Latest / Cinema Yūgen / "House of Abraham: Entering the Abyss of Psychological Horror"
Transcript
- 0:00G'day. That's right. It's that time again. Time for Cinema Yuga.
- 0:08Music.
- 0:17Yes, welcome back. Cinema Yuga and Yuga Dots, your host Kent Hill.
- 0:22Fantastic episode, fantastic film, House of Abraham.
- 0:27Every so often a horror film comes along that doesn't just disturb,
- 0:31it disarms, it doesn't scream in your face, it smiles, it takes you by the hand
- 0:36and walks you into the abyss.
- 0:39House of Abraham is that kind of film, it doesn't bludgeon you,
- 0:43it believes you'll volunteer, it's unnerving, cerebral,
- 0:46meticulously crafted, if you had had a spiritual
- 0:49cousin in tone and control
- 0:53this might be it directed
- 0:56with icy precision by lisa belcher and
- 0:59written by its star one of its
- 1:02stars lucas hassle the house of abraham i
- 1:05believe is a master class in atmospheric dread exploring
- 1:08grief consent and the seductive power of surrender
- 1:12also starring the fabulous natasha
- 1:16henstridge that's right of species and ghosts
- 1:19of mars natasha if you're listening to this lucas and i
- 1:22like brothers we have been mistaken for one
- 1:25in public please reach out to him and get in touch with me and let's talk about
- 1:30ghosts of mars please it's being released in 4k but to the house of abraham
- 1:35also stars natasha and the fabulous the incredible lynn shea but we are here to talk with my guest.
- 1:45Who plays the atmospheric, esoteric, often creepy, Abraham.
- 1:51He owns the film, his performance, Lucas Hassel. His performance is a revelation,
- 1:56suave, benevolent, terrifying. He speaks with the gentle cadence of a pastor,
- 2:01the certainty of a zealot, and the coiled danger of a predator.
- 2:04Please welcome to Cinema Eugen, the man behind the mind, behind the horrors
- 2:11of the House of Abraham. Please welcome Lucas, the beautiful and the talented and the powerful.
- 2:18Lucas Hassel. G'day, Lucas.
- 2:22Hey, and thank you for those kind words. I'm not sure they're entirely true,
- 2:25but listen, I'll take it.
- 2:27Mate, it's a wonderful film. It's wonderful to talk to you. Yeah,
- 2:29it feels like a lot has happened since we talked last in the world.
- 2:33That's true. I believe the last time was Art of the Dead. Art of the Dead, that's right, yeah.
- 2:38Yes, and a quick shout out to Michael Mahal, who recently passed away. way.
- 2:42So a gentleman and a real prolific filmmaker and producer. So yeah. Yes. Yes. God rest him.
- 2:50God rest him indeed. But yeah, it's, it's kind of odd that you were,
- 2:55you or your character in out of the dead sort of degenerates into a,
- 2:59a malevolent sort of character.
- 3:01But in this film, you're malevolent from the beginning.
- 3:06Yeah. I mean, I tried to, you know, house of
- 3:09Abraham is a psychological horror and it's basically about this
- 3:12guy who takes in you know six people every weekend and
- 3:15helps their suicides happen in a safe manner supposedly and so right yeah you
- 3:20know and and this particular weekend the sort of the lead female protagonist
- 3:24played by natasha henstridge has a secret agenda that sort of changes everything
- 3:28and i think you know the way i approach the character of abraham is that.
- 3:34Like with any sort of malevolent villainous
- 3:38force there has to be levels of all kinds
- 3:42of other things as well to make them to make him
- 3:44more complex right he's if if you do a terrapier film
- 3:47with art the clown it's all evil right there's very
- 3:50little layering to that and right for that genre i was trying
- 3:53to do something that was different more psychologically based
- 3:56and so you have to come up with a real a real human
- 3:59being who thinks he's doing good stuff
- 4:02and i think he can see both the good and the bad on both sides so
- 4:05hopefully i've made him a little more complex no no
- 4:08i mean he's definitely abraham isn't the way you
- 4:11play him anyway isn't isn't one note there's many layers
- 4:14he's very much an onion he's i
- 4:18mean in the beginning the welcoming host and it's not
- 4:21until i mean there are certain turning points we're not going to
- 4:23spoil anything because we want people to watch the movie but there
- 4:27are certain points in the film where he does these gentle
- 4:30shifts until it does eventually you know
- 4:33go uh yeah i think
- 4:36yeah he has some interesting observations
- 4:40about life and death you know i mean that i think
- 4:43for me the film is really about sort of manipulation and and and being careful
- 4:49you have to sort of be careful who you trust when you're at your most vulnerable
- 4:53and sometimes smarter people than you or people that are a little bit more together
- 4:57can take advantage of you and manipulate you at the wrong times of life.
