To work with them, by the way, has been great. We needed someone who had the gravitas, someone that you could believe everything he said. With David Thewlis, actually our English casting director suggested him. Also, since we were going to shoot the movie in Canada, in Toronto, Ontario, they told us it’s easy to make it look like some parts of Minnesota. I thought it was a good idea to set the movie there. Then, I decided to visit Minnesota to see how life was there.

We were looking at the internet for a possible set and I found a little town in Minnesota. So, I thought it was an interesting time. What inspired you to set the story in 1990’s Minnesota?ĪMENABAR: When the phenomenon started, it was in the beginning of the 1980s, and by the early 1990s it was really at its maximum level in terms of media attention and books. So, the whole movie became really a thriller and a procedural. At some point, I read about satanic ritual abuse and I was very, very interested in the subject, because that among other things allowed me to explore the idea of the mind and how the mind plays with us. Then, I abandoned the idea because I couldn’t find an interesting approach.

I wanted to make a movie about the devil and wanted to go back to the genre I started with, which was horror. How did this project first come together for you?ĪLEJANDRO AMENABAR: It was a few years ago. In our interview, Amenábar talked about what inspired him to make a procedural thriller focusing on themes of regression therapy and satanic rituals, his decision to set the story in the early 1990’s, why he shot Toronto for Minnesota, his cast and why he felt they were the right actors to bring the characters to life, how he was open to their suggestions and enjoyed the interaction between directing and acting, the most challenging aspects of the production, his creative collaboration with DP Daniel Aranyó and composer Roque Baños and how they helped him execute his vision, and what he’s working on next. Check it all out in the interview below. When the father is unable to recall what happened, Hawke’s character seeks help from a regression therapy expert ( David Thewlis) to find out. Hawke portrays a Minnesota detective determined to uncover the truth behind the allegations of a young woman ( Emma Watson) who insists her father ( David Dencik) sexually abused her. With Regression now in theaters, I recently spoke by phone with filmmaker Alejandro Amenabar, who wrote and directed the ominous supernatural thriller starring Ethan Hawke.

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