Lowell Dean's 2024 zombie drama Die Alone follows an amnesiac boy's pursuit of finding his girlfriend. In this candid interview, the Canadian filmmaker breaks down his dystopian tragedy, how his new film differs from his past campy works like WolfCop, avoiding too many parallels with the COVID-19 pandemic, and working with The Matrix star Carrie-Anne Moss.
Listen here. The following transcript has been edited and condensed for clarity:
Hello, I am Shaurya Thapa of Borrowing Tape, and today, I'm joined by Lowell Dean, the writer and director of the 2024 survival thriller Die Alone. Welcome, Lowell. But before I get into your new film, I just want to thank you personally for directing WolfCop and its sequel, Another WolfCop. Let's just say I was a changed man after watching them. But back to Die Alone, tell me one thing because I just mentioned WolfCop. How does one jump from directing an over-the-top, campy film like that to directing something like Die Alone, which is more gritty, more realistic, and more emotional? So, changing those tones and genres, how's that experience been for you?
It's been a long road but a fun road. I loved making the WolfCop movies. I loved making Die Alone. To me, it's all kind of weirdly the same. For me, when I — not so much write, but direct a movie — I consider directing being the tone police. It's more like I have to have a tone in my head for how people talk, the sense of humor or lack thereof. For me, once I can lock in on what the tone and feeling of a movie is, it doesn't matter the genre. It could be silly, like WolfCop. It could be more earnest, like Die Alone. So, the favorite thing for me about writing and directing is getting to try different things. As much as I love WolfCop, I would not just want to make WolfCops for the rest of my life, if that makes sense.
Considering your film, the catalyst of the events in your film is an epidemic of sorts. We have seen this premise in several other zombie films or psychological fellow dystopian films. How did you try to actively avoid cliches or familiar tropes? How much is too much?
That's a good question. I mean, I can say one big thing that changed from when I was writing this, the early drafts, and we actually made it: was a real pandemic. We all lived through COVID-19. And I will say what that changed for me with this script and this making the movie is I really believe that less is more. I really believe now that we had all lived through it, like in earlier drafts, there were many scenes of them trying to figure out how to get out of the city. And then, how do they drive? Which roads are safe? How can they trust people they run into at gas stations? After COVID, it felt like not only did I not need all that, but I could be very targeted in the couple of scenes we did do. You'd get way more of an actual emotional response from people because just show one shot of a hospital, and we're all like, Oh yeah. Show one shot of people protesting and putting on masks. Like, okay, that's enough. I get it.
Were there any films that actively inspired dialogue, be it in style or substance?
Yeah, many films. It's a stew of a lot of different inspirations. The biggest ones for me, I would say, are the movie Harold and Maude and just classic apocalypse films like 28 Days Later. It's kind of hard to pinpoint, like a bunch of different ones. Another obvious Easter egg is Memento, which Carrie-Ann Moss was also in. So it's a mix of different things.
Talking about Carrie-Anne Moss because she's one of the lead actors in your film. H ow does it feel to direct the person who played Trinity in The Matrix? How is that experience for you?
It was great working with Carrie-Anne Moss. I couldn't say a bad thing. She's just wonderful. And I would say the best compliment I can give her is, yes, she obviously comes with the baggage of being like Trinity and being like many other iconic films. But the cool thing about her is once she commits to a film, she's just a person. She was very passionate about this film. She was very kind about her ambition for the project. It was easy to forget that she was like an iconic actor because she was just Carrie-Anne there, doing her best every day with the rest of us, rolling up our sleeves and making the movie.
Can you tell me a little about the shooting locations, considering that most of the film happens in this abandoned dystopia? How long did the principal photography take you for dialogue?
The film was shot around Saskatchewan, which is where I'm from, over about 24 days. The thing with this film is — like you said — there's been many apocalypse films. We tried to consider our film a post-apocalypse film. We wanted to find really beautiful landscapes and lush greenery and not make it cold, gritty, or gray. Make it actually like the planet is reclaiming itself from humanity, and maybe it's a beautiful thing. Luckily, Saskatchewan has a lot of vast beauty, and we could find locations like Katepwa, Saskatchewan, where it's a farmhouse is located, and Qu'Appelle and Qu'Appelle Valley, which is where our gas station and a few other locations were.
My final question for you is that I read somewhere that had the idea of a dialogue way before WolfCop, like before 2014. What took you over a decade to get this film on the ridge?
What took a decade was the script getting good enough and just people supporting it, supporting me. When I first wrote this, I didn't have a single credit on IMDb. No one wanted to make it. And then, you just chase the money or chase something that people want to make or chase momentum. And when it was clear that I needed to do more work on Die Alone, I quickly wrote WolfCop, and it immediately got people excited. I went down the road of making that, making the sequel, and then flirting with other projects. Then I made a wrestling horror film, Dark Match, that's coming out soon. And so, all these things were happening, but in between each of them, I'd do a little bit of work on Die Alone and then pass it around and say, "Anybody want to make this yet?" And we did get some support and interest. The company I was with, Mind's Eye. We applied to Telefilm in Canada, and they supported that. Little baby steps to get there, but it was a weird one for sure. I was just always tinkering away. And I would say the first five years, the script wasn't good enough. I'd say the last five years, it was just finding the right partners or people to be interested. And then also, three of those years were COVID. So that puts it there.
Thanks a lot, Lowell, for joining us, and best of luck with Die Alone. And as much as I'm happy for you venturing into serious gritty territory, I hope there are some more WolfCop movies on the way.
Never say never. Never say never.