- 5:01And I think, you know, Abraham is a master manipulator. And so I think he is...
- 5:07He's he's someone who understands life and
- 5:09death very well and nothing is off
- 5:12the table for him nothing really scares him so i think some of the things he
- 5:15says think about life and death some of it makes a lot of sense but it's also
- 5:21controversial because it's very harsh it's a very harsh view on on life and
- 5:26death you know like yeah it's very black and white outside here in new york,
- 5:32but like the tagline is you know life is not for everyone and that's that's
- 5:37really harsh way of looking at it but for some people they they feel that way
- 5:42yeah it's um it's it's an it was,
- 5:48it was really it really it really shook me like i didn't see like there's part
- 5:55of the way you go through and you think you know where it's going and then it
- 5:57then it changes and i'm not gonna The ending is sublime.
- 6:02I didn't see that coming at all. But what I've been curious about is where did
- 6:07the seed of the idea come for the script, I should say?
- 6:13So I would say there are two aspects to that, right? There's the heady part,
- 6:17and then there's the hearty part.
- 6:19And the heart part is where I start writing from in my other screenplays.
- 6:24And the heart in this way was, you know,
- 6:27seeing what's happening around me in my own country or the U.S.,
- 6:31where I feel a lot of people are being manipulated and are being used by people
- 6:35who are slightly smarter than them or slightly more educated or slightly more powerful than them.
- 6:39They'd be into directions where they really have nowhere to go and they sort
- 6:44of almost act against their own self-interest.
- 6:46And that was, like, nobody's going to see that in the film, but that was the
- 6:50core of how I got this idea about, be careful, as I said before, about who you trust.
- 6:56If they're more powerful than you or whatever, they can manipulate you,
- 7:00right? So that's at the heart of it.
- 7:02The story but technically my collaborator lisa belcher who ended up directing the movie we.
- 7:09Agreed that we wanted to do a feature project together and she called
- 7:12me up and she said i have a little bit of money why don't we
- 7:14do something together we had made a short film before called guest
- 7:17of honor and uh and i
- 7:20said well let's co-direct you can play the female lead i'll play the
- 7:22male lead and we'll just for the nonsense of it film in
- 7:25your house and spend like nothing on it and that reason i wasn't going to spend
- 7:30a lot of time on the script because it was just going to be this nonsense piece
- 7:34but i also didn't want to waste anybody's time so i thought okay so it has to
- 7:38be one location it has to be relatively few actors we want to keep it in the horror world.
- 7:43Any chance of getting viewed anywhere and and i don't want to make something
- 7:48that i've seen a million times before about people arriving at a house and being
- 7:51killed one by one right right right
- 7:53yeah and so i and i've
- 7:56always believed that as an indie filmmaker your best shot
- 7:59at getting any kind of recognition is to
- 8:03not compete with hollywood right so i wanted to make something that
- 8:06hollywood would never touch they would never make this film because
- 8:10of the subject matter and because of what goes on in it so exactly yes
- 8:13when i came on this idea i'm like okay i haven't seen
- 8:16this before so i can write i can write
- 8:18a character driven psychological drama that i haven't quite
- 8:21had seen before and still could work for less
- 8:24money and then as the script actually
- 8:27turned out really well i was really happy with it we started with real money
- 8:31and it became a whole different project all of a sudden and it no longer made
- 8:35sense maybe for like we wanted a real name for the lead of natasha of the e
- 8:42and natasha henstreich i'd worked with before she's a fantastic actress.
