Interview by Rafy Mediavilla, w/ “Escape The Field” Writer & Director, Emerson Moore. Out Now In Theaters, Digital/VOD. #EscapeTheField
The fear is inescapable and the suspense nonstop in this gripping horror-thriller about six strangers who suddenly awaken in a remote, endless cornfield. Stripped of their possessions, they are left with only six items: a gun with a single bullet, matches, a lantern, a knife, a compass, and a flask of water. As mysterious sirens blare in the distance and traps appear at every turn, the group realizes it’s been plunged into a cat-and-mouse game with an unseen evil, and survival depends upon solving a diabolical — and deadly — puzzle.
Criticólogos:
This is your first movie and it gets picked by Lionsgate for distribution. And I guess what I want to know, what was your first reaction when you when they told you this, hey, we got it. This is happening. We’re getting distribution deal. It’s going to theaters. What was going through your mind?
Emerson Moore:
Wow. For me, you know, it was great news privately with, you know, just myself. I knew that’s where I wanted the film to go. So for me, I think it’s it’s just fantastic. You know, with they have been so engaging and such a great place to land. I’m super happy. And, you know, with some of the films from their past and currently coming out, it’s just a great, a great home for for the film, I think. I think for Escape the Field, it’s it couldn’t be any better.
Criticólogos:
What advice would you give them, you know, in order to follow your footstep? What would you tell them?
Emerson Moore:
You know, my advice is just follow your dreams and keep doing it. I mean, that sounds a little bit canned, but honestly, that’s it. Just keep writing, keep meeting people, keep keep moving. And and that’s really it is it’s a lot of just hard work. The next the next piece of advice I give is and I think a lot of people kind of I say, you know, get on set, go, go, go, start as a PR, you know, start moving around, see how a set operates, understand how things work and knowing the industry from that side of things as you get get started, that’s a huge plus. And it’s something that will help you as you move forward and move up the rungs, if you will, in your career.
Criticólogos:
What is your inspiration what do you see for inspiration when you when you were coming up with the story?
Emerson Moore:
Well, there’s a number of films, you know, that that affected me at an early age or, you know, that I saw early on that just kind of built upon the stuff that I’m drawn to storytelling wise. For me, I want to come out and do something that was more of a thriller slash horror type film, but also it was a little bit elevated with some more story. So, you know, early on, some of the stuff that affected me most was Polanski’s early stuff. Knife in the Water, Rosemary’s Baby, Dressed to kill, Alien, Shining.
You know, Amityville Horror, The Exorcist. I mean, these are all the films that I once I found those, I just started moving around. And then I think the first one that I ever saw as a little kid and I saw it probably too young would have been Phantasm. And I was like, yes. And that just opened a whole new door to what’s going on. And then, you know, later on, moving through, there’s been some great films that have come, you know, beyond those that I feel like were affected, you know, in many ways from that same building blocks, those same building blocks that you would find, you know, be that, gosh, you know, the ring conjuring and then fun variations of that Cabin in the Woods.
Criticólogos:
How did the casting came about and how excited were them for the project?
Emerson Moore:
You know, it was it really came together fairly quickly once we found that window. The biggest challenge of this film was shooting during the pandemic. We were we were looking to go before and then the pandemic happened. It kind of shut everything down. And I was. I was I was resolved to that was it wasn’t going to happen. And then a window opened up. And next thing you know, I’m in Toronto and we’re making this movie. But with the casting. Theo and I had done a movie a few years prior with a friend of mine, Eric Brest, called Ghost of War, that we had shot overseas.
And Theo and I kind of connected a little bit, and we’re into some of the same activities away from set running and, you know, different things like that. So it was a connection. So I immediately knew I got to go get Theo. And then we found Shane, and Shane and I connected as well, and he really loved the script. And then we found Jordan, who had just come off Umbrella Academy. And so and she was in Canada already and it was just like so amazing just because she had just so much energy and was raring to go.
And Tahirah Sharif, She’s amazing. And what a lucky find that was for me with her coming off some great stuff with Mike Flanagan and Julianne and at like just all the way around it, it worked out really, really well. So that was the big cast. The big the cast just really came together quickly and I was blessed and yeah.
Criticólogos:
This movie is a puzzle thriller, is important to maintaine the mystery, and not give stuff away. So how much did you tell them about the story with the script or did you just give them the whole script?
Emerson Moore:
I gave them the whole script. There were some challenges, you know, I’m not going to lie. We were shooting during a pandemic. You know, we were in a bubble between the hotel and the cornfield, and there was nothing really outside of that. So I had what was within that toolbox to work with. So. You know, it made it a challenge. Let’s just let’s say that that’s the easiest way to put it. So I feel like we got where we needed to go without giving too much away and understand the process of what’s coming next.
But, you know, with the pandemic being present, we shot this a very reduced cast. We shot with a reduced crew. I shot the whole film, single camera, which, you know, that was a challenge. And yeah, so, you know, there’s a lot of stuff there. I’m excited to see where we can go from here and different. I know where we’re going. So that’ll be fun. But yeah, I think people really enjoy it. And if you if you pay attention and really listen to what the characters are saying and a few of the visual clues, you’ll figure it out, you’ll know what it is, because I can I’ll share this much. Everybody thinks they got it. And some comments and things from the trailer. Not even close.
Criticólogos:
Working with a limited crew, and equipmente during the pandemic, how were you able to make that work? because the photography is amazing.
Emerson Moore:
For the opening shot, that was shot with a drone. And then, you know, subsequently, came down. Put that together. I did a lot of stuff. Everything on this film was storyboarded. So I had storyboarded the whole film from beginning to end. And then I would distribute those. And we knew exactly where we needed to go. And we would look for we’d look for different things or somebody might have messed up. But primarily it was just storyboarded straight up across the board. So to keep it, you know, I knew I was in danger of it being in the middle of a cornfield and all this being in corn.
How do we keep this interesting? How do I use that perspective? How do I use a visual story and and tell that without becoming boring? But I feel like we achieved that. I think it worked really well. So, yeah. So we shot it perfect. I shot on some old Cooke lenses. So that was a big deal to.
Criticólogos:
What can people expect from the movie?
Emerson Moore:
I think if you enjoy films with a bit of intrigue and excitement, you’ll enjoy this film. It’s a fun ride. It’ll pull you in. The characters are engaging. You know, I’ve been told by a couple of people that it’s the entrance into the film. Feels a bit like Lost. Yeah. Which I thought about that was like, Hey, kind of does. That’s cool. You know, I’ve never that so you know unintentional but great I’ll take it and that you know, just the puzzle aspect is a lot of fun. But I think if you really pay attention to what’s going on, there’s a much bigger, bigger thing happening.
See the full interview below:
Trailer:
