The Big Picture

Collider’s Perri Nemiroff sits down with the team behind The Moogai at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Shari Sebbens, Meyne Wyatt and Bella Heathcote break down the story’s journey from short film to feature film. The Moogai is about a young Aboriginal mother who starts seeing a malevolent spirit after having her second child.

Jon Bell’s feature directorial debut, The Moogai, is a boogeyman movie, but it’s one that roots itself in truth. Bell uses the horror genre to explore the Stolen Generations, children of Australian Aboriginal descent who were taken from their families by government agencies and church missions.

Adapted from his short film of the same name, The Moogai sees Shari Sebbens and Meyne Wyatt return to the roles of Sarah and Fergus, respectively. They’re a young Aboriginal couple who have their second child. Trouble is, soon after the birth of that baby, Sarah becomes convinced that she’s seeing a malevolent spirit, one she thinks is trying to take her child. While Fergus is eager to support his wife, he can’t see the entity himself, so begins to wonder, is there truly a threatening spirit in their home or is it Sarah herself putting the safety of their family at risk?

While in Park City for The Moogai’s world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, Sebbens, Wyatt and Bella Heathcote took the time to stop by the Collider interview studio brought to you by Film.io to discuss their experience making the movie. Heathcote pinpoints what keeps her coming back to the horror genre, Sebbens and Wyatt touch on the similarities and differences between the Moogai short film and feature film, and all three reveal the iconic horror franchise they’d most like to join.

Hear it all straight from Sebbens, Wyatt and Heathcote in the video at the top of this article, or you can read the interview in transcript form below.

The Moogai A young Aboriginal couple brings home their second baby. What should be a joyous time takes a sinister turn, as the baby’s mother starts seeing a malevolent spirit she is convinced is trying to take her baby. Release Date January 21, 2024 Director Jon Bell Runtime 86 minutes Writers Jon Bell

What Is ‘The Moogai’ About?
Image via Sundance

PERRI NEMIROFF: A lot of people will first learn about your movie through the festival. Shari and Meyne, I’ll give this duty to one of you because you both worked on the short film. Who wants to give everyone a brief description of The Moogai?

SHARI SEBBENS: The Moogai is, at the face of it, a genre film, a horror story about a family who are going through an extremely traumatic experience post the birth of their second child. The mother, Sarah, starts to see things and experience things that aren’t necessarily there for everyone else. That’s kind of what it seems like. It’s also an allegory for the Stolen Generations policies that dragged on through Australia’s history and is still dragging on today. But yeah, essentially, my character is a kind of high functioning, very successful, sees-what-she-wants-and-gets-it kind of girl, and for the first time in her life, she seems to be losing a bit of her mind and a sense of reality, but no one else quite believes her.

Oh, I can’t wait to dig into those details, but the first thing I wanted to ask the two of you, I get very obsessed with the idea of people finding collaborators and then having that long-time creative partnership together, and I know you had that, so can you recall the first time you met and what you saw in the other that signaled to you, “This is someone I wanna work with forever?”

SEBBENS: It actually goes back to drama school.

MEYNE WYATT: 16 years ago.

SEBBENS: 16 years ago we were at NIDA together. Really, the core of it was we were two Aboriginal students in an institute of not a lot of Aboriginal students, like we were two out of four, I think, and so we bonded over that.

WYATT: Once I graduated, we did The Sapphires, which was another film, and I think there were a couple of projects that just happened to coincide that we were in the same for, I don’t know, a span of 10 years?

SEBBENS: We were, like, peripheral but we never sort of talked to each other on screen or anything. [Laughs]

WYATT: This is actually the first time that we’ve acted one-on-one together in any project, I think. So, that was exciting. We’d been dying to work with each other in that close proximity.

Related New Trailer for THE SAPPHIRES Starring Chris O’Dowd The Sapphires movie trailer. New trailer for The Sapphires starring Chris O’Dowd, Deborah Mailman, Jessica Mauboy, Shari Sebbens, and Miranda Tapsell.

Given you knew each other but this was your first experience working one-on-one together, can you pinpoint something that the other did on set that made you stop and say, “I knew you were good, but I didn’t know you were capable of that?”