- 8:46And so pretty like close to
- 8:49shooting date we had been prepping and we were set to go we both thought let
- 8:53me let me see i knew natasha was around because i just spoken to her and i said
- 8:57would you read the script natasha is no nonsense person she's sweet and fabulous
- 9:02and all that stuff but she's also she's no nonsense she's no pushover so i knew
- 9:06that she was going to be honest,
- 9:07uh and she read the script and loved it and so a week before
- 9:10she came on as d and lisa
- 9:13then jumped out of that role and then became the
- 9:16solo director because now she wasn't going to act so it made sense for
- 9:19her to then do that and i went off as co-director and we just sort of created
- 9:23this together and so yeah so that's sort of how all that came about really yeah
- 9:28now it's great i love the the sort of the three pillars of this film is natasha
- 9:33yourself and uh and lynn shay who oh Oh, and Lin Shay, let me tell you.
- 9:38It's such a great presence, even when she's not really saying anything on screen,
- 9:43because she's one of those characters that's interesting to watch.
- 9:48She is incredible. Actually, I wrote that character. She's the only character
- 9:52in the script that I wrote with somebody in mind.
- 9:54I wrote it for Lin, because I'd worked with Lin before, and so I knew that at
- 9:59least I could get it to her, but I had no idea if she was going to be busy or
- 10:03if she was even interested.
- 10:04But she is she is a rock star
- 10:07i can't i can't say this enough
- 10:10about lynn like she is sweet and smart and
- 10:13a tough cookie and yeah so like just tough as nails right and she also loved
- 10:20the script and she came on as the first one and that helped us you know raise
- 10:24finances for everything else and she was such a trooper from the beginning yeah
- 10:27and that just working with her on set is like is such gift. It's hilarious.
- 10:32She comes in with a party bag of ideas and then it's like holding a racehorse
- 10:38back because she just wants to go.
- 10:40And it's a matter of trying to figure out what goes with the tone of the movie
- 10:43and, you know, and because of the.
- 10:46The subject matter and then the genre it's it's a
- 10:48tricky balance to not go over the top and make it
- 10:51campy can very easily veer into camp yes yeah
- 10:55like the menu was a little too camp for my taste
- 10:58for instance and it's sort of in that vein so i wanted to make
- 11:01it as grounded as possible so it's just a map holding
- 11:04her back and then every now and then letting her let her
- 11:07freak flag fly so to speak yeah no
- 11:10it's great i like the i like the build up it's
- 11:13it's it's very similar to a film i very much enjoyed called the invitation did
- 11:17you see that yes yes absolutely and that there are definitely homages to the
- 11:22invitation in there it's it's the biggest comp in terms of like comfortable
- 11:27to my film is the invitation because i really enjoyed that film i love what they did with,
- 11:31one location character driven twists here and there but also i didn't i didn't
- 11:37want to make that what they had made already so right no no no but it is in
- 11:41that world absolutely exactly what's What's good about the House of Abraham,
- 11:45though, is the fact that with the setup,
- 11:48you kind of lead the audience down that path like, oh, it's one of those films
- 11:53where people are going to be murdered in the night and then they're going to
- 11:57be picked off one at a time.
- 11:58But then quickly after the first act dissolved, it dispels that right away.
- 12:05So automatically you're in this space like anything can happen now.
- 12:10And once you're in that space, it's... It's fantastic.
- 12:14It becomes this great sort of three-pronged performance with yourself and Natasha
- 12:19and Lynn sort of lurking in the shadows.
- 12:25It's just... I really appreciate it. I mean, it's like I think any good writing,
- 12:29you have to sort of figure out how to keep people leaning forward.
- 12:35That's almost my thing. Like I do a lot of script doctoring for other people
- 12:38and the scripts I often get.
- 12:39They're sort of they're a little too plot driven sometimes so
- 12:42that makes me just lean back and go well this is it's good to
- 12:45look at and as i can see it's all working but i'm i'm not
- 12:48leaning forward right so it's all about trying to keep
- 12:52the audience guessing a little bit figuring out
- 12:55well what is the path and trying to just take
- 12:58some turns and twists that people may not have sort of
- 13:00guessed right and so that's always
- 13:03the hope and then of course act three with any horror i think.
