[Editorial] Interview with Robbie Banfitch Writer and Director of The Outwaters (2022)

The Outwaters is a rare found-footage film, both beautiful and brutally wild at times. I had the privilege of grabbing some of writer/director Robbie Banfitch’s time last week, on the day The Outwaters was due in American cinemas.

Having watched Robbie’s Gay Pumpkin Carving Tutorial, I had to ask what on Earth took him from doing daft shorts on YouTube to this full-scale loopy film that’s the complete opposite of humour. “I always wanted to make feature films,” he said. “The YouTube era was just for fun. I love Between Two Ferns and really awkward comedy, and I have plenty of friends, so that was just a good way to have fun. It wasn’t acting, really, but good to practise improv, for sure. Otherwise, just playing around.”

LISTEN TO OUR HORROR PODCAST!

Onto a more serious topic: as The Outwaters was set in the desert, I asked Robbie about the logistics of making a film in the middle of nowhere. “Come prepared, with food and water: that’s about it,” he said. “I just tried to prepare physically to have creature comforts out there. Some of the nights we camped, some nights, we had an Airbnb or a motel. I just tried to plan as best I could, though sometimes it failed.”

So it wasn’t quite as “middle of nowhere” as it seemed, then? “Oh it was pretty middle of nowhere,” Robbie acknowledged. “When we were out there, there was nothing around. If there was an accident, it would have taken a while to get help. But, you know: anywhere in the country, you can drive out of where you are and be somewhere within a couple of hours or less.”

The cast of The Outwaters is largely unknown. I had assumed they were friends of Robbie’s and asked whether that was right. “Yeah, they’re like my besties,” he said.

The cast and their characters all had the same first names as each other; I asked Robbie if that was inspired by The Blair Witch Project. “Yeah,” he said, “but I think in The Blair Witch Project, they used their full names. This was just a practical thing: I didn’t want to have to worry about remembering fake names.”

This led me, naturally, to asking about his film inspirations: “The original Blair Witch Project,” Robbie said with a nod. “Terence Mallick in general; I love how he explores in his films, especially the last few. Willow Creek, another found footage film which I really adore. And Event Horizon; the video log scene, if you recall?”

Ghouls reviewer, Amber T had wondered whether The Dyatlov Pass Incident might have been amongst Robbie’s influences. “I don’t know much about that incident,” Robbie said, “though I do have a vague sense of it and can see why people would say that. I’ve always loved a mysterious disappearance, like the Roanoke Colony.”

Talking about found footage… I’d had this funny idea and had to put it to Robbie. I asked him whether he’d ever thought of making a little film and leaving it somewhere, to see if he might be able to start an urban legend. “I don’t think I’d ever do that because then I wouldn’t have the film anymore,” he said, “but it is a real artistic idea. I could make something small, maybe a piece of this movie and leave it in a mailbox somewhere.”

I’d read that Card 0 was going to be released separately. “Card 0 and File VL-624 are two companion pieces to The Outwaters,” Robbie said, “and they will be available definitely on the BluRay and likely to be streaming at some point.”

I wasn’t sure if this was an ignorant question, but I hadn’t come across the word “outwaters” until the film was in the pipeline: I asked Robbie if it meant something in itself. “It’s not a real word,” Robbie said, “except I found out after I made the movie that it is a last name, so there are a lot of people with the last name Outwater who are going ‘what is going on right now? Why am I getting notifications?’ I created the word from my love of the word ‘outland’ or ‘outlands’, because I’m an ocean boy, so I thought ‘outwaters’ would be a cool word, and what a great film title it would be. And that’s actually where the story comes from: from the word.”

The Outwaters featured a group of five donkeys now and then, and – having watched the film not long after Triangle of Sadness and Banshees of Inisherin – I kept expecting at least one of them to die. But no! So how come whatever was terrorizing our main characters didn’t go for them too? “Those donkeys are pretty mysterious,” Robbie said with a smile. “Tried to get really great performances from them, but some of them were difficult. Who knows!”

RELATED ARTICLES

---

---