Fresh off of the Spanish production
When the time is right, Darren Bousman is going to open up about the spooky shenanigans that befell his production in Spain while shooting 11-11-11. But he’s not ready yet. And he’s still trying to make sense of the weirdness he faced with his crew (which brings to mind the unexplained occurrences that were felt on films like The Omen). For now, Bousman is content with simply talking about the film itself.
At the time of this writing, Bousman is back on U.S. soil and in the editing room on his latest thriller which he describes as, “a 100% different film than anything I’ve ever done. It’s not a violent film – it’s scarier, more atmospheric.”
Due to the story’s nature (it delves into the mystery of the date 11-11-11), many have brought up comparisons to similarly-themed conspiracy films such as Number 23 and Knowing. Bousman is quick to point out that he consciously avoided taking the approach those films do. “This one is not anything like that, it’s more horror-based. It’s more akin to something like Rosemary’s Baby or The Tennant. Hopefully, there’s this palpable sense of dread.”
“I basically went down the wormhole of conspiracy theories on this one. It all started with me researching 11-11, which led to reading about a lot of dark stuff, horrible stuff, that really f**ked me up. I got really depressed reading about everything I was finding, so I channeled that into the script and from there things took off pretty quick.”
Bousman was pitched the idea to write 11-11-11, the first film he has penned since an original script he wrote was picked up and transformed into Saw II. Three months after completing the 11-11-11 screenplay, he was on a plane to Spain to shoot the film with “an all-Spanish cast except for two people, Michael Landes and Wendy Glenn. Timothy Gibbs is our lead and it’s amazing how close he was to his character. He was a big star in the â70 and â80s as a soap opera star, and he had a tragedy befall his life. He moved to Barcelona after that.”
“Gibbs plays a famous American writer is called to Spain to see his family he hasn’t seen in 20 years,” Bousman adds. “He’s a fish out of water out there and he’s stuck there trying to interpret what’s going on around him. And I felt the same way shooting this film. I packed up, went to Spain and was immediately thrown into this disturbing shit going on around me.”
The director recounts some of the “disturbing shit” he faced on set in his blog, but he tells Shock that he’s holding back on the truly sinister moments that gave his crew genuine chills and had some employees walking away from the production.
Since his last blog entry, a teaser trailer has gone live, giving fans a peek at the film, which does indeed look different from his other horror offerings like Saw II and the upcoming Mother’s Day (opening May 6).
“I didn’t want to rely on gore and tricks. Saw had this built-in, greenish, comic book-y look. Repo! was just over the top. This is a hybrid, I wanted everything to be moody. Every location has a unique look and the scope is bigger than anything I’ve done. We shot on one set, but everything else is a practical location. We were in some of the most insane places ever, including a f**ked up house I swear is cursed. We shot in cathedrals and in an above ground cemetery, so it’s got a very gothic look to it.”
11-11-11 is set to open on November 11 (naturally).
Source: Ryan Turek, Managing Editor
