Vampires put the bite on the mob underworld
It’s the second day of principle photography on Dead Cert, and I have been invited to the set.
For the first fortnight of its six-week schedule the production is hopping between location shoots, and for the next few days they have taken over a strip club in a provincial town about thirty miles outside of London.
The foyer of the building is a hive of activity, as lights are repositioned and makeup artists rush forward for touch-ups. Meanwhile, the main lounge of club, ordinarily full of scantily-clad girls and lecherous drunks, is being used as a working area for most of the crew, each ‘private booth’ housing a different department.
A runner calls for quiet, as next door they go for a take. Unfortunately, the monitor is surrounded by people with a legitimate reason to be looking at it and I find myself crowded out. As a consolation I’m invited over to look at the result of the previous night’s work, a brutal stunt where an actress falls into a car windscreen. The crew are proud of it, and they have every reason to be. Even isolated from any context it works.
Once the cut is called I am introduced to Dexter Fletcher, veteran of British gangster films like Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. He explains the premise.
“There’s a firm in it, to do with this club, and their sort of being muscled by this Russian mafia. It turns out there’s more to this Russian mafia that meets the eye, they’re tasty, old-world vampires. It’s about the clash between these old-school gangsters like Craig [Fairbrass] and all his mob, and these Russian vampires.”
Our conversation is interrupted by another take. As we sit, waiting for an opportunity to begin talking again Dexter is approached by a runner, who drags him off to the wardrobe department.
Five weeks later I’m invited back to the set. This time the production has moved to its permanent home, a group of warehouses on an industrial estate in east London. It’s an incongruous setting for a film production, but it’s also one that has shaved an enormous amount of money off of the movie’s budget.
Despite the unlikely location, and mundane exterior, inside it is unmistakably a studio.
While one warehouse unit is almost empty, used simply as a holding pen for the extras, the adjoining building looks more like a strip club than the real one used for the location shoot.
As with the previous visit, every square inch of spare space has been taken up by crewmembers. Store rooms are used to house the Digital Imaging Technicians’ (DIT)* suite and prop department. Meanwhile the administrative offices house make-up, wardrobe, and the green room.
Almost immediately after arriving I am shown into the DIT suite to view the trailer that was cut together for AFM. There’s a real ’70s vibe to it, far more reminiscent of The Long Good Friday than modern British gangster pics. Jonathan Sothcott, the film’s producer has repeatedly described director of photography, James Friend, as a genius. If this footage is anything to go by, he’s right.
The remarkable filming locations for Dead Cert reflect the strange way the film came about.
“We were sent a couple of scripts through, and one of them was a gangsters versus demons in a nightclub thing called Infernal by Gary Charles,” Ben Shillito, the film’s writer reminisces.
Infernal had originally been conceived by both Charles and actor Andy Tiernan who pitched the idea to director, Steve Lawson, in a pub. According to Tiernan, Lawson “wanted to have an antidote for the Twilight sort of thing.”
“The original plot was very simple, took place over about twelve hours, escalated wildly from a boxing match to a massacre. We decided to add mythology and a lot more depth to it,” Shillito explains, “So, for a day and a half, Steve [Lawson], Nick Onsloe and I brainstormed ideas. It really is a three-way split on that breaking the story stuff. Nick knows a lot about gangsters and boxing. Steve knows about gangsters and boxing, and horror. I know about horror, and absolutely nothing about boxing.”
With the basic idea in place, they continued to refine the concept until they were ready to write the first draft of the script. Shillito continues, “We batted it back and forth, Steve and I, for about a week. Tidied it up, tightened it up. Then we took it to Jonathan Sothcott, and he had lots of input adding mythology and extra layers to the vampires. He knows his vampires does Jonathan. I’m more of a zombie man myself, traditionally.”
“So with Jonathan’s input, and also input from Will Horn, who’s one of the execs, we added in what’s become the crux of the mythology, which is ‘The Wolf’. Jonathan suggested we take a mythological angle on it, and he suggested maybe not Christian mythology, so I had a look through mythological things, and thought Norse mythology would actually work really well.”
This process happened at a blistering pace. Shillito and Lawson first read Infernal on the July 29. The first draft of Dead Cert is dated August 2. The twelfth draft was locked and ready on September 6, and principle photography began on October 10.
“It makes us unusual, but one of the few things Steve and I have in common is speed,” Shillito points out “He’s someone who knows what he wants quite quickly. He doesn’t agonize over things. He makes a decision, and usually it’s the right decision, so he sticks with it.”
