With Stranger Things star Dacre Montgomery in the lead, Samuel Van Grinsven’s Went Up the Hill is an eerie tale of control, family history and the past that won’t stay buried. Samuel and Dacre chat with Oliver Hall about the power of self-truth in making art that feels real.
Kiwi director Samuel Van Grinsven’s debut, Sequin in a Blue Room, announced a filmmaker unafraid of desire’s sharp edges. “That film feels like a mirage,” he recalls. “We made it for $30,000 as my graduate project at film school, with no expectations. Everything about making and releasing it was new, surprising and thrilling. It was my version of what Gregg Araki (Mysterious Skin) or Todd Haynes (Velvet Goldmine) were doing in the New Queer Cinema movement – run and gun, no rules, not expecting a big release. I’m proud I got to make my first feature with that kind of raw energy.”
Sequin in a Blue Room is a must-see and an exploration of how queerness has long been tied to risk. “I was exploring cycles of transgression,” he says.
“Being queer is often framed as transgressive, and sometimes that leads to a thirst for further transgression. I was interested in how that plays out across generations – older characters coming from a cruising culture, younger ones in a digital age, each with different relationships to risk and rebellion. Sequin was about a character diving into that world without knowing its history, and then shifting through those contrasts.”
His second feature, Went Up the Hill, which is out in cinemas this month, shifts from digital hookups to gothic possession. A young man returns to his estranged mother’s funeral, where her spirit begins to inhabit him and her widow, forcing both to reckon with inheritance, harm and intimacy.
Van Grinsven gives the ghost story a unique twist, making both protagonists gay. “I was playing with the audience’s expectations,” he tells us. “With a ghost story and a film about possession – a man and a woman both inhabiting this third role – if both were heterosexual, the expectation would be a romantic relationship forming, along with questions of morality. I wasn’t interested in any of that. I wanted everything in the film not to be clouded or burdened by those assumptions. The film is about family – the baggage it passes on, that cross-generational weight – which feels very true to queer communities as well.”
For him, the story is about power as much as it is about spirits. “The film is about control. It’s about giving over one’s self-control, literally, by inviting the abuser into the body of the abused and giving full permission. That act is framed as love, but also as a way to process and let go. Abuse and trauma within family dynamics are explored often in cinema, but rarely through a queer lens. That felt new and important.”
And when it comes to future projects, Van Grinsven assures he will continue representing our communities.
“Honestly, I find it hard to sit down and write a screenplay where everyone isn’t queer. That’s my world, and those are the characters I’m interested in.”
For Dacre Montgomery, Went Up the Hill arrived after a conscious break from the Hollywood treadmill. “After (starring in) Power Rangers and Stranger Things, I stepped back from my commercial career for seven years. I’d lost my anonymity overnight, and the notoriety and fame weren’t why I got into acting. I love great movies and filmmakers. I used those years in Australia to reposition myself, and now I feel really proud of Went Up the Hill, and (Gus Van Sant’s upcoming) Dead Man’s Wire, as well as the film I’m about to direct myself. I’m excited to finally take risks and throw myself into the work I love.”
What first drew Montgomery to Went Up the Hill was the unusual performance structure. “The idea that I’d be sharing a third character with another actor – I’d never heard of that before in cinema. Then there was Samuel’s vision, so fully realised early on. We didn’t shoot the film until about a year after we first met, but even then he had the palette, textures and locations mapped out. For me, there was so much to sink my teeth into. Samuel’s process is very multi-faceted – it’s not just visual, but also audio and textural. Costumes, fabrics, physical items – all that tactile detail really spoke to me.”
Montgomery describes sharing the role with Vicky Krieps as “intense and captivating,” explaining, “we didn’t feel the need to perform her the same way. Our characters are strangers, so we stayed strangers during filming. We only really connected at the Toronto Film Festival, long after we wrapped. Vicky commits completely, and I’m an intense performer too, so it was all incredibly rewarding.”
Montgomery also draws a line between Van Grinsven and the queer icons he’s been fortunate to collaborate with, including Baz Luhrmann on Elvis. “The connective tissue between them is specificity and bravery. All three are deeply in touch with themselves and their vision. Gus, Baz and Samuel are sensitive men – something I relate to, having grown up in a family where expressing emotions through art was encouraged. With Baz, it’s camp and colourful. With Samuel, it’s complete visual contrast, but he’s just as tactile and textural. Gus is endlessly curious and always chasing creativity. What bridges them is their constant evolution and refusal to hold back. That bravery is inspiring.”
Montgomery says his work on Elvis inspired him to soon step behind the camera and try directing. “Baz is still completely himself, which is inspiring. Austin Butler, too, is an old soul – he reminded me that you can balance commercial success with meaningful art. It’s about staying in your own lane, never comparing yourself to others, and focusing on autonomy. Directing will be a part of that for me.”
For Van Grinsven, the location of Went Up the Hill (filmed at Flock Hill in rural Canterbury) is central. “There’s definitely a thread of unease and gothic in New Zealand cinema across generations,” he says.
“I think it comes from the landscape – it’s beautiful but haunting, daunting, it dwarfs you. You feel isolated and tiny within it. You can’t shoot a film here without welcoming that in. And it’s the most beautiful place on earth – point a camera anywhere and it’s hard to get a bad shot.”
Went Up the Hill is a possession tale, queer reckoning and family drama. For Van Grinsven, it continues his project of queering genre conventions. For Montgomery, it marks a move toward autonomy after global fame. Together, they’ve created a film that insists ghosts are never just supernatural – they are the baggage we inherit, and the question of whether we can let them go.
Went Up the Hill is in cinemas now.
