HEROES & INSPIRATIONS
Alice Lowe brought us the foetal horror of Prevenge. Now she shares her key influences.
Since her breakout role in Garth Marenghi’s
Darkplace, Alice Lowe has been redefining what it means to be a woman in horror cinema. She spent the noughties working as an actress, in 2012 she co-wrote Ben Wheatley’s Sightseers, and in 2016 made her directorial debut with
Prevenge, where she starred as a woman driven to kill by her unborn baby.
Lowe’s shift behind the camera is part of a new wave of women taking creative control in horror, while she continues to act in the likes of psychological chiller
The Ghoul. “I thought it was one of the best scripts I’d ever read,” she tells SFX. “It’s hard to pin down what it actually is in terms of genre. It’s sort of mindbending and psychological but it has a very creepy feeling in a David Lynch sort of way.”
Here Lowe talks about the artists who inspired her.
Jim Henson
A lot of my earliest memories are seeing things like The Dark Crystal in the cinema when I was really, really tiny and having my mind blown. And seeing things like Labyrinth, which is one of my favourite films. I liked The Muppets as well, but that didn’t have the same profound effect on me as the more fantastical stuff did. It gave me a lifelong love of practical effects. When I was younger I even wanted to do work experience at Jim Henson’s Workshop. ray HarryHausen and puppetry Early on in my career I went into theatre and for me, you’re trying to create magic on stage in a physical kind of way. Puppetry is a huge part of that. Ray Harryhausen was an early childhood inspiration. I always loved films like Clash Of The Titans and Jason And The Argonauts, where he’d done plasticine models and stop-frame animation. As a filmmaker I have a strong opinion [on effects]. There’s the odd computer effect like Gollum in Lord Of The Rings that I like, but I’m a believer that it’s human artistry that makes those things come to life and gives them a kind of uncanny soul. When I watch something like ET or Alien or The Thing and I know there are puppets involved, to me that’s what makes those films so memorable. You know that there’s a physical reality to the effects and that people were genuinely reacting to things almost in a theatrical sense, like the chestburster scene in Alien. Someone like Harryhausen was pioneering these effects because there wasn’t an alternative. I feel there’s
so much to learn from him. Jan ŠvankmaJer I’m really into Jan Švankmajer, the Czech surrealist animator. I got into his work really early on because they used to play weird animation on Channel 4 as part of this thing called Four-Mations, and I used to watch that late at night [laughs]. It was the weirdest stuff, like Jan Švankmajer’s Alice In Wonderland. He uses taxidermy and false teeth to create stuff, and there’s lots of clay animation so there
are clay heads that eat each other. All of this stuff I absolutely loved and it kind of imprinted on my brain at an early stage. In a lot of my work I haven’t actually got to the point of using those effects particularly. I want to go into more surreal, imaginative territory, the stuff I was interested in when I was younger.
kate BusH
Kate Bush is one of my intensive influences. From early on she was one of the first women I was exposed to who had a complete artistic ethos and control over everything she put out. She did music, theatre, dance, and was like another being from outer space, but at the same time it gave me a sense of possibility. Knowing that you can be creative in lots of different ways and you don’t have to limit yourself to one medium. I just think a lot of her stuff is so original and unfettered creatively and I think it takes you a long time to be creative and have the confidence to express yourself and say what you think without being afraid people are going to laugh at you and think you’re ridiculous. I think she’s very emotional as well. I often return to her music when I’m looking to be more instinctive rather than cerebral because it’s easy to get caught up in the academics of writing a script. I think when I return to Kate Bush it’s when I’m coming back to being more in-touch with the universe; to being more emotional and intuitive, and tapping into things which are more about instinct.
BJÖrk
I was slightly older when I was exposed to Björk. I hadn’t seen anyone like that with a voice like that. Before Lady Gaga, she was already walking down the red carpet wearing crazy clothes and really redefining what it was to be female in a creative world. At the beginning of her career, people would be like, “Oh, she’s mad! She’s mental!” which I think women get a lot when they’re creative. I used to get that as well. People would be like, “What are you on? You’re so crazy!” And I’d be like, “Well, not really, I’m actually pretty sane. I’m lucky that I do have quite good mental health.” [laughs] I often find that it’s this funny thing where people mistake being imaginative or creative for being mad.
1970s Horror
Taxi Driver was one of the main influences when coming up with the idea for Prevenge. I thought it would be good to see a female character who is a loner and who is a bit strange and off on her own path. I felt like I hadn’t really seen that. Also Kubrick and Argento. Seeing the look of their films and the music, I kind of went down this road of noirish gialloish horror. But Prevenge was inspired by a lot of ’70s horror, like The
Shining and Don’t Look Now. Films which have these simple but mythic narratives about family and personal dynamics and rites of passage. There are so many films and performers [from the ’70s] that I use as my touchstone. I’m like, “That’s the kind of look I want! That’s the kind of dialogue or memorable interaction or iconic moment that I want.”
miranda July
I’m enjoying Miranda July’s collection of short stories No One Belongs Here More Than You. It’s absolutely hilarious and brilliant. She has this peculiar, unique voice where you think it’s going to go one way and it doesn’t. She creates these characters that make really strange decisions. They’re so scared of doing wrong things that they end up doing something even stranger. I think it’s possible to watch Miranda July’s films and be put off by her performance, but to really like her books. The books explain what her mindset is about, and you feel much more in tune with what her worldview is. You could read her books and go back to her films and have a new appreciation for them.
alison steadman
I grew up watching Alison Steadman and seeing her being very real and really honest. To me that was a powerful thing. That a woman on screen could be funny, and creating these horrible characters. But also there’s a humanity to them as well. They’re people you know. That was an inspiration to me – trying to make films emulating real life with some strange stuff thrown in. I like naturalistic performances and to lull people into a sense of reality. To identify with characters so strongly that they almost are you. Then when something bad happens it’s like it’s happening to you.
The Ghoul is out now in cinemas, and on DVD and on demand from 21 August. Prevenge is out now on Blu-ray and DVD.
There’s this funny thing where people mistake being imaginative for being mad