Justin McConnell has crafted a memorable horror drama with his latest film Lifechanger, which is generating some buzz on the back end of its recent screenings at Fantasia in Montreal and is scheduled to get another view when it plays at this year’s London Frightfest at the end of August. Starburst recently had the pleasure of speaking with the director ahead of the London show.
STARBURST: Lifechanger is rooted in the tradition of alien invasion films like Invasion Of The Body Snatchers and, of course, John Carpenter’s now-classic remake of The Thing. Did the film start out that way, and how did the concept develop?
Justin McConnell: The film didn’t start out as an ode to anything in particular. I generally approach story development as organically as possible, and the concept influences the story flow. Of course my influences include all those films in your question, and more, but the key to Lifechanger for me was to tell a human story first, that just happens to have these fantastical horror elements driving it. It kind of just came to me in 2014 and was fleshed out from that point.
What were your key influences when you were growing up, and how did you develop as a filmmaker when you decided to pursue a career in it?
We’d be here all day if I had to list my influences. I grew up a monster kid/horror fan, and from a young age was introduced to the genre, mostly by my father. Growing up in the 80s/90s, the horror directors were like rock stars in a way. Everyone knew Carpenter, Romero, Craven, Hooper, Argento, etc. I loved movies from a young age, and started a collection that has grown to massive proportions throughout my life. I didn’t actually start working on my own movies until the age of 15 though (aside from a couple of experimentations in stop-motion using toys before that). I started with documentaries cut from existing content for class projects, then a couple of shorts. I bought my first video camera, cheap mixer board, and a VCR with a flying erase head around then too, so I could edit cleanly. I shot my first feature, Strata, while I was still in high school, and it kind of just continued from there.
When I hit Toronto I pursued a career in post-production while simultaneously collecting music video/live event shoot clients. Then took that money and some borrowed cash and made more shorts, and my next feature Working Class Rock Star. That kept on for quite a while until now, where Lifechanger is my 6th feature (if you count the one in high school), my production/post services company keeps me afloat, and I’m finally at a point where I have trusted production partners allowing me the privilege to work on a more professional level. Of course my work is always evolving, as I believe you have to keep learning and getting better.
It is great to see more physical horror and make-up effects in Lifechanger, which has been sorely missing in a lot of the genre offerings, which have been criticised for taking the easy option of using CGI. Were you determined that your film would be reliant more on the tradition of legends like Baker, Bottin and Savini?
I definitely wanted this to be a practical effects film. There is some minor CG in it, in places, but in ways that aren’t noticeable and only enhance certain elements. I grew up in a time where the best practical effects films were popular, and loved the tactile insanity that played across the screen. It just always seems more tangible and effective. I absolutely bow to the altar of Baker, Bottin and Savini, but also less-known, but still extremely talented people like Kevin Yagher, Screaming Mad George, Todd Masters, KNB, Tony Gardner, Steve Johnson, Amalgamated Dynamics, etc.
When I moved to Toronto I quickly ended up in a friend group that included a bunch of SFX people, and my best friend and writing partner for a decade was a very talented SFX artist named Kevin Hutchinson (who is unfortunately no longer with us). It gave me the ability to work with and understand practical effects, how much they cost, and the time they take to properly implement, from early in my career. So it’s only natural that this was my goal with Lifechanger.
Where did you shoot and how long did it take?
We shot in Toronto and parts of Southern Ontario over 20 days, plus two pickup days.
What was the budget of the film and how hard was it to raise the initial finance for the film?
My sales agents will kill me if I say the budget. All I can say is that it was lower than you think, but not so low that our hands were tied. Finance is one of the most difficult things in the film business. This film exists out of frustration from me unable to get two much larger projects, The Eternal and Tripped, off the ground. After the financing on those fell apart I wanted to do something lower budget. But even then it took almost 4 years. We went to Telefilm first, which was almost a year long process, only to be rejected for funding. Then we signed with another production company I’m not going to name here, and that deal fell apart too (they went off and made another film that played Fantasia last year). Finally we found our ideal partners in Uncork’d and Raven Banner, companies that my co-producer Avi Federgreen and I had pre-existing business relationships with. It was a long road.
There are a wide variety of actors playing the Lifechanger in this film. How many variants did you start out with and were there compromises due to budget and screenplay constraints?
We did quite a large casting call, but our pool was limited to non-union Southern Ontario performers. We looked at a ton of self-tapes, collected by our casting director Ashley Hallihan, and the best performers sort of rose to the top. There weren’t any real compromises as far as casting, aside from the pool being limited to non-union. The characters in the script were the characters in the film. The dynamics between them changed a bit during rewrites, but that’s natural. As for budget compromises, that’s definitely an issue, but we made do.
The film is due to screen at this year’s London Frightfest on the back of it’s Premiere Screening at Fantasia? Are you planning to come to the UK festival in the future?
Yes, I’ll be at Frightfest for the entire festival.
Finally, what is the next project for you?
I have four that should be going in the next year. I have a sometimes writing partner named Serena Whitney who is co-directing with me on a Christmas horror feature called Do You See What I See? (based on the short film we co-directed in 2015). We also co-wrote and are co-producing the adaption of Michael Prescott’s novel Kane, set to shoot in Australia under the title Mark Of Kane (director Serhat Caradee is attached). I’m also currently in post on a documentary film/series called Clapboard Jungle: Surviving The Independent Film Business, which I’ve been shooting since 2014. And finally, the third edition of our Little Terrors anthology series, Blood Sweat And Terrors, comes out across North America this coming November (the previous two films were Minutes Past Midnight and Galaxy of Horrors).
