A Screenwriter Hunts for Inspiration on Ingmar Bergman's Island, in a Horror Film
Gustaf Skarsgård, best known for Vikings, has started production on his feature directorial debut, a psychological horror film called The Cannibal. Peter Birro wrote the screenplay, which Variety describes as a nightmarish journey into a screenwriter's mind as he returns to Ingmar Bergman's home island of Fårö in search of inspiration.
Setting a story about a writer hunting for inspiration on Bergman's home island is a self-aware move: the film takes the very search it depicts and treats it as horror material rather than romance.
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The premise is doing double duty. Fårö is already a monument to a director, so sending a screenwriter there to look for inspiration loads the setting before anything supernatural happens.
Or the film simply borrows the island's atmosphere. The nightmarish part is located in the writer's mind, not in the place itself — the title even points inward.