Damian McCarthy worked as an electrician for years but has now plugged into his real passion, thanks to the success of his film Oddity, shot at Bantry House, writes Martin Claffey
UP until a few years ago, you could say Damian McCarthy made a career helping people avoid shocks. Now having swapped his trade as an electrician to become an award-winning international filmmaker, he’s making a career providing them.
Damian, who hails from Bantry, has become the talk of the horror movie world since the release of his film Oddity.
Shot in Bantry House, the film stars Carolyn Bracken, Gwilym Lee, Caroline Menton, Steve Wall – also a renowned musician from his work with The Walls and The Stunning – and Tadhg Murphy. Carolyn Bracken plays twins in this twisted tale of revenge.
You could call it a sleeper hit, though you may not be able to sleep after watching it.
The film premiered at the prestigious South x Southwest festival in the USA, where it won the audience award in the ‘midnighter’ section.
‘When we were initially chosen to screen at South x Southwest, we were delighted just to get in,’ Damian told The Southern Star. ‘‘When you make a film you obviously believe that it’s good, no one goes out to make a bad film, but you don’t know how the general public will react. And then when it won the audience award, it was just crazy.’
Film has always been Damian’s passion, but it is only in recent years he has been able to dedicate himself to the medium.
‘I grew up in the town in Bantry and always loved film. We had a video shop in the back of my dad’s electrical shop in Bantry when I was growing up. It was a typical video store of the time – electrical and stuff in the front, videos for rent at the back.’
Damian says that when he left school, it would have been impossible to become a filmmaker. ‘The opportunity wouldn’t have been there – the closest you would have got would have been shooting on 16mm or 8mm film. I didn’t think you could make a career out of film. I left school at 15 and I started down the road of becoming an electrician. But in my early 20s, I could see how digital film was changing things. I studied a film course in St John’s in the city.
‘Over the years I carried on with the day job as an electrician, but I’d be making short films in any spare time. You’d put a crew together from around Cork and just shoot.
‘I made plenty of films that didn’t make it into festivals but others that did, and it gives you something to put on the CV.’
Indeed several of Damian’s short films made an impression and won awards at festivals across Europe.
But Damian wanted to make a feature, having written a script for what would become the film Caveat.
‘We made Caveat on a microbudget – a couple of thousand euro, covering only people who can’t work for free. You’re trying to do it for as little as possible, and calling in favours wherever you can.’
Caveat spent a few years in production, finally making its premiere at the 2020 Indie Cork Film Festival and winning awards there.
Damian shot it in a place he knew well from growing up. ‘I was friendly with the Shelswell-White family in Bantry House, and they kindly allowed me to film there. It’s a unique location. We shot in some of the stables at the back of the house.’
Still, his main focus was not behind the camera, but working on the sites and in the electrical trade. Until Covid brought the opportunity for downtime.
While some of us baked bread, Damian wrote screenplays. ‘There was no work on the sites because of Covid, so I had plenty of free time. So I started doing more writing,’ he said.
It was clearly a wildly productive period, as Damian wrote Oddity in this time.
The positive response to Caveat had opened doors.
Damian also became a client of United Talent Agency, which provided an opportunity to network in the film world. ‘Agencies like this are like the gatekeepers, so it makes a huge difference when you’re on their books,’ he says.
It mightn’t have had much of a budget, but it made industry insiders sit up and take notice. Shudder – a streaming service for horror, thriller, and supernatural movies owned by the US film and entertainment giant AMC – distributed Caveat in the US, and were impressed.
Damian had clearly made the decision to put film first.
Damian McCarthy at the Oddity SXSW premiere in Texas last March. The film is showing in Bantry this week.
‘They liked Caveat and were interested in financing Oddity. Originally it was supposed to be 50-50 on Oddity between Shudder and Screen Ireland, but Screen Ireland then turned it down, which was disappointing, as we had cast, crew, and script ready. But then it became fully financed by Shudder.’
Having worked in Bantry House on Caveat, Damian believed it would also work for Oddity. Oddity had an increased budget from the ‘virtually nothing’ that Caveat was made for, but it was still extremely tight. ‘When you’ve 70 or 80 people working on a film, your budget gets used up very quickly,’ said Damian.
Local businesses and friends again helped out, and the film – a mix of suspense, dark comedy, and horror – has caused a stir in the world of film and frights. ‘Sometimes people are put off when they hear it’s a horror film. It’s not gory or anything, it’s more like a ghost story.’
The film gave Damian the opportunity to meet idols, like Evil Dead and Spiderman film director Sam Raimi. But on a personal level, what was even more important to Damian was bringing the film home.
The film is screening at Bantry Cinemax this week, and in Cork’s Omniplex.
‘It was one of those things that was very important to me, when it was being distributed, that it would show in Bantry and in West Cork,’ he said. ‘So many people were really supportive – the amount of help I got from people locally was huge. From the family at Bantry House who allowed us to shoot there again, to Stephen O’Donovan in the Brick Oven who allowed us to use the old cinema as an art department when we were filming. ‘I’ll be taking the film in when it’s shown in Bantry, I’ll slip in to the cinema and see the reaction.
‘It’s funny, the film has been shown before big crowds in places like Texas, or in Korea. But it’s different when it’s strangers. You just hope the home crowd will enjoy it.’
Damian has always had support on the home front, from parents John and Eileen, his brother Joseph, and sisters Linda and Miriam, who are all delighted by his success. As is his girlfriend Leti Lopez Ramos, with whom Damian lives in Cork city.
And one special fan is also looking forward to seeing Oddity – ‘my grandmother Delia O’Sullivan from Castletownbere won’t get to the cinema but she’s looking forward to seeing it. She has just turned 100.’
Now aged 43, Damian is getting used to being in demand. ‘I had offers to make films in the US but I want to stay in Ireland. These days you can do that. I’m shooting a new film at the start of 2025, which will be filmed in West Cork. My girlfriend Leti and I can’t really say much about it yet but it’s going to be another suspense, kind of ghost story. It’s a big step-up in resources, and in budget.’
While Oddity was more of an ‘internal’ film using the surrounds of Bantry House, this one is going to be using the landscape of the south west. ‘I’m going to be shooting in West Cork again, and we’ll be using West Cork Film Studios. I want make another story in Ireland. We have great crews in this country, and what they are doing in West Cork Film Studios is amazing, and we’re going to be building sets there.’
Bantry House Gardens was the setting for the film.And for someone making a career of sending a chill down the spine, how does Damian fare himself with the genre? ‘I heard a comedian once say that if your jokes don’t make people laugh yourself, then why should they make someone else laugh. I think it’s the same with horror or with thrillers. I don’t scare easily. But sometimes when you’re writing and if you’re having a little look behind your shoulder, you know it’s a bit scary.’