The pace forced production designer Matthew Button to conceive and build the set in next to no time. In spite of the constraints placed upon him, it’s been a resounding success.
Stepping onto the set it looks like a real strip club, except on a grand scale. Complimenting the bar and the wipe-clean seats are a vast stage, and a series of alcoves running along what would be the first story. The details are perfect, down to the DJ booth in the corner, and the menus on the bar. The only clue that all isn’t what it seems is that the ‘walls’ don’t quite go all the way up to the roof.
It is on the set that I manage to grab a few moments with Lawson. Appropriately enough we perch in the club’s ‘VIP area’, talking while his stunt crew perfect a wirework routine.
Dead Cert is Lawson’s second film as a director. His first, Just For The Record, is a mockumentary about the British film industry. Consequently the difference is marked.
“To come in to do a horror film, with the blood and the gore and the vampires is really exciting,” Lawson confesses. “It’s been nice to have the challenge of doing something cross genre, with the vampires and the horror side.”
Despite a budget that barely reaches the £1 million mark ($1.65 million) Lawson is satisfied with what he has been able to achieve.
“I wouldn’t say we’ve had to make any compromises really. It’s been hard getting everything done, and getting the set together, but I think it’s a wonderful set, and credit to Matthew Button who’s done that. We’ve got a good space to work around, and it looks absolutely fantastic.”
Indeed, Lawson should be pleased. The film has already been sold to Momentum Pictures, and in the UK at least, is headed for a theatrical release. While many sophomore directors may feel additional pressure to perform under those circumstances, Lawson remains calm.
“[If I’m making a film] I’m going to put my all into making it every success, and as well received as it can be. I think crossing genre, with the gangster-vampire sides to the film, will make it a success, and will spread it around. It will be well received and it should travel. I think it’s the first time that something like this has been seen coming out of the UK, and that’s what really I put it down to. The standards of the film regardless of if it’s a small production or a big one will always be the same. I’ll put my everything into it, the same as the people around it.”
Shortly after the conversation with Lawson ends, the set fills up with extras, ready for a rehearsal.
Countless burly blokes and barely dressed girls file onto the set, all of them covered in fake blood. The already gore-drenched set, scattered liberally with severed limbs, is now even more horrific.
As the rehearsal begins the extras mill around in the background, while the lead vampires fight with the lead gangsters. The camera may be focused on Fairbrass, but my attention is drawn to the tiny figure of Janet Montgomery, attacking a large man with an axe.
The action lasts for only a few moments, after which the cast move back to their starting positions, before beginning again.
As the scene finishes I manage to catch up with Montgomery, now unarmed, and considerably more cheerful.
“I play a girl who works in a strip club. The other girls all get turned into vampires and I end up saving the day.” After the introduction to her character we discuss the scene she just shot. “My character isn’t particularly violent, and she’s quite sweet, and she’s kind of in the wrong place at the wrong time. She’s a really sweet girl in a horrible set up. She has to try the drug, the ‘bliss’, and there’s lots of things that she’s never done before, she’s one of the younger ones, and she’s quite sweet, so this is the first act of violence she has to do.
“In Wrong Turn 3 I had quite a lot of action scenes, so she was a bit tougher, and in Hills Run Red I was a bit of a wimp, but came through and got a bit tough near the end. I kind of get characters that get a bit tough, and then they’re not, then they are, then they’re not.”
Montgomery’s career has taken off somewhat in the last few months, with roles in Wrong Turn 3, as well as The Hills Run Red. She spoke about her feelings toward horror films.
“I love doing horror movies. I’d love to do some more thrillers, not so much covered in blood. I haven’t done a British horror movie. I’ve done a couple in America. The fans are fantastic. It’s a great genre to work in because the fans are so loyal. When they give criticism, of things they don’t like, it’s good criticism, because they tell you what they like, and what they don’t.”
As Montgomery is called back to set, I follow. Studiously avoiding the gaze of the camera I watch as the fight scene is replayed, this time shot from the other side of the room. In total, the scene lasts barely a minute, but it has taken an inordinate amount of time to shoot. That said, if the finished product holds up to the promise of its trailer, it will be worth it.
Dead Cert will be distributed by Momentum in the UK. A US distributor will be announced shortly.
*The film is shot on the RED ONE camera, which records digitally onto a hard drive. The Digital Imaging Technician (DIT)’s job is to scrub through each slate, checking that the images have recorded properly, and to copy the recording onto back-up drives.
Source: Ben Mortimer
