PopHorror Let's Get Scared
I was lucky enough to recently watch The Black String (read our review – here) for a festival and loved it. It was everything a horror-thriller should be. So, when I got the opportunity to interview the creators behind this crazy film, Brian Hanson and Richard Handley, I couldn’t wait to pick their brains about it!
Brian directed the film and Richard co-wrote it with him and is also the lead producer and one of the actors in The Black String.
Jonathan is a lonely twenty-something, stuck in his home town working night shifts at the local convenience store. When an unexpected encounter with a mysterious woman turns his life upside down, Jonathan is stricken by illness and nightmarish visions. Paranoid and desperate, he launches on a quest across the suburbs to find the seductress who started it all. Friends and family believe he’s losing his mind, but Jonathan is convinced he’s the target of something far more sinister.
PopHorror – Hi, thanks for talking with me. According to IMDB, you’re fairly new to the filmmaking business. What made you want to take the leap?
Brian Hanson – We’re new to producing/directing a feature film, but we’ve been around show business for a while. I attended film school at Cal State Northridge before I joined the Army and worked as a production assistant and office assistant for many years while always making short films. After the Army, I went back to film school at Mount St. Mary’s (Los Angeles) and worked at a distribution company and PA’d on several HBO shows. I’ve been around showbiz for many years, but this was our first time to be in charge of our own feature film.
Rich Handley – IMDB is somewhat deceiving. We’ve both been at this a while. One might call it a 10 year or more overnight success for both of us! I studied producing at UCLA and received an MFA from Mount St. Mary’s University. We’ve both completed a year-long writer’s program through the Writer’s Guild Foundation. So we’ve come very prepared for battle. Literally and figuratively. We’ve both been in the military and served in Afghanistan—Brian as an Army Ranger and I a Naval Officer. I’ve also been practicing medicine for a while. All of these experiences have informed and enriched our storytelling. So, it’s been slow steady climb to this point for both of us.
PopHorror – Haha, man I’ll never trust IMDB again, but thanks for sharing that all with me! The Black String is your feature film debut together and it is fantastic and unique. What inspired you to make this one?
Brian Hanson – I wanted to make the type of horror movie I wish were at the video store or on Netflix. I wanted to make a movie that somebody could watch late at night and still think about the next day and debate with their friends. I wanted to make a movie about a lonely guy in the suburbs that could’ve been me or somebody I know and when they try to take a chance one night, that decision turns their world upside down. No matter how hard they try to explain the evil things that are happening to them, nobody will believe them because they have a history of addiction/mental illness. I wanted to make a movie you can watch twice and see new things the second time through.
Rich Handley – Brian pitched me the story over lunch one day, during our first year of film school at Mount Saint Mary’s University. It stuck with me because I too grew up in a suburb of Los Angeles, not that far from where we shot the film. It’s a horror film for sure, but I was also very intrigued by the abnormal psychology of the story. It satisfied my analytical brain and that part of me that grew up loving to binge-watch Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist, and The Fly.
Brian and I were taught in film school to “write what we know.” So, a year later, we had to create a graduate thesis film. I recommended we should team up and produce The Black String. So, that’s what we did. We spent the next year re-writing the script. I served as lead producer and played the strong supporting role of Dr. Jason Ronaldi. It was such a rush to write this doctor character, especially knowing I’d be playing him. As a physician, I wanted to bring medical authenticity to the story but took quite a bit of artistic license to keep it entertaining. In other words, Dr. Ronaldi has “issues.” He’s 20 years into his medical career, suffering from physician burnout. He’s ripe for a big fall from grace if he doesn’t self-correct, and soon. Fatal flaws, like these, are certainly more interesting to watch on screen and very thrilling and challenging to play as an actor. It’s important the humanity of the characters shine through.
PopHorror – Sounds like quite the journey! I really enjoyed all of the acting, especially the lead role from Frankie Muniz. How did the casting process come about?
Rich Handley – Things really got rolling once we brought on our Casting Director, Jeremy Gordon. Frankie came in late in the 11th hour. We had some amazing actors to choose from and had been auditioning for two weeks. We were days away from casting our Jonathan when Jeremy called us up and said, “What you guys think of Frankie Muniz?” Brian and I were shocked… Frankie Muniz?! He’s a huge TV star who stopped acting to race cars. Of course! Let’s bring him in to read for the role. He had two days with the script, which he absolutely loved, came in completely off book and crushed the audition. As much as we really liked what our other actors were doing, he was obvious choice at that point.
Brian Hanson – We had a lot of good actors to choose from but Frankie had this unpredictable energy and charisma. He also understood the dark sense of humor and pitfall attitude that emerges in Jonathan’s character. Frankie’s persona gave the film an intriguing angle we had never considered and you can see how well he does on the big screen. He’s mesmerizing.
PopHorror – I completely agree! There are some pretty crazy scenes throughout the film, some that involve some top-notch special effects, especially towards the end. I think special effects are really important to a film depending on the story. Do you think they were important for The Black String?
