Exclusives
TIFF ’09 Interview: ‘Daybreakers’ Directors Peter and Michael Spierig
It’s hard to believe it’s been six years since directors, Michael and Peter Spierig came out with their debut, Undead. It contained an ambitious epic scale and impressive visual effects which were created by the brothers themselves on their home computers. On their upcoming second feature, Daybreakers, the Spierig brothers now have studio backing (Lionsgate) and reputable names such as Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe and Sam Neill. You’d think with all this behind their sophomore film that they might have watered down their vision for Hollywood. One couldn’t be more wrong. The brothers have created a truly audacious, imaginative horror/sci-fi hybrid that is everything the “Underworld” franchise tries to be but in less than two hours. We chatted with the directors about their efforts to bring this long in the making effort to the big screen.
A bedtime lullaby soothes an unsettling newborn in our exclusive clip from Nightborn, from Hatching filmmaker Hanna Bergholm.
The dark fable makes its debut on Shudder on July 31.
Seidi Haarla (Compartment No. 6) and Rupert Grint (Knock at the Cabin, “Servant”) star as new parents in Nightborn, and this exclusive clip highlights mom’s harrowing transition into motherhood.
In Nightborn, “With dreams of starting a perfect family, Saga and her British husband Jon move to the isolated house where she spent much of her childhood, deep in the Finnish forest. But as soon as their baby is born, despite the reassurance of all around her, Saga knows there’s something terribly wrong with her son. As their marriage starts to crack, Jon struggles to support his wife, but only Saga suspects the terrible truth about her newborn.”
Pamela Tola, Pirkko Saisio, Rebecca Lacey and John Thomson also star.
Bergholm teased of her maternal horror movie, “In Nordic countries, there’s a long-standing mythology of trolls living in the forests. In ancient times, people truly believed that trolls inhabited the woods and had a kind of control over nature. And in Nightborn, the forest reflects Saga’s emotions and the animalistic, primitive physical side of humankind.”
“Hanna Bergholm’s audacious sophomore follow up to Hatching delivers tension and shocking moments surrounding parenthood and self discovery — with a touch of humor,” said Emily Gotto, senior vice president of acquisitions and production at Shudder. “We are thrilled to share Nightborn with audiences.”