- 13:06By far as the hardest and that's i think
- 13:09so few horror films are truly successful because
- 13:12i think it's relatively easy to set up suspense
- 13:15and tone and i'm right yeah it's easy to
- 13:18set up a jump scare or yeah it's all and
- 13:21all that but if you don't resolve it if you don't manage to tie
- 13:24it all together and then still surprise the
- 13:27audience yeah it's hard to have a successful film and
- 13:29i think that's why act three in horror is so difficult because
- 13:32most people see everything coming and whatever and it's just up in
- 13:35the end so whether or not i was successful in that form
- 13:37that was definitely something i was trying to be aware of yeah no
- 13:41it's um it look it it sticks the landing
- 13:44brilliantly there's a scene near the
- 13:46end there's a look at there's a realization
- 13:49that your character has near the end yes again not
- 13:52giving you anything away but it's it's so
- 13:56great because your character changes like that on a
- 13:59dime like he goes from he goes from
- 14:02like uh you know the way we've always known him
- 14:04to this complete like yeah and it
- 14:08was weird at the same time i was like you know the same thing once the the big
- 14:13yeah end of happens but it's just just just just just sublime i really really
- 14:21enjoyed that the way it all that's awesome to hear and that's because it just.
- 14:27Builds and builds and builds and then all of a sudden bang and
- 14:30i was completely like i was
- 14:33waiting for natasha's character to be unearthed as something other than she
- 14:38was and but not not what she's not what she is unearthed to be in in the film
- 14:44but i totally totally i mean yeah and there's a lot of credit for a journalist
- 14:48or something like that yeah yeah yeah you know I know that's cliche,
- 14:52but that's where I was. No, no, no, but that's fair.
- 14:54Yeah. She's just, she's so, she's so grounded as an actor and she can make.
- 14:59Like she can make anything work in fairness right so regardless
- 15:02of my writing ability she can make everything work because she
- 15:05is so grounded and she understands she understands
- 15:08story she understands characters she understands drama and so
- 15:11of all the characters in the script i
- 15:14think she had the toughest role because of what
- 15:16we find out about her and what she had to
- 15:19play what we know what the audience knows and what she knows
- 15:22and we can't know what the audience so she had
- 15:25a very tricky path to sort of
- 15:28tread upon and uh i think uh you
- 15:31know so in hindsight i i you know i saw
- 15:34her do it on set i saw her find those
- 15:37nuances and those colors because she's such a good actor but but it was fun
- 15:41to see in in post like those little moments that i hadn't seen where i wasn't
- 15:44in the scene or i hadn't been around to see her shoot and i was like oh that's
- 15:48awesome there's quite a lot of scenes uh as i've always thought that the some
- 15:53of the best acting that actors do is silence,
- 15:58and your character does quite a lot of it there's a lot
- 16:00of scenes where your character is is very fixated on things that he sees in
- 16:07particularly one scene in a pool ah yes and i just i just wondered like what
- 16:13what goes through your mind when you're like i know that you're probably staring
- 16:16into camera for some of those shots you're not actually looking at the person like.
- 16:21Where do you go for stuff like that you know well so it is an incredible luxury to,
- 16:29have written what i act right because sometimes i act in other people's works
- 16:33that i didn't write and it's a challenge to find the humanity in some of these
- 16:38characters and some of the writing is not exactly how i would have done it so
- 16:40you have to sort of find your way into it because i was Because personally,
- 16:44you're so unlike the character.
- 16:47Yeah, no, exactly. My husband sometimes reads my script and is like,
- 16:51who am I going to bed with every night?
- 16:53It freaks him out. You're going to wake up in the night and standing in bed
- 16:56with a fork or something. Exactly.
- 16:59But, you know, it's kind of –,
- 17:03when when you do those when you do those scenes like the scene underwater and
- 17:06so forth it's basically a matter of keeping in mind what your character is after
- 17:10so you sort of lose yourself at that like you sort of right i'm no longer lucas
- 17:14underwater shooting this funky scene and.
