In Sunrise, a former cop (Alex Pettyfer) is transformed into a bloodthirsty vampire after a savage attack. Soon, he finds himself defending an Asian widower and her children from Reynolds (Guy Pearce), a brutal white supremacist. Sunrise director Andrew Baird approaches “vampirism like it’s an addiction created from great trauma. It was a way to deal with losing his family in such a horrific manner […] Then the family that ended up living in his home restores him to some form of humanity.”

Baird eschews extreme gore and bloody violence to focus on dramatic themes. “The script itself could have been interpreted in many ways. It had echoes of The Crow, Shane, and the classic Westerns [with] the Man with No Name. I just am not interested in that torture porn stuff at all. To me, it’s adolescent. It’s immature. Sunrise definitely has a very dark tone. But in the end, I hope it comes across as a catharsis. This character finds catharsis in the pain.”

Sunrise transcends the horror genre by addressing racism and xenophobia with frank realism. Baird tells us the narrative was changed from an African family in Northern Ireland to Asians in the Pacific Northwest. “It was a very hot topic. But I kind of went full on. I have no reservations about it. The more PC you are about this stuff, the more racist you are. I just think it’s a total cover. It was recommended that we change the family to an Asian family. That is the reality we’re in today. You just have to be really careful. I’m a bit of a renegade. But I hope it comes across that there’s a genuine treatment of the situations in the movie.” Read on for our complete interview with Andrew Baird.

The Potent Imagery of Sunrise
Sunrise Release Date January 19, 2024 Director Andrew Baird Runtime 1hr 24min Writers Ronan Blaney

MovieWeb: Sunrise has a unique take on vampirism. Ronan Blaney’s script doesn’t have some monstrous creature attacking you. The Red Coat’s thirst for blood is more like a disease. What intrigued you about that approach?

Andrew Baird: We approached vampirism like it’s an addiction. The addiction was created from great trauma. It was a way to deal with the great trauma of this guy losing his family in such a horrific manner. It kind of put him into this purgatory until the moment he finds this family. He’s in this purgatory of resentment, loss, and pain. Then the family that ended up living in his home restores him to some form of humanity, this kind of healthy catharsis. It’s really a metaphor for recovering from addiction.

MW: I’m not a fan of grotesque, torture porn violence à la Eli Roth. Sunrise has savage imagery, like animal carcasses, but isn’t graphic in an extreme way. Why go that route for a route for a horror film?

Andrew Baird: I interpreted Roman’s script in a very specific way. I brought a lot of my own personal points of view on things to it. The script itself could have been interpreted in many ways. It had echoes of The Crow. It had echoes of Shane, and the classic Westerns [with] the Man with No Name, it had so many different things. It could have easily been much more bloody, gory violence. Eli Roth’s a very solid filmmaker, by the way. He’s a very bloody good filmmaker, but I just am not interested in that torture porn stuff at all. To me, it’s adolescent. It’s immature. I’ve been a dad for a long time. I don’t want to go into that. I’d be more interested in exploring the sexual side than the violence. I’m going to do that actually in the next movie I’m doing.

Sunrise definitely has a very dark tone. But in the end, I hope it comes across as a catharsis. This character finds catharsis in the pain. So yeah, I had absolutely no interest and cut out a lot of moments of extreme violence and gore. I just have no interest in it whatsoever.

MW: The film’s racism, xenophobia, and white nationalism caught me by surprise. Reynolds, Guy Pearce’s character, is indicative of what we’re seeing in America. Immigrants are moving in, trying to start their own life, and they’re branded as the ‘other’ that must be extricated by any means necessary. Those scenes, especially the racial slurs, are very jarring. Talk about specifically developing that part of the story.

Andrew Baird: The racism was huge. It was also a very hot topic, you know, of how to handle it, etc. But I kind of went full on. I have no reservations about it. Because I find personally, in my experience, the more PC you are about this stuff, the more racist you are. I just think it’s a total cover. I think that, “Oh, what should I call you?” It’s all bulls**t. You can tell right away whether somebody’s being sincere or not.

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Andrew Baird: This story came out of a Northern Irish writer. It was initially set in Northern Ireland. It really was a metaphor for the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The immigrant family, I believe, was African. I know African people, a lot of Nigerians, have moved to Dublin and Ireland. Then I know African Americans, obviously from being in America. It’s a very different thing. The racism in the United States is so much more intense, because there are all different types of people here. The family was changed to an Asian family. The reason for that is it was such a hot topic. It was recommended that we change the family to an Asian family. I just wanted to tackle that. I thought it was relevant.

Andrew Baird: There’s some potent imagery with his wife. There’s hatred. There’s evil, that’s what I wanted to kind of get across pretty quick. That kind of evil, like what’s going on at the moment in the Middle East, all this insanity. This is just a movie. It’s a genre movie. But you always try and inject them with a degree of depth, layers, and a bit of weight. Because these characters have to be in situations that an audience identifies with, this evil and fear. It’s all about fear, what that can do to people, and how it can turn them into monsters.

