CASTING KILL is now available on Amazon Prime Video.
Inspired by Tyler Perry’s five day film shoot for ‘A Fall From Grace’, Caroline Spence and James Smith of Raya Films undertook a similar challenge with their smart-horror, CASTING KILL, albeit with a fraction of the budget and crew.
“I still don’t know how we did it,” says producer/screenwriter, Caroline Spence, “Somewhere in a parallel universe we drove away from London with only half the film in the can.”
With a filming schedule of only six days, CASTING KILL is an 80 minute feature film shot in historical London locations over Halloween 2021. The result is a Hitchcock-inspired smart-horror movie replete with a nod to Old Hollywood glamour.
CASTING KILL is a part satire, part suspense thriller. The story follows Hollywood casting director Arthur Capstone who holds bogus auditions during his sinister ‘casting roadshow’. With cutting black comedy, the film broaches a number of contemporary themes about the movie business, which certainly isn't devoid of controversy and corruption.
CASTING KILL was shot in just six days!
Budgetary constraints and the threat of being shut down by covid should any of the cast and crew succumb to the virus, meant that the film would be shot in six days or not at all. Such was the scarcity of time, the schedule called for the team to shoot over 11 pages per day. “By day 2 we were seriously behind schedule,” explains Caroline. “Unlike our other shoots, we had decided we should work from a shot list, which slowed us up considerably. In the end James threw away the shot list and informed the production assistant to feed him scenes continuously throughout the day.”
All of this wasn’t helped by James being in intense agony from advanced hip arthritis (he was on the waiting list for a replacement), which at times would spasm and leave him literally in tears and unable to move. “There was one point I thought I would have to call an ambulance, such was the unbearable pain,” remembers Caroline, “It was very distressing.”
Without the hindrance of a shot list, and with James working on a natural instinct and the efficient help of his crew, by day four Caroline and the team managed to claw back some of the scenes that needed to be captured. “Apart from short breaks and lunch, James and I kept the conveyor belt of scenes rolling, shooting rapidly, often handheld, and improvising many shots.”
Finally on the evening of the last day, James called “It’s a wrap!” with all the scenes accounted for, and CASTING KILL moved seamlessly into post-production.
With its unusual take on horror, CASTING KILL is no slasher or gore fest. Like many of Alfred Hitchcock's most renowned productions, it is a collaborative project between UK filmmakers and an American composer, in this case, Shaun Finnegan from New York, who has delivered an award-winning score reminiscent of North By Northwest and Vertigo.
Directed by James Smith and produced by Caroline Spence
Screenplay by Caroline Spence
Original music score by Shaun Finnegan
