'Allan Hawco used his fears to film 'Quicksand.'
Allan Hawco had to use his fears of quicksand to film his latest horror flick
The 45-year-old actor is starring in the new Shudder film about a husband and wife who find themselves stuck in liquified soil but has had a fear of quicksand since childhood and used it to bring the story convincingly onto the screen.
He told DreadCentral: "Well, Indiana Jones certainly put the, you know, yeah, fair. But I grew up in a place called Newfoundland in Canada. Which is in the middle of the North Atlantic. It’s interesting that the type of quicksand up there, the more authentic quicksand, the one we’re playing with in this film, there are elements of that in Newfoundland when we call them a bog. And I did, as a kid, get stuck in a bog for a very long time.
"You use it, use it, use it. It was real, when you really think about it, I was just a kid, and it was just a little thing. And, you know, I wasn’t that far from home, but at the time it was terrifying."
The 'Jack Ryan' star went on to add that the way in which the quicksand was created for the film was "interesting" but also described shooting conditions as "brutal" because it was filmed during the night.
He added: "It’s interesting. We had an incredible special effects team locally, and there was this ringer brought in from Cape Town. And he was really good friends with Nico, our producer, and came to work on the thing for a laugh. And they did an incredible job. It was really, really, really tough. Carolina and I were in that pit for very long, very many days. I think it was like nine days or more. But, you know, part of the fun of our job is doing weird things.
"And those conditions were pretty brutal. Cause it was all night shoots, and we were in the woods in Columbia. I like to consider myself a low-maintenance performer. I know that they felt like they needed actors who were gonna be able to just do the job and not be in any way precious about the surroundings. You just can’t in a circumstance like this. I know for a fact that was a factor."
'Quicksand' is available to stream on Shudder now.