Piper follows Liz (Hurley) and her daughter Amy (Mia Jenkins), who have relocated to a small town in Germany. But as they settle into their new life, things start to take a turn dark. A Terrible secret from Liz’s past has awoken the Piper, an evil entity from beyond who seeks redemption by taking the children of any parent who has done wrong…and Mia is in grave danger.
As Piper releases on VOD in Australia from November 13, Nick L’Barrow spoke with the films writer and director, Anthony Waller, about how he expanded this folklore tale in to a feature film, the importance of an impactful opening scene, and shooting his favourite shot in the entire movie.
Nick: I’m curious to know what the process was like of not just modernising this folklore tale but expanding it into the horror genre as well.
Anthony Waller: First of all, it came to me as a script from Duncan Kennedy, and it was a straight-up, scare-em, horror. And the company who wanted to make it wanted more of a PG-13, and I thought we could kind of make it like a date-night movie for the teens then. But I added more of a genre mix in that process.
And you mentioned horror, but I see this as more of a suspenseful thriller. I wanted to have elements of a lot of things, because some people don’t like horror. But it’s got romance. It’s an adventure. It’s a ghost story. I want people to think I might be pigeonholing something or making it predictable. But the movie has a different mix of emotions.
Then we parted ways because they then suddenly wanted something different. So, I waited for the option on Duncan’s script to expire and bought it myself and continued those rewrites that I was doing, where I was using the themes of the story, not just repeating the story. It’s not the traditional tale about the mayor not paying the piper for clearing the village of rats, so he takes all the children. But it’s the element of the idea that somebody gets punished for deed that they’ve gotten away with by taking away their children, which is a very dark thing to do. So, I had the Piper hypnotise the children and make them commit suicide.
And I looked at how that might put stress on a relationship between a parent and a child. How a parent would react knowing their child may die because of their bad deeds. But also, there the metaphysical aspect, or is it all psychological? Positive spirits, negative spirits.
Nick: That relationship between mother and daughter really is the core of the film. And the evolution of where the relationship goes lies a lot of the performance from Mia Jenkins. What were the conversations like with Mia about bringing that performance to life?
Anthony Waller: She is an extraordinary actress. There wasn’t a single take she fluffed through the entire shoot. She understood the script and her first take was always a useable version, so it allowed us to try variations for the character. And he ability to snap from her north of England accent, to American, and back, was unbelievable. It was a pleasure to work with all the actors to be honest.
Elizabeth Hurley was also great. But, I thought it was a joke early on when the casting director told me that she loved the script, but can’t do the film if there were any rats in it. I was like, ‘But, she read the script, right?’ [laughs] And then I realised she meant “real rats on set”. So, I assured her they were CGI! But there was one scene where she had to lift one out of a boiler, and we needed her to do that because it costs like $20,000 to CGI a rat!
Nick: I was going to ask how many rats in this film were real and how many were CGI!
Anthony Waller: Yeah, we only had the rats as reference so the VFX people could see how the light reacts to the fur.
Nick: That’s incredible because it looks and feels so real. My favourite shot of the film is where you have the camera close to the floor, chasing a wave of rats up the stairs, as they chase someone else…
Anthony Waller: Thank you! My favourite shot came from the idea of wondering whether The Piper is a spirit from the past, and how can he manifest himself into a physical being. So, I thought, he summons the rats, and they start crawling on each other to make a body out of rats, and his spirit can control them. Now this way, his spirit can interact or stab or kill or play music, and then disassembles when he’s not. It was the hardest shot, but it’s my favourite shot.
Nick: Speaking of great shots and scenes, you start this movie with a pretty impactful moment. I’m curious to know how important a shocking, memorable opening scene is to you to kick off a film?
Anthony Waller: That was 90% Duncan, that opening scene. Except the thing was, I was keeping a bit more strict to the “rules”, and I wanted to make it more clear that The Piper was punishing the parent by taking the child.
So, in his opening scene, they go to the hospital, this husband and wife, and it’s the husband who hangs himself, which sort of falls out of the premise. So, the only thing I changed was… well, yes [laughs].
I was at the world premiere in the IMAX theatre in Leicester Square at Fright Fest, and I knew it was going well because the audience burst into applause there! And I’m thinking, ‘Who applauds when a kid has just hung themselves?’ But, I knew they were going to take the film the right way.
Nick: Do you have any memorable opening scenes in cinema that you enjoy or pull inspiration from?
Anthony Waller: I mean, talking about another opening scene from one of my films, Mute Witness has this slow, gradual reveal with strange things happening in this car and then bang, you’re on a film set.
But for one that I enjoy, The Raiders of the Lost Ark, for example. That opening 10 minutes I remember seeing in the cinema, and then it’s just one action packed scene after another. It’s great to get people hooked into it like that.
Thank you to Anthony for his time, and to Eagle Entertainment and Walkden Publicity for organising the chat. Piper is available to rent or buy on various VOD platforms from November 13.
