How Louis Paxton Pulled Off A Quirky Scottish Romp Full Of Heart With ‘The Incomer’

[L-R] Domhnall Gleeson as “Daniel” and Gayle Rankin as “Isla” in the Comedy, Drama, Fantasy THE INCOMER, from Sumerian Pictures.

Courtesy of Sumerian Pictures

Domnhall Gleeson’s surreal trip down the AI rabbit hole in Ex Machina looks like a relaxing weekend in The Hamptons compared to what he goes through in The Incomer.

In this case, Gleeson plays the titular character, a Scottish civil servant named Daniel, who travels to a remote island to inform its eccentric and emotionally stunted inhabitants, brother-sister duo Sandy (Outlander’s Grant O’Rourke) and Isla (House of the Dragon’s Gayle Rankin), that they must vacate to the mainland.

Understandably, they’re not very eager to leave the only home they’ve ever known.

Written and directed Louis Paxton, the film is a quirky, offbeat, and oftentimes hilarious tale about human connection that is a cross between Wes Anderson’s dioramic verisimilitude and Edgar Wright’s snappily deadpan hijinks.

“The more seriously we treat it, then the funnier the absurd stuff is,” Paxton told me over Zoom. “We didn’t want to ever feel like we were winking at the audience, or signaling, ‘This is going to be really funny,’ despite the fact that it is so heightened.”

“I hadn’t worked with a first-time feature filmmaker, and that can go lots of different ways,” said Gleeson over a separate call. “But he is a true collaborator. He is not protective of his story in any way, other than the right way. None of it is about ego. It’s all in service of the story, and he knows how to create a shot. He knows how to create a scene. He knows how to do a joke. He knows how to make you feel something.”

The script is semi-autobiographical, heavily inspired by Paxton’s own familial roots on Scotland’s Northern Isles.

“All these islands were at one time inhabited,” he said. “And then at some point, the remaining inhabitants made the decision to evacuate, often to go to a bigger island or the UK mainland. I was just fascinated by the choice to leave, and what that must have meant for these people leaving behind not just your home, but the home of where your heritage has been going back generations. I was interested in that clash, I suppose. That mainland perspective versus that entrenched island perspective. What fun you could have comedically, but also thematically.”

O’Rourke, with whom the Paxton has collaborated for around 20 years, helped develop the project for well over a decade. “By the end of the process, we’d be doing little joke passes and dialogue passes,” shared O’Rourke. “I’ve had a relationship with this film for 12 to 13 years. I’ve been desperate to make it.”

Added Paxton, “He was always going to play Sandy, but the comedy in this is very much the comedy that we share.”

Initially treated with suspicion and outright hostility by Sandy and Isla, Daniel (a bit of a loner himself back on the mainland) slowly comes to understand the siblings’ odd, Luddite-esque existence. “Daniel, over the course of the film, uses his phone less and less,” Gleeson explained. “He’s on it all the time at the beginning and by the end, he’s just talking to these brilliant people in front of him.”

To really make Gleeson feel like an outsider, Paxton shot many of the sibling-centric scenes first to develop that idiosyncratic relationship, not all of which is verbal. “There was this sense that they’ve been on the island for ages and might not speak to each other a lot,” noted the director. “They might communicate non-verbally. So we actually played around with movement workshops.”

Said O’Rourke, “It was exciting to play someone who has absolutely zero cultural references and is completely unaware of what it’s like to just be around someone who isn’t his sister.”

The duo’s idea of recreation involves dressing up in ominous bird costumes, an almost ceremonial activity meant to acknowledge a deep connection to the island and the sustenance it provides, while simultaneously scaring off any unwanted outsiders.

“The inspiration came from traditional folk outfits that certain people in Scandinavia would wear; built out of fur, twigs, and things like that,” revealed Paxton. “Some of them are quite comical, but a lot of them are really creepy. As soon as you cover a person’s face, it becomes really unsettling. Sandy’s costume is definitely based more on a Gannet, and Isla’s is based more on a puffin. All of what the outfits are made from are elements that they would have access to on the island. We wanted them to feel real and tangible and not overtly comedic, even though they are quite comedic in certain scenes.”

He continued: “Films that mix tones are the films that I find most exciting. Where you don’t necessarily know what’s going to happen next. The films that have excited me over the last few years have played with comedy or horror and drama. This film is predominantly a comedy, but tonally, I’m interested in that place where there’s a tension. It all comes back to tension and and how you release it—whether you release it through a laugh or you have a scare.”

That slightly sinister undercurrent extends to a number of conversations Isla has with a Finn-Man (The Mummy’s John Hannah), a creature straight out of Scottish folklore, albeit one oft-overlooked in favor of the country’s most famous cryptid, Nessie. Nevertheless, the uncanny humanoid with a seal-like countenance tries to lure the young woman to the same watery doom that befell her father years before.

While the movie leaves it ambiguous as to whether the Finn-Man is real or not, Paxton interprets him as a manifestation of Isla’s suicidal thoughts.

“He is the voice in her head reinforcing all of what’s keeping her there, what’s keeping her stuck,” the director explained. “If she doesn’t leave the island, I believe she would kill herself. I think something needed to change and it’s lucky that the Incomer came along when he did.”

At the end of the day, The Incomer rests on the shoulders of Rankin, whose reluctantly vulnerable performance delivers “incredible emotional access,” Paxton said. “Just this real soul, which grounds the entire movie and gives it its heart.”

“She’s so real and raw and emotionally truthful,” gushed O’Rourke. “But at the same time, she’s a really elegant comic actress. She’s got great rhythm and timing and placement—and she does it every single take. Even when the camera isn’t on her, when it’s your close-up, she’s still giving everything.”

Concluded Gleeson: “There’s no one who can do what Gayle does, and I think this film really brings out the best in her.”

The Incomer is now in theaters. Click here for tickets.