“I’d Never Seen a Seal Man”: Louis Paxton Discusses Creating His Unsettling New Horror-Comedy Monster

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Louis Paxton's The Incomer is one of the kookiest movies you'll see all year. The story of two siblings (Gayle Rankin and Grant O'Rourke) raised on a remote Scottish island for thirty-odd years is one that combines folktales with a story of loneliness. When the siblings are confronted with a government official (Domnhall Gleeson) telling them they have to move, all manner of hijinks ensue, some more violent than others. Let's just say there aren't a lot of movies that start with two people dressed up in bird costumes and has a third act that sees a full-scale government invasion.

"My family spent a lot of time up in those islands," Paxton tells The Film Maven. "And I became increasingly aware of these communities that were once inhabiting certain islands, and then decided at some point to leave to move to a bigger island." Paxton would explore these remote houses on the now-deserted island, surprised at how they were once thriving communities. What fueled one's decision to stay or go? "I just became obsessed by the idea of the choice that these communities would have made at some point, and how challenging that must have been because you were leaving behind your history. Generations of your family had grown up there, and yet when I looked into it, generally they were leaving because life was so difficult."

As he was assembling the story, he presumed that, since there was no electricity on the islands, there'd be a limited kind of reading material. In the film, Rankin's Isla makes up elaborate stories to tell her brother Sandy at night. "Isla would have grown up hearing the stories of her ancestors and her parents, but I imagine by now she's kind of created this whole rich world," Paxton said. "I thought it was a great strength of hers to be a storyteller." Once Daniel arrives, he brings stories of his own, albeit cribbed from popular culture like The Lord of the Rings.

In a way, though, Tolkien's story fits the Medieval themes of Sandy and Isla's life. "The Lord of the Rings was a ubiquitous and universal way of of showing that so many of us are connected to that story and have grown up with it, whether it's through the books or the films," said Paxton. "It's such a big part of our culture now that it felt like that if you were to go somewhere where someone had never heard a story what would the story be that you told? The Lord of the Rings just felt like the perfect example of that."

Because Isla and Sandy are, effectively, still children stuck in arrested development he needed find actors capable of balancing their resilience with their innocence. The role of Sandy was basically written for O'Rourke, who'd been helping Paxton with the script and knew the story well. "He's great at playing adult man babies," Paxton jokes. Isla, though, presented more of a challenge. "I was really concerned about finding the right person," he said. "I wanted them to be Scottish as well. Scotland's not a huge country with a tremendous amount of actors. We have loads of brilliant actors, but the problem is they're all just working all the time. So when you're trying to cast something, it's really difficult."

Paxton met Rankin years before about the project and immediately knew she'd be perfect for it. "She's so soulful and has a ready access to her emotions and just really understood the character," he said. "She really understood that juxtaposition between her being both a capable adult and also in many ways a child, or someone who whose development had been interrupted and she was frozen in this adolescent state. She seemed to manage that really well."

The best part of my interview with Louis Paxon is waiting for Gold Star Crew members. Read about the how Paxton conjured up the frightening "Fin Man," and the film's horror influences. Unlock the full interview ⬇️

Of course in a feature all about folklore and storytelling, it's no surprise the scarier elements of that shine through. Most of Isla's stories are hyper-violent, and throughout the narrative she talks to the terrifying Fin Man (John Hannah). Love seals? Well, the Fin Man is gonna make you rethink all of that, as he's a half man/half seal creature who tries to entice Isla to give herself over and drown herself.

For these elements Paxton went back to the folk tales of the Northern Isles in Scotland, where his family is from. "We have brownies [a household spirit or hobgoblin] in Scotland. They're like leprechauns in Ireland or piskies in Cornwall. We also have selkies [seal/human creatures]. The idea of the Fin Man is quite a specific kind of Northern Isles lore."

Paxton wanted to create something different than the usual sea creature. "We've seen versions of Creature From the Black Lagoon, or Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy series.The kind of aquatic man creature, Shape of Water." said Paxton. But Paxton had never seen a seal man, before. "I do a lot of fishing up in the north of Scotland and seals just sit around and watch you constantly. You can see why people put human attributes onto them, or create the myths of selkies because they're so expressive and so human." Paxton liked the idea of the Fin Man being a living representation of death, or Isla's suicidal ideation.

A big horror fan, Paxton admits he didn't overtly try to make a horror-comedy, and doesn't believe The Incomer itself is in that genre. But he wanted to give audiences a visceral reaction, which comes from some of the creepier yet comical elements in the movie. "You get an audience together and if you're all connected, you're having a great laugh or you're really scared...they're so closely related and I really just think it all comes back to tension," he said. "You're constantly building tension and then you release it through either a laugh or you release it through a scare." Paxton did want select soundtrack cues, or specific scenes to be unsettling, but to always undermine them with comedy.

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And such is the cast with the Fin Man. "I like the idea that he might be almost a bit cute and not very good at it, as well." This is certainly true, as the makeup almost makes you think it's a creature imitating something cuddly. "I love horror and I went down more of a menacing horror route because you needed to feel the threat from him, and then the comedy came from the juxtaposition of this character who's presenting is really unsettling, but actually in many ways is is is a bit daft and a bit silly."

The Incomer is in theaters Friday.

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