There's Something In The Barn

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0:33Back to school season can be tough on parents, but choosing a snack you and your kids can both get behind doesn't have to be. Stock up on Welch's Fruit Snacks, made with whole fruit, and now made with no artificial dyes. It's a snack kids already love, and one you can feel good about giving them. Go back to school with Welch's Fruit Snacks, now made with no artificial dyes.

1:12Ho, ho, ho, hello and welcome back to Bah Humbug, the Christmas movie podcast that believes that elves at this time of year should be doing one of two things. They should either be A, making toys, or B, helping ring bearers. They should not be hanging around in agricultural outbuildings and killing people. Hey, it's a controversial position, but that's where I stand. Hello everybody, I'm Hel Nohara and I am once again your host for another episode of Fah Humbug looking at the very best Christmas movies of the year. And today we are going to be talking about There's Something in the Barn, a Christmas movie inspired by old Norwegian legends about barn elves, not to be confused with barn owls which are a lot cuddlier and nicer and joining me to talk about it today I'm delighted to have with me Tom Beasley who is a fantastic film journalist he's worked for the likes of Digital Fix, Yahoo, I don't even know who else, everyone you've got your own podcast all about Waterloo Road which is an incredible achievement.

2:15Please welcome Tom how you doing? Hello not too bad oh I'm glad to get the Waterloo Road podcast in there for a shout out maybe the three people who are listening to this who have also seen waterly road might come over i i just how many episodes have you have you covered now of that show i i think i uploaded the 170 somethingth episode of the of the old show and then there's been like 15 episodes of the new version of it oh wow so we're well over 200 episodes i think this is coming up on sort of supernatural territory this is that is that is a huge commitment and it has the the same cultural impact.

2:52Hey, that's offensive. To one of those shows. You decide which. Yeah, that's probably not unfair. But look, before Tom and I start to talk about There's Something in the Barn, I was very lucky recently to talk to the director of the film, Magnus Martins, who was able to fill me in on the very real legend behind this film. It is not just made up for Hollywood. This is a real legend that people believe in, in Norway, they will put out food for the barn elves every Christmas. So here's Magnus. Enjoy.

3:30So welcome to Bahamburg, Magnus Martens. How are you doing? How are you feeling? I'm good. Thank you. I'm looking forward to Christmas. We have a new movie out and that's very, very exciting. So I feel good. Very happy. Awesome. And this is, this is obviously There's Something in the Barn. I've already seen it on the big screen, thankfully. I've really, really enjoyed it. I'm planning to watch it again online very soon. But, but yeah, it was, it was a little bit unexpected. So tell me, I guess, first of all, the premise of the movie is obviously an American family encounters a Norwegian barn elf.

4:06What, what can you tell me about these legends? Is this something that is a generally, you know, discussed thing in Norway? Oh, the barn elves, absolutely. This goes a long way back. This is part of our Christmas tradition, and tradition generally, that there are elves in the barn. And the thing, obviously, is that the barn elves themselves, they are not humans. They are creatures, and they can be very helpful, you know, helping the humans at the farm. But they also have certain rules that because they're very, very old-fashioned, obviously, you know, traditional and old-fashioned. They don't like changes to the farm or, you know, anything like that.

4:51So they tend to be a bit grumpy as well, just like Norwegians generally. We are a bit grumpy.

5:01So if he gets annoyed, then he can start doing pranks and things like that just to, you know, small revenge, basically. So we took it, you know, another level to see, okay, you know, okay, he's grumpy. What if he gets really, really angry? And we, you know, come up with some even more specific rules that are being broken. What will happen then? But, you know, we have a lot of Christmas songs about the barn elves and, you know, upholds cards and illustrations and everything. So it's very, very deep with us. But there was never a movie about it. So we felt like this is really low hanging fruit. Why has nobody made a film about, you know, Barnabh before?

5:47Because it just feels like, okay, we can have so much fun with it. And everybody, at least in Norway, we know what it is. So that was sort of the starting point for the whole film. Yeah. I have to say, I mean, I feel like in recent years, the kind of Christmas horror, I guess, has really stepped up a gear. I mean, you know, obviously there have been a few in the past. There have been some great ones, but it feels like, you know, with, I don't know, going back to rare exports, I guess that's more than 10 years ago now. But recently there's been an absolute explosion. Every year seems to have three or four really interesting Christmas horror ideas.