- 17:17As an actor you are as a movie actor you are sort
- 17:20of you are a little schizophrenic because you have
- 17:22to know exactly where the camera is but you also have to forget it's
- 17:25there yeah it's a very odd balance of
- 17:29like trying to be in the moment of what your character
- 17:32is after and the goals and what the focus is but also know
- 17:34exactly where the camera moves when it moves in on you
- 17:37how tight is it and so forth so that you
- 17:40thought of and that's just experience that's just from having having done
- 17:43it so long right but then shooting underwater is
- 17:46a whole different challenge because it was that particular
- 17:49scene was probably one of the harder ones
- 17:52in the films to shoot just because of safety yeah we
- 17:55had we had divers underwater we had all this
- 17:58and because it's a it's a metal cage and somebody's
- 18:01in that cage you know so there's a lot
- 18:04of we had to finagle that particular cage it
- 18:07was designed particularly for the film and and you
- 18:11know and as also producer of the film i
- 18:14was also worried for the actor inside the cage and yeah and
- 18:17because we couldn't have other people around us some of the times because it's
- 18:20a wider shot i was the one who would have to sort of lift the cage
- 18:23right when it's running out of air or whatever so
- 18:26it was like it was you know so we nothing happened and everything worked out
- 18:30beautifully but it was it was definitely a difficult day and it was also a matter
- 18:34of you know expense we had to heat the pool for us in order to be in it all
- 18:40day and that's right yeah and on a limited budget film everything matters right so.
- 18:45So it was all it was all a careful uh you know calculation
- 18:48of how to make how to make all that work but at the
- 18:51end of the day you know for me it was a luxury that i had written the
- 18:54character because whenever i could
- 18:56always tap into exactly where my character was
- 18:59emotionally and what was going on through his head with all
- 19:02the nonsense going around you on a film set i could very easily
- 19:05find it because i found it i find it because i knew i knew
- 19:08the character inside out yeah it's an interesting
- 19:11tale too of obsession is that part of
- 19:14it with abraham you know obsession obsession
- 19:18yeah i think control control maybe
- 19:22control is goes hand in hand with obsession you know
- 19:25well like finding something it's like finding something you love and then trying
- 19:29to make it yours sort of yes yes exactly exactly and i think you know that's
- 19:35where that's where i do have a similarity with with abraham because i am very
- 19:39not controlling but i enjoy control which is also why i've,
- 19:45transition gradually from only acting only acting into also writing and directing right because it,
- 19:51because it is a matter of as an actor you you're you give your
- 19:55power away to everybody else all the time yeah and you're a vessel in many ways
- 19:59yeah you're a vessel in many ways right unless you're a stage actor where you
- 20:02can sort of control your performance in in the movie world you're basically
- 20:06doing what you do and then they edit it and then they can edit stuff in and
- 20:09out whatever or whatever and it's out of your hands where writing.
- 20:14Is taking some of that control back and then if you can direct what you write,
- 20:18with the people that you know that's real power, right? So that's a whole different set of control.
- 20:23So I enjoy that and that's why I'm moving into writing as well and then also directing my own stuff.
- 20:29I like the sort of, I love the fact that the characters in this film have to
- 20:34record a like a final last testament.
- 20:39And I know I know this is a very, this is, this is a very, it's a touchy subject,
- 20:43but I have to say when you play your demo version, like the demo video,
- 20:48this is what, this is a version, this is what you might say.
- 20:52I have to say it was, I know you're probably not supposed to laugh out loud
- 20:56in this movie, but I have to say I loved your, your demo video for,
- 21:00for, for the guests, you know, like, hi, my name's Abraham and I'm going to show myself by hanging.
- 21:07Disgusting. Exactly. And it was just, there was a tone to it that was just not,
- 21:11I mean, it seemed irreverent, I mean, you know, it seemed different to me,
- 21:15but it was, I realized that that was like, you know, one of the,
- 21:19it's like a twisted educational video.
- 21:22Like, this is the way you might do it.
- 21:25Exactly. I think with, with. And also the genius is how that video ties into the end.
- 21:32Right. Right. Exactly. exactly i mean so it definitely served
- 21:35a purpose that we don't think about at the time yeah
- 21:38and then hopefully people remember and then it totally ties it
- 21:41all together right that was the intention of that but it was but i think with
- 21:45any with any good horror there has to be an element of humor at times like i'm
- 21:50not a really i'm not a spoofy horror fan but i i think it's important for people
- 21:54every now and then to just laugh at the outrageous stuff that comes out of abraham's
- 21:59mouth sometimes So some of the things he does, whatever,
- 22:01that's appropriate because it is, it's, it's so harsh that it's like,
- 22:06it's hard not to laugh at some of the stuff because he's just,
- 22:09well, as you were saying, as we were just talking about the pool scene,
- 22:12there's another sort of great moment of levity after the pool scene's over when
- 22:16you turn to Lynn and say, you know, bring her down and prepare the cupcakes.
