November 27, 2015

When it comes to directing, Steven C. Miller is a machine! The in-demand filmmaker has been working in various genres consistently ever since he burst onto the horror scene with his impressive low budget zombie opus AUTOMOTON TRANSFUSION, which got a DVD release via the Dimension Extreme banner back in 2006. Since then, he’s helmed other horror films such as SILENT NIGHT, UNDER THE BED and SCREAM OF THE BANSHEE, as well as worked on some action pics like THE AGGRESSION SCALE and the upcoming EXTRACTED and MARAUDERS, both starring Bruce Willis.

On November 27th, his newest feature SUBMERGED hits all VOD and digital platforms! The ambitious action/thriller pits a group of friends submerged in the back of a sinking limo, under water while someone is trying to kill them. We caught up with Miller to talk about how this project was different from his previous genre efforts and how the experience of making it influenced his filmmaking going forward.

Blumhouse.com: How’d this particular project come together? Because SUBMERGED is written by Scott Milan who also happens to be in the horror community having written MOTHER’S DAY and I know you guys are friends. Was this something you worked on together? Or just a coincidence that both of you ended up on this project?

Steven Miller: We’ve always been buddies. And we’ve always wanted to find something that we could make together. It just happened that I was in his manager’s office for a meeting about something else, and he said “hey, I know you and Scott are friends and I have this script that Joel Schumacher was supposed to make. But he fell off the project. Scott really likes you and thinks you should read it.” So I read it and thought it could be fun, because it’s very different from anything I’ve ever done. I wanted to try something a little more in the thriller vein, something a little more intense. I like the claustrophobic setting. So that’s how it came together and we rolled from there.

BH.com: A good portion of the movie is literally “submerged” under water. When you read it, was there any intimidation in terms of how complicated a shoot this was going to be? Or did you want to do it because of that challenge? Every new movie you do seems to get a bit more ambitious than the last.

SM: I think that’s what I liked about it. You hit it on the head. I keep trying to find projects that push me in new ways and force me to film things in new, exciting ways. With these movies, you’re not given a lot of money. We shot this one in 15 days! We’re not given a lot of time to make these movies so it was much more of a challenge for me figuring out how to make this interesting and exciting. A good portion of the movie is in the limo under water, so how do I keep the camera moving? How do I do all this in this underwater space without killing anyone! (Laughs) It’s all these challenges that are exciting to me as a filmmaker. That’s how you grow as a filmmaker and make yourself better. Over all, it was the concept and finding a way to make these tight spaces feel cool, and kinetic, and finding new ways to shoot things.

BH.com: In terms of your process of approaching directing a new film, do you go back and sometimes watch things for inspiration? For SUBMERGED, I see a lot of fun things in there, like a bit of THE TRANSPORTER, or THE POSIDEON ADVENTURE. I see the trailer and think this is the sort of concept that Alfred Hitchcock would’ve loved to have tackled. So do you go back and re-visit some of those films whose tone and style you might be trying to evoke?

SM: I’m a film lover and a film watcher. I have no problem going back and watching movies that I love, or that I take inspiration from and try to find ways to enhance on those inspirations and give it my own twist. I know a lot of filmmakers find that that muddles their vision, but for me I get really great inspiration by how other filmmakers make movies. And great filmmaking inspires me. It’s always inspired me! So I 100 percent go back and watch all kinds of things. THE TRANSPORTER is definitely one I went back and watched because that one’s a lot of fun. And yeah, how do you make an underwater Hitchcock style movie? It’s all about camera moment. I went back and watched a lot of Stanley Kubrick, in particular THE SHINING, because that’s all set inside the hotel, so you look for how he moved the camera and kept it interesting – not to say that I’m Stanley Kubrick or anything. (Laughs) But it’s good to go back and analyze how did these guys keep the audience engaged in these small spaces? For me, it’s important to look at that stuff because it helps me in my process.

BH.com: How complicated was it orchestrating all this stuff you had to shoot essentially under water? Because I cannot swim! So that terrifies me even thinking about it! (Laughs) Even in a controlled environment. So, was this a set you guys built?

SM: It was very complicated. We took an interior limo and made it into a fish bowl on a sound stage. We made this interior limo able to hold water, but we had to build it from scratch. I shot the movie in chronological order, that way the water could rise and we wouldn’t have to figure out where it was last. I also wanted to make sure the camera could have some movement and flow through the space easily, so the sides of the limo was raised up almost like a DeLorean and they were on gimbals. So I could rise and drop that as I wanted. I could move the camera 360 degrees, as one wall’s dropping, another wall is rising. So the camera would continually feel like you’re inside this limo, but the walls are moving behind you so the camera can find space and move. On the same sound stage, we went to Walmart and bought one of the big gigantic pools and we just sectioned it off when we got more under water. And literally raised those sections for them to swim through. Sometimes it’s just a side wall that you’re seeing and they’re swimming past it. We had to get really creative on how we did all that. When you’re looking outside the window, it’s literally just fish tanks and I had people blowing bubbles into the fish tanks. Its little tricks like that that work! We threw little fishes in there. As long as it didn’t look cheesy I was happy!

BH.com: Good old fashioned movie magic!

SM: Yeah, man. And it’s hard to explain that! You try to explain that to the producers and it just sounds ridiculous. But it’s all about what the camera sees!

