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Chills and Thrills
While things may have veered off course in Harry Cook’s latest film, the water-tight thriller ‘Caught Inside’, the young actor’s career looks like it’s heading in a promising direction...
"If someone told me when I was younger that by 20 years old I would have already gone to the Maldives to shoot a movie and had Geena Davis play my mum, I would have told you that you were crazy," young actor Harry Cook tells FilmInk. "So I'm unbelievably grateful for the work that I've done. I just hope more than anything that I can keep making great work because I've got so much more to show."
Indeed the 20-year-old Cook (who knew he wanted to act almost as far back as he can remember) has made a promising start to his career with his first two features - Accidents Happen and Caught Inside - proving both very different but well-received films. In the former, the actor impressed playing a troubled teenager prone to drinking in the tragedy tinged but whimsical Accidents Happen. But FilmInk's chatting to Cook today about Caught Inside, a chilling thriller which sees a group of twenty-somethings embark on a surfing trip to only for their blissful holiday to quickly dissolve into an inescapable nightmare.
The impressive directorial feature debut for Adam Blaiklock (it scored the Audience Award when it screened at Sydney Film Festival), the film blends traditional genre conventions with a surprisingly thoughtful screenplay driven by sexual politics, vengeful thrills and a streak of insanity. The tension of the piece comes to a head when Sam (Daisy Betts) catches the eye of two of the guys aboard the boat (a bullish surf pro played by Ben Oxenbould and nice guy played by Sam Lyndon) and the male competition sees things quickly turn dangerously nasty...
In amongst all the backstabbing, lies and hypocrisy, Cook plays the true innocent of the piece who has his world view shaken up. "Archie was so great to play," Cook says. "I really wish I could have some of his views in my own life because he really does think that everyone and anyone has good intentions. I found it more of a challenge to be so naïve. I wanted to create someone who is faced with a situation that's so frightening and find what it would be like for someone with his values to go through that. It was good to feel Archie having to grow up and change his overall thoughts in a short space of time."
The real revelation of the film is Ben Oxenbould (previously best known for his comedic turns in the local sitcom Hey Dad..!, the sketch show Comedy Inc. and as Fatty Finn in the 1980 film of the same name) who brilliantly plays the deliriously unhinged but vaguely sympathetic Bull, whom Archie sympathises with even when things turn nasty. How was it to be working alongside someone in such an intense headspace every day? "Ben was truly amazing to work with," Cook enthuses about his older co-star, "and such a great guy. He is so dedicated to his work and it made me really want to step up to the plate every day. It was great because our characters both needed to have a bond to make it seem plausible as to why my character stuck around for so long, so it was great to actually become mates with Ben while making the film."
Helping the actors tap into their characters, as well as the shifting dynamic between them, was the fact that Blaiklock chose to shoot the film chronologically over four weeks on location in the Maldives. And while there weren't any disasters at sea, the shoot definitely wasn't a holiday. "We had two boats, one was the set - it was called The Hedonist - and the other was the boat that we slept on," Cook recalls. "Shooting in chronological order built up the tension. We were working long, long days and sort of living and breathing our characters so it was pretty heated both on set and off set. We arrived in Male at midnight and began shooting at 5am that very morning so it wasn't by any means a luxurious relaxing vacation. We worked our asses off," Cook laughs.
Caught Inside is available on DVD from February 1 and can be pre-ordered here.