‘Sacrilege’ Interview: David Creed And Sian Abrahams

Sacrilege, the debut film from independent production company Bad Blood Films, follows a group of four young women as their relaxing weekend retreat turns into a terrifying confrontation with their worst fears. 

Stretching the limits of what can be done on a small budget, Sacrilege provides a level of intimacy that many other horrors fail to achieve. The time spent getting to know the main characters and the natural chemistry between them makes the horror feel scarily real. Sacrilege doesn’t have to rely on an overabundance of gore to provide a terrifying watch, even if there are a couple of delightfully gruesome moments.

The Indiependent spoke to the film’s writer and director David Creed, and to cast member Sian Abrahams. Abrahams plays Blake, one of the film’s four lead characters. The film also stars Tamaryn Payne as Kayla, Emily Wyatt as Trish, and Naomi Willow as Stacey.

The Indiependent: Thank you for speaking with us. David, you wrote and directed Sacrilege. You’ve also got five additional horror scripts ready for production with your company Bad Blood Films. Where did this interest in horror come from? 

David Creed: It’s a funny one. When I was younger my mum used to read a lot of novels by an English horror writer called James Herbert. They always had interesting and fascinating covers, so I would pick them up and read them. That’s how I started to read horror, and then as a child I was allowed to watch the Universal Classic Monsters movies, like the black and white Frankenstein. I’d say that’s how I got into it.

Sian, how about you? Are you a horror fan too?

Sian Abrahams: I’ll be honest, horror wasn’t particularly on my radar before I did Sacrilege, but it did really open my eyes. It was such an experience. The intensity of the genre is so rewarding and, at times, challenging. I like to watch horror films too. Some of my favourites are The Orphanage and The Others.

David, I’d love to hear about your creative process. What was the journey like from your original idea all the way through to the final film?

DC: We were originally looking at making a different movie but we had to alter it to fit our smaller budget. I merged some of my previous ideas together, drawing on the UK’s cult and folklore history. I didn’t want to do anything that was too bloody or gory. I prefer messing with people’s minds and going down the psychological route. 

As for the set, producer Mark [Kenna] and I looked for somewhere that was accessible for both of us, [given that] he lives in Swindon and I live in Bristol. The Forest of Dean was on our doorstep, so we went and had a look around. It was great, very remote.

We had a really nice casting process too. We had a workshop where all the girls were in groups, bouncing ideas off each other and exploring the characters. I expected to pull actors from different groups to get the final four, but when Sian, Tamaryn, Naomi and Emily got together, we all just knew. They absolutely nailed it. Anybody could have believed that they’d been friends for life, and that’s what the film needed. Especially as a guy, I wanted the actresses to have a big influence on the interactions within the group.

Sian, how did you find the casting process? Did you always set out to play Blake?

SA: I think I was drawn to Blake because she has such a rich and colourful backstory. Also, sometimes as an actor you don’t get to play someone that’s very physically different from you, but with Blake it really felt like I was putting on a character. She has the pink and purple hair and lots of tattoos. I think she would have had even more tattoos if we could have made it work. And obviously, she’s just a badass which is always nice to play.

The casting process was unique. You get used to popping into a room and just being like “thank you, bye,” but this was different. We had a workshop environment and I got the chance to explore the character and to collaborate with the other girls. It wasn’t just a one take wonder. I think it got the best out of us. 

You did have such a great chemistry on screen. Did living together during filming help build this connection?

SA: Definitely. We were in these cabins in the middle of the woods, so we had to live together like a group of friends. It added another layer to our onscreen interactions. We were together on a daily basis in the middle of a forest, and sometimes the internet wasn’t great. It really played into the whole feel of the film. 

DC: We did this purposefully, so the girls could develop their relationships off screen as well. You can see their connection in the film. Like the scene where the girls first get to the retreat and they’re having an evening smoke and a drink, I didn’t write any dialogue for that. I told the guys to have a think about their relationships and to produce it themselves. They just nailed it and it was hilarious. We had to shoot it so many times, because when we first shot it all the crew were laughing. 

Sacrilege is all about facing your fears. To me, it highlighted just how self-destructive our fears can be, and also how things that exist in our minds can feel so real. Was this how you intended to portray fear in the film?

DC: Absolutely. It is definitely much more of a psychological horror, about how we can be destructive to ourselves because we have a fear we don’t think we can overcome. Unfortunately, I’ve seen a lot of people in my life unable to confront their fears—the only thing that stopped them from being happy was themselves. I had a similar experience myself earlier in my life but thankfully I had the right people around me who helped me to confront it.

