PopHorror Let's Get Scared
AI is everywhere these days. While it’s popping up where you most (and least) expect it, not everyone is welcoming it and for good reason. DRAGN, director Peter Webber’s (Hannibal Rising) latest flick starring James Paxton (son of Bill) is about AI gone awry and it’s joining the uptick in media that’s showing us just how detrimental it can be. Something I liked about this film is that yes, it’s about an AI-driven drone, but it doesn’t feel like a PSA.
DRAGN centers on a group of co-workers on a routine corporate team-building trip, which transforms into a nightmare when they unwittingly become the prey of a rogue AI-driven drone. The film delves into the fragility of the human mind, the dangers of AI warfare, and the indomitable spirit required to confront terror in an increasingly digital world.
To celebrate the release of the film, I chatted with star James about filming in the Serbian wilderness, working closely with the drone itself, horror movies, and more!
PopHorror: I really enjoyed DRAGN. I love isolation horror, especially in a forest, so this was right up my alley.
James Paxton: Oh, thank you so much! I really appreciate you watching it. It was a lot of fun to make, being out there in the Serbian wilderness and getting lost in the forest.
PopHorror: That actually leads into my first question. So, you did film on location in Serbia; were you really out in the wilderness?
James Paxton: Yes, absolutely. I had never been to Serbia before. I have a lot of athletes that I love and admire from Serbia, but I couldn’t have honestly told you where that was specifically on a map before getting cast in this film so it was a wild adventure going there in the first place. That kind of mirrored my character Tom Wilson’s experience going there from Chicago and he’s never been. We stayed in Belgrade, which is the biggest city in Serbia and then we would commute about an hour and fifteen minutes drive way out of the city into the forest. There were all these strange, old semi-abandoned buildings and stuff that’s like where the military depot is and stuff where that shoot-out is that we run into. It was a great location but the funny thing is, we shot that whole film within a very small area because when you’re in a forest, all you have to do is turn the cameras over this direction and if you haven’t really seen that, you can go stage a scene there and you can act like you’ve been walking through the forest for hours and you’re in another place but you’re literally just off where we shot a different scene. That was cool but the weather was unpredictable like dumping rain on us one second and the next second would be blazing hot, like really hot. I caught a bad cold during filming, which was kind of wild. I had to get a B vitamin shot and take lots of tea and medicine to stay on my feet because it was a physically very draining film. It was so much! The adrenaline and the excitement kept all our spirits up the whole time but physically, the movie really kicked my butt.
PopHorror: I’m sorry to hear that you got sick! Especially out in the middle of the woods. That had to be the worst.
James Paxton: It added to it! Thank you.
PopHorror: What intrigued you about the script and made you want to be a part of the project?
James Paxton: I was just finishing a different film. I was on my last few days of this other film and when I got the call about this film and the offer, it happened much differently than a lot of films and getting cast in a lot of films in my career have gone. This one was a producer, one of the main producers of the film. We had known each other for a long time from LA and mutual friends and never worked together professionally, but they had a lead actor drop out of DRAGN five weeks before filming because they had to go back for reshoots on something. So, I got this offer very quickly and suddenly was on a Zoom with Peter Webber, our director, and it was like, “Okay, you’re coming to Serbia with us!” I didn’t really have much time to dissect it all. I read the script and I was like, this is crazy! I’ve got to start learning the character. I was really flying by the seat of my pants in the same way that the character I was playing was, which really helped me. I’m just glad that they mirrored each other because I didn’t have much time. Although, when I got out there, I had plenty of time to go in depth with Peter Webber and talk about the backstory. The whole cast did that. I realized, wow, this is fun! They’re letting us have a lot of freedom in terms of bringing what we want to it. We would improv a lot with each other. We would create these backstories. That ended up really driving me to it, but also just to be honest, I’ve never really done a sci-fi genre, horror feature. I’ve never done anything quite like it before. I’m always immensely grateful when I get to do something that I’ve never played before.
PopHorror: Well, welcome to the horror genre! I hope to see you do more.
James Paxton: Thanks! Thank you.
PopHorror: I read that the drone was practical effects, which is quite impressive given how great it looked and how big it was. You spent a lot of one-on-one time with the drone. Can you tell us a little bit about working with it?
James Paxton: Yeah, absolutely. We had two massive scale versions of DRAGN, of the drone. There was one that was more animatronic and it could move things slightly. The other one was stationary, but it was the one I physically grappled with in the end because like you said, the whole last week of filming for me, my castmate was DRAGN, was the drone. It was just me, DRAGN, and the crew and our director. That’s it! And then Alice [Pagani] came back for a minute. She came back for about half a day towards the end, which I was thankful to see another human castmate show up at the end. But DRAGN was great! Never complained, never was missing from set. Nah, I’m just kidding. It was nice having something practical that I could physically react to and see in front of me and touch something tactile. I think that brings a lot to it. While this film deals with AI and weapons tech, the film doesn’t have any AI in terms of its creation. There’s a little bit of CG. There are a couple CG moments mostly to paint out the crane that the DRAGN was hanging from. It harkins back to those tactile 1980s kinds of horror, action-horrors. It has a good amount of campiness. It was great having the practical effects there.
PopHorror: I love that because it could have so easily been AI or computer generated. It’s more realistic because it gave you something solid to hold onto and to be with versus having to pretend that there was something there.
James Paxton: A hundred percent. I’ll tell you something really funny quickly, Tiffany. Towards the end of the film, I really do grapple with it physically and I have to do this thing where I’m supposed to jam something into its weak spot kind of near the head in the neck area. I kept accidentally knocking the head of it just clean off like a softball and it would just fly across the room! That was like eight times in a row. As fearsome as it was, it had its weak points. It was a bit delicate. I had to act like it wasn’t but it was. That got to be a little tedious trying to get it right because I had to hit it just right and not knock the head of it off. I couldn’t do that with the animatronic one because that one had all the actual electronics on it. I couldn’t mess that one up. It was more delicate in practicality than you’d think but still, I would always prefer to work with something there that’s in front of you physically.
PopHorror: Absolutely! I have just one last question for you today. What’s your favorite scary movie?
James Paxton: I’m not sure if the horror community will love this answer but I do just love… Have you seen The Others?
PopHorror: Yes!
James Paxton: I love that film! I don’t know if it’s true horror but it’s just so spooky to me. I saw it when I was young and I could never get the twist ending out of my head. I just think it’s a really good twist ending. That’s probably the one that I’ve watched the most and then The Hills Have Eyes. I also loved The Descent so much. The Descent is so good, and I love the concept of that. I’m going to go with those.
Thank you so much to James for taking the time to chat with us. DRAGN is now on Digital and VOD!
