Forbidden ritual
Writer/director Kelly Holmes' genre-inspired stories have been shaped into multiple award-winning short films and showcased internationally at BAFTA and Oscar qualifying festivals. As international co-productions both her former short films — “Family Portrait”, from 2016 and 2018's WWI supernatural drama “Attrition” — were commissioned and broadcast on French television. Having received early feature film development funding from the BFI Network, Kelly has participated in multiple talent schemes including the Reykjavik Talent Lab — winning the JETS Co-Production Market at Berlinale 2021 — and was selected as part of Frontières Co-Production Market 2021 with her menopausal body-horror feature, Year of the Heart, currently in development.
Her latest short film, “The Sin-Eater”, is a period piece that explores universal themes such as grief, familial protection and a woman’s place in 1850s Wales. It surrounds a little-known part of Welsh cultural history called ‘sin-eating’; a ritual performed more for the sake of the living rather than the dead. Working closely with a Welsh cast of actors, the film makes use of the language that lends a vital texture to this beautiful ghost story. Kelly recently spoke with me about her short film and its influences.
How did this film come about and how long did it take to get off the ground?
I met the writer Matt White on Twitter (of all places) after I posted an old mood board I found on a hard drive during a bored lockdown day. He sent me a fantastic one-pager, which he had rejigged overnight from an older idea he'd had. I absolutely loved it and 'sin-eating' was something I was already aware of, so we started working on an outline for a feature initially. My producer David also loved the idea and we tried a few different funding sources to get The Sin-Eater off the ground as a treatment for the feature, but, in the end, it was BFI Network who funded it as a short, which we were grateful for as they rarely fund horror. We worked hard on making sure this wasn’t just a proof-of-concept, but a short film that worked as a narrative in its own right.
There is a real authenticity to your films — specifically the costumes, locations and atmosphere — large portions of “The Sin-Eater” spoken in the Welsh tongue. How long is spent on pre-production for a short and working out the logistics of all these important details?
I’m a huge genre fan but I like to infuse realism into genre — if you’re dealing with the supernatural for example — and, in making everything as real and authentic as possible, I believe you stand a better chance of your audience being sucked into that world. Personally, I get thrown out of a period drama if the details are off so I like to put a lot of work into that (as much as I can with low budgets and little time). I’ve done a fair few period dramas now and so I know how important production design and costume are to getting it right and so that is quite a huge focus in preproduction. For “The Sin-Eater”, getting the right locations was integral and I spent a long time driving around North Wales looking for churches and a long time online looking for the right interiors. We were lucky to find Greenfield Valley, which is a wonderful museum in Holywell and they have a few original period Welsh houses that have been rebuilt and furnished. Until you start looking for period property you don’t understand how hard it is to find a room that has a working real fireplace and no electric lights in the ceiling, and building a set on our budget wasn’t an option for us. Lastly, (as you pointed out) one of the most important parts was the use of the Welsh language. We worked with Mandi Morse at Aberystwyth University on the translation to make sure the Welsh felt appropriate for the 1800s and then ensured we cast great actors who spoke Welsh. I do not speak Welsh, but I studied the translation and inevitably on the day trusted my actors and my crew that spoke Welsh. You can immediately understand performance on set, even if you don't speak the language, so you have to trust all of those director instincts.
Welsh wanderer. Thomas (Jack Parry-Jones) is about to offer a life changing ritual
What attracts you to period pieces, including the Gothic and, in this instance, folk horror?
I’ve worked on several period dramas now and honestly… sometimes it’s just funding! Every time I apply for funding with a contemporary story, I don’t get the funding… when I apply with period drama I do tend to get the funding. Which is bizarre considering period drama tends to be more expensive… and it’s funny because I’m desperate to make a sci-fi. But it would be remiss of me to be glib about my interest in period drama because I do have an instant attraction to the Gothic. I devoured ghost stories, Point Horror and Goosebumps and all those sorts of pulpy books as a kid and dabbled as being a bit of a hippy Goth for a short time as a teenager. I've also tended to find that period drama is where the interesting stories have been for me in short filmmaking. The phenomenon of 'sin-eating' in Wales and bordering Shropshire is something I've known about for some time, but I didn't know how to tell that story until Matt came along with these characters. There's something very ossified about the world and yet Jemima's grief is palpable and immediate… and I'm essentially interested, as a director, in telling emotional stories in a genre world.
Your films carry a heavy sense of mortality and are often centred around death. What do you think this stems from?
