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Thanks to the wonderful people over at IFC Midnight, I was able to ask
Director David Guy Levy a few questions about his current flick Would You
Rather, as well as what's to come.
Would You Rather tells
the story of Iris, who in the wake of her parent's death, struggles to make
ends meet while caring for her terminally ill younger brother. Shepard
Lambrick, a seemingly philanthropic aristocrat, expresses an interest in
helping them. When he invites Iris to an exclusive dinner party, she accepts and finds she the other dinner guests to be just as desperate. They soon
find themselves trapped in Lambrick's mansion and forced to play a sadistic
game of Would You Rather, where the winner will be awarded untold amounts of
money, but at a very high cost.
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Museled: WOULD
YOU RATHER is very different from your first feature film. How was the
directing experience different, and what attracted you to this project?
David
Guy Levy: The writer Steffen Schlachtenhaufen
approached me with a simple pitch. "What if we made a movie about a game
of Would You Rather, but in our version, whatever you chose you then would have
to do?"
It was that simple question that
lead to an exciting process of writing a treatment in just weeks. After showing
a few people and finding we weren't the only ones who were excited about the
idea, we began writing the script. Then before we knew it we were filming just
a few short months later.
I had just finished my experimental
film, "A Love Affair of Sorts", having made it primarily as an
exercise. We filmed it for under $1000 dollars without a script, a crew, or any
commercial expectations. The film helped me grow as craftsman, but no so much
narratively since we found the story as we went along. After it's release, I
realized that I wanted my next effort to show what I was able to offer
narratively, and I hoped to do that with an idea that was the commercial
opposite of what I had just made. I feel "Would You Rather" was the
right choice.
Museled- Although
there are some intense scenes, there's not a real exploitation of violence. Was
that hard to script?
Levy- It wasn’t hard to script. However we knew from the
beginning that we didn’t want to show everything. We wanted to create a tension
throughout the story that everything was definitely happening, but be classy
about it. We didn’t want wet, dark dungeons or rusty bear-traps.
We knew that if we
show something in detail for the audience, we are essentially saying “This is
what you should see, this is what something looks like.” But if we hold back,
and we suggest what is happening, then the audience gets to imagine what is
happening. And whatever someone imagines will always be more powerful and
effective then what we might dictate to them.
Museled- We don't
really see films take this route often anymore. How important was it to steer
clear of the torture porn style violence?
Levy- For the tone of the piece, we felt it was important. This
could have easily been produced in a broader, more gruesome way. There could
have been more blood and more violence. But we thought at the end of the day
this was a psychological thriller about choices, and it was more about the
people and the situation than it was about the spectacle. So that’s why we took
that approach.
Museled- What was
the most challenging scene to film?
Levy- Everything around the dinner table.
Museled- You have
a great rounded cast. How involved were you in the casting process and how much
freedom were they given creatively?
Levy- I
was the most involved. I made all the cast lists and boards, and “set the
table” so to speak. It was sort of like hosting a dinner party, and I was
constantly asking myself who should be sitting next to each-other or across
from one-another as pieces started to come together. I gave everyone plenty of
room since I knew I had such great professionals on board. Only rarely would I
pull someone aside and ask them to make any major changes to what they were
doing.
Museled- How hard
was it to come up with the options for the games? Were there any we didn't see?
Maybe some we'll see on DVD?
Levy- There are no deleted scenes, what we could afford to shoot
was just enough to make the movie. The options were actually easy to place into
the game, because once we knew what the structure of the game would look like,
we just asked ourselves what we would hate to be asked. And that didn’t take
long to figure out.
Museled- The film
leaves room for a sequel. Any chance you'd be interested in doing one?
Levy- Totally. Just need a bigger budget this time!
Museled- What are
you working on next?
Levy- More movies! I am really into suspense and mystery right now, so
potentially something in that realm.
IFC Midnight's heart-stopping horror thriller WOULD YOU RATHER, starring Brittany Snow and Sasha Grey, is now playing in select theaters, SundanceNow, Cable VOD, and other digital outlets (iTunes, Amazon Streaming, PS3 Playstation Unlimited, XBOX Zune, Google PLAY and YouTube).
