By John Noonan
The name Hiroshi Katagiri may not be instantly recognisable to you, but as a self-confessed “effects master”, he has worked with some of the biggest names and franchises in Hollywood. Take a look through his CV and you’ll see the likes of Steven Spielberg rubbing shoulders with Guillermo del Toro, alongside films such A.I. and Alien Vs Predator: Requiem. Now, Katagiri turns director with his feature length debut, Gehenna: Where Death Lives.
Talking to FilmInk from his native Japan, Katagiri talks fondly of growing up a young fan of film. It was in high school that he first realised that you could do more with films than just watch them. “There was a book in Japan called The World Of Special Make-up Effects,” he explains. “That’s when I knew that such a job could exist! That was a life changing opportunity. Because of that book, I became aware of this kind of occupation.”
With the fire lit in him, Katagiri had packed up and made his way to the US at the age of eighteen in pursuit of his dream. “Anything that would involve me in movies, that’s what I wanted to do,” he says. One of the first films that he was involved with was the sequel Children Of The Corn III, and whilst he would move on to bigger and better things, Katagiri always considered taking up the mantle of director.
But after a while, the desire waned. “By the time that I was 20, I had just started my career. I couldn’t ask my parents for support,” he admits. “Back then in the early 90s, you had to go to school and get equipment to make a movie. So I had to suppress my dream for a long time. I was giving up.”
It was working on the first Hellboy that would once again spur Katagiri on to be a director. Having watched people working on picture editing behind the scenes, Katagiri says that his “dream came back.” Grabbing himself a camera, a new computer, and Final Cut Pro, he set about directing and writing three short films over the same number of years: Pulse, Crayon, and Hindsight.
Fast forward to 2016, and his feature film, Gehenna: Where Death Lives will be getting its Australian premiere in Sydney later this month. The film tells of a group of land developers trapped in a WW2 bunker who battle various creatures and each other in order to escape. When asked about the story’s genesis, Katagiri is extremely honest. “Well, first of all, it was the limitation of the budget,” he admits. “I knew that it was going to be my first film. I needed a story that takes place in a specific area, without many locations, and a limited cast. So, if people get stuck in a specific area, then that’s the perfect situation!”
The fictional bunker is deep in the ground of the very real Saipan, an island nestling amongst The Northern Marian Islands. Having experienced several colonisations, the island became a line of defence for the Japanese, and in 1944, The Battle of Saipan became one of the major campaigns in WW2. Mixing horror, and his culture of growing up in Japan and living in America, Saipan seemed like the perfect place to make his first movie. “When I was thinking of the place where the Americans and Japanese fought, Saipan was the first place that I thought of,” he says. “A lot of people died there. Not just Japanese but many Americans too.”
Funded partly through Kickstarter, and by investors that he met through the crowdfunding site, Katagiri began filming, taking on a multifaceted role that included director, co-writer, and effects supervisor. So, were these duties easy to balance? “No! It’s really hard,” Hiroshi laughs. “In order to do the effects cheap, I did them myself. I had a crew, but I was supervising. I was finishing the effects the weekend before the shoot! It was pretty crazy.”
When watching Gehenna: Where Death Lives, you’ll want to keep your eyes peeled for one or two familiar faces, in particular Doug Jones and Lance Henriksen. When it came to the latter, a chance meeting between the Near Dark star and Katagiri’s friend, who programmed conventions in Japan, would see him getting on board. Talking about the veteran American actor, Katagiri has nothing but praise for the actor. “Lance has established his career,” Katagiri explains. “And my sense is that he’s willing to support new directors and producers. He’s really supportive, and that’s what’s nice about him.”
With Gehenna: Where Death Lives now firmly under his belt, Katagiri’s sights turn to his next project. Initially keeping it under wraps for now, the director is happy to admit that he’s not focused solely on making another horror. He mentions other films that have been a part of his life – Back To The Future and Midnight Run crop up – and admits that horror is a perfectly good way to start a career. “I’d love to do every kind of film,” he enthuses. “But for my first film, if I’d said that I wanted to do a romantic comedy, who would support me? Horror is a good starting movie. I love horror, but it’s not like my next film has to be horror. It has to be entertaining.”
Gehenna: Where Death Lives will play at the A Night Of Horror Film Festival, which runs in Sydney from November 24-December 4. For all information, head to the official site.
