With their second full-length feature picture Vivarium, writers-directors Lorcan Finnegan and Garret Shanley leave a lasting impact. Imogen Poots and Jesse Eisenberg play a young couple looking for a home who are stuck in a startlingly antiseptic housing development named Yonder in the film. A seemingly straightforward setup quickly gives way to a host of unsettling thematic and world-building elements that will lodge themselves firmly in your memory and probably remain for some time.
Since viewing Vivarium, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it for two reasons: first, it forces you to reevaluate what you believe you want, and second, I immediately developed an obsession with wanting to know all the rules and specifics. I had a long list of questions, and Finnegan was gracious enough to get on the phone with me and address them, but he did add, “I think there’s no wrong interpretation of the picture. Garrett and I are both quite curious about how different people read the same text because you never truly know where ideas come from. They kind of percolate by absorbing whatever your culture and society are now producing.
One of the most intriguing aspects of film and narrative in general is that your personal interpretation of a work of art need not exactly match the exact objectives of the director or what everyone else believes. Vivarium appears to have benefited greatly from that method of filmmaking, making it one of the most interesting films to talk about thus far this year. I invite you to look into some of the many intriguing theories regarding the particulars of how Yonder functions, but for the moment, here are Finnegan’s responses to some of my most pressing queries.
To get us started, can you give a little overview of where this story idea started?
We created a short video in 2008. LORCAN FINNEGAN It is known as Foxes. Additionally, by creating Foxes, we were able to access some themes that we intended to develop further in Vivarium. Therefore, Foxes was set on a ghost estate, which are these deserted home estates that appeared all over Ireland in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. During the Celtic Tiger just before that, there had been a tremendous building boom. You are aware of Ireland’s recent economic boom. The young woman in the short escapes by re-entering nature, making it very much a supernatural story. There is a couple imprisoned in this type of abandoned home development with nature encroaching on the location. It resembles Irish folklore more than American folklore.
We began thinking about the itemization of society, the loss of actual community and the separation of community from the natural world as we scouted and spoke to various developers, walked through these kinds of enormous empty housing developments, and just took in the atmosphere of the time. People felt isolated and sort of trapped in these social contracts, and actual contracts w In the short film, we just touched on a few of these topics, but we intended to go deeper into them philosophically and through science fiction rather than supernatural themes.
At the same moment, which is really early on. What if one of these home developments continued forever, like it was a quantum trap? We were just sort of spitballing ideas at the time. Then, we wondered, “What exactly is it that young people these days are terrified of on a more existential level?” Are they terrified of large strange creatures with wings or do they fear that by making a few poor decisions, their lives will become monotonous and dull and all of their goals and dreams would be dashed? Or being duped into a scenario that they hadn’t quite anticipated finding themselves in. So our goal was to design a monster that would fit the narrative and serve as a sort of metaphor for capitalism, consumerism, and other such concepts. Garrett and I were viewing this documentary about the European cuckoo’s life cycle at the same time. That kind of paved the way for something else, which eventually bred parasitism and gave rise to the antagonistic species in the movie—this estate agent—as the adversary.
Let’s get into the specifics now. Who specifically created Yonder?
FINNEGAN: These individuals. In essence, they are giving people what they seem to desire. It seems that people desire nice homes in calm neighbourhoods with sizable gardens and rooms, you know? … They kind of gave you what it seems you want because they don’t have humanity, they don’t comprehend human emotional needs, creative needs, or anything else like that. similar to the market itself in a little way. But it has no personality at all. Everything seems to be a little bit out of place. The colours are a touch off, the grass is all kind of phoney, and every house has the exact same appearance. Everything they are providing is therefore rather fake and devoid of human emotion. Any interpretation will do! There will be some intriguing ideas generated by people. [Laughs]
I’ve read quite a few of them!
FINNEGAN: They seem to interact with people in a symbiotic way, much like a cuckoo does, for instance, with a reed warbler. Since the beginning of recorded history, they have coexisted alongside mankind. Maybe they were formerly similar to a hominid and broke off. But I’ve also read articles regarding aliens and other stuff like that. Actually, I suppose it all depends on how you define an extraterrestrial. Meaning that not all aliens must originate from spaceships and other forms of outer space.
I also thought about the extraterrestrial thing. What motivated that look for what he does there? It happened as a result of the instance when the youngster was copying the other person he observed.