A Horrendous Tragedy

MW: I agree with what you’re saying. But here’s the hard question. Clint Eastwood faced a lot of blowback for Gran Torino. The criticism was that he couldn’t do this if they were Jewish or Black people. Those Asian ethnic slurs. The thing that popped into my head was, could this have been Black people? Now, you just said the original script was Africans in Northern Ireland. That must have rung alarms with the studio. Was there a note to tone the racism down?

Andrew Baird: Yeah, as I said, to have had the family African American in that scenario was just too much. Particularly as a white guy dealing with an African American family that is being persecuted. It’s a no no. It’s too much of a hot topic. If I was an African, or an African American filmmaker, or even a female, a woman can be white. But if I’m transgender, even better, I’m wearing a dress, I can do whatever I can. Chop their heads off. It’s all nonsense. But that is the reality we’re in today. You just have to be really careful.

Andrew Baird: I’m a bit of a renegade. But I hope it comes across that there’s a genuine treatment of the situations in the movie. It’s not nasty, you know, as you said about the torture porn or whatever. There’s nothing nasty. There’s no kind of, what’s the word, gratuitous? It’s just genuinely a love story between these people. This guy is trying to reconnect with the love of his life. He’s lost his wife. It’s a horrendous tragedy. At one stage in the movie, she was pregnant in the script. We were like, it’s pushing it too far.

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MW: Let’s move on to the casting. Alex Pettyfer and Guy Pearce are the leads. But Crystal Yu and William Gao, who play the mother and the son, are the emotional backbone. You feel their pain of being terrorized and traumatized. Talk about your casting choices.

Andrew Baird: Reynolds was the key. It was probably the best role I’d ever read in a script. I thought it was a really powerful role. And by getting a great actor, like Guy, was going to essentially complement the Man with No Name role of Fallon (Pettyfer). Is Guy the only person that can play Reynolds? Of course not. But it requires a great actor. I don’t know another great actor in that role. Guy brings his own DNA to the movie. Alex had worked with Guy. He’s fantastic. I have a great relationship with both of them. Alex is really going to again become quite a star. He’s got everything, and I love him. We had such a collaboration. There was so much experimentation going on in the movie.

Andrew Baird: Crystal, that’s where the real casting comes in. You’re working with actors that don’t have the same catalog of work and experience as Guy, and Alex has done quite a bit of work. Crystal was on the tape. She was the only person that stood out on the tape. I think she did a terrific job. Lots of people have complimented her role. William’s done a Netflix show. He’s an artist as well. I cast him from a headshot because I’m very instinctual with casting. I kind of see what has been done before. How do they look? You can see it in their eyes. Then Riley [Chung], the little girl, was extraordinary. She was fantastic. This involved quite a bit of casting. I really try and pride myself on making sure that the company of actors all complement each other.

Andrew Baird: There was a guy, John Connors, who’s from Ireland. He’s from what they call the traveling community. The travelers in Ireland were persecuted like the African Americans in America, treated like s**t. John is extraordinary. John and Barry Keoghan worked together years ago. They’re friends. John is just as powerful as Barry, who I think is amazing. The greatest thing for me making these movies is putting these wonderful actors together. And to embody these characters and tell their stories.

MW: Let’s discuss the production design and cinematography. The movie has such an eerie atmospheric feel. Time-lapse, the use of mist, shadows, and light, the environment is central in the Pacific Northwest. Dreary rain and fog play such an important part. There’s nothing sunny or dry in the film.

Andrew Baird: We shot the movie in Northern Ireland, believe it or not. It’s not shot in the Pacific Northwest. There was talk about doing it in the US, but more people are trying to find ways to shoot movies outside the US for various financial reasons. So Northern Ireland, and at one point, the movie was initially set there. We found an incredible forest called Gortin Glen. It looked like somewhere in Oregon. It was raining. It was misty. It was wet. The weather complemented the mood of the movie. I appreciate what you said because I used to be a production designer. One of the things that I do is create worlds. That is almost second nature.

Andrew Baird: I had a wonderful designer. His name is Ashleigh Jeffers from Northern Ireland. Then I brought a DP [cinematographer] from New York who is Slovakian. We did music videos in New York. His name is Ivan Abel. This was his first movie, but he’s an artist. He’s amazing. We’re talking about collaborating on the next movie. It’s a very dark, brooding, kind of bruised, atmospheric land. The brilliant crew, pretty much everybody who worked on this movie was from Northern Ireland. It’s a real showcase of what can be done there. They did Game of Thrones. These were all Northern Irish people other than myself, Ivan, the actors, and some of the producers. 95% of them were from that region.

MW: You’ve spoken about your next project. What can you tell us about that?

Andrew Baird: I’m casting my next movie [Cape Point] that’s going to be done in South Africa. I’m going to get to see Africa this year, all of it.

Meanwhile, we get to see Sunrise, which had a concurrent theatrical, digital, and VOD release on January 19th from Lionsgate. You can rent or buy it on digital platforms like Vudu, Prime Video, or below through Google Play.

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