I do think I’m fascinated by death and the macabre. But then if you choose to work in horror the majority of horror films are centred around death. It's human to be obsessed with death and stretches back far into history before even the Egyptians mummified their dead and built giant tombs to deliver their dead into the afterlife. I had to give this question a lot of thought and wondered why it is that I focus on death in my stories, and I think it may stem from a natural sense of curiosity. We know next to nothing about what happens to us when we die. After our last breath maybe there's nothing. But maybe there is… and humans have a hard time letting go of life. As a child, I didn't think about death a lot, but I was attracted to the macabre and I was a naturally curious child who wanted to learn and discuss everything. And my filmmaking seems to be a continuation of that discussion.
Stages of grief. Jemima (Carly-Sophia Davies) is about to make a difficult choice
In light of this where and when did your love for the macabre begin?
I spent a lot of time running around a church graveyard on the way to school every day. I really did do that a lot and I’ve always had an obsession with the macabre, much to my mother’s dismay. When I lived in London, I spent my weekends walking around Highgate Cemetery and Kensal Green and places like that. When I went to visit the underground crypt at Kensal Green — where coffins sit on shelves — it’s the only place I’ve visited where I thought I really shouldn’t be here. That was where all of a sudden, my curiosity felt uncomfortable. Although I'm not sure if I believe in ghosts, I'm very much driven by science and until I see a ghost I'm not going to believe in it. I've tried to find them, but I don't think they want to know me! In the Victorian era, there was this wonderful juxtaposition between science and spirituality and that is fascinating to me because something can be magic until it is explained by science. There's also an aesthetic in death customs that I find appealing and my house is full of old oddities, most of which have been curious props from my films.
“The Sin-Eater” really goes places and creates an effective mood and ‘reveal’. Feels like the perfect ode to the M.R. James Ghost Stories at Christmas and Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black. Were these a conscious influence on Matt’s script and the filming?
They were definitely an influence on Matt and I and we’re a huge fan of those stories and the BBC/ITV versions of those productions. The newer Mark Gatiss versions are the only thing on TV that I look forward to every Christmas and I savour them every year. There’s a sense of place and horror to those stories that works so well with both the Gothic and Folk Horror and although it’s a subtle form of horror, it’s the sort of horror I find most compelling. I love watching a good splatter pic, but I tend to find that sort of horror funny, and what I really love is to be ‘chilled’ and that comes from the atmosphere that is created. Matt and I talked so much about the stories you mentioned and how to create fear for the characters. But achieving the mood on screen I think largely comes from Die Hexen’s score. Music is an incredibly powerful tool in a director’s arsenal and I had wanted to work with Die for some time after we’d been discussing projects. And so, I was excited to get to work with her, because, for me, she achieves something akin to alchemy. We talked about instruments (the Celtic harp makes an appearance as the motif in the film) and having a rawness to the music — the tone and influences — and how the characters felt at different parts of the film. She then weaves these things together into a score that understands when it needs to manipulate the audience to make them feel uncomfortable and bring hairs to the back of their necks, and when it needs to breathe and give the story space. It’s absolutely integral for a Gothic mood; I love her work and hope I get to work with her again very soon.
Graveside presence. Jemima is consoled by Eliza (Sharon Morgan)
What are the main differences between directing your own material and other writers’ scripts?
I really enjoy working with writers, it’s a much more gratifying experience. I don’t enjoy writing very much, it’s like nails down a chalkboard to me, but when I’m working with a writer that anxiety goes away. And I work closely with writers, almost like their script editor, and so I have to find the right people to work with and want that highly collaborative experience. Sometimes however there are stories that only live inside your head… and you have to sit down and write those yourself. But I’m slow because I overanalyse it, hence the anxiety. But when I’m working with another writer, I view it as a form of directing and decisions get made fast, which is a much more pleasant experience. When it comes down to directing the script the experience is the same, I break down a script the same whether I’ve written it or someone else. As we know, the script becomes the blueprint and the jumping-off point for what becomes the film.
How do you tend to find your writers and their material? I'm interested in how closely you work with them, perhaps in refining in prep for shooting.
I haven’t had one way of finding writing collaborators, but I do know it takes a very long time. I’ve done a lot of callouts for scripts online and I’m picky — that doesn’t mean to say I don’t find good writers or good work, it’s just that a lot of scripts are not for me. I often find good scripts that I think will work for other directors and so I put that writer in touch with a director that I think might want to work with them. The writers I have worked with I work with closely and I note the scripts a lot through several drafts. On “The Sin-Eater” we were conscious of the fact we had a feature story in our heads and we needed to ensure this worked as a short film and that character journeys were fulfilled in a short space of time. The script was only 13 pages long and that’s not a lot of space. We also took out what we thought was a pivotal character in the story on the advice of a BFI Network note and that was tough and made us scratch our heads for a while. But it took the story up a notch when we figured it out and sent the 'lore' of sin-eating into a new realm that excited Matt and me even more. It allowed us to focus on our main character far more and we're appreciative that the note from BFI took us there.