They have something like to a magpie rattling. I suppose the entire movie has an avian impact. [Laughs] Once the topic of cuckoos sharing resources with other birds and the fact that magpies are very obnoxious black and white birds came up. Especially when there are many of them nearby, they make a terrible sort of rattling sound. It’s very combative and grating. Thus, they converse with one another through throat sounds. And they produce a noise similar to a magpie rattling. And, yes, there are more of them. They number in the thousands, after all. [Laughs] maybe even more.
But they’re many, and they have time-bending abilities, similar to how fairies are pictured in Irish tradition. In fact, we briefly addressed the idea of getting lost in a forest in our debut movie, Without Name. Additionally, time can be distorted, allowing them to effectively manipulate both time and dimensions, much like string theory does. that although various realities are layered on top of one another, they all vibrate at slightly different frequencies. Because of this, they were able to design a location where you could get lost and sort of go around in a circle.
Do you know physically where Yonder exists?
FINNEGAN: Garrett and I discussed how the houses are actually shaped somewhat fungus-like. It’s as if they could emerge out the mill as fibrous creatures, but then harden into the precise shape that people seem to want. A parallel universe within a kind of blister sitting on top of the earth’s surface would be one example of many of these blister universes. Due to the fact that reality’s rules are somewhat altered once you pass the barrier, you can’t really escape if you drive into it and drive about.
So is there another parallel realm that Gemma is entering when she crawls beneath the sidewalk?
FINNEGAN: She isn’t intended to travel through all of that, but you’re right. Like an alien object encased in flesh. Do you recall how flesh will extrude metal or anything similar? She should not be in any of those other homes, but she forced her way through them and was essentially returned to her own box. The thought is that perhaps more of those homes are occupied, at least according to me. They appear to be all vacant. Similar to how some residents may not talk to their neighbours or feel alone in these communities since they are all piled on top of one another and unable to see one another.
What inspired the choice to make each house she visited during that little trip a different color?
FINNEGAN: Essentially, it was done to set them apart. But since the film had spent so much time in this kind of greenish milieu, I wanted to annoy the audience by cutting red and raise the tension. Because that greenish tint might theoretically, at least, psychologically generate anxiety if you stare at it long enough, especially when it’s somewhat separated from nature and assumes a toxic character. However, it also helps your eyes get used to seeing less red for extended periods of time. When she enters the room, it cuts to red and the following one is a kind of toxic green.
Why exactly does Tom get sick?
FINNEGAN: Well, I believe that any person living in that environment would become ill. There isn’t a sun. The sky, the clouds, the sun, and the food are all fakes. He’s continually inhaling in the weird dirt he’s digging through while resting frequently in that hole. But in essence, it is utterly devoid of the natural world. There is absolutely nothing natural there. And that was something that we had kind of planned from the start. We just wanted to reflect the concern about what might happen given that humanity seems to be drifting further and further away from the natural world and has no qualms about chopping down vast glades of forest to make more meat for burgers. We wondered what would happen if all of it were to go. Could you even manage to live in a catalogue, sort of?
I also have to ask about what the boy sees on the TV, and also what he could be reading in that book?
FINNEGAN: He is learning how to be who he is from the television, according to me. [Laughs] Moreover, he was shown how to enter and exit the building. The diffusion reaction pattern, which is essentially a fractal pattern and resembles one of these home projects from above, is what’s currently on television. To maximise their earnings, developers frequently purchase land and employ a fractal pattern to cram as many homes as they can into a given area. Therefore, the TV reflects both of those things as well as the child’s magpie-like nature. The TV is black and white, and he wears the same colours. He lacks a range of emotional hue, so in a way, he only sees things in black and white.
Additionally, the book serves as a more advanced stage of schooling. People can become estranged from their own children if they spend all day in the real world staring at them as they consume bizarre content on TV or the internet. So, in my opinion, the leap is not too great.
What’s the meaning of number nine to you?
Yes, I’ve seen some fascinating things, Finnegan! [Laughs] Today I read or watched something about how a child takes nine months to develop. The number nine does show up in many occult-related things. The author, Garrett, is unable to precisely recall where it originated. And I believed we had talked about it, but I can’t recall now. It’s difficult. But if you draw the number nine, it always seemed to me to be like entering a circle before turning into a loop.
Do these beings running Yonder have a particular purpose other than to serve themselves?
Yes, precisely like ours, to survive. FINNEGAN I’m done now! They don’t have some grand strategy to rule the globe or anything like that. Like humans, they are interested in surviving. They will reproduce successfully if they are successful, just like humans have.
