'The King Tide': 12-year-old Alix West Lefler is an 'old soul' leading eerie Newfoundland thriller

A small Newfoundland town proves to be an alluring location for the eerie magic-filled thriller The King Tide (now in theatres), from director Christian Sparkes. But the most captivating moments of this film come from 12-year-old actor Alix West Lefler, who leans into the emotion and the magic of this movie.

"Sometimes working with children can be a challenge, just from an experience standpoint and just kind of understanding how to breakdown material, and how to kind of be prepared," Lefler's costar, Clayne Crawford, told Yahoo Canada during last year's Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). "I feel that sometimes with kids, even working with my own kids on stuff, it's less about the exploration of the scene and more [about] just trying to get the logistics down."

"That just wasn't the case with Alix. ... Old soul gets kind of thrown around too much, but this is really the only way to kind of describe her energy. ... When you get her on set, there's zero nerves and she isn't shy about communicating her thoughts or desires for a scene, which is super exciting."

In The King Tide, Lefler plays Isla, who mysteriously arrives as a baby ashore a remote village, adopted by couple Bobby (Crawford) and Grace (Lara Jean Chorostecki). Isla has magical powers and as she gets older, some believe that she's a saviour, but that causes conflict in this community.

For Lefler, the magical aspect of her character was particularly exciting, her first role playing someone with special powers.

"I definitely was a little bit nervous, because the whole show is sort of around Isla's powers," Lefler said. "But it was so much fun when I was doing it."

But even at 12 years-old, Lefler is already particularly attracted to thrillers and dramas with emotional roles.

"[When I] read the script over I always think, 'What if this happened to me?' And I kind of bring it out," Lefler said.

"I really like having a good challenge. ... I think definitely before I shot it, I was really thinking the magical aspect of it was going to be challenging for me, especially doing it without all the special effects. In person, it just felt like it was so real, and how we all created those effects ... was amazing."

A 'fresh' addition to thriller genre

For Sparkes, what appealed to him about this story was the element of, "human beings are given something beautiful and they invariably find a way to pervert and destroy it."

"I think that's always rich, fertile ground to work from," Sparkes said. "And if you can take that idea and set it within the unique culture of Newfoundland, the people and place I know really well, that provided an interesting challenge for me. So that was one of the things I liked the most."

For Crawford, the film's concept just felt "fresh."

"We're all inundated with so much content, ... with the new streaming world, ... so something what was really intriguing to us 10 years ago, can become quite cliché now," Crawford said. "When I read this script, it seemed very fresh."

Actor Clayne Crawford says Newfoundland town 'feels like the '80s'

The landscape of the village of Keels in Newfoundland, where the film was shot, was a key component to Sparkes' approach.

"Newfoundland is very unique," Sparkes, who is from Newfoundland, said. "A lot of films these days sometimes struggle to tell a new, fresh story, or show us worlds that we've never seen before."

"So capturing the landscape in a unique and dynamic way was definitely a priority for me. And also, not overdoing it. ... I'm not a huge fan of establishing shots in general, I find it gives the audience time to turn their brains off. Certainly with a thriller, you want it to remain propulsive. So I chose my moments and hopefully the landscape is evocative."

But even off screen, the Newfoundland town impacted the dynamic for the cast and crew, which bled onto the screen.

"It feels like the '80s, after school kids went to the ice cream shop and kids got ice cream cones, and walked home eating their ice cream," Crawford said. "Kids are on their bikes in the streets and playing basketball. ... My son was begging us to stay for Halloween."

"We quite literally took over the town," Sparkes said in a separate interview. "There's about 20 or 30 people who live in this town and that's at the peak of summer, it's even less than winter, so we had a crew of 80 to 90."

"These people welcomed us into their homes and fed us, and they're in the film. All the background performers you see in the town hall or walking to the shops, they're all those local people."