THE KILLER INSIDE ME: THE DUNCAN CUNNINGHAM INTERVIEW

He created Foresight Killer Instinct, the Ozploitation sensation that spins modern riffs on the age-old vigilante killer theme. But writer/director Duncan Cunningham (pictured, below; far right, with key cast) is an old-school B-movie producer at heart; unprompted, he describes his film as “born of my twisted thoughts, perished on paper, resurrected by my minions, killed onto film and manipulated in a particular order to spawn like the rotting corpse of a zombie from hell.” Subtle. Ahead of its screening at Monster Fest 2013, SCREEN-SPACE spoke to Cunningham about the Aussie classics that inspired him, shooting a no-budget film over six years and what it took to get the film seen by 200,000 webheads worldwide…

What is it about you and your relationship to your film that kept it alive all these years?

I am in love with the process of creating a world full of characters that didn't exist. And to see what you have created in a moving picture is phenomenal. I envisioned it back in 2008 with just an idea and I had to stick with it and get it made and get it out there otherwise no one would see it. I made it to be seen. I didn't want to see it die after all my years of hard work. If people like it too, all the better; if not, it's still out there, something that I have created from nothing. I wanted to see my wicked, twisted baby spawned into the world. 

What are the influences that come thru in your script and direction?

A lot of the influence is from Australian films like Mad Max and Stone (pictured, right) - gritty, dark, revenge-driven police and biker films. The anti-heroes like Batman, The Punisher and Wolverine were also influences. I read a lot of true crime books and watched documentaries about serial killers to come up with the killers in the film. I also wanted the characters to have (clear) mental disorders. Det. Lance Steel, we had a ball with (going from one) extreme to the next.

Describe the onset environment. How did you inspire the actors to maintain such an energy throughout the shoot?

I put in a lot of effort and lead by example. I was the first one on set and the last to leave, then I'd go home and watch the rushes to see what we had and then up again the next day. I gave lots of reassurance and positivity, I was a bit of a counsellor on set too (laughs). Oh, and lots of energy drinks and free food! (pictured, below; on-set photo of key cast and crew) 

It looks like a lot of post work went into creating the look and feel of the film. Describe the different energy needed to be creative in that environment compared to the energy of the location shoot?

You have to be able to self motivate. It was (largely) just me in post, editing and chatting with my visual effects guy. (There were) a lot of late nights, trying to get things right and watching it over and over again. If I didn't do that, it wasn't going to get made. Onset was more fun and exciting; post was like putting a jigsaw together, very time consuming but fulfilling as well as your seeing your creation coming to life. 

Finally, the YouTube numbers. It's likely there'll be AFI award winners that don't get seen by that many people. Can you hold FKI up as a frontrunner for a new distribution model?

I got to a point where I just wanted people to see the movie, regardless of accolades or profit. I was astounded that just putting it up on YouTube (meant that it) got 200,000+ views before being flagged and taken down for content inappropriate (laughs). But that didn't stop people wanting to watch it from around the world. It went on the torrents, being subtitled in different languages, downloaded thousands of times and with people creating different DVD covers. It's pretty cool.  

Read the SCREEN-SPACE review of Foresight Killer Instinct here.
Check the Monster Fest 2013 website for screening details.