SET VISIT: PART 1 OF 4
Let me tell you friends, I am becoming quite a fan of Vancouver. Not only is it a fun city with polite people, solid casinos and what I am told is the only licensed “full release” massage shop around – but the plethora of Hollywood projects shooting there allows for all sorts of random celebrity sightings. For instance, I got to see Amanda Bynes hopping around like a drunken sorority girl while trailed by what looked like extras from an Avril Lavigne video in the lobby of my hotel.
But none of these semi-interesting diversions are the reason that dear JoBlo and The Arrow sent my southern fried ass to the city of Asian Angels. Nope they sent me to cover a set visit. For a movie I’d never heard of and couldn’t find much out about online. All I had was a title – WHISPER (Now hitting DVD shelves come November 27, 2007). And a cast list that included none other than Josh Holloway of ABC’s LOST. I knew he had recently been named one of People Magazine‘s 50 Most Beautiful People and little else, though we came to find out his onset nickname is now FiddyMost.
So what else did I find out while I was there. Well the director is an upstart 26 year-old whose previous experience was limited mostly to commercials. Which made me feel old. And fairly unaccomplished. And maybe a little bitter. Especially after I saw his girlfriend.
OK, so now you’re asking, what did I find out while I was there other than the fact that my ego is a bit fragile. Well let me tell you. A lot. Some would say too much. Producer Damon Dash was so disarmingly open in his interview with us journalists that I’m not even going to post it. There are way too many spoilers to edit out, and to tell you the truth it sounds like a damn fine movie so I don’t want to be the one who ruins it for anyone.
Oh, and it’s going to be PG-13.
That’s right, I actually think a PG-13 horror flick looks like it has the potential to rock. I can hardly believe it myself, but there you go.
The basic gambit of the flick is that an ex-con (Holloway) needs money for a down payment on a house for he and his girlfriend. He’s trying to go straight, but nobody will give him a chance. Then he gets an offer for one last job. Kidnap a rich kid and hold on to him until the parents pay a big ransom. Easy money. Low stakes. Or so he thinks.
Turns out the kid (played by a frighteningly mature Blake Woodruff) is more than he appears. Seems to know things he shouldn’t. Likes to mess with people’s heads and is very good at it. Oh, and he might be a bit homicidal too. Or it could all just be coincidence and bad luck. Either way, creepy stuff.
Especially when you factor in that the title refers to the kids ability to whisper in a way that has some very strange results on his captors psyche’s.
The setting adds to the tension, since the kidnappers decide to hole up at a summer camp that is empty in the winter. Isolation! Paranoia! And it’s frickin’ cold!
Now if you’re noticing shades of THE OMEN and THE SHINING in all of this, you’re right. While the film will clearly stand on its own, the talent behind it has clearly seen this all as being significantly informed by those two classic fright flicks.
We got to check out two aspects of the movie while there – a drowning scene for one of the kidnappers, and the winter cabin that serves as the main set of the movie. Let’s talk about the scene first.
THE SCENE – ICE DROWNING
Nothing like watching a character drown to death in an ice-covered lake to give you a good feeling about a film’s scare potential. Of course, watching said scene shot at a public pool on a warm Vancouver day really felt incongruous, but it’ll be hella fun to watch the finished product.
What can I tell you about it? Let’s just say that gum chewing, smiling, waving kids will never seem wholesome to you again after you watch this shite. You’ve got one hard-core muthaf*cker gettin’ jacked six ways from Sunday and a little tyke who doesn’t seem particularly predisposed to helping him. Tough stuff amigos.
We also get a chance to see one of the kidnappers, who may or may not be the aforementioned Josh Holloway, going all primeval on the ice’s ass with a big nasty axe. I won’t say if he was in time to save his compadre, but I will tell you that it’s not too soon to order some flowers.
The funniest thing about the set visit is that while we were expressly forbidden from taking any pictures of the shoot, there was a public walkway outside the pool where everybody and their mother was getting snapshots and video footage. Harsh man! Harsh. I gotta bring business cards the next time so I can get hooked up with some of that amateur action! I DO love amateur action.
Did I say that out loud?
After we were done baking to death in the hot, hot sun we got to move on to:
PART II – WINTER LODGE SET VISIT
After spending a long day outside at the pool, I think we were all looking forward to getting to an interior set and checking out the spot where the main action takes place. Especially after Production Designer Michael Joy gave us a look at the concept drawing for the exterior of the Winter Lodge. We were all ready for a great creepy set.
First, though, we ended up boxed in like anchovies for what felt like an hour drive out to the set. I mean the damn thing wasn’t even in Vancouver. It was like…geez…it was like we were actually working!
But we finally got there…and the place didn’t have any lights on. So we spent about a half hour wandering the outside of the set. Which was lovely as outsides of sets go I suppose, but it was starting to get a little irritating.
Finally we got some lights, and the reason I share what my mood was before seeing the set, is so you can imagine how cool the thing looked at that point since I forgot all about the little things and totally got swept up in checking out the insanely perfect detail of the Lodge. Ironically we saw the set with only a day or two left in shooting, so some things had gone very wrong in the movie at this point, which I can’t describe because it would give away important plot points.
So we spent all that time getting there, it ended up being totally worth it, and what can I tell you about it? Not much I’m afraid. There is a giant main hall that’s got lots of stuff wrong with it at that point. They have everything covered, even down to having Councilor of the Year names carved into wooden benches in the hall. It also has a cathedral at one end and plenty of religious symbolism to up the creep factor.
There’s also an old kitchen, various sleeping rooms (one of which has a steadily growing mural of events that have happened in the lodge), and an attic (with two bullet holes in the door at this point). Mostly though, they’ve just managed to really nail that old camp feel. The kinda woody, musty, joyous yet oppressive sensation that anyone who ever went to camp understands immediately.
WRAP UP
After that it was time to head back to the hotel, grab some drinks with my fellow journalists, and get in a little bit more trouble at a few of them Vancouver casinos.
But fear not, we’re not done HERE yet. In the coming days I’ll share with you interviews with actors Josh Holloway and Blake Woodruff, as well as director Stewart Hendler. Stay tuned and keep your radar tuned for this one. I think it’s gonna be a humdinger.
STAY TUNED FOR PART 2 OF THIS SET VISIT!
