Four people wake up in a basement, chained to the walls. Occasionally their captor pops in to say hello, force them to hurt each other, and feed them raw meat. You know, average hospitality. This gurgled forth from the mind of writer director Giles Alderson for his film THE DARE. The twisted movie follows the four strangers as they piece together the reason they are imprisoned by the aforementioned maniac.

We recently had the privilege to chat with Alderson on his latest movie, what inspired his demented ideas, and what might be coming next.

HorrorBuzz: When did you first begin work on The Dare?

Giles Alderson: I think it was about 5 years ago, it might have been longer. It was when I was really getting my teeth into screenwriting. I used to jot notes down in a notebook and I put about 20 ideas in there. Then about 4 years ago I was talking to a friend and he said stop trying to make 2 big films and just make what you can make. I thought, “That’s a great idea, I need a script.” It’s always difficult if you haven’t written it yourself because you only own it for so long and then you have to take the options out and I thought, “I’ve written plays, I can do this.” So I went back to my book and I looked at the ideas. I saw one and thought “4 people in a basement. Well that’s happened before, but I can see I’ve got some idea.” Further down was “Old Man takes a young boy and pretends to be his father.” and I thought, “Why don’t I put these two together? Why don’t I mash these up into an amalgamation. Then I thought of doing the different timelines and in about a month I had my full solid idea and I brought in my co-writer Jonny Grant and in a month we had we went from there. So that’s where the idea originally came from.

HB: You have a book where you keep a bunch of ideas?

GA: Yeah, and I wish I could find that book! I have no idea where that book is now and it had some really good ideas. I managed to get The Dare out of it before it disappeared. I have notes all over the place, here and there, of what I am going to do. It’s my way of compartmentalizing. It’s a good way of doing it because you can actually get bogged down. If you are constantly working on one, processing another, scripting another, you need to find some balance in your mind.

HB: Put it in a binder.

GA: That’s a good idea but the problem with binders is they all sort of fly around and you need a binder for this a binder for that.

HB: I get it.

GA: You’ve seen The Dare, you know my mind is a little F’d up so therefore I , there’s things happening everywhere.

HB: There were some heavy things in The Dare. Was any of it based on your own experiences?

GA: It’s all fact.

HB: (Laughter) Oh it was autobiographical?

GA: Yes, the life of Giles. (laughter) No, it all seeped in from stories, ideas, movies, I’d seen, movies that had freaked me out. According to me it was totally original. I mean obviously I have seen a lot of movies over the years and some of them have snuck in. I think once we had written it properly and thought we might have a chance to make this, then we started to sneak in little easter eggs from different films paying homage to them slightly. You can never be totally fresh and original but we totally love horror filmmakers and this is a mini homage to them in a certain way. There are some really cool eggs if your eyes spot them. Even what they’re eating at the dinner table is an homage to another film. I really wanted to touch on that. Occasional people get them and they go “OH! Did you see that?” It’s just lovely little moments that touch back to my horror phase, and people I love that made me want to be a filmmaker.

HB: Are you a horror guy or a film guy?

GA: I’m a horror guy now. But it’s not like I set out to make a horror or a sci-fi film. I wanted to make a good story and The Dare just happened to be a horror film. I chose this story because I could actually make it. I could make it in my house if I wanted to. I think that’s important to keep in mind when you are writing it. In case you don’t get the money. You could at least be like, “Alright let’s make this in our shed.” if nothing else. So at least it’s useful instead of lost to the script machine of life where it gets lost and eaten up. It was always important for me to do that with this film. I love horror. I am a massive fan. There are so many amazing people that make horror so to even be in that world is incredible.

HB: It’s interesting how your potential budget ended up molding the story. How do you tackle that situation, Where you have a story to tell against the money you have?

