Director Miley Tunnecliffe’s horror movie Proclivitas commences production in Mundaring

The State’s screen production boom is in full swing this week with a supernatural horror flick joining a film by Driving Miss Daisy director Bruce Beresford in commencing shooting around Perth. The West Australian can reveal Proclivitas, starring Fremantle-born Rose Riley (Stateless), former Home & Away alum George Mason and Hayley McElhinney (Doctor, Doctor) has begun filming at a location in Mundaring. Earlier this week Beresford’s new drama, Overture, starring Luke Bracey (Hacksaw Ridge) and screen legend Bryan Brown, kicked off a 25-day shoot in Perth and York. Proclivitas is the debut feature from Miley Tunnecliffe, who also wrote the screenplay, having previously had writing credits on The Heights and the TV adaptation of the animated feature 100% Wolf. It tells the story of a disgraced doctor (Riley), who returns to her hometown and rekindles a romance with an old flame (Mason), only to awaken past demons — in this case, said demons are addiction and a literal demon trying to possess her. “It’s such a pleasure to be able to make this film in my hometown ... and I can’t wait to share it with the world,” Tunnecliffe said. Produced by Kate Separovich (Dirt Music), the film notably has an exclusively West Aussie, all-female key creative team. Proclivitas was last year’s recipient of Screenwest’s coveted West Coast Visions initiative, which saw the production awarded $750,000 from WA’s peak film funding body and an additional $500,000 from Screen Australia. Screenwest chief executive Rikki Lea Bestall said her organisation had been following the careers of Tunnecliffe and Separovich closely for the past decade. “It’s so great to see two WA actresses, Rose and Hayley, take on starring roles alongside an entirely WA crew,” Bestall said. Previous examples of West Coast Visions recipients who have gone on to find success include Jub Clerc’s Sweet As winning awards at international film festivals, Zak Hilditch’s These Final Hours being selected for the 2014 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight and Ben Young premiering Hounds of Love at the 2016 Venice Film Festival 2016. Hilditch and Young both leveraged that success into securing major Hollywood projects. Proclivitas is scheduled to wrap filming in September and has confirmed local distribution through Icon.