'The eeriness leaves you on the edge of your seat... and the landscape really plays a part' – actress Helen Mackay on newly released supernatural thriller set in Highlands
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Winter was closing in on north-east Caithness when filming began for Playhouse, the supernatural thriller set in and around the forbidding Freswick Castle – and Helen Mackay still shivers at the memory.
“It was Baltic, even for someone from Caithness," she recalled. "A lot of scenes are outside. We were filming very early in the morning, and the castle itself was cold as well because a lot of it was filmed down in the basement area.
“It was freezing, but that really adds to it when you watch it. It wouldn’t have worked filming it in the summer."
Playhouse is the suitably chilling story of a horror playwright, Jack Travis (played by William J Holstead), who obsesses over creating a new show in a haunted castle. It was made by brothers Toby and Fionn Watts, who set up their production company Far North Film in 2011.
Having been premiered at FrightFest: Digital Edition last August, the film has its full UK video-on-demand release today (April 16). It is already available through video-on-demand in North America and has been a major hit with cinema audiences in Russia.
The UK release is "a really proud moment" for all involved and especially for the two brothers, according to Helen, who was in the same English class as Fionn during their high school days. Although she has been based in Glasgow for 15 years, the 35-year-old actress from Thurso retains a strong connection to her native county and hopes that local people will feel a sense of ownership of the film.
She feels the Caithness landscape is such a vital element of Playhouse that it is a character in its own right.
“It is so exciting, and such a long time coming," she said. "I have worked a lot of the time throughout my career in the theatre and that’s very instant. You rehearse something and then you’re in it, and you do it and then it’s over.
“But we filmed this at the end of 2018 – it seems so far away."
"It has had over 160 screenings in cinemas in Russia and they love it, with the dark, grey landscape and how eerie it is. The reviews are brilliant. Russian actors have dubbed the parts and the feedback is that it has gone down an absolute storm, which we could never have predicted.
“I would say it’s a supernatural thriller or a kind of slow-burning modern Gothic thriller. There’s not the horror in the sense of blood and guts. It’s not one where you’re going to be throwing your popcorn over your shoulder but it’s the eeriness of it that leaves you on the edge of your seat, wondering what’s going to happen now.”
The weather wasn't the only challenge for Helen as the cameras rolled: "I had just found I was pregnant literally days before we started filming – about a week into the shoot I started having morning sickness."
Nevertheless, she felt comfortable and very much at home in the role of Jenny.
“Sometimes as an actor you play characters that are really far away from you, so you have to do a lot of work to get into the psyche of that character," Helen explained. "But with Jenny she had grown up in Caithness, she moved away and she has come back to clear out her grandmother’s house and spend a bit of time there, and then gets kind of caught up with the things that are happening in the castle.
"The connection with home is so strong at the point in her life that she’s at, and I could completely relate to that. As soon as I read the script I went, ‘Yes, I know how to play her because she is so close to me.’ I could make that naturalistic, I could make that work.
“I’ve done a lot of stage, lots of radio and little bits of filming here and there, but this is probably the biggest filming project that I’ve done and I think that’s exciting for the future."
Helen completed an HNC in Touring Theatre at North Highland College before moving to Glasgow to study BA Acting at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Theatre appearances include Miss Julie (Perth Theatre), The Belle's Stratagem (Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh), Jury Play (Grid Iron / Traverse Theatre) and Lanark (Citizens Theatre, Glasgow), while Rab C Nesbitt and DCI Banks are among her TV credits.
She has recorded numerous plays for BBC Radio 4, most recently a two-part version of Robert Louis Stevenson's Weir of Hermiston adapted by Colin MacDonald, who grew up in Wick. That was Helen's first job after giving birth to daughter Nell, who will be two in August.
“I’ve found throughout my career it’s a wee bit like Caithness is my lucky charm in a really strange way. I sometimes get offered jobs, or go in for jobs, and there is some sort of link," she said.