GA: You have to constantly compromise as a filmmaker. There is no doubt about it. If you are a low-budget film or low-budget horror in general, you have to think. “Do I need that fake hand to tell the story?” If you have a scene where a hand gets severed and you need that for the story, that’s where you put the money. If you need someone to fall from a building then that’s where you put the money. If it’s not essential to the story then you take it out. There was so much in the script that we had to take out for The Dare. Originally our hero was walking along a big plank and he was going to fall into a big vat of blood. But we looked at the money to build that and, we just didn’t need it for the story so he just gets dunked in it. I thkn that every filmmaker needs to understand that what you have written down isn’t necessarily what you are gonna shoot and everyday is a fight to get it. As long as you get the story across then brilliant. As a filmmaker you are constantly overcoming obstacles, putting out fires, and making compromises and praying to God that it is somewhere near what you originally intended.

HB: A series of artistic compromises. (laughter)

GA: Basically, but it’s true it’s so true!

HB: When I was watching this I thought, “Man where was this guy when they were coming up with ideas for the new SAW movie?” Were there any ideas that didn’t make it to the screen for budgetary or thinking, “oh man, this goes too far.”

GA: (Laughter) I mean we did have to cut some things that went too far because the ratings board said no. There was more skin pulling, more eye-gouging.

HB: Oh the ratings board. They always kill the fun.

GA: Yeah we had some skin pulling that was incredible. There was this one shot that we got, I was so happy. It made anyone in any of our test screenings squirm in their seat. But we had to trim that down. But yeah, on set there were a few things we couldn’t do. We were gonna hose the cast down with blood but we just couldn’t do it. With that you know what happens next, you don’t have much time, you have to go wash everyone down, you’ve got to reset for it. Then everyone has to be sticky for the rest of the day. Thankfully we got one of our producers to lay down and we covered him with blood instead. It works totally. There was one point where we had the villain pull out a lightbulb and force that into another’s mouth, we had with the kids at one point were playing with a cattle prod. It’s all compromise but as long as your telling the story. I mean making films is one of the best things in the world, and making horror is easily the hardest to get right.

HB: How so?

GA: Well there’s so many horror fans, right? You could make a drama but nobody is going to come after you for the way you made the drama. They may not like it but, ok. Whereas horror fans, they are very specific or particular. They will say, “Oh you’re trying to make that.” or “Oh I’ve seen this before.” There will be a lot of people that aren’t gonna like it. There are a lot of horror fans, lovely lovely people, but they all have different opinions. So it’s really hard, I think, to get your scares right, to get your gore right, to get your jump bits right. What I have been really pleased about is that they have seen The Dare and they really like the gore in it. I feel like I have been accepted. But man, to get a jump scare right it is very difficult. To get any of that right, to get the shot right, the actors right, it’s tricky.

HB: How did Richard Brake come into the project?

GA: Richard Brake is amazing. In the script his character was bigger. Kind of like a “who is this” guy. But I had seen Richard in a lot of stuff. So when his agent returned my call I was like, “Oh I want Richard Brake for this role. He might not be right physically, but I know he will deliver.” We met him, and I knew straight away. I was over the moon when he said yes.

So we have him on set the first day, and you know, he’s a horror legend. He knows his stuff, he knows what he’s talking about. I wanted to make his first scene very easy. We had this lovely crane shot set up. It actually got cut, it wasn’t in the movie. But this was his first shot and I have them waking and they have a few lines with the camera coming over them, around them and spinning around. So we set it up, and practiced it and I said, “Okay, let’s go for a take.” We did it then I was like, “Well, I’m happy. Thanks Richard” and he was all “What? You’re kidding me. I’m done? That’s amazing!” We set the precedent really early on. This was how we were making this film. It was amazing to have him on board. I think that is important to have your actors and your crew on your side straight away.

HB: Do you see yourself doing another horror film?

GA: Oh yeah absolutely. There’s potential for a sequel here. Also we’ve got about another 3 horror films ready to go, in different talks about them.

HB: Well we are definitely looking forward to it because The Dare was a lot of fun.

The Dare is now available You can read our review of the film HERE. You can watch THE DARE now on VOD HERE.