Horror Favourites – Luke Sparke

The race is on to save the planet in Occupation Rainfall, an epic sci-fi action adventure directed by Luke Sparke who we managed to grab a few minutes with to talk horror.

Featuring an all-star cast including Jason Isaacs (Harry Potter franchise, Star Trek: Discovery), Temuera Morrison (Star Wars universe, incl. The Mandalorian) and Ken Jeong (The Hangover) the movie takes place after a devastating intergalactic invasion of Earth when desperate human survivors and renegade aliens are struggling to fight back against the intergalactic threat in a desperate ground war.

With the alien invaders hell-bent on making Earth their new home, the fragile resistance uncovers a terrifying plot that could see the war come to a decisive end, finishing off mankind for good…

Fully-realised with stunning visual effects Occupation Rainfall thrills from the get-go, exploding out of the gate with hard-hitting action, blistering aerial dogfights, an array of alien creatures, and a hilarious double act between Ken Jeong and Jason Isaacs playing a movie-obsessed alien.

From the VFX team behind The Last Jedi and Blade Runner 2049, Occupation Rainfall is directed by Luke Sparke and stars Jason Isaacs, Temuera Morrison, Ken Jeong, Daniel Gillies (The Vampire Diaries), Dan Ewing (Love and Monsters), Jet Tranter (Thor: Ragnarok) and Mark Coles Smith (Picnic at Hanging Rock), in an explosive sci-fi extravaganza that grips from start to thrilling finish.

Below Occupation Rainfall director Luke Sparke talks about the horror movie he loves the most:

“Would you count Jaws as a horror movie? That would probably be my top. It made me scared of sharks forever. I couldn’t go to the beach, and I live on the Gold Coast and I thought I’d never go to the beach again after watching that movie!

I think I saw it, inappropriately for my age, I probably saw it when I was like five or six years old. I love Spielberg and I love the filmmaking aspects of it, but the horror aspect of it is what touched me on a primal level, which is what you want to do with a horror film. I love sharks, I’m a huge advocate for sharks and think they’re beautiful creatures, but just the sense of the unknown in the water is what Spielberg captured really well and what people have been trying to capture ever since in shark movies. But Jaws is the best.

I grew up in Newcastle, near Sydney but it’s still near the beach, Australia’s surrounded by beaches, and I surfed a lot even though I was scared of sharks. That was until I got taken out by a wave at a place called Port Macquarie. As I came up a tiger shark swam right past me. Flashbacks from Jaws came to my head and I can’t remember how I got back to the beach but next thing I know I’m standing there on the beach and I don’t even remember how I got there. They went out and they closed the beach and chased it away, but it brought me back to that feeling from the film and the sense of the unknown and being eaten alive. I think it’s just horrible… a horrible thought!

Also, the stories of the behind-the-scenes, the idea of what Spielberg was planning to do compared to how it came out. It just worked for the best because you don’t see the shark very much, and that’s what’s scary. When you go to the beach, or the water, or diving in the reef somewhere… it makes me scared just thinking about right now out and I think that’s what a good horror movie should do.”

Signature Entertainment presents Occupation Rainfall in Cinemas and on Digital now