Hey hey, Evan here to say a few words about segment number 3, Conversations with Emily! This one was written and directed by Jenn, while I served as dp. This was our take on the gothic horror genre. It tells the story of Izzy, a Wuthering Heights enthusiast, who is driven to commit murder by the spirit of Emily Brontë.
Jenn had known for a few years that she wanted to make a movie called Conversations with Emily, about a woman being visited by Emily Brontë, but it was one of those ideas that float somewhere in the back of your mind, never quite taking shape. When we decided to move forward with a horror anthology, Jenn saw that this was the perfect opportunity to do something with the concept.
Jenn’s script ended up drawing on some of the content of Wuthering Heights, some true details of Brontë’s life, and some bits of Poe’s Fall of the House of Usher. For my part, I saw the perfect opportunity to reference the visual style of one of my very, very favorite directors/cinematographers, Mario Bava, who was instrumental in defining the way that gothic horror is photographed in color.
While the bulk of 5 Faces of Hell was shot in various parts of LA, Jenn wanted Conversations with Emily to take place in a real winter setting, which, alas, Southern California cannot provide. Fortunately, my mother lives in Portland, Oregon, as do a fair number of our friends, so we were able to arrange to shoot there in December of 2016. The thing is, we got a little more winter than we’d anticipated. Unexpected snow storms resulted in the rental house closing before our planned equipment check-out, cars freezing up, and a tree falling on a power line, all of which caused delays in our production.
Fortunately, both our cast and our crew were incredibly dedicated, willing to work the extra hours and take on all the hassles involved with not only getting everything shot, but getting it to look and feel the way we needed it to. It was a physically and emotionally exhausting shoot, but I believe that the energy – and the love – that everyone put into it shows up in the footage.
Jenn tailored the role of Izzy to Grace Lee, with whom we’ve worked on many projects over the years. The two of them worked together to create a character who was part Heathcliff, part Catherine, and part Emily Brontë herself. They should both be very, very proud of what they accomplished together.
We were both surprised and excited when Lindsay Seim responded to our casting notice for the role for Emily. Jenn and I had recently watched Insidious: Chapter 2, in which Lindsay played the younger version of Lin Shaye’s character, Elise, and we’d been quite taken with her performance. Lindsay had a very busy schedule, hopping between LA and Atlanta for productions, but she was happy to carve out time in her schedule for a trip to Portland, and our movie is far richer because of it.
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