JON Harris makes his feature-directing debut with The Descent: Part 2, the sequel to the award-winning underground hit directed by Neil Marshall in 2005.
Harris had edited The Descent, making him a strong candidate to assume control from Marshall, who retains an involvement as executive director of a potential franchise that began as a small British horror film that went on to make $60 million.
“I got a call from the producer asking me about doing it,” says the Sheffield-raised Jon, who has taken his subsequent move to the director’s chair in his stride.
“I didn’t find it a big gulf moving from editing to directing after being in a room for 15 years and now working directly with people. It was almost a seamless progression as it’s just a big, organic film-making process.”
Jon was “very free” to mould the film how he wished. “There were two different scripts that had been done by different parties, but I didn’t really like either and just took elements and developed it from there,” he says.
He had previously edited Eden Lake, so does he have an affinity with horror films?
“As a kid I used to watch anything and all sorts, and I did enjoy horror, but as I got older I liked stories too and to me the best horror movies have a strong story,” says Jon. “With Eden Lake and The Descent, I discovered I had more of a love of horror than I realised.”
He combined directing and editing duties for The Descent: Part 2, learning a valuable lesson for the future. “I probably won’t do that again because I think you need someone with new energy, after seven weeks of directing. I don’t believe in ‘auteurism’; I’m a big believer in creative friction.”
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