Alex Henes is a filmmaker from Louisville who wrote and directed the horror film “Mind Body Spirit.” Henes takes an inventive approach to the found footage film, and makes resourceful use of his small cast to fill his frames with emotional subtext. “Mind Body Spirit” is a folkloric horror tale set in the livestream era, in which a progress wheel functions as an intertitle between scenes, and an aspiring yoga influencer makes her way from her yoga mat to the depths of arcane spellcraft.
Culture Writer Aria Baci finds her center, inhales, exhales, and talks with the filmmaker about his debut feature, his future plans, and the healing power of horror.
Aria Baci: As a film geek and a professional critic living in Louisville, I’m excited to meet a local filmmaker. I’m especially curious about the location of your shoots, the production design, and of course, all the narrative stuff that horror audiences live for.
Alex Henes: We shot this movie in a haunted mansion in Altadena, California called the Woodberry Estate. It was about 15 of us. It was like a skeleton crew running around this mansion for about 10 days. And we definitely all encountered some spirits in this house. I mean, it was undeniably creepy. You would be cleaning up something alone in the house at the end of the shoot day, and you would feel a shiver run down your spine. It was one of those kinds of places that just gives you the creeps. And I think they kind of leaned into that. The Woodberry Estate has hosted haunted houses there where you can pay to spend the night in the house and it’s sort of like a thrill seeking experience. And I would never do that. I just would never do it.
My co-director, Matt Miranda, and I had made a short film in the house, and we knew that there was a lot of space. There’s a lot of creepy hallways. There’s a lot of funky looking rooms. We only used about half of the house in the movie. There’s literally so much that we blocked off walls and shuttered away some of the rest of the house because it was so big.
What was great about the house is that it gave us a lot of space for a super creepy canvas for our production designer Preethi Sehrawat to work her magic. We gave her some guidelines of what we were looking for. Pulling from Slavic heritage [the protagonist Anya’s grandmother is Slavic], Preethi had the idea to dress the space with these ornately knotted candles left behind in spaces so the dead may eat them in the afterlife. So [Anya] goes to this passageway and there are these loaves of bread lying around, there’s these tapestries, there’s these symbols. And she sees an opportunity, an entry point into her own heritage … which is, I think, what all wellness influencers are seeking.
I would say so. My initial reaction to the trailer was: Yoga With Adriene!
Oh my god, yes!
I spent a lot of time on her YouTube channel during the pandemic shutdown. If were going to tell a friend about it (I actually already told a friend about it) and I said, something like Yoga With Adriene meets the Taiwanese film “Incantation.” The found footage, and the spiraling emotional state of the subject.
I think you’re right on the money there. Yoga with Adriene was the main source of inspiration for this movie because I was doing the exact same thing that you you were, which was slowly losing my mind in my apartment with my wife, and I had to exercise. This was like, mid-pandemic. So I started doing Yoga with Adriene, and I kind of fell in love with her. And then I fell out of love with her, you know? We were spending too much time together. So I started going to other yoga influencers for help, but I always come back to Adriene. I think there’s something magical about her. She actually watched the movie and enjoyed it quite a bit. She follows us on Instagram now, which I would say, among of all the things that have happened with this movie, is my greatest accomplishment. We are so indebted to her for this movie. There are a lot of Adriene inside jokes that only a true pandemic lunatic losing their mind devoutly would would pick up on.
The visual design of “Mind Body Spirit” is intriguing because there’s something straightforward — and almost out of time — about it. The production design looks like something that could be from now, it could be from the ’90s, it could be from the ’70s, and that is really captivating.
I love a movie that that lives in a liminal time and place. “It Follows” is a movie that does that really well. You get these senses that it’s supposed to be modern, but then they watch movies on an old fashioned television. I think that kind of stuff is really cool. “Mind Body Spirt” is definitely what I would call a midnight movie. It’s this strange confluence of hyper modern screenlife … yet so much of the horror is being driven by these ancient, deeply evil, supernatural elements. I always find that to be such a great combination, the idea that the technology might change, but the evil in this world will be a constant through time. It never disappears. It just finds different ways to manifest itself.
And found footage is an ideal format for that kind of story.
Something we do in this movie that has caused some consternation among horror fans is that technically we’re a found footage film, but a lot of people conflate found footage with this shaky, handheld, hyper verité style. Our movie is very locked off. It feels like it would if you were creating a fitness channel where it’s supposed to feel a little cleaner, but the movement comes from the entity itself, sort of possessing the camera. And it’s been really fun seeing how people have reacted to that.
Found footage has a visual schema that we kind of associate with “The Blair Witch Project” or “Cloverfield” or films like that. It’s Super 8, Hi8, or other film or video formats spliced together. But “Mind Body Spirit” has Anya using her laptop and leaning into camera and the audience becomes the focalizer. That’s an awesome detail.
We break a lot of rules, but we break them for the right reasons. Because we want the movie to be fun. I think suspending your disbelief is an important part of of being a of being a moviegoer. You have to be willing to take the ride.
Considering that Ethan Hawke recently directed “Wildcat” on location in Kentucky, a lot of us are hoping for Louisville to become more of film production hub. Louisville Gardens will be repurposed into a soundstage in hopes of accommodating the increasing number of productions in the area.
The one that Soozie Eastman is planning? The $30 million project? Massively excited for that. Every time I’m back here, I get the sense that there’s something really special building in the Louisville film community. Everyone that I talk to is so optimistic. What’s special about this place is, every time I come back, I’m reminded of how cinematic this city really is. There’s these strange old, gutted industrial buildings, and these beautiful, verdant green trees that are always dripping with rain, and these crumbling alleyways. There’s something really special about the city and it seems like the people who know that its potential are the ones who from here. I think in the near future, it’s going to be a filmmaking best kept secret.
When I look off my deck, where Phoenix Hill and Butchertown intersect, there’s a small tree growing on the roof a multi-story factory architecture in disuse. It’s totally decrepit, but there’s a little tree growing on the roof, and that’s an incredible image of perseverance.
It’s an inspiration. It’s not about where you are that cultivates artistic greatness. You just have to you just have to get out there and do it. And Louisville is a perfect place to foster that creativity. I’m so proud of this city and where it’s going, and I’m excited to come back and be part of this community with these people who have already spearheaded it.
“Mind Body Spirit”
Unrated
80 minutes
“Mind Body Spirit” is now streaming on Apple TV, The Microsoft Store, and Vudu.
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This article appears in May 8-21, 2024.