“When I moved away, I thought, 'I’m going to have to neutralise my accent, I’m going to be competing with all these people who are from the central belt.’ And actually I couldn’t have been more wrong, which was so lovely.
“The first job I did out of drama school was a big stage production of The Silver Darlings [based on the novel by Neil Gunn]. That kind of kicked my career off."
Helen has done some voiceover work during lockdown, and dubbed a Danish Netflix series into English, but she is acutely aware of the impact the pandemic has had on the theatre industry.
“It has been heartbreaking to watch it completely shut down," she said. "When the theatres closed their doors and everything stopped, we couldn’t ever have imagined how long it would go on for.
“And we’re not at the end yet. I think that’s the scary thing – it is going to take a long time to recover. People have had to really adapt.
“As actors we’re very robust and we’re not shy of going out and getting other jobs. That is part of our lives. But it has been a really scary time for everyone to see theatres closing down and the fear that there wouldn’t be money to open them again.
“Storytelling just goes back so far and everyone craves that. And when I read the script for Playhouse the story was so strong that I could picture it so clearly.
“I really feel that the Caithness landscape plays its own character. The landscape of Caithness really plays a part.
“And it was such a community effort. There were people coming in and dropping off home baking for us – you wouldn’t get that anywhere else. If we needed a bit of set built, somebody would volunteer to come in and do that. Lindsay Broomfield, who is from Caithness as well, was the production and costume designer on it.
“It takes such a big team to make a film, and the actors are only a tiny part of that. We filmed it for a couple of weeks and then the actors swan off, and it’s not until now that the film is coming out that we’re kind of thinking about it again – whereas for Fionn and Toby they’ve been in the edit suite, they’ve been raising money, they’ve been putting the soundtrack on it… Overall, the job that Toby and Fionn have done is just incredible.”
Helen's experience of Playhouse has left her more convinced than ever that Caithness has huge potential as a location for filmmakers, with spin-off benefits for tourism and local services.
“It blows my mind that before Playhouse the last feature that was made in Caithness was The Silver Darlings in the 1940s," she said. “I can’t quite get my head around that. The landscape adds so much to the film that I really hope people watch it and go, ‘We need to make a film there, we need to be making a drama series there,’ because it gives so much. The surroundings add so much to what you’re watching.
“It would be amazing to have production companies coming into the county and filming and it would benefit everyone.
“I hope people feel proud of it as well. There was such a community effort with people coming in and helping us out.
“I really hope that people will watch the film and say, ‘This was filmed here, this is where we live, and it’s amazing, it’s atmospheric, it’s beautiful, it’s artistic.’ And I hope they feel an ownership of it. That’s what we really want.”
It’s in my world, if that makes sense – it’s me in my natural habitat.
As for the next step in Helen's career, she said: “What comes next right now is a really difficult question because of how things are. My ambition has always been just to work and to enjoy it.”
High on her list of personal priorities, though, will be a trip home to Caithness when she can.
“I’m really proud of where I come from and I’m really sad so far that my wee girl Nell has only visited twice," Helen said. "I know she’s only tiny, but I want that to be a really important part of her upbringing because it makes you who you are.
“Everyone is going through the same thing with the pandemic. Kids are really missing out. But as soon as we can get up the road and get on the beach and get to Dunnet Forest then we’ll be there.”
In the meantime, Helen is looking forward to viewers being entertained – and unnerved – by Playhouse and its atmospheric Caithness backdrop.
“I’m really excited for this to come out and especially because it’s in my world, if that makes sense – it’s me in my natural habitat," she said. "It’s a really proud moment, and for Fionn and Toby as well. We grew up there, went away, learned some things, came back and made a film. It just shows folk what’s possible. It is really special for all of us.”
Related stories:
- Freswick feature at fantasy film festival
- Horror movie filmed at Freswick Castle in Caithness goes big in Russia
