If you like tense, character driven horror then Seth Daly's The Rows is for you. We had a quick chat before its premiere at FrightFest 2025.
NYX: Did you know from a young age that you wanted to work in the film industry?
SD: No, but I knew I wanted to write. I’ve been writing stories since I was a kid. Then I became an actor as a teenager, and started writing sitcoms and shorts for myself to perform. Then in 2007 I saw three films that helped me fall in love with cinema proper – No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, and Citizen Kane. After that, the cinephilia was pretty much incurable.
NYX: What inspired you to write The Rows?
SD: Practically, I wanted to make my first feature. This was actually the third script I’d written to be a first feature, but each was too ambitious to finance. So The Rows was conceived as a “mechanism movie” designed to function at small-scale. Artistically, I wrote it as a non-verbal suspense thriller in the Hitchcockian “pure cinema” tradition. There’s a lot of influences, but to name a few No Country for Old Men, A Quiet Place, Don’t Breathe, De Palma’s Mission: Impossible, and Spielberg’s War of the Worlds. Classic and Spaghetti Westerns like Once Upon a Time in the West, The Searchers, Hondo, and Inglourious Basterds were all touchstones as well, particularly for the farmhouse sequence. And straight up horror like The Town That Dreaded Sundown, Friday the 13th, and even The Texas Chainsaw Massacre for look and iconography.
NYX: Did budget confine your vision?
SD: The budget was the vision. The entire script was structured to be shootable within the resources available. What is cinematic and cheap that I have access to? Cornfields. Masks. Guns. Axes. Sunlight. A very tangible hardware store mentality to filmmaking, where you tally things physically and only pay for what’s on-screen.
NYX: Did you have a cast in mind when writing?
SD: No not really, although some characters were partially inspired by real people.
NYX: This is your first feature as director, were you nervous the first day of shooting?
SD: Yes, but only for the first shot.
NYX: What valuable lessons in directing did you learn?
SD: If something doesn’t feel right…it isn’t. Fight for what you actually want. If you don’t fight for it you’re not doing your job and you’re not serving your collaborators. Be polite, but be honest.
NYX: How hard was it shooting in a cornfield and how did you find such an incredible location?
SD: I’m from the Midwest, so we’re surrounded by cornfields. Mostly we just asked neighbours for permission to film. What was hard to find was the farmhouse. I loved filming on location, but the rows were a little challenging for my crew. They’re too close together to maneuver easily, especially when you’re filming 35mm on a Steadicam. What’s unique about this movie is the golden corn. It’s logistically tricky since there’s such a short window of availability. One of the fields was literally being harvested as we finished a scene.
NYX: Talking of whom, I have to say Brindisi Capri who plays Lucy, is going to be a huge star isn’t she?
SD: Isn’t she already? If not, she should be. Brindisi is awesome.
NYX: Did the cast have much time to rehearse?
SD: Not much. I gave them movies to watch beforehand and a few texts. Had them contact each other to build chemistry. The only scene we really rehearsed was the kitchen scene.
NYX: How long did it take to train the dog?
SD: He was a police dog, so he’s already trained to do most of what you see in the film. He actually had a hard time barking on-command, so we had to reshoot some of that.
NYX: The score is cinematic and bold, will there be a physical release?
SD: It’s in the works…
NYX: he film is having its International Premiere on the big screen at FrightFest 2025, are you nervous at all?
SD: No, it’s thrilling. I can’t wait to finally share it with the audience. The picture and especially sound design were crafted for the big screen.
NYX: So, what are you working on at the moment?
SD: 1950s sci-fi horror movie with body snatcher vibes. Written, prepped, and ready to go.
NYX: Seth Daly, thank you very much.
SD: Thank you!
