The Horseman: family-funded horror
Newcomer to the film scene Steven Kastrissios proves with his debut feature The Horseman that you don’t need much to make a good action film. Micah Chua writes.
What do you need to pull off an action genre film in Australia? Guns? Car chases? Special effects? A buff, well-profiled action hero? A multi-million dollar budget? Not necessarily: ‘With smart, efficient storytelling, we can do pretty impressive action too,” Kastrissios told Encore.
The Horseman travels in the vein of classic Aussie thrillers such as Wolf Creek and Wake in Fright. It tells the story of a father (played by Peter Marshall- Sea Patrol) and his violent pursuit of his daughter’s murderers.
The film’s high calibre action is due in no small part to proven stunt coordinator Chris Anderson, whose credits include Peter Jackson’s King Kong and George Miller’s Mad Max.
“I showed him my previous short action films and he could see what we’d done without any money or stunt crews, so the trust was there from an early stage,” said Kastrissios.
Anderson supported the film by charging well below his standard fee.
“He wanted to help new filmmakers and put something back into the industry and his efforts are paying off,” explained Kastrissios.
Getting the project from script to camera wasn’t a straightforward process for Kastrissios.
‘I always wanted the production to be as independent as possible for a variety of reasons, so apart from a one-off meeting with a Queensland film body, we never chased external financing. There was just no way I would have been able to make The Horseman with outside investors as I was an unproven filmmaker attempting an action film on a micro budget, with eyebrow-raising violence throughout the script,” he said.
Funded by Kastrissios himself and with financial support from his family, the film was made through the defunct 10BA model on a shoestring budget of $80,000 – or $500,000 including deferral payments of cast and crew. Screen Australia ultimately provided completion funds, “which helped enormously”.
“The cast and crew have been paid their deferred fees, but producer Bec Dakin and I have only had our fees partially paid. The investors, being my family and I are yet to be paid anything, but since the film was made under 10BA, nobody is out of pocket,” he explained.
Shot and post-produced in Brisbane (with the sound mix done at Philmsound and some foley work by Soundfirm’s Chinese offshoot), The Horseman was completed in mid-2008
The Horseman found itself without a distributor. It began jumping from festival to festival gathering critical attention along the way screening in at the 2008 Melbourne International Film Festival, as well as others in Brisbane, New Zealand, the UK and the United States – particularly successful at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas.
“Many doors have opened both here and abroad. After our American premiere at the SXSW film festival I spent a month doing meetings in LA,” said Kastrissios, who received the blessing of the influential American blogger Harry Knowles (Ain’t It Cool News).
“It’s certainly been easier to gain interest in the film overseas, which I didn’t expect,” he told Encore.
“It was interesting to experience the difference in attitude over there. In the US, very high ranking people have their doors open for new filmmakers, whilst in Australia that’s not always the case, which can be disappointing and part of the reason many of our filmmakers leave our shores.”
The Horseman signed up the services of LA-based sales agent Media 8. The film has found distribution in territories such as the UK – through Kaleidoscope Entertainment – and, finally, in Australia through Umbrella Films.
Kastrissios’ production company Kastle Films is looking to launch off the success of The Horseman with a slate of genre films for the future.
“I have a strong interest in character-driven stories, but rather than producing a straight drama, I’m trying to weave it all through genre stories and that will be the common thread you will see in my work,” said Kastrissios.
The film has already been released on DVD and Blu Ray in the US and the UK, and in Australia, The Horseman is set for a limited release at the Chauvel Cinema (Sydney), the Tribal Theatre (Brisbane) on July 8, and Cinema Nova (Melbourne) on July 9.
“Whilst a broader release would have been great, I’m pleased that people will have the opportunity to view The Horseman on the big screen,” admitted Kastrissios. “The advantage of a theatrical release, no matter how limited, is that it will help give the film a profile that will benefit its eventual release on DVD.”
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Umbrella Entertainment
Encore isn’t a Sydney only publication is it? I thought the film also opened in Brisbane and Melbourne too, not just “an exclusive release” at the Chauvel in Sydney!?
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The film does open at below cinemas from July 8th.
Chauvel (Sydney)
Tribal Theatre (Brisbane)
Cinema Nova (Melbourne)
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Very disappointing that Adelaide has been ignored once again. I would imagine horror fans in Perth would feel the same. 🙁
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