Austin Director Sarah Uftring on her new short film, “The Devil Inside Me”

We sat down with Sarah Uftring, director of “The Devil Inside Me,” to discuss her new short film’s blend of horror, comedy, and visual storytelling. 

“The Devil Inside Me” tells the all too relatable story of toxic relationships with a little twist. A lonely woman forms an intimate and fleeting relationship with the prince of darkness, Satan himself. After their shared night, he ghosts her, leaving her to wonder when it went wrong. This film is Sarah Uftring’s directorial debut. The Austin filmmaker took the plunge and it paid off as she has garnered accolades, praise, and recognition for her hilariously awkward comedy. This interview, we got the chance to talk about genre filmmaking, approaching a set as a first time director, the importance of collaboration, and why adding a wiggly tail to your sex scenes might be more challenging than you think!

The following interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. 

HFC: The first thing I’m itching to ask you is, what did you want to see this story accomplish? When it came to you, what was the goal for this film?

SU: I guess my biggest goal was, I wanted to sit in a room full of women, and for us to be able to laugh at our experience together. Just to have this moment of release. But I also really love comedy, because it is a gentle way to introduce people to a topic. It's a gentle way to show men their behavior. If you go up to somebody, and you kind of shame them and just tell them their bad behavior, usually they're unable to hear it. However, when people watch comedy, they're able to take it in a different way, because it's lighthearted and fun. They're laughing and they're disarmed, then they get to see their behavior right there on the screen in front of them. Then there's that little after moment of like, oh, man, that is gross.

HFC: Totally awesome.

SU: And I've had a lot of guys that have watched it say that to me afterwards. When I've been watching it with them, they've kind of looked over at me and been like, “Yeah, I've been that guy.”

HFC: I think you keyed into the really special thing about comedy and horror. Those two always blend well because they're the two genres that evoke physical reactions. How much of an emphasis was there on creating those physical reactions? How much did you want men to squirm? 

SU: That’s exactly what I wanted. I've always really liked humor that just makes you uncomfortable. I've been told that it's a little hedonistic, but I love making people feel awkward comedy, it's the best.

HFC: Just coming in as a first-time director, what's that process look like? How nervous are you on set? What's it like stepping onto set for the first time and realizing oh, “I'm the one running this show?”

SU: I had never been on set.

HFC: Yeah, that's crazy, that's amazing.

SU: I’m friends with a lot of actors because my best friend Lori (Kovacevich) is an actor and she teaches a local class. She was also trying her hand at directing, and I jumped in and started helping with certain things. At that moment, I was like, “Oh, I really want to be like directing the thing.” I want to be working the scene, that is where I'm feeling drawn to. So, I had just mentioned it to a friend, then embarrassingly, they started just introducing me as a director to everyone. I was like, “I've literally done nothing even close, I've never even been on a set, I haven't gone to film school,” I started panicking. 

I decided I wanted to do it and I did take a filmmaking class. The week we were supposed to be filming our shorts, we had only gotten into narrative or writing, I haven't taken a screenwriting class previously. I panicked because they were like, “just shoot it on an iPhone,” or “maybe you guys should all just pick one film and do it all together.” 

I wanted to make a film, that's what I wanted to do. I know talented people. Zach Scott (plays the Devil in the film), Lori’s been on set, Rebecca Vontae was in that class and she started Outer Worlds Film Festival. She was like, “hey, I want to help you make this. I'll give you advice. I think you've got something with this little script that you've written.” It was just like within two weeks; I wrote it and shot it. I did not sleep, I went crazy. I did a lot of insane learning quickly. 

I got on Studio Binder, and I downloaded a “how to make shot lists” template. I just read through all their articles and started making my own shot list; drawing them, pulling pictures off the internet, I made this really detailed shot list. I started reaching out to every Director of Photography I could find on Instagram or that my friends knew. I just knew that if I wanted to make a decent film at all, I had to get the right people that were talented. It was my first time, so I got Zach Morrison. He is awesome, and he just happened to have a couple of days off, because it was October, and everybody was so busy. Long story short, I got talented people on board. 

My two amazing friends let me use their house in Bastrop, they happened to have an antique shed. Me and my best friend Laurie went out there the day before and we took an empty room and decorated it into that set based on antiques and things that I found on Facebook marketplace. We went to Lucy in Disguise and got the devil costume. I found someone who did make up through Instagram to do little horns. 

I mean, honestly, I just fucking went for it. I figure I need to prove that I can make something. I didn’t think it was going to get into the Austin Film Festival, but it was great. I think I got lucky, obviously I went for it and worked hard, but I got so lucky with just being surrounded by talented people that were willing to help me, answer questions, and be supportive firsthand.

HFC: I know you were talking about your boot camp directing class, and you did mention there's talk of shooting it on the iPhone. What did you end up shooting this on and how much equipment did you have to use for this film?

SU: It was a BlackMagic or something. Then Zach (Morrison) used these vintage lenses that he has. They're used for a lot of documentaries. I think they're beautiful lenses. They give that kind of grimy vintage look on their own. I do remember we went that route instead of renting more crisp lenses because he showed me a music video that used them, and I was like, “this is pretty much what I'm going for anyways,” so we don't have to put more money that came all out of my pocket.

HFC: I was so impressed by what you were just talking about, that digital and kind of vintage look, that really stuck out to me and was impressive. So, did you have a big crew on set? How many people were kind of behind the scenes helping?

