RAT

During lockdown there was a rat problem where we live in North Belfast. Every house on our street had rats. My husband and I could hear them scratching in the walls. It sounded like they were moving furniture. Pest control couldn't help because they weren't making house calls during COVID, so we laid heavy duty traps. We caught four but there was another that got caught and escaped, twice - too big for the trap. We would hear it under the floor. We could hear snatches of domestic arguments filtering through open windows and it made me wonder about breaking points for unhappily trapped couples. I started thinking of a story about a woman who was trapped in a bad situation made worse by rats.

My influences when writing RAT include Roald Dahl, Edward Gorey, Hilaire Belloc's 'Cautionary Tales' - stories in which justice is swift but tragically indiscriminate, with no convenient exceptions for the protagonist. Carol's revenge sets her free, but at a cost. I love desperate characters who make mistakes and misunderstand things, and I love the line between comedy and tragedy. The universe lets Carol off the hook but she doesn't get away scot-free. Another influence is the British tv show 'Inside No. 9' - darkly comic with good twists and satisfying stories, which explores heightened worlds populated by grotesque characters.

I wanted RAT to show Carol's claustrophobic world - a heightened, hyper-aware state in which anxiety crests and falls like a wave. The wide-angle lenses give a distorted, slightly grotesque feel. All the men in the film wear hi-visibility clothing, where Carol mostly wears grey, doing her best not to be noticed, because she doesn't see herself as the main character.

In terms of score I was listening to the soundtracks of anxiety-driven films - Ariel Marx's Shiva Baby and Jon Brion's Punch-Drunk Love. I wanted Carol's experience to feel like the low-grade panic of a to-do list you're trying not to forget - fresh cortisol rising every time you remember another thing you're supposed to have done.

P.s. We caught the big rat in the end. Pictures available on request.