By Molly Magennis
For any independent filmmaker, getting a film off the ground is hard work, and an immense amount of passion for the craft is needed to continue on the long road ahead. But for David Willing, that possibility became a reality when his horror film ‘Surrogate’ premiered at the Sun Theatre earlier this month. Molly Magennis spoke to the writer/director on his passion for film and his journey towards making his feature directorial debut.
Seddon resident David Willing fell in love with cinema when he was five years old.
When he was 12, he picked up a video camera and started making films around his house.
He eventually headed off to film school, where he learned the intricacies of how to write scripts and piece together a film.
“[My] love of cinema grew and grew and I started to learn how to write and direct films,” David said.
“Then, over the years, my adult life has just been making, well since film school, short films and documentaries. I’ve written I think about 11 feature films, but this was the first one that actually we managed to find the finance for to make happen.”
While horror was a genre that David particularly enjoyed growing up, his work prior to Surrogate mainly consisted of writing crime/thriller scripts, documentaries and a comedy short.
“It sort of came full circle that my first feature was a horror film because I had loved that genre so much growing up,” he said.
George A. Romero, a pioneer of the horror genre who is often referred to as the ‘godfather of zombies’, is cited by David as having a significant influence on him from a horror standpoint.
He was lucky enough to meet the acclaimed director about six years ago at the Melbourne International Film Festival.
“Dawn of the Dead is, you know, I saw that when I was 12, it just blew me away,” he said.
“I gave [George] a copy of one of my short films I’d made at the time and just had a brief chat with him in the cinema and he signed one of his books for me.”
In terms of particularly impactful films, Silence of the Lambs (1991) and David Fincher masterpiece Seven (1995) were ‘pivotal’ for the young filmmaker, with the latter having a special influence on Surrogate.
“It’s one of the films that I watch, you know, once a year I revisit it, it just gets better each time and the influence of that shows a little bit in Surrogate, not a lot, but there’s a few moments that are clearly inspired by the design of the film.”
David describes Surrogate as an ‘intense, paranormal horror’ centred around a single mother named Natalie Paxton who falls mysteriously ill and struggles to save her family from being destroyed.
“When she returns home [from hospital], just all these really, you know, crazy, intense and full-on things start happening to her and her daughter, and then she needs to solve that problem,” he said.
The film is the result of a brainstorming session he had with his co-writer Beth King back in 2016, where the pair came up with eight story ideas, with one immediately standing out.
They spent two years writing and rewriting the story, coming up with five different endings in the process, before officially shooting the film in 2020.
Kestie Morassi, best known for her role in the iconic Australian horror Wolf Creek (2005) and as Maggie in Home and Away, was cast to play Natalie, alongside Jane Badler (Mission Impossible) and Louise Siverson (Prisoner).
David said Morassi was looking to star in another horror film around the time she finished up on Home and Away. She had been offered a lot of horror scripts following Wolf Creek, but none had grabbed her attention, that was until she read Surrogate.
“What’s interesting with her role is that she’s in almost every scene of the film…so [we] just kind of needed to see that she’d be right for the character,” he said.
“But then she sent me a tape of one scene in particular, and just was like, oh wow, she’s going to be perfect for the role, and yeah, it’s quite an incredible performance.”
While the rest of the cast and crew is made up of over one hundred talented creatives, Surrogate does have a particularly local flavour, with many of those involved based in the west.
Renee Schulz, David’s housemate, was behind the film’s gruesome makeup, the chilling soundtrack was composed by Footscray resident Mark Buys, cinematographer Ben Luck resides in Sydenham and Producer Haris Fazlic’s studio is based in Sunshine.
“The other [person who] was just incredible was our production designer Bianca because art departments feel the lower budget more than anyone because, you know, they have to dress certain sets and do certain things, and her work is extraordinary on [the film], it looks beautiful,” David said.
Surrogate officially had its world premiere at the Sun Theatre in Yarraville on Wednesday April 6, followed by a Q&A with Jane Badler and Kestie Morassi.
David said the response to the film has been really positive so far, with some audience members getting more than they bargained for.
“Everyone’s just found it quite intense and [they’re] gripped as they’re watching it,” he said.
“We actually had at our premiere, honest to goodness, someone actually did pass out…..there’s a particularly notorious scene that they got up to leave and she passed out.
“I said to the makeup artist who did the special effects, that’s the best compliment you’re ever gonna get for your work.”
The film’s swift success was equally as clear when David was told it was the Sun Theatre’s number one film for two weeks, and that it outsold new releases The Batman and Morbius just last week.
“I would say a lot of indie filmmakers would kill to get what we’ve got, you know, part of that has just come through that real hard work and tenacity,” David said.
There are still plenty of opportunities for horror fans and movie lovers to see Surrogate on the big screen, with the Thornbury Picture house holding screenings on April 14 and 20, and the Sun Theatre hosting three more sessions over the school holidays with dates yet to be announced.
For sessions times and more information visit suntheatre.com.au/wp-cinema/movie/S21SURROGATE/SURROGATE/ or thornburypicturehouse.com.au/film/st00001696/ or www.surrogatefilm.com/
