The Misadventures of The Horror Chick

[Daily Dead’s 2020 Holiday Gift Guide] Artist Profile: Ama Lea, Poltergeists and Paramours

2020-11-18T00:15:00.005-08:00

Hello, readers! In anticipation of the launch of Daily Dead’s 8th annual Holiday Gift Guide later this month, we’re going to spend the next few weeks celebrating a series of independent artists who specialize in creating horror-themed merchandise. Be sure to check back every day throughout the month of November to learn more about all of these indie artisans, and hopefully these profiles will help inspire your holiday shopping lists this year. Cheers!

Undoubtedly, Ama Lea is one of the hardest working figures in the L.A. horror scene. She’s a director, photographer, launched her own lingerie line a few years ago through her company Poltergeists and Paramours, and she somehow found the time to make thousands of face masks during the pandemic. And that barely even scratches the surface when it comes to Ama’s boundless talents (she even directed a segment in the upcoming Christmas anthology, Deathcember). But if you’re on the lookout for some great horror-inspired gifts this holiday season, I highly recommend checking out Ama’s online shop at: https://www.poltergeistsandparamours.com/ to check out her designs.

You’re a Jill of all trades. Can you talk about what inspires you as a creative force in the genre space, and what it is about horror specifically that motivates you as a filmmaker and as a designer as well?

Horror has been a part of my life as long as I can remember. The Monster Squad was my favorite movie by the time I was 4, and I got in trouble for writing fan fiction when I was in first grade, so it's always been there. As an artist, I am definitely inspired by a lot of horror from the ‘60s and ‘70s, like Italian horror movies and Hammer films. I think it's the lush colors and the strong and simultaneously sexual female characters.

You started Poltergeists and Paramours in 2016 to help fill a gap in the marketplace. What was behind that decision and what have you learned about creating your own line of lingerie and running your own business along the way?

My place in horror seems to be filling in the gaps (laughs). Before Poltergeists and Paramours, I ran Year of Fear which was a sexy horror calendar aimed at the female and LGBTQ+ demographic because there was nothing out there in that market, and the time and I wanted to see that change. As for P&P, I had been thinking about it for a long time before I actually did it. I remember, probably as far back as 2010, looking for lingerie for myself that was horror inspired and there was pretty much nothing out there, but I didn't know how to sew and always thought about taking classes. In 2016, a friend of mine, Julie Leon, bought me a little sewing machine for my birthday. I started watching YouTube tutorials on how to sew and within six months I had my first collection and fashion show debut at Midsummer Scream. I worked really hard to teach myself and I am constantly still trying to grow and learn as much as possible. Being an entrepreneur is something that I think I was always destined to do. Both of my parents are savvy small business owners and I grew up with a lot of importance being placed on having a strong work ethic.

When it comes to your line of lingerie, how would you describe the aesthetic of your stylistic choices in your designs?

My style is definitely on the more feminine side. I am drawn to laces and mesh and delicate fabrics but of course, with a spooky twist. When I design something new my first thought is how can I make it flattering to all body types, genders, and sizes and then how can I make the customer feel like their best self. My inspiration board changes often and usually inspired by a specific movie or subgenre. Right now, I'm super inspired by western horror and working on some really fun lingerie and streetwear pieces based off of that. You’ve also had a lot of success in creating face masks this year, which I’m sure you couldn’t have foreseen being such a huge thing.

How fulfilling is it to be able to create these wicked cool designs for masks but also know that these are things that will also help keep people safer too? Also, do you have a favorite mask design?

When the pandemic first started, I was working on set, as a director or photographer, and filling lingerie orders on the side. All of a sudden, all of my jobs vanished. I mean, within a week my full work calendar was all of a sudden empty for six months. Everyone was freaking out about toilet paper and supplies, and of course, masks and PPE. I had tons of free time and lots of leftover cotton fabric so I just posted on social media basically saying anyone who needed a mask, stop by and grab one. Suddenly I had hospitals, prisons, shelters, businesses, etc. all begging for masks! I think in those first three months I donated something like 4,000 masks. After that, I began designing and creating fun masks to sell and donating the proceeds to different causes or for materials to keep creating masks for people who desperately need them. It's definitely given me a sense of purpose that is really fulfilling. I love that I can make horror fans something that is enjoyable to wear during these crazy times and I love that because of that, I can give back to my community, too.

