Written By: Jayme Face
Adam Mason is a writer/director/producer and he’s the first director to shoot two episodes of Hulu’s Into the Dark. You can catch both episodes now “I’m Just F*cking With You” and They Come Knocking”!
upfrontNY: Can you tell us about Into the Dark: They Come Knocking?
Adam Mason: It’s about a dad and his two daughters who’re heading out to a remote campsite in their airstream to scatter the ashes of the girl’s dead mum.
On the first night there, there’s a knock at the Airstream door, and a terrifying encounter ensues with a dark entity called The Black Eyed Kids.
The movie basically works as a meditation on grief, presenting it as this metaphorical pestilence, trying to rip the family apart. I’d describe it as an elevated horror film, as it is actually really quite beautiful. Which isn’t to say it’s not really scary, because it is!
Into The Dark — “They Come Knocking” – After losing his wife to cancer, a father takes his two daughters on a road trip where he finds his family in the crosshairs of terrifying supernatural entities. Nathan (Clayne Crawford) and Claire (Josephine Langford), shown. (Photo by: Richard Foreman, Jr. SMPSP/Hulu)
upfrontNY: You are the first director to do two episodes, how did you go about it the second time around?
Adam Mason: It was an insane situation as I got hired on They Come Knocking while I was doing Im Just Fucking With You, so I was doing both at the same time for several months. It was such a blur, I kind of don’t remember most of it. From when I woke up until when I’d crash out I was just flat out, seven days a week. It was quite interesting on the second one because I was having to work almost completely on instinct. I actually found it really liberating, not having the time to overthink things, having to be very flexible and collaborative. I’m usually a control freak, and I basically gave into the insanity and got on with it. I’m thrilled with how it came out.
upfrontNY: They Come Knocking has supernatural elements, how do you help actors bring out the emotion when the situations they are dealing with are not “real”?
Adam Mason: You’d have to ask them how they managed to act scared in the face of a bunch of kids, but it all looked very convincing to me! I was very blessed to have what was a perfect cast. Clayne, Jo, Lia and Robyn where such professionals that it made my life very easy indeed. Shooting a feature film in 16 days is very difficult under the best of circumstances, and this was a particularly hard movie to make for myriad reasons. But the cast were my absolute rock with very strong instincts and opinions on their characters. They elevate the movie so massively.
I’m particularly impressed with Clayne’s intuition for his character. I would have probably pushed Nathan in a much darker and more melancholic direction, but Clayne insisted that Nathan would be holding it together for his kids. And he was absolutely right. He gives the movie this gravitas that is really the foundation of everything.
Jo and Lia give quite astonishing performances I think. And Robyn played the ghost of their mom with this crushing angel/demon duality that I think is sublime. The film’s constantly on this knife’s edge of melodrama and I was very aware it could end up being like a Lifetime movie if we weren’t careful. But the cast really helped battle that. I’m very proud of them all.
upfrontNY: You have directed hundreds of music videos how is that different from directing feature films or T.V. shows?
Adam Mason: Music videos will always be my first love. There’s something so pure about having 5 mins or less to tell a story. I also really love to process of putting them together. Doing a feature film is like building a skyscraper or something. It requires so many people, and so much time. I really enjoy doing movies, but it’s very hard not to get swept into various dramas and pitfalls that always arise. There’s also a lot more pressure as there’s so much more money involved. That said, I love the craft of putting a film together, because it’s a multi-layered puzzle. Ones like a fast exhilarating sprint and the other is a marathon. So different from one another.
upfrontNY: You are currently writing a movie adaptation for the computer game “Thief”, can you tell us more about that?
Adam Mason: I’m not sure what’s happening with that but Simon Boyes my writing partner and I had a blast writing it. It’s such a cool and unique world and I really hope it gets made.
upfrontNY: You write, direct, produce, is it hard to juggle all three and how do you do it?
Adam Mason: It’s not that hard no, as they all kind of fold into one another. I really enjoy being involved in all aspect of making a film, and it gives me a level of control I wouldn’t otherwise have. With my music videos and some of my films I do all the lighting and camerawork, and that in particular I really love doing.
upfrontNY: You direct a lot of horror/sci-fi, what in particular draws you to these genres?
Adam Mason: I’ve probably been typecast a little bit! I started out doing horror stuff as I have a real love of the genre and it was frankly the easiest path to get things made and distributed. Personally I just like writing with Simon and working with actors. I’d do all kinds of different types of movies, given the opportunity. I actually like doing comedy stuff the most probably.
upfrontNY: Did you always want to be in this business?
Adam Mason: Yes.
upfrontNY: What directors have you always admired?
Adam Mason: Fincher and Kubrick.
Leave a Reply