It’s the theatrical film debut of director Nick Murphy whose BAFTA-winning work on British television was more likely to be seen by the PBS “Masterpiece Theater” crowd than those who like horror movies.
In the film, Rebecca Hall plays Florence Cathcart, an expert on ghosts who is called upon to investigate the mysterious occurrences at a boarding school where one boy has died and the rest are being haunted by ghosts. As Florence tries to solve the mystery, she learns there’s more to this place than she originally thought.
By now you may have already seen the 10-minute opening scene preview or our exclusive clip, but a few weeks back, Shock Till You Drop got on the phone with the British filmmaker and was surprised to learn that for the director of such a serious movie, he really has a wicked sense of humor.
SPOILER WARNING
SPOILER WARNING
SPOILER WARNING
Shock: One thing I’m not sure if you can talk about on the record is the movie’s ending. A lot of people walked out of the movie wondering if Rebecca Hall’s character was dead or not.
Murphy: It’s not intentional. This film is about people seeing what they need to and seeing what they need to is carrying forth of the film and as such, I wanted to give audiences that chance at the end. Yeah, I know what she is. Rebecca and I decided she’s alive and then she smokes and she gets a car. Yes, we accept that, but I wanted to toy with the audience and let them be subjected to the same psychological effect as the characters do in the film that if they want her to be dead, she’s dead, and if they want her to be alive, she’s alive. Interestingly, and the audiences that I’ve spoken to, it’s split generally down gender lines that women think she’s dead and men think she’s alive and I don’t know why that is and smarter men or women than me can work that out, but that tends to be how it goes. But no, I had to make my mind up, and I think it’s cheating to say, “Oh, I don’t know. You decide.” If anybody cares to know the truth, I’ll tell them but what’s imperative to me and coming from television, which is a very immediate medium, I wanted to give people plenty to talk about in the lobby afterwards. So that’s a very, very important part of the cinema-going experience. If we’re taking 10 bucks off these people, we’ve got to give them something more than an experience that ends when the credits roll and the subway chat, that matters, it just matters and this is absolutely a film that you will talk about and reanalyze on the way home in your mind. I want people to be lying in bed having watched this film, tossing over scenes in their mind and realizing how different the meaning was when viewed and reviewed knowing what you know at the end.
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