That’s why in Sacrilege, the ultimate power that the Mabon Goddess has is pulling the girls apart, because as soon as you separate that support group it’s much easier to break people. It was important that each actress was good enough to work well in the ensemble but also able to hold their own in the individual scenes, where you genuinely fear for them. I mean, we had a real great bloody dog chasing after Sian. Originally it was going to be rats, but there was difficulty wrangling real rats and then Mark told me he hated dogs. So we used a dog.

What was it like filming those scenes with Oscar the dog?

SA: It was great, but there were safety measures we had to put in place. The trainers told me not to look Oscar in the eye, not to show strong emotion around him, not to make loud noises ect. It was quite challenging to do this whilst acting terrified. But it was good, David gave me a lot to work with.

There were a couple of funny moments too, like when we were doing a scene in the pool and the trainer actually dropped the dog toy on top of me. I was like, what do I do now?

Also, following on from what you said about fears, I read into each of the girls these very complex mental health issues, like body dysmorphia and PTSD. I think it is very much about how you can become a prisoner in your own mind. One of the things I really love about Sacrilege is that it’s completely feasible that the whole film all takes place in Kayla’s head.

Were there any other scenes that you found particularly challenging?

SA: I’m hesitant to call them stunts, but there were a few things like running and vaulting over walls that I personally felt under-prepared for. The first time we did one of those scenes I ran run pelt without warming up properly, and ended up clearing the crash mat and pulling a muscle. I was hobbling the next day. I did learn a lot though. It’s quite exciting in the heat of the moment.

DC: Yeah, the first time we shot the scene where Sian was vaulting over the wall, we’d stuck a massive 8ft crash mat on the other side so she didn’t hurt herself and we had the camera set up there too. She went straight past, she cleared the shot!

SA: Some of the pool scenes were really challenging as well. 

DC: It was funny with the pool scenes, because it’s a massive body of water and you’ve got to try and act in it. You have to swim a certain way, because if you swim normally water goes everywhere. I kept telling Sian, I just need to see your face.

SA: Running as well. I’d never thought about how I run before, but in the scenes where I was running at full speed, I kept thinking that I looked like Phoebe from Friends.

Without giving too much away, there are a few death scenes in the film. It struck a great balance—there was enough death and gore to make it scary but also enough character development to make me as a viewer feel something when a character died. Was this important to you when you were writing the script?

DC: Yeah, that’s how I was always taught. I once did a script writing course with Mike Bullen (Cold Feet). He told me not to treat horror differently to any other genre, because it’s ultimately about the characters. If the audience doesn’t have enough time to get into the characters, they’re not going to care if they die. I remember when I first sent the Sacrilege script out for feedback, a lot of people told me they were going to stop reading it because they didn’t want Blake to die. That was how I knew I’d done my job.

I tried to give each of the characters an entrance, kind of an Indiana Jones moment. We also changed the camera shots to reflect the growing closeness to the characters. Like that scene near the start where Blake is outside it’s a wide shot, but as the film progressed we used closer, more intimate shots. We did make a lot of conscious decisions to make sure that you feel for the characters.

Sacrilege is the debut film of Bad Blood Films. Is it a good reflection of what’s to come from your company?

DC: Yeah, I think it’s a good place for us to start. There were certain things I wanted to do that we couldn’t, but it’s just down to money. There was originally a follow on ending to the movie, but we didn’t have the money to shoot it, unfortunately. But we made this movie and I’m very proud. Sacrilege won ‘Best Horror’ at the Falcon International Film Festival and we’ve sold it in over 40 countries. But like anything, you learn and look back and reflect on what you could have done differently. I think CGI was the biggest learning curve for me, I’d never done that before.

The next movie we’re making, The Ripper’s Ghost, will have a considerably bigger budget. So I get a lot more toys to play with. It will be great. The kill count will be higher, but like you were saying, we won’t just be killing people for the sake of it.

Sian, what can you tell us about your upcoming projects?

SC: I’m going to Barcelona in a few days to shoot a mini series. It’s about a serial killer, it’s a little bit similar to American Psycho. I’ll definitely be bringing some of the horror influences from Sacrilege with me.

Sacrilege will be available on digital download from 27 September.

Words by Verity Alice Cartwright

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