience that this film was really made for.
NYX: So, what are you working on at the moment?
JT: With a same co-writer Titas, we are writing my second feature. In English, this time. A horror tale about masculinity, father, son and a flesh-eating siren living in a water park.
NYX: Jonas Trukanas, thank you very much.