WYATT: Oh yeah, there’s a scene in the film between us two, we were at the hospital, and I think it’s very high stakes, high tension. I’m there giving my all and then Shari’s matching it but going above me, so it was good to be able to play in that domain with such high emotion and just being in awe of Shari’s talent, and being able to bring my A-game to the plate.

SEBBENS: I love that this is on video now, forever. [Laughs]

WYATT: [Laughs] I’m never gonna live this down, am I?

SEBBENS: Not at all. For me, I very rarely got to see the split or watch the monitor at all, but there was a scene where I saw Meyne in the hospital, as well — in the psych ward, actually — and the character’s bringing our eldest daughter. There was just a really kind of beautiful sense of vulnerability and terror and strength, all of those complex things and it’s like, “Oh wow.” I’ve seen him do everything, I’ve heard him talk for so many years … [Laughs]

WYATT: We were housemates at one point, too.

SEBBENS: We were housemates at one stage. We’re best friends in real life. But to actually kind of have a moment to watch him and go, “Oh, far out. That’s my brother boy and he’s friggin’ awesome.”

WYATT: And that’s on camera, too!

Bella Heathcote Can’t Stay Away From Horror
Image via Photagonist at the Collider Media Studio
 

A broad question for you about horror, Bella, because the last time you were here was for Relic, which is streaming on Shudder, so if you haven’t seen it, what are you waiting for? What keeps you coming back to the genre for more, but then can you also pinpoint something about The Moogai that signaled to you, “This will add another layer to genre storytelling?”

BELLA HEATHCOTE: Good question. It’s so funny because, obviously, I seem to do a bit of horror and I get asked about it a lot. I love horror films when they’re a vehicle for something bigger. When I was a teenager I’d watch any slasher film. I was into all of them. But now, it has to be an allegory. The thing I love about this is, it’s really dark subject matter and a dark time in Australia’s past [and] present, but the here-comes-the-airplane of the horror vehicle for that makes it really entertaining. It’s funny, I haven’t seen the film and I reread the script a couple of nights ago just to remind myself ahead of coming here, and I was like, “Man, it’s so good.” It just sucked me in and spat me out covered in tears. So, yeah, I just think it’s a really important story and I’m really excited. I’m just really proud to be involved.

Image via IFC Films

Because I love talking about horror, for each of you, what horror sub-genre scares you the most?

WYATT: I like a psychological thriller. That’s the domain where it’s not something that is a force or something in the house kind of thing. It’s going up between the ears, and I think that sub-genre is really interesting to me.

Solid choice.

SEBBENS: I like a supernatural thriller when the monster is kind of staved off-screen for as long as possible, so you get that, it’s my imagination doing much more work than what audiences are used to.

Our imagination is often way more horrifying than what we see on screen.

SEBBENS: That’s exactly right.

HEATHCOTE: That’s what I was gonna say. Damn! [Laughs] No, but it is, and the idea of the psychological horror, too, and just all the things your brain will do to fill the gaps that are often more terrifying than what’s actually on the screen.

One more broad horror question for you all. If you had the opportunity to join the iconic horror franchise of your choice, what franchise would you pick and why?

WYATT: Scream’s fun.

That’s my number one!

HEATHCOTE: Awww, that was gonna be mine! It was so big at school.

You can all pick Scream if you want.

WYATT: I think because that’s our generation. We grew up with that film coming out at the time, so that was always a fun one for me.

Image via The Weinstein Company

SEBBENS: Conjuring is one of my favorite films, but I also like just how silly it’s gotten. So I think in terms of a fun journey, it’s like, to start off with something so kind of sophisticated and then end up with Annabelle [laughs], count me in!

HEATHCOTE: Can I also say, it’s maybe not technically a series, but The Craft. I mean, they made a second one.

Oh, they did! Technically a series now.

HEATHCOTE: Because that film, the original Craft, that was iconic when I was at school.

All excellent choices right there. I will also pitch Final Destination, one of my favorite horror franchises that doesn’t get the credit it deserves.

WYATT: It’s terrifying when you get on the road and there’s wood on the back of a truck, or you’re on a plane and everyone’s looking around.

