PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Soon to hit the indie scene is a phenomenal coming-of-age horror by filmmaker Fritz Böhm called Wildling. In this full-feature directorial debut starring Bel Powley (The Diary of a Teenage Girl), Brad Dourif (Child’s Play, Rob Zombie’s Halloween), Collin Kelly-Sordelet (The Path) and Liv Tyler (Armageddon, The Lord of the Rings, The Strangers), Wildling tells the story of a young girl who begins to uncover the dark truth behind her isolated childhood.
PopHorror was fortunate enough to speak with Fritz about the film’s influences and his experience of working on this production.
PopHorror: Thank you for taking the time to speak with me, Fritz. I just viewed Wildling last night and I absolutely loved it!
Fritz Böhm: Oh, wow! Thank you!
PopHorror: I was very surprised to see that Wildling is your first full-feature. It seems like there may have been influence from the book Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.
Fritz Böhm: That’s funny that you say that. That could be true. I never thought about that, and you’re the first person to bring that up. My mother read so many fairy tales to me as a kid that left an imprint. She would always get picture books from the library and I remember Where the Wild Things Are being one of them. I really loved it as a kid. It’s a fantastic book! The creatures are so beautifully drawn.
PopHorror: Oh, absolutely! It wasn’t necessarily the story that reminded me of the book, but it was some of the imagery. Were there any other influences that went into the film?
Fritz Böhm: I think we soak up so much stuff as a kid. We’re like sponges. Picture books, fairy tales, movies… I can’t say where the story for Wildling came from exactly. It was just a general wish to create my own misunderstood creature. I’ve always been drawn to strange, mythological beings in stories, and I felt strongly about designing my own. The moment you begin thinking about a furry person with sharp teeth, you begin to think about werewolves. But we quickly realized this wasn’t going to be a straight werewolf film either, because we wanted to stay away from the supernatural and focus more on biological things. The story is rooted in puberty, and adolescence is our main theme. So, with so much revolving around a biological process, there wasn’t any room for silver bullets or magical amulets.
PopHorror: The film is very original in its own right, for sure.
Fritz Böhm: There are probably hundreds of things that went into creating Wildling, but there was a big moment for me when I first saw the film Let the Right One In. I thought what they did with vampires was such a cool idea. They created this character realism around a vampire to where it felt like the characters were treated as real people with real-life problems. It was very inspiring to see. There’s also an old German legend of a man named Kaspar Hauser from the 18th century who supposedly grew up in a single room until his adolescence. When he was released, he saw the world for the first time, which was an entirely new and strange experience. There’s an element of this that certainly went into the story of Wildling. In the end, you don’t know exactly where the ideas come from. They all come together, and you try and deal with it in a fresh way while staying away from the expected and what feels too repetitive.
PopHorror: I see what you mean. While there are some familiar elements, I still don’t feel like I’ve seen much like it.
Fritz Böhm: That’s great! It sounds like we achieved our goal. That’s the beauty of indie films. You don’t have a lot of money, and you don’t have a lot of time. But you do have the opportunity to put something out that goes to strange places where a big budget studio film may not let you go. I’m glad we got the opportunity to put this story out there!
PopHorror: I’m certainly glad as well, and I’m sure others will feel the same way. What was your favorite part of the production of Wildling?
Fritz Böhm: That would be working with the actors, for sure. I really enjoyed that process. It was a beautiful process to work with them. I feel like I got really lucky with the cast and seeing your characters come to life is great. If you’re directing and writing as well as, in my case, doing a lot of other things, you have so many things on your mind. It’s a blessing to have actors who are able to bring out their characters, and it takes quite a bit of weight off of the filming process. This was definitely the case with Bel in her role as Anna. It was also the case with Brad as Daddy, Liv as Ellen and Collin Kelly-Sordelet as Ray and pretty much every other cast member. I’m very glad they brought in their own ideas and brought the characters to life.
PopHorror: They did an outstanding job, for sure! It’s very impressive that you were able to cast these actors for your first full-feature. How did you manage this?
Fritz Böhm: It was really a question of them responding to the script. We cast Bel for the lead. and my production company sent out the submissions. We received a fantastic response from Liv’s team and a very great response from Brad. The next step for me was to meet with them and talk about their roles in the film. Luckily, they came aboard.
PopHorror: How did you come across Bel for the lead? She really owned her role as Anna.
Fritz Böhm: Oh, I agree. She was great! She carried much of the film, and finding her was so crucial. I almost don’t think we could have made the film without her. After we finished the script, we knew we had a role that was going to be very difficult to cast. I was almost at my wit’s end. But my producers were at the Sundance Film Festival in the year they premiered The Diary of a Teenage Girl. They arranged a meeting, and I was just blown away by her. The contrast between her great performance in The Diary of a Teenage Girl and meeting her in person was almost like seeing two different people. It was startling and made it clear that she has the ability to transform into her roles on film. Luckily, she really liked the script and thought it would be something she’s never done before.
That’s the beauty of indie films. You don’t have a lot of money, and you don’t have a lot of time. But you do have the opportunity to put something out that goes to strange places where a big budget studio film may not let you go.
PopHorror: What was it like working with this incredible cast?
Fritz Böhm: It was just great. Brad was so in character. The name of his character is Daddy. He came to set as Daddy. he was Daddy all day long, and when he drove home, he was still Daddy. He was always that character! It’s just his style, and it’s great for a director since you don’t have to put him in a place to help bring out the character. He just does it! You have to be sensitive enough to navigate it, but not to disrupt him in his process. He brings an incredible amount of professionalism. That was actually the case with the entire cast. Seeing them bring so much to the table with handling the emotional stuff and what shapes the characters was probably my greatest experience for the film.
PopHorror: That does sound like a great experience. What were some of the biggest challenges of production?
Fritz Böhm: Time and money, as always. (laughs) I think everyone will say that. We had all the things in the film that are known to be time-consuming like working with kids, animals and special effect makeup. Those are all things you typically want to avoid if you have limited resources. But we had all of that in our script, and it was pretty essential to bring the story to life. An additional challenge was that the film is set in a specific world. It’s supposed to be a forested, remote area with caves. We couldn’t go to a place like that and, for financial reasons, we had to stick to a 23-mile radius in Columbus Circle, Manhattan. It’s difficult to find a natural looking river in that radius, and it’s very urban. So, we had to use a lot of tricks. The place where we shot the river scene was in the Bronx Zoo. That was probably the only spot within that radius where there even exists a river with a natural riverbed. It’s not like we could pick and choose from several different river locations. We had this one river, and that’s where we had to make it work. (laughs)
PopHorror: So, the entire film was shot in New York City?
Fritz Böhm: For the most part, yes. There are a few smaller towns just a few miles upstate from Manhattan. Most of them are quaint, so they weren’t very ideal, either. But we did find a few angles that worked. Later on in post-production, I drove up to northern California with a camera to film some additional nature elements. Everything that involved actors was all filmed in the 23-mile radius in New York City. The cave scene was actually in a warehouse in Brooklyn.
PopHorror: That’s incredible! Watching the film, I never would have guessed that it was largely shot in an urban location. With such limited resources, I think you did an outstanding job with this film. I just want to thank you once more for taking the time to speak with me and I can’t wait for it to become available to the public.
Fritz Böhm: It’s my pleasure! Thank you, for saying such wonderful things about the film.
Wildling will be appearing in select theaters and become available via VOD and Digital HD on April 13th. It will also be at select Theaters in NY and LA. With an outstanding cast and a familiar yet original story, this is one film you won’t want to miss!