Are there specific directors you look up to, both past and present?
Absolutely — Kathryn Bigelow showed me it could be done. She was the first woman director I came across in university that showed me you could make films as a woman and they could kick ass. She showed me a woman director can make films both about male and female characters and you can jump genres, even in the same film. Strange Days is one of my favourite films ever because it transgresses genre; is it sci-fi/action/noir, who cares, it’s awesome. Everyone sees her as an action director, but she’s made all sorts including horror.
Danny Boyle showed me that you don’t need to make kitchen sink drama as a British filmmaker. He’s jumped from genre to genre and has never fallen into the stereotypical British filmmaking and even when he works in low-budget he’s innovative, creative and pushes boundaries. He’s had such an enviable career as a British filmmaker. Plus, he made one of my favourite sci-fi films Sunshine. I hope for the future I can have a career as varied as his.
We’ve mentioned some literature but are there any favourite films you carry around in your top pocket as a shortcut? Maybe other key references for “The Sin-Eater”?
Pan’s Labyrinth is my classic film that I always go to for visual inspiration. The emotional storytelling, the deep aesthetic, the rich lighting and the respect and love Guillermo del Toro has for genre. He is my closest aesthetic ally. I think you can tell in all my films there’s some kind of nod towards everything he brings to the screen. He is truly inspirational and I wish I had an ounce of his creative talent and imagination. Every time one of his films is announced I’m excited and I’ll be right there when his adaptation of Frankenstein is out. He also seems like a lovely person and I’d love it if he was my uncle.
As mentioned already, in “The Sin Eater” there’s also a clear nod to all those BBC Ghost Stories for Christmas films and the ITV’s original Woman in Black adaptation. I do enjoy the remake, but the original has a starkness, an economic directing style that is most unsettling. The Gothic for me is about a sense of place as much as tone and you don’t need to slap Hollywood glamour and constant jump scares into a horror film to make it scary. In the fantastic Gothic tale, there’s reality, along with bad things happening to characters who don’t always deserve it, which is closer to real life. Bad things happen to Jemima and she certainly doesn’t deserve it… she’s just trying to protect her child.
Rest in peace. Is it too late to bury the dead?
Where did your working relationship with cinematographer Alan C. McLaughlin begin? You both seem to be working wonders together creating such picturesque pieces with this film along with previous shorts, “Family Portrait” (2016) and “Attrition” (2018).
We began working together on “Family Portrait” when I was living in Edinburgh and we’ve carried on working together ever since. He has the most amazing eye but it’s our creative collaboration that is key. I bring a lot to the table sharing all my references from the art world, usually hundreds of screengrabs from films, ideas for moments etc. The first thing we always talk about is atmosphere and lenses — what’s the feel of the film? I always leave the camera body choice to him, but we discuss lenses and what the texture of the image will look like. I’m not into storyboarding very much but we both plan shots by doing an overhead camera plan and shot list. In terms of the look, I have a love of fast lenses and vintage glass, but it's not always available or affordable. If we can't get exactly the lenses we want or there's no time to test very much, we get the closest we can to the look and try to filter it. Everything was off the shelf during the shoot for “The Sin-Eater” and we couldn’t get the amazing vintage anamorphic glass we used on “Attrition”, so we went for fast lenses and then Alan filtered the hell out of it to make the image softer. I can’t stand sharp digital images for period drama. We were also adamant about using firelight, both in the fireplace and candles. We had a tiny crew and our gaffer Trevor did an amazing job crafting the light to make it feel otherworldly during the night-time ritual scenes and cold in the daylight scenes. Our relationship is quite symbiotic and the look we’ve created in our films is a result of the both of us, but Alan brings something I could never capture without him and an eye for shots that I may have missed and we need in the filmmaking.
What are you expecting audiences to take away from “The Sin-Eater”?
I hope people realise that the film holds a mirror up to some modern truths. Because the writer, Matt, was really thinking about attitudes that are expressed now and taking that back in time. And I hope people find the film eerie and chilling. There’s been comparisons in reviews to the Ghost Stories for Christmas and those distinctive vibes, which makes me very happy. We’re also hoping they are wondering what comes next. The film finishes on a note where you think one of the characters has got away with something… but we as filmmakers know what comes next, and Thomas does not get away with it.
THE SIN EATER will be next seen as part of the Mayhem Film Festival's Short Film Showcase on Sunday 20th October - book here. You can follow Kelly on Instagram and keep up to date on upcoming other projects via her official website.
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