Matthew Patrick — Two Shots Ahead: A Director's Commentary
I was hired to direct Hider in the House after pitching the producers how I’d like to make the movie. I rewrote the script over 20 times, with four different writers to get it the way I wanted it. Two months later, we were shooting.
The film was originally written as a slasher picture, but I changed it into a psychological thriller. Earlier versions of the script had the Hider character, Tom Sykes, much crueler, and I wanted the character to be more sympathetic. All his violence was almost unintended; he’s really a good person, kinda like a Frankenstein. His hands are too big and too strong. He can lose control, but tries as best he can to rein himself in. He wants to love and to be loved, but the only fractured love he received was from his violent and abusive parents. Consequently, when Tom was 13, in a momentary lapse of reason, he burnt his house down, killing his parents. Later he deeply regrets it, but was then institutionalized for many years. For the film, I used Gary Busey as the Hider Tom Sykes, and Gary’s son Jake Busey, in his first role, portrayed Sykes as a young man.
I always have a plan, a vision of how I want a scene to be shot, and have a shot list I keep to myself. I once met with David Lynch, and he told me, “As a director, you should always be two shots ahead of the rest of the crew. Not only know your next shot, but the one after that, too.” That was an extremely useful tip, in keeping the production moving at a clip. I did storyboard part of it, but in the end hardly used that. We would read through the scene before, and discuss the dialogue together, so by the time we went to shoot I could let the scene unfold in an organic way. I’d set the actors free, and I was also free to be inspired by an actor’s delivery, by a camera movement, or by the lighting.
Before Hider, while in college, I made Triptych, a short film that won a Student Academy Award® from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the Experimental/Alternative category. After undergrad, I went to the American Film Institute as a director, where I made the half-hour short film, Graffiti, which is entirely visual, without any dialogue. AFI brought in many great filmmakers, including Martin Scorsese, David Lean, and Peter Weir. Robert Wise, who directed West Side Story, was the head of the school during my time there. We went over [Graffiti] for two days, analyzing it scene by scene. The end result was a visually unique movie. It was nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Live Action Short Film, and it also won gold medals at the Torino, San Francisco, and Bilbao International Film Festivals.
I followed that with my independent feature Trapped, which took years to make. It’s a story about two people who are trapped underground, and they’re slowly starving. At the beginning of the film, the main actor, Julio Torresoto, weighed 200 lbs. Over the course of filming, I’d wait for him to lose weight before shooting the next scenes. Within 10 months, he weighed an amazing 120 lbs. Then a few months later, he picked up weight again so I was able to go back and shoot more scenes when he was at his middle weight. His transformations were so drastic that people wondered if I switched actors in the middle of production.
I met Gary Busey after he had been nominated for an Academy Award® for The Buddy Holly Story. Gary is quite a character, quite the beast — I love him. He may be the most talented actor I ever worked with, before he had his motorcycle accident. I would say, “Let's do another take,” and he’d come up with something good, something different. He was so spontaneous, he didn’t over-study the script, you know? One day he came in and asked, “Hey, what are we shooting today? Do I get to kill Rita?” And so, yeah, he was very loose while being very able. He always delivered, and always delivered more than I’d expect. It’s a great thing when an actor has figured his character out so well that they surprise you with discoveries of their own.
On the other hand, Mimi Rogers, who is extremely talented and great to work with, had everything memorized and figured out in advance. Yet she remained flexible enough to make changes on the set. She could respond to Gary, and they worked very well together. You know, as long as I get the results I want, I don't care how they get there.
So the plot goes: First you see the character in his isolated, loveless life. Then you see a family of four that moves into their suburban dream house, and they have love and warmth together. The Hider, who has always yearned to have a family like that, watches them. It is a painful and desperate dream. He creates a secret room in the attic so he can spy on them, be closer to them. The Hider character is motivated by his desire for love but what he’s doing is violating boundaries — boundaries he doesn’t even know he’s violating.
Gary really understood the character, because Gary himself, you know, he’s famous for being very, very difficult, possibly due to working with macho directors who try to control him and shout a lot on set. I’m gentle. I don’t. I handled Gary with intelligence and trust — and often in whispers. I trusted Gary, and he began to trust me. So, during the shooting of a scene I could saunter over to Gary and whisper in his ear, “Leave the planet.” And you can see the results, especially in the scene where he is talking about burning his parents to death. Gary is completely zoned out — he has left the planet!
I wanted the Hider character to be realistic, so I gave the script to a highly regarded psychologist, who went over it for me. I also asked Gary to go see him, but Gary refused. He was afraid. When I finally convinced him to go, he came back with a smile on his face. He said that the Hider’s psychological makeup is just like him; he called [Hider] an “N.A.R. Film” — No Acting Required.
We had a scene where the Hider, who’s never driven before, has to get rid of a van. So Gary gets in the van, and starts driving, but suddenly swerves into the other lane on purpose with other cars coming towards him. It was incredibly wild, because we didn’t put our cars there to do it. He was facing the public. When a school bus came our way, he swerved right in front of it. It was insane. But, the worst of it was that the camera person missed it! Gary comes up with things like that all the time. Dangerous. He would surprise me. Yeah, he’s a dangerous guy. Perfect for the film.
But like I said, I wanted Hider in the House to be a thriller and not a horror picture, and wanted it to have the layers and complexity of a dramatic film. I wanted the film to reveal the effects that an abusive family can have on a child, and how that abuse can be passed down through the generations.
The shoot for Hider was 40 days long, and went smoothly. Unfortunately, five days after we finished shooting, Gary had an accident on his motorcycle. He smashed his head on a curb, and wasn’t wearing a helmet. It looked like he wouldn’t make it. I edited for five months, wondering if I’d ever see him again. In fact, I was the first one to see Gary after he came out of the hospital. It was good timing, as we needed him for additional dialogue recording.
Gary told me stories about how he saw a 10-foot demon hovering behind him. He told me how he would go into another patient’s room, and gently hold the hand of an old lady. [After an extended time in the hospital] Gary had finally reached his breaking point, and he got violent and tried to bust out. He’s fierce and had to be put into another ward with locked doors.
After his near-fatal accident, Gary was left with serious brain damage, and was never the same again. He lost the skills and spirit that made him such a uniquely talented actor. It’s a real tragedy. But I am proud of him. And his role in the film is, in my opinion, one of his best roles ever.