DREAD Presents: BLACK SITE Director Tom Paton on the Influence of H.P. Lovecraft and John Carpenter
This week saw the release of our latest DREAD title, Black Site. It’s a film that we saw out of last year’s FrightFest and we absolutely adored it. To know that it’s now available for everyone to see is an incredible feeling and we can’t thank everyone enough for their support and patience as we get this out there.
For writer/director Tom Paton, Black Site was a project that came from influences from long ago. Anyone who watches the film can easily see that H.P. Lovecraft and John Carpenter were both very present on Paton’s mind when writing this story and it’s impossible to deny that those are quite possibly two of the biggest and most influential names in the horror genre.
“It’s hard to deny the influence that Lovecraft and in particular, the Cthulhu mythos have had on me as a writer and director,” Paton tells us regarding Lovecraft’s impact on Black Site. “There is something about the unknowable, unanswerable universe that has always fascinated and scared the hell out of me. Just trying to grasp the concept of how vast time is and how tricky terrifying that makes your place in it is something that, although not birthed by Lovecraft – looking at you Greek Mythology – was certainly perfected by him. And his fingerprints on the horror genre have rippled on ever since through Stephen King and Del Toro. For me, it’s always been about creating human stories around unknowable events, whether that’s times gone by, creatures of the night or Elder Gods in Black Site.
“The other thing that has always attracted me as a writer is trying to mash things together that shouldn’t usually work. With Black Site I set out to make an 80s action film, including quips and one-liners, and attempted to marry it to a Lovecraftian tone. In theory it shouldn’t work but I think the end result is something strange and almost from another dimension itself, which feels quite appropriate to me!”
When discussing Carpenter, Paton can’t help but gush and reminisce about his childhood. “I first watched The Thing when I was 11. And although it definitely scarred me for life, it also began a love affair with his directing style. As a young filmmaker, I would constantly use Assault On Precinct 13 as an example of how you could make a little go a long way. I’ve just wrapped my fifth feature film and it’s this core value that keeps driving me to push the limitations of my budget. He’s not just a great filmmaker but a pioneer in terms of what an indie film could be. High concept, genre films for little money that appeal to a commercial audience was practically birthed by Carpenter and so Black Site became a love letter to that movement he started, synth score and all. But just as he did, I tried to create something that feels familiar but strangely new at the same time. Check out the film and let me know if we pulled it off.”
“An elite military unit encounters a supernatural entity, known as The Elder Gods, that forces them into battle against an army from another dimension. They must fight together to defend the Black Site and save the world from ultimate destruction.“
Written and Directed by Tom Paton, produced by Airpick Pictures & Alvin Adams, and shot by George Burt, Black Site stars Samantha Schnitzler, Mike Beckingham, Bentley Kalu, Lauren Ashley Carter, and Kris Johnson as “Erebus”.
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