6:26But yeah, this one, this one, I just, I'd never come across the premise before. No, but I think also there is something about Scandinavian mythology that I feel like reads very well abroad. We had the trolls, for instance, that the trolls did pretty good. So I think there might be sort of like an interest also for automatically interest for Scandinavian mythology and creatures. And to be honest, you know, elves themselves, they, you know, they, lots of different countries have their own version of elves, obviously. But there is something very Christmassy about, you know, a small guy with a red pointy hat and a beard.

7:13Looks a little bit like Santa Claus, but not quite. Not quite. Very much not quite in this film. And also, of course, I mean, you know, in terms of an interesting setting for a Christmas movie, we actually don't get that many in this country that were set in Scandinavia at all. But it's the most Christmassy looking place to us. I mean, this is where kind of all our visions of Christmas come from. And we have to pretend like it snows in London for all our native films, which is just not the case. It is true. It is true. I mean, I have to say that when we were filming, because we went to Norway, obviously, for all the exteriors, but when we came there, there was no snow.

7:53So, yeah, we didn't know what to do. I mean, this was the whole point. You know, with Christmas, we love snow. I mean, you know, we're going to this beautiful place, and, you know, there's no snow, and we talk to people, and they always say that, okay, normally there will be snow, but there's nothing like normal anymore. That's the thing. So we had, we had actually, we actually had to drive a lot of, you know, truckloads of snow from the mountains and onto this valley on this, you know, this little street and the farm, but eventually the snow came. So it was super cool. It was minus 25 degrees every day we were filming.

8:31So that's, I think, I think it's possible to see on screen that it's super cold, but yes, I mean, I also feel like, you know, Christmas in many ways are very, very Scandinavian. I mean, also, you know, Norway and Finland, we are arguing about where does Santa Claus really live? And the Finns, you know, they claim he lives in Finland. We claim he lives in Norway. He might be living on the North Pole. We don't know. So, and obviously, you know, Christmas movies, they should have snow and, you know, that winter for sure. I think we, you know, it feels like we were able to achieve that in many ways.

9:13I feel like, you know, and it absolutely does help a lot, especially when you're dealing with, you know, a horror. I mean, this is horror comedy, but, you know, have a horror element and then have this beautiful landscape on top of that. I think it's a nice contrast. And, you know, Blood always looks very good on White Snow. Very good. Absolutely. I was on set of a film called 30 Days of Night, which was a vampire movie. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and just, it was spectacular looking. You know, it was so much fun to see that. So, but yeah, what's it like then filming in minus, what was that, minus 25 degrees?

9:51I mean, I guess Norwegian crews are maybe more used to it than, again, a British crew might be, but that's got to be tough. I mean, you have no idea how tough it is. First of all, equipment breakdown. that's that's one thing uh everything is so much slower if you're moving you know camera you have to move people you have to move equipment you don't necessarily have to move things very very far but moving in snow is very you know it's more time consuming it's heavier and when you have the cold on top of that people do get exhausted you know faster at the same time though also if you know i always liked filming in snow and cold weather because i don't know there's something about a Norwegian mentality where you're not supposed to enjoy anything before you have struggled a little bit.

10:41Right. That sits very, very much in our, you know, in our whole sort of mentality from, you know, it's actually pretty religious back in the day. And so I have a little bit of that when I'm working in cold and snow. When we're done for the day, it feels so good to be inside and, you know, in front of the fireplace or whatever have a glass of red wine and okay we did it but also you can you know we we try to because when it's so cold you have to put the actors inside between takes and sometimes they would just plainly refuse to come out again because it was so cold but at some point also i think you know especially martin martin star he realized that okay maybe i can use this somehow because it you know i said after attack okay go inside get warm uh and he's i just want to stay out there because you know my beard and my mustache is freezing and i have snot in my nose and that's also freezing that looks pretty cool let's do that so it's just yeah we were just staying out there so we could use it for something fun yeah yeah yeah that is amazing so so tell me about you know your cast i mean tell me about martin and the rest um was it always going to be for example an american family coming in or was that something that sort of took a little time to come to it actually took a little time to get into we had an earlier version of the script where it was a norwegian family but that wasn't so funny because i mean yes you had to do like a city family kind of thing that you know came to the countryside of the farm and all that but the humor weren't the same and i you know at one point we just realized that if the barn elf has very specific rules like no changes to the farm, no bright modern lights, no loud sounds, what more fun could it be than an American family?

12:34Sick. Who have no idea about the history of the Barnard, nothing like that. They have their own sort of ideas about what Scandinavians and Norwegians are. So we could play a lot of fun with that as well. and they are noisy as hell. So we felt that that was perfect. And then, you know, obviously that added a lot of sort of cultural differences, type of comedy as well. How Americans see Norwegians in this particular instance, but it's Scandinavians generally, I think, and how we see them. And it has played really well in the States as well. So it feels like they, I didn't realise, but they actually have this ability to laugh at themselves.

13:24I didn't really think they had, but I do. I think something has changed the last five, six, seven years, I think. Yeah, I think so. And how about Martin specifically? Because I feel like he's been in a lot of kind of pure comedy roles rather than this like kind of hybrid genre. It is a hybrid, but his role obviously is much more comedical than anything else here as well. Sort of playing this naive, well-meaning dad, very much in a tradition of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. That was sort of, I think that's pretty obvious. But I always felt like he had sort of this effortless way of doing comedy.

14:05That it doesn't look like comedy, but it's just there somehow. So I always wanted Martin for this role. And he also has a little bit of a relationship with Norway. He has a cousin who lives in Oslo. So at the premiere, when Martin could not be there because of the actor strike, his cousin was still there. So I took him up on stage. And so he pretended he was Martin for a whole premiere night. That's amazing. It's one way to get around the strike. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was one way to do it. No, so he's been filming in Norway before. So, you know, when he had a script and he felt like, okay, this is something I really want to do.

14:46And, you know, I can spend some time in Norway. I can be in the mountains. And yeah, so everything just fell in place there. And Amrita, who I'm more not really known for any comedic roles at all. She's done a lot of Game of Thrones, very, you know, obviously dramatic series and stuff. But I knew that she's really, no, she's got funny bones. like crazy and so i mean that she could you know definitely come up with something that's really really good and she's the type of actor when she feels comfortable in the space of comedy she just gives and gives and gives and gives so you actually have to make sure to tone her down a little bit and she just gives so many ideas so a lot of her stuff is actually not in the script which is always welcoming for sure.

15:39I was going to actually ask about that because I think on Jackpot, your Joe Nesbo film, you talked a lot about having kind of worked with the cast and sort of worked out ad-libs and worked out funny bits to do. So there was a little bit of that here as well. I think you always have to do when it comes to comedy for sure. And I think maybe I did talk about something back in the day on that film as well, but that's also sort of like a genre mix of sorts. And it's hard to find a balance beforehand. You don't really know how much comedy you want versus how much suspense and horror you want. So it's always better to shoot more comedy than you actually need because you can just cut it out afterwards and try to find a balance that way.

16:26In many ways, comedy is cheap. Very often it's verbal. so it's cheaper to shoot and then if you do have more of it it's easy to take it down scale it down for sure and I think that's the way to find balance that was also a Christmas movie by the way, Jackpot yeah it was I've forgotten because I saw it 10 years or more now but I was just rereading about it this morning yeah those guys, those characters they were working on this Christmas tree factory that's right I like Christmas One of the questions I ask everyone Who comes on this podcast is about Your favourite Christmas movies, is there something That you have to watch every year Or several things that you have to watch Every year I'm very very boring In that sense, I do watch Home Alone With my kids, we have to do that That's the most boring answer in the world I do like to watch Bad Santa Just because it's a really really funny Cool, dark Christmas movie and me and my kids you know in Norway we on NRK which is basically the Norwegian BBC midday on Christmas day there is always these classic Disney cartoons right yes we always have always have to watch that obviously we do Christmas a little bit differently in Norway because we we celebrate on the 24th very important I was yeah so that's actually another question I ask everybody, which is, you know, do you have a particular Christmas tradition that, that, you know, is whether it's unique to your house or not, but certainly sort of maybe unusual compared to the sort of home alone, basic standard of Christmas traditions.

18:12I go, we go skiing on the Christmas every day or every Christmas on the 24th, uh, because we go to, I have a, I'm fortunate enough to have a cabin in the mountain because we do like snow and global warming has made it very uncertain with snow in the lower parts of Norway along the coast where I do live so we go up in the mountains and from the morning up we go skiing and we have to, you know, everything closes pretty early that day like one or two and when we've done that, go back to the cabin, then it's Christmas so that's that's uh that's that's sort of our little uh tradition because then we have already put on the foods you know we come back oh it smells christmas it smells lovely and we know whether we're ready and again you've suffered you've been outside in the cold you've done exercise exactly yes the expression in noesian is ita it means struggle before you can enjoy just like life itself right it's just like life so look I wanted to ask speaking of struggle speaking of you know pain let's talk about the horror elements of the film um because it you know it's a it's a I think sometimes a difficult thing to balance horror and comedy to balance the levels of violence that you want and the levels without the kind of losing the heart of the film and there is a lot of heart in this film as well which we should we should talk about but So, you know, was that like a very much a fine tuning process in the edit?

19:49Was that something that was, you know, worked on from the script stage? How did you balance those? Yeah, it was really from script stage because we always wanted this to be a family film and call it an entry level horror film. And we did not want to make a, you know, full blown horror movie at all. They just felt it was way more interesting to do something that was also very, very funny. And a family film was sort of what was dictating everything. And, you know, I guess there is a lot of things to say about balance in terms of, you know, being a family film. You know, how young kids could watch this.

20:30And I think there is a difference between countries for sure. And, you know, rating wise in Norway, it's 12. I think it's the same in the UK. I think it's the same in the UK. I think so, yeah. Yes. You can guess what it's in America. It's R. So you have an R-rated family film. And in Finland, it's actually, they have a different rating system. It's 16, which is crazy. But what we do see is that it works really, really well with kids around, you know, 10, 11, 12, something like that. And obviously also older kids. but they are the older ones and young adults and adults alike they're more for the comedy part i think than the horror because it's you know since we had to scale down on the horror and the shock and the blood i think an older audience is there more for the comedy whereas you know younger kids they they they find it scary but not so scary that they they also also feel it's super funny and it's okay it's scary enough the thing is i i feel like is that because we were debating this a lot uh both when we were writing and and editing because even in editing we could scale down or we could you know make it even you know more bloody and scary but we realized that kids these days they watch so much dark weird shit online that this is nothing you always you know because we you constantly worry that okay are we going overboard now is this too much for you know somebody's 12 years old but we realize it's not they they're completely fine with it and then you know kids in that age they also sort of they tend to look up for us and and look for things that they are not really allowed to see and i think you know exactly like we did when we were that actually that's what i did um and that's what my what my 13 year old kid is doing he said this is not scary but he thinks it's super cool so that the balance was all about okay family film or not we did make a sort of attempt to make it you know okay a real r-rated film not family friendly at all but we just didn't have the material for it because we had decided before and it's going to be a family film um yeah yeah i mean it feels like it's in that kind of gremlin space it's still exactly still gross things happen but not you know and that was regarded as a very very dark film when it came so and that was basically our uh templates uh national audience christmas vacation and gremlins could we sort of merge these two films into one was the thing that we were uh trying to do that's that's a good model to have um so tell me as well about that there is like as with Gremlins, actually, and with Christmas Vacation, there is also kind of the heartwarming angle.

23:32You've got the family relationships. You've got this slightly fragmented family. They're not all happy, let's say, about being in Norway. But you also have the relationship, which I find fascinating, between the younger son and the elf. It's not a simple monster story. This is kind of a friendship gone wrong in some ways. It is, and it's about misunderstandings and basically, again, sort of cultural differences. and really learning to understand that, okay, he's different. He's thinking maybe things are a little bit different, but there's absolutely some similarities. I was so interested in making and going much, much deeper in that relationship.

24:14And we had versions of the script where I think that became way too, let's call it, it was too Disney-fied in a way, those versions, where they were hanging out together and playing video games. Okay. But we had to try to, because if you write in a certain direction and then maybe you go too far, and then what you learn is that, okay, this is wrong. That is wrong. So we tried to keep it to a minimum, obviously. But it was very, very tempting to really develop that relationship much, much more. But I think at the same time, I kind of landed on something that felt like, you know, okay, we don't necessarily need more.

24:57They have an understanding of each other and who the other person is and what is important to that other person despite, you know, all their differences. So they have this mutual respect. And, you know, it's only kids who can do that. Adults. Adults start wars, you know. So it had to be through the eyes of a kid. Yeah, that makes sense. But he does make one mistake in providing that fish dish. Yes. Is this a tradition you hold with? Because it doesn't look good, I'll be honest. It doesn't look good. It doesn't taste good. It's called lutefisk. It's an old preservation method. And it smells insanely bad.

25:46and it tastes even worse. So this is something that people in Norway have been doing for hundreds of years. And that is part of Christmas tradition, all depending on where in the country you come from. So some people eat it on Christmas Eve, some people eat it at some point during Christmas or pre-Christmas. My theory is that nobody likes it. It's just cool to eat. I mean, the same thing as, you know, we also have this tradition of eating, you know, sheep's head, which is apparently the meat is really good, but you have basically a sheep's head on your plate with the ice and everything. And you just start eating it.

26:30And I'm sure it kind of, you know, looks cool in a way, but you know, this lutefisk, the fish thing. So basically, you know, it's a piece of this stock fish preserved in some weird things that really smells you know it's been preserved for ages and you add a little bit of bacon or whatever and and i think people don't like it but the bacon tastes better because the rest is so bad right okay again it's it's you know enjoyment after a struggle so yeah you can say that yeah yeah maybe maybe that's the thing yeah no but that's the thing no i i don't like it at all it's it's horrible it's really really bad no you're supposed to put on that's that's true that's what we do and we have done for many many years we put out porridge in a barn and people do it obviously still to this day even in the cities we just put it outside because traditionally there used to be barn elves in the cities as well oh right okay so there was always versions of the barn elf and the most important thing is to put out porridge on Christmas Eve.

27:40And obviously, if you do something else like this horrible fish thing, then, you know, you're not doing it right. You're upsetting certain people. Yes. Yes. And for details of that, people are going to have to watch the movie. But yeah, but yeah, sounds better safe than sorry. Well, I mean, I should I should I've kept you longer than I said I would. So I should let you go. But, you know, you have also worked on some of the biggest TV shows in the world. You've worked on things like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Luke Cage and Banshee, which is a particular favourite of one of my colleagues, I have to say.

28:10Fear the Walking Dead as well. You've also been making your own films recently. What have you got planned for coming up? What's on your to-do list for 2024? We are waiting. I mean, we were waiting for such a long time for the actor strike to be over because I was supposed to film this action thriller this fall and the strike happened and obviously perfectly fine but now it seems to be all just extreme chaos in Los Angeles and after the strike is over and so we're just scrambling and trying to figure out when can we actually start and that's also going to be yes it's a totally different film it's a it's a action trailer, but it's all set in snow and in mountains and minus 25 degrees.

29:00I don't know why, but I don't learn. You're just making life hard for yourself. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And could there be, down the line, do you think, could there be something in the barn too? I mean, will we see the elves in the big city, sort of gremlins too, style? That is the logic. I mean, because obviously also this whole, this film was very much an 80s drawback. we always wanted to make something that to show our kids this is the kind of stuff that we watched when we were kids and in that tradition the sequel you know they always go to america or to the big city obviously depending on how everything goes with you know with the film itself the only thing we know should it happen it has to be somewhere warmer it needs to be california or something California Barn Elves in California I look forward to it Well listen Thank you so much For joining us And yeah Best of luck Launching the film Cheers Thank you so much Thank you so much And have a great Christmas Get business done With the new American Express Graphite Business Cash Unlimited card With unlimited 2 % cash back On all eligible purchases Unlimited 5 % cash back On flights And prepaid hotels Book through American Express Travel Online and a flexible spending capacity that can grow with your business, you'll have the confidence to keep building.

30:23Apply today and earn a welcome offer of$1 ,500 cash back after you spend$50 ,000 in qualifying purchases on your new card within the first six months of card membership. Terms apply. Learn more at go.amex.com. This episode is brought to you by Welch's Fruit Snacks. Back-to-school season can be tough on parents, but choosing a snack you and your kids can both get behind doesn't have to be. Stock up on Welch's Fruit Snacks. made with whole fruit, and now made with no artificial dyes. It's a snack kids already love, and one you can feel good about giving them. Go back to school with Welch's Fruit Snacks, now made with no artificial dyes.

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32:03I'm Helen O 'Hara, film journalist, author, and host of Women vs. Hollywood, a podcast from the Strict Media family. We're exploring the fall and rise of women in Hollywood from the silent era to the present day and into the future. Each episode, I'm joined by three or more special guests to discuss the challenges that women face in the film industry and look at what we can do to change the picture. We've got actors, directors, producers, writers, academics, film experts, you name it, they're all here to explain what's going on in Hollywood. Search for Women vs. Hollywood now, wherever you're listening to this, and come join us.

32:43all right so tom first of all tell me what you thought of the film i had a i had a really good time with it i i had loads of fun it's sort of the first half of it is et and the second half of it is gremlins and i really vibed with that i really vibed with that yeah if that's a very good way of putting it actually because i wasn't necessarily expecting how warm it was going to be and how much uh kind of of a connection there was between i'm going to call him barney right barn elf number one, the native barn elf to this particular barn. We're going with Barney. And he's kind of like, you know, he has a little real connection with the son of the family.

33:24It's not just a, you know, a terrifying figure scuttling about in the shadows. He does kind of form a little friendship there. He does. And it's really lovely to watch it happen. I think Barney is a really well-realised character. And I'm just going to vibe with the fact we're calling him Barney. We'll just go with it. Yeah. He's played, of course, by Kiran Shah, which I should mention. And then Lucas is the little boy played by Taunus Bunner, which is a great name. Bunner. Yeah. I think Lucas is great. I love the way that Lucas genuinely wants to be friends with the barn elf. It's not even necessarily that he's afraid.