by Nadine Whitney
Subject is a found-footage style horror thriller by Australian director Tristan Barr, from a script by Vincent Befi. The film involves a criminal called Willem (Stephen Phillips) being transferred to a secret site where he is asked to document his experiences watching a mysterious subject.
Alone, with the exception of a scientist called Dalesky (Tristan Barr), who at intervals comes to interview Willem, the man is locked in a private hell where days turn into months and he has too long to contemplate his own past.
Subject questions who the subject of the experiment is – Willem or the “subject” he is observing. As the film progresses, the audience becomes slowly aware that there are many kinds of monsters and nothing that is seen can be entirely trusted. As the layers peel back on Willem’s past and present, the question arises if he will have a future.
Shot in Melbourne, the film also features Australian talent Gaby Seow, Cecelia Low, Scarlett Walker, and Joey Lai.
Your first feature Watch the Sunset was an ambitious project in terms of utilising a single shot. It was also incredibly well received. With Subject, you’ve returned to Melbourne to make a genre film. Can you tell us a little about what went into the production?
“We discovered the script by writer Vincent Befi in our Continuance Screenplay initiative. Deciding to move quickly, we gave ourselves three months to get to shooting. After having several locations pull out on us, our production designer Daniel Kim and producer David Gim whipped together a set build within a week in a warehouse in the Melbourne suburbs, it was an incredible feat.
“We shot in ten consecutive days, with twelve cameras on robotic sliders and gimbals rolling at once with all the mechanical problems you can imagine, in the dead of Melbourne winter in an unheated warehouse. It was a nightmare. Luckily, that was in line with what we were trying to create, it would have been a little different if it was a rom-com. We had such an incredibly dedicated team including Aline Joyce our SFX make-up artists and Joey Lai, the actor playing the monster subject, who was up at 4am to apply four hours of prosthetics every day and then the same for taking off after twelve hours shooting.”
Subject is a horror/thriller, but it deals with very real issues. Essentially, you allow the real horror to evolve within the space of perceived horror. What attracted you to the genre to tell the story?
“Horror is a space that allows us to dive into these issues and reveal the complexities without it being too painful or cringeworthy to watch. The duality of a horror film allows us to be scared and trepidatious with the circumstance, whilst also revealing the meaning behind these anxieties or monsters in our case. Some of the issues in the film relate to the experiences of the creatives involved in the production in real life, so the meaning behind the unfolding horror was very important.”
Although there are other actors in Subject, including yourself, it rests on the shoulders of Stephen Phillips playing Willem. Stephen has to go through a lot and for a while, at least, appear sympathetic. What was it like working with Stephen to get such a meaty performance from him?
“Steve is an absolute powerhouse performer. He lived the role and although he was able to leave the set at any time, he chose to put himself into the experience of a prisoner in an experimental facility for twelve hours a day. Not in a ‘method acting’ unworkable manner, but just to have the ability to be realistic whilst playing the array of shades necessary to keep an audience entertained in one location for the entire film.”
Tell me a little about your choice to use screens within screens, and cameras filming cameras.
“In true surveillance style, we wanted this to feel as invasive and real as possible. Similar to how our lives are now, we are always on a screen and there is the potential to always being monitored. It was important to have the live feeds working within the set. I believe you notice these details on a subconscious level. For instance, the lag time of the screens projecting images just gives a slight bit of unease. Also, hopefully it heightens the viewers’ senses on what may be coming on those screens…”
You’ve chosen to use American accents in the film. What is your reasoning for the decision?
“A few reasons, the film is based on similar government operations to MKUltra, which is based in the US. And purely from a commercial point of view, we wanted this film to hit in the North American territory, as that’s where the biggest market is. We have secured a very exciting deal there which we can’t talk about just yet.”
Subject is an extremely tense film that never quite lets the audience know where it is going to end up. Did you enjoy playing around with audience expectations?
“I very much enjoy trying to do that, but it’s hard to know if the twists and turns will land.”
Mirrors, like cameras, feature in Subject often. Mirrors are a common cinematic language. What is Subject saying with them?
“I don’t want to say too much on this to ruin the viewing experience, but what I will say is our behaviour is cyclical or works on a pendulum of experience. Most of the time, our greatest fears are not what’s outside us, but what lies within.”
You and your team do an excellent job working on a tight budget with practical effects. Can you tell us a little about how you made Subject feel expansive despite mostly happening in one location?
“Yes, that was our greatest challenge. I think firstly this starts with Vincent Befi’s script and then Liam Selby our editor did a great job to help this experience: the way in which the cuts work keeps us engaged and poses questions to the unfolding narrative, and without the performance from the actors Stephen Phillips, Gaby Seow, Cecilia Low, Aaron Walton, and Scarlett Walker the film would fall flat.”
Are there any films or filmmakers that had an impact on you when you were conceiving how to direct Subject?
“The captive sequence in Oldboy (Park Chan-wook) was our biggest inspiration. David Gim the producer is Korean Aussie, and we love Korean cinema and how weird and extreme it gets. We also took inspiration from The Blair Witch Project, You Were Never Really Here, and there were some image references to Tarkovsky in there.”
Subject will be playing via MonsterFest around Australia. What are your plans for the film after that?
“It’ll be released by Umbrella Entertainment in Australia, and we have some very exciting news for our US release.”
Subject is screening at MonsterFest, Melbourne – November 27, Brisbane, Sydney, Perth and Adelaide on December 10, 2022