- 22:22Exactly. It's such a weird turn. And, but again, it was like,
- 22:26it was trying also to be, you know, like throughout the film, I just wanted to be,
- 22:31loose about what might happen and and at the end of the day you know abraham
- 22:35wants to have a good a good time he wants people to have a good time and the
- 22:39weekend they're there yeah yeah i mean,
- 22:41it's the strangest b&b you'll ever visit but yeah
- 22:45that's what i thought about where i was
- 22:48waiting for the point in the film i said where did you find this place you know
- 22:51it's like that those things where they ask you when
- 22:54you book in somewhere oh who told you about this place oh yeah i got it off
- 22:58the dark web where i got it off exactly this you know whatever exactly and there
- 23:03is a there is a scene in there where they talk about how they found the place
- 23:06and yeah but you know none of this would have happened without lisa belcher
- 23:12who ended up directing the film and.
- 23:14I co-produced it with because she's she's
- 23:18she's such a powerhouse and she gets she's somebody who
- 23:21get stuff done right and that's and she's
- 23:24a film festival connection so to any of you out there who are
- 23:27you know debating whether to submit your short films
- 23:30to film festivals whatever we met at film festivals we
- 23:33kept bumping into both our films were playing in different
- 23:35places and so that's how we forced this connection and
- 23:38cut to you know house of abraham coming out theatrically across the
- 23:42u.s for now we open on the 13th here
- 23:45in new york and it's you know she she made it happen i don't think i could have
- 23:49made it happen myself and she is a great collaborator so a big shout out to
- 23:55to lisa look fantastic direction she she handles this one like a surgeon it's
- 24:00fantastic i want to know who went out and bought all those usbs.
- 24:04Yeah exactly well we haven't we had an incredible set designer ashley who just
- 24:11like nothing was an issue she built the sound booth right right she built it
- 24:16she had a an assistant with her as well and and she was just excited from the
- 24:21beginning to to to see the script because she saw so many,
- 24:24possibilities of making things exciting and right and
- 24:27the like the usb scene so
- 24:30to speak was something i was very adamant about
- 24:33keeping so that when we were talking budget wise and stuff
- 24:36at some point we were talking about cutting the metal cage in the pool and
- 24:39i was like there's no way we that cannot be cut and the usb thing the different
- 24:44scenes that just have to be the way i imagined it and i wrote it with budget
- 24:48in mind so there was nothing really outrageous other than those things so i
- 24:53was adamant that we kept those and i'm super happy we did because It's just so, it's just so creepy.
- 24:58And it's like, it's a great, I think visuals are important.
- 25:02Surprise also a little bit. And I think Abraham's lodge, you know,
- 25:06has to be a little special when we finally get into it, you know,
- 25:10we have to sort of see, I have to say, we see quite a lot of you in this movie.
- 25:18Yeah. Yeah. You're not tanned from head to toe.
- 25:23Yeah. there is a gratuitous butt shot in there but again i
- 25:25thought it fit the character because she's so he waxes
- 25:29it's so rude to walk up to somebody nude
- 25:32right and just have a conversation so crazy but it's also it's a power play
- 25:37it's all about power and control like if you're gonna if you're gonna react
- 25:41to that well then it's not you because i'll be like what's the big deal like
- 25:44i'm gonna call you out on it so yeah in this case natasha doesn't respond so
- 25:49she kind of handled it as well I think,
- 25:51but it's like a total power play by Abraham and I have to say,
- 25:55right before we shot that scene, I pulled Lisa aside and I said, Lisa.
- 26:00You and I are not, you know, we're not in bed together. We're not dating.
- 26:04We're both married, all that stuff. But you have to tell me right now if it's ridiculous.
- 26:09If my, if my butt looks ridiculous, I don't want to do it on camera.
- 26:13If it's like this saggy ass thing, whatever, you just tell me now and we'll
- 26:17figure something else out. I'll keep my pants or whatever. She's like, no, your butt is fine.
- 26:20So I was like, okay, I'll take your work for it. And then we shot it.
