
A lot of independent films find their way to Warped Perspective, and now and again, one arrives which makes a bigger impact than many of the others – be that for its originality, its ambition, or its earnest levels of nastiness. Cara is one such film, noteworthy for the way it’s steeped in a deeply unrelenting bleakness (and, given the website as a whole frequently sees its share of bleak content, that’s quite the accolade). Reminiscent of the underrated British serial killer film Tony (2009) and in some respects, Possum (2018), Cara is an urban horror story of a person living on the periphery of functional society, fantasising about seizing personal autonomy. Almost needless to say, this isn’t a straightforward, or an especially uplifting journey, and when I reviewed the film just ahead of its FrightFest premiere last year, it struck me as one of those films which leave you with certain questions. Now, just ahead of its release on a range of digital platforms on February 17th, I grabbed the chance to have a quick chat with director Hayden Hewitt, who is currently working on his next project (more anon) to find out some more about this, his first feature-length film. Take a look, and do remember to pop along and take a look at the exclusive trailer over at Rue Morgue magazine.
Please note: the last two questions I ask contain potential mild spoilers. Be forewarned!
WP: Thanks for speaking to Warped Perspective! Firstly – why this screenplay for your first feature-length project? What appealed about this particular subject matter?
HH: The core idea for Cara had been rolling around in my head for years. I was even going to attempt a version during the time DSLR cameras became available to consumers without pots of cash to burn. I think it never left me, because I was fascinated with the idea of a seemingly simple concept (revenge) where I could play with the questionable reality of it through the eyes of a pretty unreliable narrator. The more time I spent on it, the more I wanted to tell the story.
WP: You already had some short film projects under your belt before making Cara: it may seem an odd question, but is there any lineage between those short films and this, your first feature?
HH: They were mostly a test bed, giving Black Octopus [the production company] some kind of established history, learning my chops, and making contacts. I think perhaps Unseen might be within a shout of having a connection, given the social commentary angle but beyond that they’re all stand alone stories – Elbows being such an absurd idea and Lips being a love letter to Tales of the Unexpected.
WP: Who is Cara for, do you think? By which I mean – what sort of film fan would you anticipate really getting on board with it?
HH: I’m not sure if it’s pretentious or conceited, but I never really considered that and thinking about it now, I’m not sure I have any clue. Horror is a very broad church, but there doesn’t seem to be a massively common thread between those who have enjoyed it so far, or at least been positive about it. “Enjoy” seems to be a word people use then try to explain how they didn’t but did but…
WP: On a similar note – how would you describe Cara in terms of its genre? This is another very broad church genre-wise, but is Cara an exploitation film, in your view?
HH: I certainly didn’t set out to make an exploitation film. Are there elements in there? I can see where some people might see it that way I guess, but the intention certainly wasn’t present. I settled on ‘psychological horror’ because that seemed to fit as well as anything else. It’s certainly a fine line when dealing with these topics and with a character like Cara, I really didn’t want her to be a final girl/swivel eyed psycho or black widow. At the same time I didn’t want to make her a stereotypical victim, either. A lot of the success of that obviously comes from Elle’s performance [Elle O’Hara] and the work she put in with me prior to shooting.
WP: Was there anything you wanted to do with Cara, or anywhere you wanted to go which, for any reason, didn’t come to pass? Or was there anything about shooting the film which changed the course of the film as you initially planned it?
HH: I think there are always things you’d like to do but can’t. Budget and time limitations will always get in the way to some extent. Time is the enemy of filmmaking! The final third contained some elements we simply couldn’t afford in an early draft: I did make a version of the film that wasn’t quite as gruesome as it could have been. Some effects I took out, because it became apparent they were crowd pleasers rather than integral parts of the story, and it felt wrong to keep them in.
I did change something very near the end of the film on set just before we shot it. The choice seemed more sympathetic to the characters and story, although it did make it slightly less brutal to some degree. Overall though, I’m as happy as I think I could be, even if when it’s your film all you see are the ‘faults’ for a while.
WP: Have you had – good or bad – any particularly noteworthy responses to the film?
HH: Mostly it’s been very positive so far. Comments like “I really liked it but feel like I need a shower now” are quite wonderful and being asked at festivals what happened to certain characters or people sharing their interpretations of the film are beautiful things, too. Naturally there are some negative comments and reviews, some hilariously so, but that’s the nature of the game, isn’t it? One great compliment was from an actress who received the script, and was so incensed by something she thought it represented that she shared it with some other unknown film producers. This small group then proceeded to tell people not to work with us, or they’d never work with them. I don’t know who these people are, nor will I try to find out, but I hope they’re choking on their non-dairy lattes come release time.
WP: Cara begins with the titular character operating on the periphery of some very dark websites and online content; she’s a camgirl, but on a very niche website with, shall we say, niche clientele. Why did you decide to place her in this world?
HH: I have a lot of history with the darker side of the Internet [Hayden was the founder of the website LiveLeak]. Though that doesn’t encompass the porn side, the fascination has always been there. I think one experience in the dawn of cam streaming shaped a lot of that. Someone I knew passed me a link and it was a livestream. A woman was sat naked on a bed: she looked utterly miserable, genuinely just worn out. The text chat box next to the video player was just full of seemingly angry men doing their best to be as awful as possible in their demands and insults. Nobody seemed to be enjoying themselves really and I couldn’t figure out what people got from it, beyond one side making a few dollars and the other getting to humiliate someone without consequences, even though it didn’t seem to make them happy.
As with everything else in the film, I’ve tried to avoid being too judgemental, because I do wholeheartedly believe that consenting adults should pretty much be allowed to anything they damn well want. I think the thing is that if I believed humans have a soul – and I don’t – I’d believe every touch of that world would take a piece of it. Then again, some people seem quite happy, so I guess that’s a me problem…
WP: Finally, and this is something I’ve found myself wondering: at the end of the film: does Cara actually get the redemption which she so clearly craves?
For me, if she does, it’s a fleeting and hollow moment. Nobody in Cara gets what they think they want and only one person gets close. That person might well not be Cara, though…
Many thanks to Hayden for his time! If you’re an Apple TV subscriber, then you can check out this link now to find details on how to view. For the rest of you, look out for more details on how to see the film from 17th February 2025.