Australia has long been fertile ground for genre filmmakers, but they don’t often make the journey over to the bright lights of Hollywood. Jamie Blanks was still in his twenties when his short films garnered enough attention to do just that, and the result was a big hit with 1998’s American slasher, Urban Legend.
He chased it with the modest success of Valentine (2001) before returning home to Australia and making the entertainingly mean-spirited Storm Warning in 2007. It’s the tale of a couple whose relaxing day leaves them stuck out in a storm. Worse, they try to take shelter on a remote farm only to discover the three men who live there are less than hospitable.
Sadly, Blanks recently passed away far too young and with far too slim a filmography. He was a talented director, composer, editor, and writer, and a kind, friendly voice who was always happy to talk with fans and film lovers.
Now keep reading to see what I heard on the commentary for…
Storm Warning (2007)
Commentators: Jamie Blanks (director), Everett De Roche (writer), Karl von Muller (cinematographer), Robert Taylor (actor), Justin Dix (special effects/makeup supervisor), Robbie Perkins (production designer)
1. De Roche wrote the script nearly thirty years before it went into production. “So all those people saying ‘hey, it’s just like Wolf Creek,’ we were there thirty years ago, we just took our time getting the film distributed.”
2. The opening scene, an overhead of a car driving along the coast, was filmed from a helicopter – but they couldn’t afford a fancy rig, so they were stuck with one that could only tilt up or down. “Everything that the camera saw had to be literally framed by the pilot, so he was effectively our camera operator on those shots.”
3. Blanks has fond memories of the marina where they filmed, as it was the first time his son was on set, running around, and yelling “action!’ and “cut!” It’s a nice, throwaway anecdote on any other commentary, but it’s especially affecting in light of Blanks’ recent passing.
4. The film was shot in twenty-four days, with only six of them being on location. The rest were spent on a sound stage, and then Blanks had a year to work on post-production. He used that extended time to write the score three times before being happy with it.
5. The early scenes on the boat were meant to suggest an increasingly cloudy day as a storm approaches, but they were gifted with a perfect blue sky instead. Blanks says it actually worked to their advantage as they were able to use the blue sky as a giant blue screen and more easily comp in some CG clouds.
6. The brief tour through the mangroves around 11:45 was filmed on a tight schedule made even tighter when their camera boat began to sink. “I was really cross that day.”
7. There’s almost a strobing effect around 16:20 as Rob (Taylor) and Pia (Nadia Fares) walk through the brush at night, and it wasn’t intentional. It had something to do with the digital camera seeing too much detail and not knowing what to do with it, and they didn’t notice it until post-production, at which point they were unable to fix it.
8. The house, both interior and exterior (including the barn), was built on a sound stage in Melbourne.
9. Hugh Jackman visited the set for some reason?
10. The baby kangaroo is a practical effect, later augmented with digital effects, and it operated on battery power. Unfortunately, the joey’s remote control was set to operate on the same frequency as the crew’s radio headsets. The result was one very erratic creature.
11. De Roche mentions that the inspiration for the film is basically the story of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.” What he doesn’t mention, but what should be celebrated, is that he’s a legendary writer of Australian genre films with a filmography that includes Patrick, Long Weekend, Road Games, Razorback, Fortress, Link, and more.
12. Some have questioned Pia’s “MacGuyver-esque” shift in the film’s back half, but an earlier sequence cut from the film actually showcased Pia’s skills as a metal sculptor.
13. Taylor talks about having to take his character on a journey of impotence and emasculation in the face of their aggressively masculine captors, but he adds, “In actuality, I’d squash those two like a couple of bugs.”
14. Brian Trenchard-Smith was attached early on to direct the film, but they weren’t able to get it going at the time. When Blanks told him he was actually going to make it, Trenchard-Smith’s only question was, “Is the Shanghai surprise still in it?” He’s referring to the anti-rape device designed to shred the invading member upon insertion.
15. “I felt a little hamstrung on my first couple of movies,” says Blanks, referring to how his first films were American studio pictures beholden to MPAA rules and nervous executives. He was happy to shake off those restraints here, though, and went full bore with the fish hook kill and additional violence – much of which was then trimmed for U.S. release.
16. Poppy’s (John Brumpton) bedroom was initially designed to include an electrified grid (powered by a car battery) over his bed and swastikas on the wall. Blanks saw it and felt it was going a bit too far. “These guys aren’t reprehensible enough, they’re also nazis?” “And Eli Roth fans,” suggests someone, only for Blanks to say, “We draw the line there, man.”
17. “I almost didn’t do this movie because of this scene,” says Blanks at 1:15:00 as Poppy’s attempted assault of Pia leaves his giblets sliced up and trapped in a can. It was his wife who convinced him it would be a strongly memorable sequence.
18. The dog attack was crafted through a combination of performance, sharp editing, and a puppet of a dog’s head operated “vigorously” by Dix upon Brumpton’s nether region.
19. Poppy’s disemboweled body is a prosthetic effect, obviously, and Brumpton was so put off by it that he refused to be on set during its use. That didn’t stop the team from using it as an iced beer holder during their wrap party.
20. They built the hovercraft from scratch. It would lift, but it wouldn’t actually move forward, meaning they had to tow it with hidden wires.
Quotes Without Context
“We’re not gonna make any airline sales for this movie.”
“Unfortunately… that was a completely CG-generated dope shed.”
“Native animals in Australia are difficult to get permission to work with.”
“That’s the first time I’ve ever seen a director fire a dog.”
“As gruesome as I wanted to make the film, there was something about that moment that I just couldn’t quite bring myself to leave in.”
“Anyway, back to the horse porn.”
“I can smell it when I see that screen.”
“Even we’re squirming watching this.”
“I really despise and hate rapists, I find them most despicable human scum on the face of the Earth, so the idea of ripping his dick off, having a dog devour him, and then running him over with a four-wheel drive speaks to my sense of justice.”
Keep up with more horror commentary breakdowns here.
