Sometimes finding the right idea for a film can be almost impossible. A never ending uphill battle of one scrapped idea after another. However, Dylan Antscherl’s The Fishman embraces the chaos and makes a splash.
The Fishman is set to premier at the ATVA’s on May 8. This is Dylan Antscherl’s first time submitting a film to the ATVA’s. When asked about the plot of the film, Antscherl said it is loose as he wanted to keep the film fun.
“Well that’s funny, it’s not really about much. I’ll probably say this a few times, the goal with the film was to have a hell of a lot of fun and hopefully for whoever’s watching it to have fun as well,” he said.
Further going into details of the plot, Antscherl discussed: “The loose plot is a love triangle, there’s a monster in there. The guy who is not the monster is usually a prick and you have this girl who’s in the middle of it. It’s not very narrative based, it’s pretty goofy.”
Taking inspiration from multiple places, the plot draws heavily from the classic character structure of early universal horror films, like Creature from the Black Lagoon.
When going into his influences Antscherl had this to say: “Last September I was talking to the Quaids [McQuaid brothers] and I wanted to make this kind of creature from the black lagoon, basically remake that ourselves – Just an excuse to make a monster movie and get in the water and have some fun with that.
“So it would have been a more throwback to universal black and white monsters from that era. Which it’s not anymore but that’s the origin of that idea.”
Its clear that Antscherl wants to entertain the audience and provide them with a good time, rather than lean into heavier subject matter.
“I wanted that feeling that when your watching it, you’re like “oh they had a lot of fun working on that.” I don’t think I would have made it if I had this heavy auteurist directorial vision. I don’t have that, I guess I have a loose leadership quality but not that kind.”
Image credit: Dylan Antscherl
Antscherl discussed how he took a different approach to the usual formula used when making The Fishman. Instead of directing everyone he let his crew do what they wanted to.
“I wanted to approach the film with letting my crew cook themselves. They are all very talented. I have Jack Cunningham behind the camera, he was helping me write and did the editing with me at the end. Kind of letting everyone bring their own qualities to it.”
His different approach to making a film lead to it changing multiple times during production. Originally starting as a throwback to universal horror, but eventually it changed into something completely different.
When asked about the original idea for the film, Antscherl discussed how he wanted to essentially remake Creature from the Black Lagoon, but because of the costume’s look, they pivoted to a film within a film narrative.
“I sat with it more and more and thought it’s so absurd that we’re trying to tell people that this is a monster, because the costume is just nowhere near that. But I thought, why don’t we lean in to that fact. So that changed the narrative to a film within a film, and we’re not trying to convince them that it’s a monster.
“It turns into more of a slasher thing, again, kind of like Phantom of the Opera almost. That was interesting for me and by the end of it was this amalgamation of all these different things that each draft of the film slowly became.”
It was clear from our discussion that Antscherl has a love and admiration for his crew and those who helped him. This was refreshing to see as he doesn’t take all the credit for .
“I’ve got the right people round me and they are just great people. They are very hardworking but also they all want a good laugh and hopefully that comes off.”
Image credit: Dylan Antscherl
One of the thrown out ideas Antscherl and his crew had was to do something similar to the interest analogue horror story, The Man in the Suit.
“When it comes to analogue horror, we will be the first generation to bring that forward. My star in The Fishman, Rowan, he’s wonderful, he’s very interested in stuff like that.”
When asked if there was any moment during the film that Antscherl wanted to discuss before the film premiers at the ATVAs, he had this to say:
“The forest bit though was really fun, lighting with the torches. I don’t think it came out as good as it looked while we were shooting, but it was the one during shooting that we thought was really cool.”
Going into the structure of the film, Antscherl discussed how the tone of the film changes frequently because of it’s collaborative production.
“The film is interesting in the way that it seems to completely change tone from scene to scene. It’s like we made six different films.
“You have this sort of classic universal horror thing, then you get this goofy romcom bit in the middle. Then there’s this night shoot in the forest that’s just lit with torches. Then you have this finale and I don’t know what the fuck that is.
“If a section doesn’t work for you then in like two, three minutes it’s going to change to something else and hopefully you’ll like that one better.”
Dylan Antscherl and his crew clearly have a passion for film making and entertaining themselves and their audience.
Click here for more coverage of this years ATVA’s submissions.
Featured image credit: Dylan Antscherl
Fourth year Film and Journalism student
Deputy editor
Contact - deputyeditor@brignews.com
