Filmed in Limerick & Dublin, ‘Double Blind’ follows seven young test subjects who must face a terrifying side effect when an experimental drug trial goes horribly wrong – if you fall asleep you die. Trapped in an isolated medical facility, they must find a way to escape, and somehow manage to stay awake. Graham Day caught up with director Ian Hunt-Duffy to chat about this new Irish thriller opening in cinemas on February 9th
What was it about Double Blind that got you interested in it?
I love high concept thrillers, with a clearly defined rule, like ‘The Ring’, don’t watch the videotape and ‘A Quiet Place’ don’t make a sound. So when writer Darach McGarrigle came to me with this hook of don’t fall asleep, I just thought that was really evocative and memorable and will be a great way in to a story for an audience, so we just built it out from there.
Were there many challenges for you with this being your first feature film?
In many ways, it was like it was remarkably similar to making a short… but it was longer… If we could set something in one location that would be advantageous to us, both from a logistics and budget point of view, but even from a story point of view. It would afford me a lot more control, creating suspense and tension and creating a pressure cooker environment.
How was it assembling your volunteers/victims?
It took us a long time to find Claire, in particular. We knew once we found her, we could then build the rest of the group out from there. There’s a great mix of Irish and English actors, young up-and-coming actors, and then obviously, having someone like Pollyanna McIntosh, like this horror icon in there as well, it was brilliant. She was a great presence on set.
Could you discuss the themes of the young trying to live right now as well as trying to survive COVID?
That’s the main theme of the film. They’re all young and broke & doing it for the money. They’re not on the property ladder, and I think it reflects, unfortunately, a lot of young people in Ireland’s experiences at the minute and so we were keen to do that in a horror film. We didn’t want to have this heavy message movie or anything like that. However, I think horror is great. It’s good at reflecting what’s happening in society.
As for the COVID side of things, this was in development before COVID. We got development funding in 2018, from Screen Ireland to write the first draft of the script… We were coming into 2020 and we’re thinking, okay, this is our year, we’re good to go and then the world shut down, you know? Then it was delayed so it was 2022 before we got going. It’s weird timing, you have a film, and when it comes out, it can take on a lot of what’s happening.
How was it building the horror elements within Double Blind?
When we sat down beforehand, we discussed what we wanted for each kind of death and hallucination. That they would be unique to each character. We were just trying to come up with different things for each person’s death and making each one unique.
What do you hope audiences get out of Double Blind?
First and foremost, I just want them to be entertained. I want audiences to feel that suspense and tension, the claustrophobia. Also, there’s actually a lot of humour in it as well. It’s the kind of dark humour and Irish humour that we’re well known for.
DOUBLE BLIND is at cinemas from Feb 9th 2024