Bafflegab Productions’ Simon Barnard is at the helm of their latest production for Audible – The Conception of Terror, four modern-day retellings of M R James’ classic stories. Barnard answered a few questions from Paul Simpson…

How did the MR James project come about? When did Audible become involved?

I’d pitched the idea of doing a series of modern-day M.R. James adaptations to both Audible and the BBC previously, but there wasn’t much interest. Then – a year or two later – I was talking to Steve Gallagher about another project, and he said he’d like to write a modern-day version of Casting the Runes. We recorded it, then I went back to Audible and said ‘listen to this.’

What was your own first experience of James, and what effect did that have?

I think it was probably Lawrence Gordon Clark’s Warning to the Curious, swiftly followed by Night of the Demon, and then the books. Ever since, James has certainly coloured my idea of what horror should be. Jump scares are all well and good (in moderation), but it’s the creeping sense of dread that really stays with you.

How did you choose the writers – and did you suggest stories or leave it up to them?

Mark [Morris] I’d worked with on Blood on Satan’s Claw, so he was on the list straight away. I approached maybe a dozen other horror writers – some of them had experience in writing for audio, some hadn’t. And I left it up to them to pick a story – there are plenty to choose from – and scribble me a treatment.

How involved were you in the updating of the stories?

I think I suggested the podcast idea in A View From a Hill, as I thought it’d work nicely on audio, and I’d been listening to Cariad Lloyd’s Griefcast. And I may have also suggested the sinister residents association in Lost Hearts, which fitted in with Alexandra’s idea of setting the story in a tower block. But by and large the ideas were fairly timeless – everyone has mobile phones and drives cars, but they don’t drive the plot. The bigger challenge was how to expand each story to fill an hour.

What was the biggest challenge for you as director?

I wanted them to sound very natural, so encouraged the cast to be fairly loose with the scripts. The performances needed to be as naturalistic as possible for the scares to work, the audience need to believe in the characters. You can really hear it in Andy Nyman and Alice Lowe’s performances in A View From a Hill – it’s a story about grief, and a damaged relationship, as much as it is about ghosts.

Other than that, it was about trying to build atmosphere – so lots of whispered scenes, scared breathing, trying to encourage the actors to walk through the scenes and imagine every stage direction in real time, rather than just read the dialogue.

You’ve assembled a very strong cast for each tale, many with genre connections – were you consciously aiming for people known to the genre community?

Not really. The opposite, if anything – when casting something like The Scarifyers I always have half an eye on which actors the audience will recognise, who do tend to be ones with genre connections. But Audible’s audience is broader, so you can cast whoever you like. So my only thoughts were about who fitted the roles best.

Tom Burke, Robert Bathurst, Pearl Mackie, Andy Nyman, Alice Lowe, Anna Maxwell Martin – they were all top of my list for those roles, I could hear them saying the lines when I read the scripts. Casting is half the job, I think – if you get it right, then it makes directing very easy.

What surprised you most about the productions in studio?

Just how modern they sounded, and how well the stories stood up a century after they were written. And how much fun horror audio drama is to make!

Are there any other similar authors you’d like to apply the same contemporising treatment to?

Lots. I think that if the author wrote them for a modern audience at the time, then it’s almost closer to the author’s original intentions that you do contemporise them. Off the top of my head I’d say Dennis Wheatley, William Hope Hodgson and Lovecraft are all prime candidates.

And finally – what’s next? More James? Anything else you can discuss?

There will definitely be more James – whether it’ll be for The Conception of Terror Volume 2 I don’t know yet, we’ll see how Volume 1 does. Other than that, lots of ideas and pitches and treatments floating around, but nothing I can talk about. Clue: one of the authors I mentioned in my previous answer might feature..!

 

The Conception of Terror vol. 1 is out now from Audible