BH.com: When it comes to casting, I know every project is a little bit different in terms of what you’re looking for with actors, but there’s an ensemble in this. So how’d you go about casting this movie? Did you look at groups of actors together to see how their chemistry worked? Or did you pick individual actors that were best for each role?

SM: Jonathan Bennett who was the lead was already attached, and Jonathan was great! I really tried to find the right kids in the back of the limo, Rosa Salazar, Denzel Whitker and Giles Matthey – they were really the people I was focused on. Who are these cool looking kids that I felt could get along? I didn’t have a lot of time, so I didn’t get to do any chemistry readings, but we were lucky in that when they all got together in this limo, they bonded. Maybe it’s because I threw them all in there with water and they were freezing and just sort of had to. (Laughs) No choice!

BH.com: How about Mario Van Peebles? I love him as an actor, I love him as a director and as a person. I grew up watching his movies. What was he like?

SM: He’s great! I grew up on all his stuff too, and I really like him as a director. NEW JACK CITY is a cool movie! Mario is a class act. He invited me up to his house and we hung out. It’s a small role, but he does such a great job and he wanted to bring a lot of presence to it, which he did. Him also being a director, you have those moments where you think “is this going to get weird?” Because I’ve never worked with another director before as an actor. But, he was a peach and so awesome. He never questioned anything I was doing. And he trusted me wholeheartedly. And I think we all had a blast. He kicks ass in this movie, and it’s always great to see him kick ass!

BH.com: Because with every film you tackle, you tend to step up to new challenges and push yourself from film to film, what was the biggest lesson you took away from this ambitious shoot that you’ve taken on to the films you’ve made since?

SM: I think the biggest thing for me on this one was I learned to be more patient. A lot of my previous films, I tended to move pretty quickly, because I never have a lot of time. On SUBMERGED, I learned I could be more patient as a filmmaker. I can let the camera sit for a little while longer, and it doesn’t have to be quick cuts. That’s something I really enjoyed about this movie. I thought that process really worked and I took that process into my next couple of movies and it’s helped me as a filmmaker become more efficient.

BH.com: A lot of your early work is within in horror genre, and it’s pretty darned cool that you just happened to have directed a Christmas themed “slasher” with SILENT NIGHT. I feel like people break that out every Christmas, maybe more so than any of your other horror movies, because when it’s the holidays, that’s what people want to watch! Have you noticed SILENT NIGHT getting maybe a bit more love than your other features?

SM: For sure. For some reason, AUTOMATON TRANSFUSION still gets the most hits as far as people still asking me questions about it, but SILENT NIGHT is definitely the second and I love that. I love the original SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT. I love Christmas horror films in general. Anything seasonal and horror, I’ve always loved, so to get a chance to make a movie with Santa Claus killing people was a lot of fun for me. And I took it very differently than a lot of the other Christmas horror movies do. They tend to get pretty serious and I was just trying to have fun with it and let it be a little lighter and focus on the fact that Santa in a mask is silly, but we’ll make it a fun ride. The most compliments I get from the movie are that people can sit around with friends and have a couple of drinks and just enjoy Santa killing these “naughty” people. It’s one of my favorite movies I’ve made because I went into it having a blast. I approached it as “how can I make the coolest 80’s throwback horror movie that I can?” And we had a lot of fun making it.

BH.com: It seems like the film did really well, and you had a great time making it! Is there any reason we never got to see a sequel? Because it definitely felt like you left it open to the possibility of another SILENT NIGHT. Did you have a follow-up in mind?

SM: Yeah, I made it with the intention to make more! Because I thought it would’ve been fun to make more. It comes down to Anchor Bay. It’s really for them to decide whether it did OK enough for them to want to make another. Or if it’s financially viable to do so. It was never brought up to make another one! So I just assumed it didn’t do as financially well as they needed or wanted it to do? There was just never talk of it. I came up with that ending probably a week before we shot it. I wanted to leave it ambiguous and leave it open, so we could do another one. I would love to make a sequel!

BH.com: Although a lot of your work does fall in the horror genre, you’ve been trying all sorts of different types of films in the last few years. But the horror genre misses you! I know you’re on an action kick as of late, but any plans to come back and do more horror?

SM: I would love to! I’ll come back and do the horror genre again when it’s the right story. Because I’ve already done the slow burn type movies, I’ve done creatures, I’ve done zombies! For me, my niche is action, so if I can find a project that creatively mixes action with horror, I would love to do something like that. The problem is those types of movies tend to be gigantic movies, like the UNDERWORLD movies. To make those movies, you need a lot of money and a lot of time! I’ve gotten scripts like that, but I don’t want to make that type of a movie on a low budget where I have to compromise. I really want to do a movie that I can see completely in my head when it comes to horror. Because I’ve always been used to doing things on the cheap, so I’d love to do one where I could realize my entire vision. If it’s going to be a cool horror/action movie, it’s got to be the right budget, the right time and something I know people would really enjoy.

BH.com: Do you keep up with a lot of what’s going on in horror these days? What are some of the recent genre films that have excited you?

SM: I liked IT FOLLOWS a lot. It was really interesting and different. I thought THE GIFT was a surprise & really good! I really like thrillers at the moment. I think it’s good for horror filmmakers to understand that it’s not just about the blood, but the concept and how you execute that concept, so I like a lot of the newer filmmakers that are running with that. THE BABADOOK is really good. I thought Eric England did a great job with CONTRACTED.

SUBMERGED is now available on VOD including iTunes and Amazon!

*All SUBMERGED images courtesy of IFC Midnight.