Five FrightFest Facts with Callum Devlin from ‘The Weed Eaters’

New Zealand has a proud tradition of gleefully unhinged genre cinema, and The Weed Eaters looks set to earn its place among the cult favourites. The debut feature from director Callum Devlin, the film follows four friends on a New Year’s getaway that takes a grisly turn when a peculiar strain of weed unleashes a craving for human flesh. Low-budget, high-energy, and fuelled by a commitment to doing it all with a tiny crew in rural Canterbury, the result is a stoner-comedy-horror that embraces chaos and never looks back.

For Devlin, the leap into features grew out of his background in music videos and his long-standing creative collaborations. Bringing together a team of like-minded friends and partners, the shoot became as much a test of stamina and inventiveness as it was a film production. Now, after a wild premiere in New Zealand, the movie lands at FrightFest where UK audiences will get their first taste of its dry humour, messy excess, and unapologetically gross imagination.

In this Five FrightFest Facts interview, Devlin talks about how music videos opened the door to filmmaking, the Kiwi films he’d love to see grace the festival screens, and even imagines the bizarre horror his own life might inspire.

Callum Devlin, Director

1. Tell us about your film

The Weed Eaters is a gross-out stoner-comedy-horror from Aotearoa, New Zealand. Four friends go out to the countryside for a New Years trip and encounter a strain of weed that makes you crave human flesh. Bad things happen. Made for next to nothing, we essentially lived the film for four months in rural Canterbury with a crew of around 8 people. We’ve premiered at home to wild reviews from local audiences so we’re all really excited to see what the UK makes of our incredibly dry, uncomfortable humour. This is a huge deal for us, it’s our first film and first international festival so we’re all making the trip over.

2. How did you get into making movies?

I’ve sort of fallen into it through making music videos for my band Hans Pucket, which grew into a career. With my partner Annabel Kean we’ve made over 50 videos as Sports Team Films. Finnius Teppet and Alice May Connolly from Horse Bite are a writer / actor team that we’ve worked with on a few small projects and short films, and as a team we sort of convinced ourselves that making a feature was an achievable dream. We called in every favour we had, and crowdfunded enough to get us through a shoot, and it payed off. A year ago Causeway Films (The Babadook, Talk To Me) saw a rough cut of the movie and loved it, and came on board to finance the post production.

3. What films would you love to see screened at FrightFest and why?

Too many. We’ve had The Weed Eaters compared to Braindead (Peter Jackson, 1992) which I’m ashamed to admit I’ve never seen, so would love a chance to see it on the big screen. Also definitely Scarfies (Rob Sarkies, 1999), which is one of the more messed up films in the NZ stoner canon, and stars an incredibly fresh Taika Waititi. I’m also going to throw in Mr Wrong (Gaylene Preston, 1986) NZ’s first great comedy horror about a young woman and a haunted car. And could also be down for a rewatch of Housebound (Gerard Johnstone, 2014) underrated, certified kiwi banger.

 4. If you could create your own award to give at FrightFest, what would it be and why?

I would love to initiate the Callum Devlin Award for Good Conversation. It’s a secret award for anyone at the festival who strikes up a particularly good conversation with me. Prize-wise maybe we can start up an employee of the month style photo wall at the Odeon.

5. If your life was made into a horror film, what would it be called and who would play the starring role?

Okay I’ve got it. Everything is Dangerous starring Nicholas Hoult. He plays twin musicians who can’t drive, and maybe their band breaks up in the middle of a tour and the boys have to survive a rainy weekend in a spooky old English town. Kind of like Wake in Fright (1971) meets The Wicker Man (1973) meets Green Room (2015). Okay this is a good idea I’m down to make this by the way.