- 26:25Who knows what people will think. But I was like, I had a moment of panic for
- 26:28a second. I was like, maybe I have a tool.
- 26:30Because when he came out, I thought, oh, he's just going to tell off. No, no, no, he's not.
- 26:36He's going to air dry mostly.
- 26:39Exactly. I just thought it was, again, one of those moments,
- 26:42like, it's so odd, but, like, it's indie film.
- 26:45Again, they probably wouldn't have done that in a Hollywood production, but it's indie.
- 26:49How long did you have to stand there in the full multi? Like, how many takes? Yeah.
- 26:54Well, we did it. I'd say we did it a good four or five times,
- 26:58whatever, because it was all a matter of like getting out of those palazzo that
- 27:04i'm wearing right yeah yeah it's not it's not sexy to get out of those because
- 27:09they're hard to get out of like you're bent oh like it's like it's like opening
- 27:13a mayonnaise jar naked like that's not pretty,
- 27:16so it's kind of like you know naked can be pretty in other ways but not when
- 27:19you're doing you know changing a bicycle tire so so it was like getting those
- 27:23pants off was a hot mess so we had to figure about like, let me just get them
- 27:27off so that we don't, when we don't show that.
- 27:30So I'm not going to try to do that sexy or do that smoothly or elegantly.
- 27:34I'm just going to whip them off and pick it up from there.
- 27:37So when we agreed on that, it worked a lot better. I was about to say you're
- 27:40a naked man in the closet.
- 27:42Makes oh yeah it's in the film that's right
- 27:45exactly i thought i thought oh he's pulling out the naked man in the closet
- 27:49last uh one last yeah that was a that was a fun covet event to do the naked
- 27:54man in the closet with some questions yeah had a lot of fun with that yeah no
- 27:58i was yeah i was like okay he's gonna just dry off but no oh okay here we go.
- 28:05And this is the sign of abraham no one's ever seen i
- 28:08was waiting to see a tattoo of roy orbison there but there wasn't what
- 28:11i won't know but exactly but
- 28:16it's uh like you say it's it's important in
- 28:19these films because there's a great tension and a great build-up of
- 28:22tension too like you say drop some levity like uh
- 28:25you know the prepare the cupcakes that's yeah
- 28:28it's it's all gold and everyone just even the rest of your supporting cast there's
- 28:34no there's no weak links there's no drag you know i i don't like i don't like
- 28:39pigeonholing films and i don't really like labels but the term elevated horror
- 28:45is is is out there and this definitely fits into that.
- 28:49Category because it's not it's not one of
- 28:52your simple slashes like you say it's not one you know
- 28:55a guy invites a bunch of people around to a house
- 28:58and plans to murder them one at a time it's it's
- 29:01something that has a lot more gravitas and and
- 29:04and depth to it than that sort of thing but in
- 29:07many ways not just clever in script and construction this
- 29:11this film really utilizes the
- 29:15the the low budget sort of concept of of single location really well is there's
- 29:22only because there's an awful lot of people making these films and going out
- 29:25and and hiring like airbnbs and and some of these nicer places and go, well, I can make a whole.
- 29:32Film here was that that factor into your thinking
- 29:35that when you were constructing yeah but it's like
- 29:38yeah we've all seen we've i mean i know
- 29:40a lot of filmmakers and writers who sort of they find
- 29:43a location that they dig right they have access to an abandoned factory and
- 29:47it's like oh let's shoot here let's write a story to that yes and that's just
- 29:51a really difficult challenge to then like if that's your if that's your objective
- 29:57is to write a cool film in this location you're.
- 30:01Limited so much by that and often it tends to be
- 30:04a little flat or a little obvious because
- 30:07it's just why don't they go out the ground in an abandoned factory
- 30:10right like what can we do we have either zombies or there's a serial killer whatever
- 30:13so so the challenge is to use a
- 30:16location i think cleverly and then try to come up with something that we
- 30:19haven't quite seen before and in this case you know
- 30:22we've we looked for a location for a long time
- 30:25that fit our purposes it had to have the right tone i
- 30:28had to have a we sort of knew what we wanted and the
- 30:32look of it we just locked out that the tv series
- 30:35walker which we filmed this in austin texas and the
- 30:38tv series walker is filmed there and they were on
- 30:40hiatus they didn't know if they were going to be extended or not so that entire
- 30:44crew were up for work and then i mean working on our film so we got super we
- 30:50got a super professional crew and i think that the gaffer did an incredible
- 30:54job with the light and just made stuff pop.