HEATHCOTE: Stop, I’m taking a flight tomorrow! [Laughs]

I always wonder, if I booked a flight and it was numbered 180, would I actually get on it? I probably would.

How ‘The Moogai’ Evolved from Short to Feature
Image via Photagonist at the Collider Media Studio
 

Shari and Meyne, having worked on the short film version of this story, is there something about your characters from the short that you knew you wanted to hold tight to and bring to the feature, but then also, what is a new layer that you were especially excited to add in the feature-length version?

SEBBENS: I think for me, it was Sarah’s deep maternal love, unconditional, deep, protective and fierce love for her children and her family, and at what lengths she’ll go to protect that. That’s what I wanted to hold on to. What was new to me was actually Jon [Bell] sort of flipping that on its head in a way, and maybe on the surface she doesn’t seem like the most maternal person. So it became a bit more complicated in that sense. A mother that wasn’t overly coddling to her children or anything like that.

I have an impossible question to ask you about that. I’ll let Meyne answer first and then we’ll circle back.

WYATT: I think in the short I really wanted to hold on to the reality and the stakes, knowing that we’re going into a genre film. We’ve got a malevolent spirit in the film, but it’s also making sure it’s keeping it grounded, I suppose, because that’s your gateway into the genre. Then I think when it came to the feature, what I liked with the character and the exploration that I could go further with was that he turned out to be a bit of a gaslighting bastard, and that was fun to play with. I relished in that opportunity.

Time for two impossible questions. First one’s for you, Bella, because there are no small roles in a movie, and it blows my mind when someone’s able to take limited screen time to support the main character’s narrative, but also make sure that their character feels like they’re whole and have history. What’s the secret sauce? How do you pull that off?

HEATHCOTE: A great director and an acting coach. That’s my secret sauce. I just have to do all the work beforehand, I think. The thing that I find the most terrifying about that, is you’re also coming onto the film, typically, once it’s already started. I feel like the new kid at school, and you’re there for maybe a week or two. It’s a brief period and you need to fit into the world. For some reason, I don’t know, maybe it’s bizarre and backwards, I feel much more responsibility when I have a small role in a film. Like, “Oh god, these guys are great and I don’t wanna be the dud that stands out.” I’m gonna stop talking about my insecurities. [Laughs]

WYATT: We’ve all got ‘em, don’t we?

SEBBENS: We’re all like, “Yep. Yep. Same.”

To follow up, because I feel like we don’t talk about acting coaches nearly enough, can you tell me something about your acting coach that you really appreciate and suits how you like to receive and apply notes?

HEATHCOTE: Her name’s Warner Loughlin, and I had worked with many other people previously, and the thing that I love about her, typically I will just use substitution. Like, my mum died when I was young and I would just flog that dead horse on every film that I could. I had a half-brother who died, and anyway, I would just use that again and again, and it’s traumatizing and not good for your psyche. And also, there’s some days when you get on set and your brain’s just like, “No, I’m not going there. I’m not going into that.” And the thing about Warner is that she has this way of creating a whole life and history for that character, and sort of like memories, there’s different lingo that she uses, that I can then put on like a coat and take off, and it feels just as authentic but at the end of the day I’m not shattered.

Such an important thing to be able to do.

Image via Photagonist at the Collider Media Studio
 

I’ll end with my other impossible question for you, Shari. What is the key to playing your character with authority, but while knowing that in the end product, she needs to spark doubt in viewers? Which you do quite well!

SEBBENS: Oh, great! We haven’t seen it. [Laughs] I think it was constantly checking in with Jon that where we were pitching her — as people are aware, filming is all out of sequence and you try and stay as close to scene order as you can — but checking with Jon every day and just actually having conversations all the time about her internal life, and what losing control feels like to her because she’s never experienced it before. I think for a lot of women it’s kind of a scary thing because we have such little of it to begin with in society. So when you fight so hard for it and then it’s being dragged away from you, it’s quite scary. That’s a great question. Thank you.

Special thanks to our 2024 partners at Sundance including presenting partner Film.io and supporting partners Pressed Juicery and DragonFly Coffee Roasters.