SU: It was minimal. We had DP, 1st AC Tiger Hill, who's awesome as well. We had the cast, we had Skylar Milianta (a makeup artist) there and helping with the devil. I had a couple of friends that would come in and out for helping hands. Bears (Rebecca Vontae, a makeup artist) was on set, I believe the whole first day and half the second day, and helped like kind of script supervise, you know, she was just helping me make sure that I got it all and so that I could have more freedom to just like, pay attention to directing and get that experience, which is awesome. But that was pretty much it, we might have had like one or two extra helping hands. 

HFC: How long was the shoot? Was it more like a three-day shoot? Or were you kind of done after one?

SU: It was a two-day shoot. Everybody stayed long hours. I think one of the days was, sixteen. I think the second day, maybe, we were like, “do we have to?” They were just like, “let's do it, man. Let's get it done.” Everybody was cool about it—maybe I'm exaggerating with sixteen. 

HFC: I guess that's the benefit of shooting it inside, you get to manipulate the sunlight as much as you can.

SU: Honestly, Zach (Morrison) was so great with lighting, he really had it down. The hardest part was that it was a window AC in that room. We covered it up with a painting. We just felt the worst for Zach [Scott] and Laurie because there were so many scenes of just them under the covers. Then the bed got so hot, so we kept having to take breaks and turn the AC on for a little bit and then run it again. So, that was one of the bigger challenges for sure.

HFC: You kind of touched on it right there, but I just wanted to know how much of the sex was choreographed. How much was it improvisational? How much was it you're just there, and you're like, this would be funny. How much do you allow the supernatural elements to make their way into that scene?

SU: Definitely, I tried to make the supernatural elements come in for the sex scenes specifically. I knew I wanted it to be big. I want it to be, she's having the best sex of her life. In her case, probably the only sex. 

Originally, I had this vision, and in my storyboard, it was more like a wide shot along the side of the bed. I wanted it to be somehow silhouetted around them, but light was difficult to do because the room wasn't wide enough. So, Zach, having more experience as a DP with lighting, he came up with the idea of the kind of, ‘80s, you know? Blue moonlight through the window, and having the silhouette be more against the window. 

We were trying so hard to make it look like they were levitating when they were orgasming. We really had that whole vision. Whenever they come off the bed, they're literally up against the wall with the blanket attached to the wall. She’s trying to fake an orgasm while he's holding his legs. They're literally just moving forward off the wall. It worked well in the end, but we were just figuring it out. 

HFC: I keep saying I’m impressed just because I am impressed. It's hard to do that in such a way to where it's convincing and engaging and funny. It seems like the actors are just fully bought in. You never doubt it for a second when you're watching. So, improv, I guess I could say they improvised the sex sounds?

SU: We just recorded sex sounds; it was almost problematic. We had William Magnus, and he did sound. We really needed just some normal sex sounds and whenever we had them do sex sounds, they were improvising too much and being too funny. Whenever we tried to pull sex sounds, we had to really work for it and repeat some. Most of it was them talking.

HFC: You did mention that you had makeup on set for the devil. Obviously, the devil is very inspired by kind of those fuck boy, just-want-to-get-in-your-pants types. So, I wanted to see what was your approach to styling. because the devil is an iconic character in literature and in cinema. 

SU: I storyboarded a lot of stuff, and Laurie helped me. She's better at PowerPoints and spreadsheets. We went and found images and she helped me put it into a pitch deck, which is so funny because now I'm like, “we probably didn't need all that stuff for the short.” 

I just went online and found different images that I liked. I knew that I wanted him to have a hot outfit. I had this vision of a long coat or something sexy. I just thought it'd be such a funny juxtaposition to have tiny horns. That was my number one, tiny horns will make it so funny. That's the thing about comedic characters, they're trying so hard to present one way but then they're not. So, he's trying so hard to be this devil hot fuck-boy, but he's kind of goofy and soft. Which is like most men because we all have emotions, we're all emotional and a little soft inside. 

HFC: I just need to compliment you on how talented you are at exploring themes of false promise and the masculine mindset when it comes to sex. That genuine sincerity that most men feel they can get away with anything. If you have enough competence and sincerity, you can do whatever you want, and it doesn't affect anyone. So, I just really wanted to compliment you on being able to explore those themes so effectively in 10 minutes. It's mind boggling to me how impressive that was and I am very interested to see if you have anything planned. What can we hope to see from the future?

SU: Actually, an agent approached me after the Austin Film Fest, which is exciting. It was funny because he said he was with UTA, and I'm so new to the film industry. I thought he said he was with UT. Like, is he trying to recruit me for school? My friend was like, “That's UTA, that's a big deal.” He’s kept in touch and been awesome. He suggested a while back that I write it into a pilot for a writing sample. So, I've been doing that, writing it into a pilot, and it's become very fun. It's based in the mid 2000s, during the height of the purity culture. Mary has become a young girl named Grace, who is very big in this purity movement and dealing with her sexuality and does indeed have the devil show up into her life. I'm still writing it. I'm about to start another draft. I'm really hoping that'll go somewhere, because I've gotten a lot of good feedback on it.

Hopefully, that goes somewhere, but either way, I am going to make more short films. I'm going to finish this pilot. I did have a light bulb come on recently about my next short, so I'm going to start writing it soon.