Lorcan Finnegan is harking back to one of his favorite genres with The Surfer. Having made his feature debut with 2016’s Without Name, Finnegan broke out internationally with the Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots-starring sci-fi horror movie Vivarium, which he followed up with the 2022 psychological horror film Nocebo, led by Eva Green. His latest film, which pairs him with writer Thomas Martin and they developed over two years, is a love letter to the Ozploitation genre, being set and sH๏τ in the rarely utilized southwest coast of Australia.

The Surfer stars Nicolas Cage as the тιтular character, a man who is looking to return to his childhood hometown to buy his old family house, a beautiful mansion right on the coast of an idyllic beach. While on the verge of rebuilding his family after a separation from his wife and estrangement from his son, The Surfer is confronted by Scally, a guru-like figure who has amᴀssed a group of local surfers who antagonize any outsider who tries to surf the beach. Refusing to back down from the gang, the character finds himself on a path of psychological torment.

Prior to the movie’s release, ScreenRant interviewed Lorcan Finnegan to discuss The Surfer. The director reflected on bringing the movie to South by Southwest and how audiences responded to the film, as well as the cyclical themes regarding the beach’s history, how there was nearly a supernatural tinge to the story, and working with the film’s composer to create a dreamlike atmosphere for the thriller.

The Beach’s “Haunting Beauty” Was Nearly A Literal Thing For The Film

“…There Was No Need For All Of That…”

While not its world premiere, The Surfer‘s wide release came fresh on the heels of its SXSW 2025 premiere, where we previously spoke with Finnegan. Reflecting on his experience at the Austin-set film festival, he warmly recalled the “great audience” in attendance of the movie’s premiere night, also sharing his excitement that it “was received well” and that “Nic told some good stories on stage” at the event.

Though avoiding direct spoilers, Finnegan was asked about flashes shown throughout The Surfer, in which Cage’s тιтular character came across a ᴅᴇᴀᴅ body on the beach in his childhood, and seemingly paralleling with his current situation. The director confirmed there was “definitely” an intentional cyclical theme regarding the beach, describing the location as having “this haunting beauty to it“, which includes the waves being “pretty, pretty violent“, all while looking “beautiful and crisp“.

Finnegan, who spent multiple years developing and tweaking the script with Martin after the writer first approached him with his original draft, went on to reveal that in a previous draft of the film, “the beach had this almost supernatural hold over” Cage’s тιтular character, with a “sound called The Thrum” that “drew him towards it“. “There had been cycles of violence that took place on the beach, including a mᴀssacre of Indigenous people, which is real all around that area, all over the west and east coasts of Australia,” Finnegan explained. “But we ended up refining the script, there was no need for all of that, as well.“

Though expressing his feeling that the supernatural element was “complicating the themes that we were trying to actually bore down into“, Finnegan did reveal there were still a few moments alluding to this in the film. One notable example is when Miranda Tapsell’s character, the PH๏τographer, tells Cage’s that he doesn’t belong there, an ominous warning of the dangers to come from his journey on the beach. “We were finding a place that could give off that vibe,” Finnegan explained. “You could only really get that by going there and scouting lots of places. And then when you’re there, you just get this feeling that it has a kind of vibe to it.“

The Surfer’s Score Is Meant To Parallel The Character’s Journey

“…It Really Played Into The Psychological Aspect.”

Even while the movie may have shifted away from its supernatural nature, the score by François Tétaz remains a haunting, dreamlike soundscape, adding another layer to the film. Finnegan recalls the composer originally approached him with “a very different tone” to his early tracks of the score, being “more electronic“. As the two began discussing the film, the director learned that Tétaz had “actually been on that beach when he was young“, having “spent Christmas there and gone walking on the beach on his own“, thus giving him an extra connection to the script.

The two then began “collecting music and sharing it back and forth“, during which they ultimately landed on the exotica genre, the Martin Denny-popularized structure composed of “music that was evocative of being somewhere exotic, being on holidays, but without actually using any Indigenous instrumentation“. “He just kind of created this illusion of a place that doesn’t actually exist,” Finnegan said.

More than creating a unique atmosphere for the movie, though, Finnegan also pointed out how the music aligned with “Nic’s character’s point of view“, as he “has this nostalgic, warped memory of his childhood in this beautiful place“. Praising Tétaz’s score as having “really played into the psychological aspect” of the film, he went on to denote how Cage’s тιтular character is “kind of a dreamer” and “kind of a romantic“, which aligns with the tone of the music:

He thinks that things can be fixed, he thinks that he’ll get his wife back, he’s eternally optimistic, really. So, the music kind of goes hand in hand with that.

More About The Surfer (2025)

In the psychological thriller directed by Lorcan Finnegan, a man returns to the idyllic beach of his childhood to surf with his son. But his desire to hit the waves is thwarted by a group of locals whose mantra is “don’t live here, don’t surf here.” Humiliated and angry, the man is drawn into a conflict that keeps rising in concert with the punishing heat of the summer and pushes him to his breaking point.

Check out our previous Surfer interviews with:

• Lorcan Finnegan, Julian McMahon, Leonora Darby and Thomas Martin at SXSW
• Nicolas Cage

Source: ScreenRant Plus