From Small Town Sweden to ‘Slingshot’: How Mikael Håfström Thrillers Became Internationally Recognized
The Director of ‘1408’, ‘The Rite’ and his newest film, ‘Slingshot’ teaches a masterclass on how to put psychology into psychological thrillers.
Certain filmmakers can become the one-and-only voice for their entire country, making their name synonymous with wherever they call home. When audiences think of Swedish filmmakers, it’s easy to immediately gravitate towards Bergman, or perhaps, in more recent years, Lasse Hallström or Ruben Östlund.
“Everyone tried to be the new Bergman, you can’t know how awful that was”. As director Mikael Håfström reflects on a certain period in Swedish cinema, there’s a glint of both humor and generational frustration on his face. “We had all these Bergman clones, and everybody tried to be the new Bergman, with these realistic dramas, and there were so many f**king bad movies made by Swedish directors.” He laughs.
The frustration in his statement comes from the fact that “Hollywood” Håfström was influenced by the early American blockbusters, and at this point in his career, has worked with the mega-talents of John Cusack, and Samuel L. Jackson in the Stephen King ghost story ‘1408’, and Anthony Hopkins in the criminally underrated exorcism flick, ‘The Rite’. Håfström has made a name for himself in another ouvre altogether. “I saw ‘Jaws’ when I was young, and really fell in love with the whole movie making thing. I come very much from the American influence of the 70s. That was my film school”. That Hollywood system inspired Håfström and many like him across the world to make the long trek to L.A., and he prides himself on being a part of the first truly global generation when it comes to Scandinavian filmmakers.
“When Bergman lost his grip on Swedish cultural life, younger filmmakers like myself and others came around, and now it's a much bigger spectra of horror or action movies and all kinds of local comedies. In the last 20 years or so, it's exploded, and with the streamers now you can see a lot more Scandinavian content.
Håfström’s newest thriller, ‘Slingshot’ features many of the filmmaker's staples. Once again, the director finds himself with an absolutely stellar cast, most notably the trio that carry the film in Lawrence Fishburn, Oscar-winner Casey Affleck and Tomer Capone, best known for his work in the mega-hit ‘The Boys’. Slingshot follows Affleck’s character, John, an astronaut who, due to the heavy medication required for sleeping during stasis, struggles to maintain his grip on reality during a mission to Saturn's moon, Titan. In very typical Håfström fashion, the thriller examines what is reality and what is a frightening fabrication of the mind.
When asked why these stories have seemed to attract him before, Håfström gives a very straight forward response: “Because it scares me”.
“I think that's a scary thing that we [could] lose our grip on reality. That's a very scary thing. Like Cusack's character in 1408, for instance, is that the hotel room from hell? Or is that the story about a guy slowly going insane? You can see it in different ways. But I think all of us are scared of losing our sh*t, or suddenly realizing that that we don't really understand the world around us, so a lot of these films have this theme. Obviously Slingshot embraced that”.
Håfström embraces a palpable cinematic solitude as well, much like the aforementioned main character of 1408, Affleck’s character in Slingshot feels very much alone, and that isolation is a Håfström trademark the director uses beautifully. It often puts the audience right next to the protagonist and makes it feel like only the two of you are going through this horrific journey together. “I think it goes back to when I read this book in the 70s, by a guy named [Robert] Kolker called ‘A Cinema of Loneliness.’ It's about films like ‘Taxi Driver’, for instance, where Travis lives in complete isolation. That’s something I've always been very interested and fascinated by.”
The psychology session between us didn’t end with that part of the interview either, as this writer addresses a prominent trend in recent thriller and horror films where the subtext always points to a real life trauma. Films like ‘Get Out’ or ‘The Babadook’ can address systematic racial injustice or depression, because modern directors realize the real horror is the emotional wounds that inflict us all.
Håfström gravitates towards family trauma; “There's something interesting in that” he easily admits. That trend continues in Slingshot with Affleck’s John as a prominent background character. “You know, we are who we are because of our background. Obviously those first years, and our relationship to our parents makes a huge impact on us. We all have complicated relationships to our past, so that's something I think is important”.
It’s an aspect Håfström has used extremely well in characters like Father Michael Kovak (Colin O’Donoghue) in The Rite, and while Håfström might not be responsible for the scripts, its something he and his screenwriters agree can create a much more fleshed out character, and a much more poignant thriller, much like Slingshot. That doesn’t mean he uses it as a crutch, however. “Can I make a film without that?” he asks himself, rhetorically. “Sure I can, but I think if you can bring that in it makes the main character more layered and interesting, and I think that's a good thing”.