In the wake of the end of the world, a family of four desperately tries to survive. Taking to the forest, they soon discover the other survivors may be the least of their worries.

We caught up with writer/director, Justin McConnell, to talk about The Collapsed.

Horror News Network:  The premise of “The Collapsed” is revolves around a post apocalyptic scenario and one family’s fight for survival. The plot also deals family dynamics.  Can you give us a bit of the inspiration behind the story?

Justin McConnell: Initially, the idea behind the cause of the fall of civilization came to us first, and then the characters grew out of that. The post-apocalyptic genre is so oversaturated at this point that we wanted to tell something unique, to play with the tropes and clichés that everyone recognizes, and turn them a bit on their head. This is why on the surface the film seems like ‘you’ve seen it before’. When it came time to write the characters, we wanted to avoid the usual pitfalls that befall these stories, and the things that neuter the bleak tone we were after. We didn’t want it to be a market-friendly group of teenagers (it had to be more than just a ‘Dead Teenager’ film), or a group of loosely-connected people that would go all ‘Lord of the Flies’ at the drop of a hat. We needed characters with a long history around each other before the film begins, people that actually genuinely care if their companions live or die. The ‘classic’ nuclear family just seemed natural at that point.

Horror News Network:  John Fantasia is fantastic as the father, Scott Weaver.  Tell us about that character development, and John’s casting?

Justin McConnell: We were looking for something very specific in the Scott character, since he had to go on such a harrowing and transformative journey. We needed an actor that had the versatility to handle the role, and the kind of screen presence that harkens back to classic heroes in stories similar to this. Someone you could buy as a survivalist and old-fashioned family man. When we saw John Fantasia’s audition, we just knew. It didn’t take much to decide. The funny thing is we made this film as an ultra low-budget non-union film, and John emailed us his self-recorded audition tape. We could barely afford actors anyway, and we didn’t know until we decided to cast him that he wasn’t even from Toronto, or Canadian, for that matter. He was living in Seattle at the time (he’s in LA now), and I didn’t think we could afford to fly him in here and put him up for the time we needed to shoot. It all seemed very risky. In the end, John wanted the role badly enough that we worked something out, and I’m very glad. He brought so much to the film.

Horror News Network:  Can you tell us about Aaron and Rebecca Weaver, the two “kids” of the family? What impressed you the most with them?

Justin McConnell: With Aaron (played by Steve Vieira), I needed someone who could look like he could handle himself, but also have that rebellious streak. The Aaron character has been essentially resisting his dad’s guidance his entire life, and when he ends up stuck in this situation he realizes how much of the wisdom his father tried to impart on him while growing up was actually useful to survival. In a way, Aaron is like a reluctant survivor: wishing things were back to normal but slowly coming to terms with what it will take to make it now. Steve Vieira came across very well in his audition, had the physical presence, and we cast him. Rebecca, on the other hand, never really accepts the reality of life in this broken world, and continues to cling on to whatever creature comforts she can find, to a fault. As young as she is, she grew up using a smart-phone as an appendage of her body, the type of person whose entire life revolves around whatever pop-culture tells her that life means. We needed her to seem like a bit of a bubbly fish-out-of-water, and Anna did that nicely in the audition. There’s definitely some loss and sadness simmering below the surface, but she tries really hard to hide it.

Horror News Network:  The movie is just as much suspense, as it is horror/thriller, with the family battling seemingly unknown forces.  How would you describe the film?

Justin McConnell: Rewarding to the patient, or those with an attention span. From the start we didn’t have the budget to do anything huge or crazy, so we made the very deliberate choice to make it more subtle and atmospheric. The film is meant to appeal most to those that grew up on the slow-burn thrillers of the 70s-80s, folks that don’t need a head split in half every 5 minutes to stay interested. It’s got a very deliberate pace, meant to have a constant feeling of dread and tension. Because of this, I’d say we’ve lost some of the ‘flash-cut’ generation, but that’s okay. We didn’t make the movie for them. It’s also meant to be somewhat interpretive, and hopefully leaves lingering questions in the audience’s mind. If you can’t get onboard with that, and like everything easily packaged, explained, and altogether spoon-fed to you, then you may not enjoy it.

Horror News Network:  “The Collapsed” does a great job a representing a “real” family.  Do you think that helped in drawing in the audience for the survival piece?

Justin McConnell: Definitely. We lucked out and got actors that actually look related, so that’s a huge plus. And like anything else a writer does, what I wrote for a lot of those characters is loosely autobiographical, or at least inspired by things that were familiar to me. ‘Write what you know’. I think because of this there’s a base truth to the characters that comes across onscreen. Sure, I’ll admit there may be some moments where things may not ring 100% natural in terms of dialogue, but any number of factors that are very difficult to control on a 14-day shoot can contribute to that. At the end of the day, though, I think the connection these characters have to one another seems clear in the film, and that helps the audience get the proper feeling of triumph or loss at each thing they face. All suspense starts with character, with genuinely worrying about the people onscreen – or at the very least putting themselves in a character’s shoes.

Horror News Network: The final scene is pretty gory.  What was it like shooting that scene?

Justin McConnell: I’m an old-school horror fan. I love gore, so these days were among the most fun. But also the most frustrating. Low-budget filmmaking is very tough when it comes to gore gags, because you don’t have an unlimited number or resets if something goes wrong. You have maybe 2 or 3 tries to get something right, so it has to work. Luckily we had some talented and experienced people there to make it happen fairly seamlessly. I won’t go into huge detail on what happens, but I’m happy with the result. We knew going in that we could do things one of two ways: either go way over the top but really cheap and have blood splattering everywhere, or be a bit more reserved but make it look more realistic. We opted for the latter.

Horror News Network: “The Collapsed” will be released in the US and Canada in March of 2012. Where can our audience learn more about the film?  What else would you like horror fans to know about the film?

Justin McConnell: You can check out the film at it’s official site: www.thecollapsed.com. From there you can link through to the Facebook fanpage and read/see all the bonus stuff online. I’m looking forward to getting the release out in early 2012, and have literally just finished building the release masters. There’s a ton of great special features on the disc, so I hope audiences have fun with it all. One thing you should know: ‘The Collapsed’ is actually one story in a much larger mythology/universe that we’ve created. As of this interview we’ve written 5 films based around this mythology, a graphic novel, a couple of shorts, and have plans for more. They’re all connected, some in large ways, some in smaller ones. The fun will be putting all the pieces together over the years, as we continue to produce. The next film we’re gearing up for, the long-in-development ‘The Eternal’, is another piece of the puzzle. And, I might add, a much more balls-to-the-wall, action-packed, gory piece of the puzzle.

Horror News Network: Thanks for your time, Justin. Best of luck with The Collapsed. Have a comment? Post it here.