Alice Lowe and Steve Oram spent seven years developing the script for Sightseers before it was picked up by producer/director Edgar Wright of Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead fame. They then enlisted director Ben Wheatley, whose genre-bending 2011 film Kill List is one of the finest horror films to emerge out of recent British cinema, and Sightseers finally came to life.
The film follows Tina (Lowe), who is whisked away from her home in the West Midlands where she lives with her neurotic mother (Eileen Davies) by her new boyfriend Chris (Oram). They embark on a romantic caravanning trip across the heritage sites of the English countryside, but what begins as the perfect British holiday quickly descends into something much darker, as Chris’s intolerance of litterbugs, noisy teenagers and “Daily-Mail readers” reveals a tendency to murder anyone who threatens the peace of his idealistic escapade. Although Tina is shocked that her lover is a serial killer, she insists that the unexpected turn of events will not ruin their short holiday together.
An unexpected and critically acclaimed hit during awards season, the film achieves exactly what a self-proclaimed ‘black comedy’ should: it doesn’t deliver a succession of blows which alternate between slapstick hilarity and cheap shock, but instead slips between the genres seamlessly and unpredictably, placing the audience in an unnerving position where we genuinely don’t know whether to laugh or recoil. Although the film has widely (and rightly) been hailed as one of 2012’s funniest pictures – Oram and Lowe’s performances as sightseeing brummies are pitched to comic perfection, and the interplay between the couple has all the warm domestic banality you’d expect – the most striking thing about the film is how genuinely unsettling it is, a dynamic which responses to the film have overlooked. Wheatley’s intense naturalism is almost surreal, and the way the film has been put together is reminiscent of the unconventional editing in Kill List, where the camera cuts away just when scenes seem to be gathering pace, or lingers after logical cut-away beats. The result is a strange rhythm which leaves the audience searching for meaning in places where there is none to be had. Notably eerie yet genuinely heart-warming in places, the complexity of tone in itself makes this film a sight you want to see.
I spoke to Steve Oram about his experiences making the film.
Congratulations for winning ‘Best British Film’ at the Jameson Empire Awards on Sunday. Have you been surprised by the critical response to the film and how much people have embraced it?
Very much so, yeah. It’s been a bit of a dream because we went into it with slightly low expectations, what with it being a low-budget British dark comedy. It’s always difficult for films like ours to do well, but it’s been amazing. It’s been embraced by people and we’ve been totally delighted and surprised. We were up against Skyfall and Les Mis for that award and we all kind of thought, ‘There’s no way we’re going to get this.’ So thank-you, Empire readers.
Where did the idea come from?
It came from a sketch that Alice and I did at a show called ‘Ealing Live’ about seven years ago. It was just us being brummies, big brummies who go to castles and then kill people, and it made us laugh a lot. We kind of made it into a sketch and then those humble origins became the film over a long period of time.
You and Alice Lowe were developing the idea of Sightseers for a long time. Was it difficult to hand over the directing responsibility to somebody else?
Yeah, it is difficult of course, but it’s a necessary part of the process, and it’s important that we had someone we trusted. We knew Ben [Wheatley] as a friend already: we had worked with him before and we loved Kill List and Down Terrace, so it felt very natural. During the process he was very true to what we’d written and what we wanted to do, so everything felt very organic, which I think shows in the final product. When you’re with like-minded people it all works out well.
The dialogue feels spontaneous. Was there much improvisation or was it very tightly scripted?
It was tightly scripted, yes, but on the day we’d do one version on script then we’d go off script and do an improvised one. Ben’s great – he just kept saying, ‘Look, we’re in an interesting place, let’s just mess around here, let’s just hang around some standing stones and do a load of weird dialogue and piss around.’ Loads of good stuff came from that which actually made it into the film. So it’s very much a mixture of the two really. I think it’s difficult to improvise without having a tight script in place and a tight idea of what it is you’re doing, otherwise you just end up rambling and talking nonsense – which we’re all very good at.
Although the film is marketed as a ‘black comedy’, the film is surprisingly moving. Was it always your intention to make the central relationship so ‘romantic’?
Yes, absolutely. It was almost the most important thing when we were making it, because while we knew that our sketch was funny and we could make a funny film that was 15 minutes long, we also knew that in order for the audience to stay with us over an hour they had to engage with the characters. The characters had to be believable and real, and all the work we did was really concentrated on making them weirdly sympathetic. If you were to take the killing away, they’re just a couple on their first holiday arguing a bit and falling out.
So the characters are very real. Were they based on yourselves?
Well, you know, neither Alice or I are serial killers. We had to do a lot of research to inform that element of the role. To be true to that profile of a serial killer was very important. But there were also elements of our own characters within it, and Alice’s and my dynamic as people very much comes out. We always found that the normality is the interesting thing, really. It’s the truth of serial killers – that they are in many ways, and in many aspects of life, normal and socially adept. They probably do go to Crich Tram Museum and have a look around. They appear to be just like anyone else and that was what we wanted to go for, not to make them horrible, grimacing villains, because that’s not the truth of serial killers.
You mentioned the Crich Tram Museum – did you feel it was important to have these features of the English countryside so prominent in the film?
Absolutely, it was always central to the idea to explore these visiting routes. Lots of our holidays as kids, for both me and Alice, were the ‘British holidays’, and we would go to these places. The film comes from our affection for them and from wanting them to be seen. Also, the fact that Chris visits and cares about these places makes him more sympathetic. My Dad used to take me on holidays like that, and it was he who chose the route. He designed it for a research trip that we did about four years ago when we were writing the film. He picked out all these amazing places and most of them made it into the final film, which was pleasing.
Do you prefer the writing or the acting?
Well, in the case of Sightseers they’re almost the same thing because we wrote in a very improvisational way and they’re entwined. I think at heart I’m a writer and that’s sort of what I do and care about. Acting is kind of a bonus, but it is part of it and it’s hard to separate them.
What advice do you have for people who are interested in scriptwriting, acting or directing for TV and film?
Just do stuff with your mates and don’t be precious about anything, especially when you’re starting out and you’re young. You’ve just got to mess around. You’ll be amazed if you just stick your videos up on the internet and all that – there’s no excuse now, what with technology. But also, the other piece of advice is to be realistic about whether you have got it, and whether you want to wait twelve years before you actually get anywhere, because that’s what happens. It won’t happen overnight, it just won’t. So you have to ask, ‘Do I want to wait until I’m thirty five before I get anywhere – or maybe I won’t at all’. It’s a real big career to take on – it’s very competitive, much more so now than it has ever been, I think.
What’s your next project going to be?
I’m working on various scripts and ideas, various film-things that I’m hoping to get made this year. There’s one about a terrible hitman who is totally unsuited for the job. He goes up to Shrewsbury to kill a man and his ‘simple’ brother tags along. It’s a bit like Of Mice and Men but with a kind of dark side. It’s a dark tragedy-comedy. I’ve been enjoying working on it and hopefully it will come out soon. More writing! More films please! That’s what I want to do.
Sightseers has now been released on DVD.