- 30:59So it was easy to color correct in post. And Alex Walker who shot it did a great
- 31:02job as well. So it was just a really good crew a really good.
- 31:07Vibe on set and that's credit to lisa she's
- 31:10a real sort of actress director she loves pulling the actors aside
- 31:13and having quiet conversations with them and and and
- 31:16i shared a house with natasha which was helpful because we could
- 31:19then a we could sort of debrief about the
- 31:22days filming together because we were almost that
- 31:26every all of us she and i were on set pretty much every day
- 31:29and then we came at night and we would cook together and
- 31:32chill out on the terrace and just chat and then we could sometimes
- 31:35run lines or discuss things that were coming up so there's
- 31:38many that made this a really pleasurable experience yeah no mate look this is
- 31:44a film ladies and gentlemen listening we're going to put all the links in the
- 31:48description the house of abraham i believe there's a website too isn't it lucas
- 31:51has a.com and uh it's out uh june 12th.
- 31:57June 13th it opens in new york and comes to
- 32:00l.a june 20th and then it'll roll out
- 32:03across the u.s and somebody just took it to can
- 32:05and it seems to have some some interested people there so
- 32:08it'll definitely come out in new york and maybe even to the
- 32:11way of australia at some point that's fantastic i i
- 32:14hope everyone will get out and support this
- 32:17film check the links in the description the house of abraham.com plus
- 32:22we'll put all the links to lucas and stuff a film as fantastic
- 32:25as elevated as layered
- 32:28and as classy as the gentleman who
- 32:31wrote it and abraham himself you get to
- 32:34see all sides of lucas hassel in this film front
- 32:37back uh side by
- 32:41side you'll get to see where he tans and where he doesn't but
- 32:46what you will get to see is an incredibly classy elevated
- 32:49horror that really made my friday night
- 32:52viewing lucas hassel it's great to talk to
- 32:55you again mate and what a wonderful film i can't wait
- 32:58to see it really means it means a lot i appreciate
- 33:01your time and i appreciate catching up with you again and thank
- 33:04you for the kind words i can't wait to see what
- 33:06you do next mate it's yeah sequel right watch this place house of abraham too
- 33:13yeah you never know yeah might be good could be good could be clever it's definitely
- 33:18possible definitely possible if people are out there watching the movie i'm
- 33:21sure we i definitely have more ideas for it, but let's see what happens.
- 33:25It's really good. Ladies and gentlemen, it's better than really good. It's really great.
- 33:30It's unlike anything you've ever seen, and they're the best kinds of movies
- 33:34that are, especially today, where
- 33:37everything is a remake or a version of something that has already been.
- 33:41Here's something that's truly original from a truly wonderful gentleman,
- 33:46thehouseofabraham.com. Check the links in the description.
- 33:49Lucas Hassel, thank you for being my guest again, mate.
- 33:52Such a pleasure. Yes, Lucas Hassel, the suave, benevolent, terrifying Lucas Hassel.
- 34:01What a fantastic film, The House of Abraham. Please check all the links in the description,
- 34:07www.houseofabraham.com, and check out www.filmthreat.com on the 13th,
- 34:16the 13th of this month, the 13th of june 2025 when
- 34:20the house of abraham it comes
- 34:23out it will be out in the world and i
- 34:26really hope you get a hold of it get enjoy it don't uh read the review don't
- 34:32read anything watch the trailer if you want but the less you know the more you'll
- 34:37enjoy this movie get out there and see it that's my word to you if get out had
- 34:41a spiritual equal sister film in tone,
- 34:47get out and the house of abraham would be a great double feature i can't wait
- 34:53to do it neither should you check the links in the description the house of abraham is fantastic,
- 35:01check the links in the description and as always my little yuganites thank you
- 35:09for listening to us on spotify or wherever you choose to listen to your favorite
- 35:14podcasts i'm ken hill and until next time, you've been listening to Cinema,
- 35:19Zero Game.
- 35:21Music.