Brian Hanson – Special Effects are so important for a film, especially ours! Our movie’s style is very much that of an indie drama so we can’t suddenly have blatant CGI or rubber mask monsters popping up because it would destroy the plausibility and tone of the movie. Even though we didn’t have much money, we worked hard with Erik Porn’s team and Dan Gilbert on making sure our practical effects like the string and Entity looked real. Even the portals took a long time to figure out because they had to look organic to the scene, nothing could look fake. We had really good VFX artists Bruno Ciccone, Rachel Dunn and Paul DeNigris enhance or smooth out our effects to they were organic to each scene.
Rich Handley – We learned some hard lessons. Make-up effects and VFX take a lot of time to do right, but we didn’t realize how much time they require. We had make-up fx and some CGI elements written into the script, but not yet fully fleshed out or pre-visualized. The supernatural elements on the page, like the “ooze” and portal effect, were still a bit nebulous in our mind’s eye. We had Make-up FX and VFX artists to help us out along the way, but most of the FX had to be figured out in our lengthy post-production process. We couldn’t afford to do all CGI effects so we shot practical elements and enhanced them with VFX (compositing). Brian and I would often set up shop in our own homes to experiment with different portals, strings, and ooze, then go back for reshoots. I remember building the greenscreen for the “hand popping out of the wall” gag in my garage. That was my hand with finger extensions. Brian also worked on various gags and effects in his living room. It was a very challenging and fun process, requiring a lot of trial and error, but eventually, we got the practical elements and VFX to the point we were happy—at least happy enough given our budgetary constraints.
PopHorror – It turned out beautifully and I absolutely loved the practical effects! Do you have any favorite scenes?
Brian Hanson – My favorite is the scene at the end of Act Two when Frankie runs into the convenience store with the knife and frantically tries to tell Eric about Dena’s missing body and the witch conspiracy. It sums up the main theme of our movie, how do you convince your friends and family evil metaphysical things are happening to you without sounding like you’re having a psychotic break? You can’t. It’s science vs psychics. That’s the obstacle for Jonathan, he can’t get anybody to believe him even though he believes he’s telling the truth. Frankie and Black Webb do fantastic jobs in that scene— Frankie is frantic and Blake is deeply concerned for his friend’s mental health.
Rich Handley – The “throw down” at the gas station between Fit Guy Chad (Bret Green) and Jonathan (Frankie). That scene is hilarious. It’s the first time we see Jonathan start to fight back. Even going so far as to attempt to bite Fit Guy Chad’s arm. We almost cut that scene from the film. We got early test audience notes that the scene should probably go. Brian and I vacillated on whether or not to keep it. In the end, we both agreed it had to stay.
PopHorror – Yeah that scene was fantastic. So, the way the film ends… could leave room for a sequel. Would you ever consider that?
Brian Hanson – Perhaps a loosely related sequel like Polanski’s Apartment Trilogy. We can revisit this world, but with new characters and maybe a different cinematic style, but it exists in the same “universe”.
Rich Handley – I’m open to it. We’ll see how the first one is received. So far, so good. We’ve heard a lot of positive feedback from festival-goers, which is amazing! London really ate us up! We played on the biggest IMAX theater in London to packed crowds. The energy and buzz surrounding our film was incredible.
PopHorror – I’m so glad others loved The Black String just as much as I did. This film falls under the horror-thriller category. Are you fan of this genre and if so what is your favorite horror film?
Brian Hanson – This is my favorite type of horror film – I love Repulsion, Black Swan and Jacobs Ladder. Mental illness or psychotic breaks are scary in themselves, the monster is the mind. I also love cosmic horror that incorporates Lovecraftian elements like Hellraiser and The Mist.
Rich Handley – I’m a big fan of the horror-thriller genre. I have no one favorite, per se, but I hope that people who watch our movie ask questions about mental illness, addiction and yes, maybe think about the occult and mystic mythologies, which viewers are certainly encouraged to debate around the water cooler the next day. I personally love ambiguous films like ours. Hoping our film resonates in the same way films like Shutter Island, Donnie Darko, and Mulholland Drive stay with you.
PopHorror – Well, it’s stayed with me and I love horror thrillers as well. They really get under my skin. Does The Black String have a release date yet?
Rich Handley – We release through Grindstone/Lionsgate on Sept 24 — VOD, DVD and Digital HD — Amazon, iTunes, Xbox, Walmart, RedBox, etc … all over the country!
PopHorror – Hell yes, I’ll have to pick up a copy! Any upcoming projects beyond this one?
Brian Hanson – We are finishing up the script to another occult paranoia script about a single dad who hires a backyard magician for his son’s birthday, but his son vanishes during a magic trick. It’s similar to The Black String in how it flirts with what is real and what isn’t and takes this troubled protagonist on a dark and twisted journey into some unknown realms.
Rich Handley – We also have a military movie that’s quite dark. Because we’re both veterans who have seen the worst and best of what it means to be in the military. We hope to tell a visceral, hard-hitting military story that sheds light on details civilians don’t often know about. Once again, our personal experiences and understanding of this world should give it life.
PopHorror – Thank you both for talking with me. I loved learning more about you guys and more about the inspiration that went into the making of The Black String. I look forward to all your future projects. Thanks again!
