INTERVIEW: Director Chris Sun on Australian Creature Feature ‘Boar’
Boar will be playing at Frightfest London 2018.
The screening will take place on Friday 24th August at 11.15pm on the Arrow Video Screen and at 11.45pm on the Horror Channel Screen. Both Screens are located in Leicester Square Cineworld.
Tickets are available here!
All is not well in the Australian outback in Chris Sun‘s Boar, a film that pits a 13-foot tusked hog against a small rural community. Featuring former wrestling star Nathan Jones and horror veteran Bill Moseley, Boar promises blood, gore and a giant, angry pig.
We spoke to Chris to find out more about his gruesome creature feature.
Tom: With such a limited budget, delivering action-packed sequences like the ones this kind of story requires must have been very difficult. Were there any scenes that were particularly challenging to shoot?
Chris: Anything with a 14ft long beast made from fibreglass was definitely a challenge to shoot, hahaha. But I have to admit the fight scene with Nathan Jones took a long time to shoot. In fact, we needed two full days to shoot this scene and we still went over. The beast required a minimum of 2-3 people to make it work plus a team of people holding onto big poles to push it forwards and pull it around, so as you can imagine it was quite challenging at times. It looks shit-hot on camera so it was all worth it.
Tom: Boar is often described as an Ozsploitation film. Do you see yourself as working in that tradition? If so, are there any Ozsploitation films that you draw on for inspiration?
Chris: I think most people see the word “Aussie Film” and automatically think Ozsplotation film. That’s because we are all crazy as fuck down here when making our films. We love to go over the top and I think the Aussie accent helps with that Ozsploitation feel as well. But to be honest I don’t really draw on anything like Ozsploitation for inspiration. I think it just comes naturally to Aussie Filmmakers, however, no matter what I do they always seem to be Ozsploitation films. I think I could shoot a film in Japan with Japanese talent and It would still be an Ozsploitation film.
Tom: You have a reputation for championing practical FX in your movies. If money was no object, would you include more computer wizardry, or are you a puppetry purist?
Chris: I love practical FX and use it wherever and whenever I can. If I had all the money in the world, to be honest, I would still go as hard as I can with the practical FX. There something awesome about slicing a throat on screen and the blood rushing out, getting all over everyone, or a head being crushed under a tractor that is so much fun. All the crew love shooting practical FX as well so it really makes for a fun shoot when you can chop people up. CG etc can also enhance our practical FX in many ways so having CGI is definitely a bonus to a filmmaker like myself.
Boar as example needed CGI to help with movement because he was all fibreglass, so there is definitely a time and place for CGI, but to answer your question I would love to stay as much practical FX as possible throughout my career.
Tom: I understand that before you settled on a boar, you were considering other Australian folk tales and urban legends as inspiration. What were some first draft ideas that you discarded?
Chris: There was a few ideas and other films being offered to me before Boar, in fact at first people thought i was a little crazy to do Boar, but I got them onside pretty quick. I mean who doesn’t want to see a giant pig running around fucking shit up, I know I do. These films are fun, audiences have a great time watching them knowing that it’s all bullshit but enjoy them for the gore and comedy aspects as well.
I did want to do a film about the Australian legend “The Drop Bear” and may still do one down the track but Boar was definitely a film I really wanted to do first.
Tom: I know that Spielberg had a pretty hostile relationship with the shark animatronic by the end of the shoot for Jaws. Now that filming is over, what are your feelings towards Darlene?
Chris: That Pig was amazing, we didn’t really have too many troubles at all, to be honest. He was a pain in the ass to push around, sometimes needing between 6 and 10 people to make it happen but overall it was fun to work with. During the final days of shooting, we did break his back a little, being a typical director I talked my DOP Andy into climbing onto the beasts back to get a cool shot. He’s like “Will it be OK if I sit up here?” and I was like “Shit yeah bro, he’s strong as fuck”. As soon as we called action Andy heard a CRACK, actually, we all did but I looked up at him and said it’s our last day with the pig if you’re good let’s get the shot and we did with no dramas. The beast is still intact to this day. Credit to Steve Boyle and the FX team that built the beast, that’s for sure.
We’d like to give a huge thanks to Chris for taking the time to talk to us, and congratulate him on his success with Boar! You can keep up to date with Chris and his latest projects on Twitter and follow Boar on Facebook. Check out the trailer for Boar below: