THE CORRIDOR IN THE CORRIDOR

Foreword: the following entry is meant to be read as a companion piece to THE CORRIDOR and contains a few mild-spoilers. 

During the process of taking THE CORRIDOR around to film festivals and showing it to audiences, I learned very early on that my favourite part of the Q&A session was always when the conversation would inevitably turn to “So, what exactly is ‘the corridor’?”

We, the cast, along with our director Evan Kelly, and our writer Josh MacDonald were fortunate enough to have five days of rehearsals before we started shooting THE CORRIDOR. A lot of questions were answered, and a lot of the relationships were established. One afternoon though, Evan asked us all what we thought the corridor was. He and Josh allowed us to sputter on for a few minutes each, without applauding or disproving any theories. Evan said “Interesting”, and that was the last discussion we had.

We were never given the answer (which I’m thankful for), but instead were left to find our own fear of, and beauty within “the corridor”.

What I’d like to do today, is offer up my own interpretation of the corridor, not as any sort of definitive answer, but instead to start up a conversation among those of you who’ve seen the film, and offer up your own meaning…

One substantial ingredient to my theory comes from a seemingly silly internet video called “We Are All Connected” by Symphony of Science. Symphony of Science takes videos of famous quantum physicists (ie. Carl Sagan and Neil Tyson Degrasse) talking about many of the universe’s wonders, and they auto-tune their voices and add music to them. See below:

Pretty darn awesome, eh?

Aside from being fairly catchy, there are also some really staggering facts and theories lobbed around in there. The line that stuck with me the most, however, was Carl Sagan’s simple explanation for everything: “We are a way for the cosmos to know itself“.

In the film, David Patrick Flemming‘s character Chris says of the corridor “It’s a probe. It’s seeking.”

For me, once I combined these two pieces of information, I started to view the corridor as an evaluation process. This was the universe’s way of “checking in”, by sending this probe and seeing who it really was, as a sentient being.

The corridor connects those who connect with it (ie. Ev, played by Jim Gilbert, sitting on the snowmobile, hearing conversations in the airplane), it also intensifies their desires and their thoughts, illuminating their primal instincts, showing their true selves so that they can be judged by the universe.

Once it saw the truth (or at least the truth amongst these five men): the pain they caused each other, the jealousy, the unhappiness, it didn’t like what it was seeing and decided to do away with them, in an act of disgust.

The probe moved forward, and would continue to move forward, towards the city, until it could find something in itself that it found to be admirable. It was Tyler’s (played by Stephen Chambers) sacrifice at the end of the film that the corridor AKA the universe found to be noble, and as a result, it stopped seeking.

Are you still with me? I feel like I may have scared a few of you off.

Now as I said, this is in no way a definitive answer, and as we learned a few days ago with Matt Groening revealing that the Springfield from THE SIMPSONS is in Oregon, definitive answers are no fun.

Now that I’ve shown you mine, please show me your theories of what exactly the corridor from THE CORRIDOR is…

THE CORRIDOR is available now on Video On Demand in Canada via Bell VOD, iTunes, Sony, Xbox, Cogeco, MTS, Rogers, SaskTel, Shaw VOD, Telus, VCC, Videotron, Google, RODO and in America on IFC On Demand, iTunes and others.

THE CORRIDOR IN CANADA

The “long road” to film distribution, when it comes to independent filmmaking, can sometimes feel like a transcontinental flight, and this is certainly one of those cases.

After two years of doing the rounds at some of the globe’s premiere genre film festivals, I am thrilled (thrilled, I tells ya!) to announce that THE CORRIDOR, the feature film in which I have a lead role, is now available to my fellow countrymen here in Canada (also now in the USA), through various Video On Demand services…

Available in Canada via  iTunes, Sony (PS3), Xbox, Bell VOD, Cogeco, MTS, Rogers, SaskTel, Shaw VOD, Telus, VCC, Videotron, Google, RODO.

I am damn proud of this film, which can be described as THE BIG CHILL meets THE THING, so I hope that you’ll give our modestly-budgeted, overly-ambitious film, a chance. This is probably what it feels like to have a child go off to school for the first time. Be nice to my child, my slightly-twisted, sci-fi/drama hybrid child.

A quick round-up of THE CORRIDOR’s reviews, stolen from Matt Singer at IndieWire:

Ryland Aldrich, Twitch:
“A taut thriller that wraps the audience in a blanket of paranoia without falling victim to the cliches that plague so many cabin-in-the-woods horrors.”

Scott Weinberg, FEARnet:
“‘The Corridor’ may borrow themes and ideas from a handful of disparate sources, but in the end it all comes together with care and craftsmanship, and the result is one of the coolest Canadian chillers in years.”

James McCormick, The Criterion Cast:
“This is definitely a horror film that should be watched with the lights low, with a few friends that you would hopefully go away to a cabin in the woods and not kill.”

Travis Keune, We Are Movie Geeks:
“Seamlessly blends human drama with science fiction, psychological and visceral horror, and even a touch of metaphysical philosophy for one of the more mesmerizing but accessibly cerebral films I’ve seen in years.”

Cole Abaius, Film School Rejects:
“The story then goes off the deep end, but only slightly off the rails.”

Please let me know what you think of the film, if you catch it!

Update – April 9, 2012: THE CORRIDOR was iTunes’ #1 Horror film rental of the past week! I’m trying to play it cool right now, but there’s no way that’s happening.