Based on a short story by Joe Hill, Abraham’s Boys occurs in the same universe as Bram Stoker’s Dracula and takes place in the early 20th Century, nearly 20 years after Stoker’s book concludes. The movie features some familiar characters, including Mina Harker (Jocelin Donahue), and Abraham Van Helsing (Titus Welliver). In the story and film, Mina is now a Van Helsing, having married Abraham.
In this tale, Van Helsing moves his sons, Max (Brady Hepner) and Rudy (Judah Mackey), to the U.S. to escape the past and the harrowing events that transpired in Stoker’s work. Yet, like a lot of Gothic literature and films, the Van Helsings learn that you can’t really escape the past. It has a way of resurfacing.
One of the film’s strengths lies in its production design and the constant clash between a 19th Century Gothic aesthetic and the early 20th Century in which the film occurs. We spoke with production designer Steven Cirocco about crafting a period horror piece that’s an adaptation of Hill’s work and also Stoker’s universe.
This interview was edited slightly for clarity.
What was it like, in terms of design, to adapt Joe Hill’s fiction? How faithful did you want to be to his words on the page?
Steven Cirocco: A lot of the adaptation of that started with Natasha [Kermani], our writer and director. A lot of it was just me working with her script. When I remember reading her script initially, I don’t feel like there was a ton of description of the design. I feel like there’s a common understanding of what Dracula’s aesthetic is from culture over the years that I leaned into. It’s kind of an era that’s famous for design, but a lot of it was original. I didn’t try to do Joe Hill’s design a ton. I really just wanted to do the script that Natasha wrote. Whenever I submitted designs to her, she was on board from the beginning. We had a common understanding that was never talked about beforehand, but we were on the page the whole time. It’s always great when creatives are on the same page.
Can you talk about the film’s overall aesthetic? To me, the interior designs of the Van Helsing house have quite a Gothic look, especially with some of the purple and dark blue tones, even with the wallpaper.
Steven Cirocco: We were lucky to be able to get into this location a week before we shot. It was a movie ranch, so it wasn’t a real building. There was no electricity. There was no wallpaper. Some of the cabinets weren’t even finished. The first big choice we had was the wallpaper, which I love. I’m so glad that the DP and Natasha liked it. I really feel like it’s a character itself in this movie.
The big thing we were going for were the greens. We made some of the glass green. We had green lamps. That was a bigger thing than the blue, but the darkness was very important to us. Some of these scenes at night are meant to be spooky and part of that came from the darkness. It was also this idea that Mina, Abraham’s wife, would design the interior of this house. It was her aesthetic coming from England and what she would be designing. A lot of it was based on what we thought her aesthetic would be. Some of that was informed by the era. There wasn’t a lot of electricity at the time, especially in California. It was a unique thing that they had electricity in their house. I assumed they wouldn’t have lamps they wouldn’t be able to buy in California. I assumed a lot of that was shipped over from London. A lot of that Gothic look came from knowing they came from England and what they would bring with them to design this house in Mina’s aesthetic.
The film takes place nearly 20 years after Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and it’s set in the early 20th Century. How did the time period affect your thinking regarding the design?
Steven Cirocco: I feel like fabric lampshades swallow a lot of light. We already had this really dark room. It was intentional to use all glass or metal lampshades. I feel like you can tell when you watch the movie the difference in the lightening when it comes through.
They didn’t have a phone in the house. Part of that was to isolate them, which is a big part of horror, to isolate those characters so they can’t easily get help. That was a big choice not to put a phone in their home. Some of it also comes through in the script. There are surveyors, trying to build a railroad track. It’s the only human contact they [the Van Helsings] have. They’re in this isolated place, trying to get away form their past, but there are also people camping nearby. They’re kind of suspicious of them, but it’s because of this technology that’s coming through that’s very of the time. What those surveyor camps look like was also a very big part of our design. It was always a consideration.
We also have a very old car from the time that’s very cool. There’s medical equipment and a ton of stuff that’s turn of the century. Because they [the Van Helsings] were well off enough in London, they know how it [early 20th Century technology and equipment] works, but it’s new for the era. It also puts them on an elevation compared to other people in the area.
Since this is a period horror movie, what type of research did you do in terms of inspiration for the design and look?
Steven Cirocco: I want to give a lot of credit to our set decorator Fiona [Jett Robinson] and our prop master Star [Cravens]. Honestly, they did a ton of research and did a really good job adapting that to their style. There were many times I said a lamp or piece of furniture was cool, and Fiona would tell me it was from the 20s. I said, okay, we’ll find something else. I want to give a lot of credit to them. They looked through Sears catalogues and photos of the time.
For me, a lot of the inspiration for the aesthetic came from things already in media. Sherlock Holmes stuff was big to me. Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, the video game, was a big one, which is the industrialization of England. I pulled from a lot of media that already exists. Really, when you get into the details and how accurate it was, most of the credit should go to my decorator and prop master.
Anything else about the production design that you’d like to add or address?
Steven Cirocco: Focus on the details of it, if you’re able to. My team did a ton of work that’s very cool. A lot of it just involved all of us. There are pictures on my website of what this interior looked like before. You can see all the work that we did. With the exception of the bedroom and upstairs hallway, we did all of it. All of the basement scenes were built. We had a completely empty shed that we built an entire basement out of, stairs and all. With the whole interior, we added walls, cabinets, wallpaper, paint, and fixtures. Really, it was all us.
It’s so rare where you do a movie like this where you have so much control with this budget. It’s also rare as a production designer where the production design is noticeable in this way. This is a period piece, and it has a magical realism aesthetic. It’s very cool that we were able to do things that feel like a character that helped get the actors in the moment and express things in an environment that make sense for them.
If you get a chance to see this on the big screen, pay attention to the details. This is a very cool one for that.