Can you discuss what inspired you to make your amazing Debra Hill shirt?

I have been wanting to get into the tee shirt game for a long time. I adore all the companies out there and support them 100 percent, but there aren't many horror t-shirt companies that are really making products that celebrate women in the genre and that's really the seat that I want at the table. I want to make t-shirts that represent great female characters, filmmakers, and movies made by women. I also hired a great local screen print company owned and operated by another female business owner to print the shirts called FroBoyInk. So there is a whole lot of spooky girlboss energy behind those shirts! As far as the design itself, I grew up in the hardcore/punk music scene and was inspired by the type of tee shirts that bands like Youth of Today were making in the late ‘80s. So I paired that style with my love of Debra Hill who SERIOUSLY doesn't get the love she deserves for all the great movies that she was really an integral part of bringing to life.

You’ve already accomplished so much in the last years, but I’m curious if you have any aspirations for the direction you want to take Poltergeists and Paramours in the future?

I'd love to get to the point where I'm just designing the collections and art directing the photo and video materials. Basically, just the creative stuff. Right now, I'm sewing everything, designing, shooting, answering emails, etc. all by myself, which is tricky with also directing and doing all of the other things I do. I'm never not working. My other goal is to someday own a storefront. Overall, I just want to keep designing fun horror themed lingerie that makes people feel like their sexiest selves. I know you also do custom orders, and even made some killer Halloween costumes this year too. If someone wanted to approach you about doing some custom creations, what should they know and what’s the best way to approach you about it? I do a select amount of costume design for film, burlesque, drag and even Halloween costumes. The best way to get me to say yes is TIME. I usually need at least six months notice for any custom work, but I can be reached through my website, poltergeistsandparamours.com.

[Daily Dead’s 2020 Holiday Gift Guide] Artist Profile: Andrew LaSane, Laptop LaSane Customs

2020-11-17T23:52:00.035-08:00

Andrew LaSane’s work first popped up on my radar in the form of his badass “Regina King Rules” tee, and then once I discovered he was a talented artist who could transform footwear into works of art for genre fans, I realized just how talented he truly was, as you can see the passion that pours through in everything he creates. Check out our interview with LaSane below and be sure to check out his online shop at: https://laptoplasane.bigcartel.com/ for more details on all his creations.

How long have you been creating and was there a certain point in your life when you realized you wanted to be an artist?

It may be a clichéd answer, but I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember. As far as customizing sneakers, that started around 2006/2007 in college, thanks to a couple of online sneaker forums. I was already into shoes, so combining the two just made sense. I’ve always looked it as a hobby, but I guess it has become a side hustle as of late.

I feel like your “Regina King Rules” shirt was a real breakout moment for you? As a fellow Regina King Stan (227 FOREVER), can you talk about the inspiration behind the design and how great it felt to have that design take off?

Yeah, that kind of randomly blew up on Twitter. From 227 to Boyz N the Hood to Friday to The Boondocks, Regina King has always been a Queen. I think I was watching The Watchmen and somehow made the mental leap from Regina King to Stephen King and the iconic shirt from The Monster Squad. I was already dabbling in one-off hand-pressed tees so I came up with the parody for myself. The way it took off is thanks to Phil Nobile Jr. over at Fangoria. I had previously made a “Fango McFangoface shirt” and wore it to meet him at a signing in Manhattan. To one-up that, at the next signing I made and brought him a couple Furgoria tees. I was wearing the Regina King shirt that night, and Phil took a photo and posted it to Twitter. I couldn’t legally sell the Furgoria tees, but a few people asked for the Regina design, then they followed me and learned about the customs I was doing (including a couple pairs I did for Jordan Peele and Monkeypaw) and it kind of snowballed from there. Most of the stuff I make is to humor myself, so the fact that other people are into it feels pretty good.

Your Black Horror Director Roster tee also feels like a vital and important design as well. Can you discuss wanting to celebrate these filmmakers who have often gone overlooked?

That shirt is really special to me. I’m really into bold, super basic and super readable vintage tees. The idea came while watching Horror Noire, probably for the fifth time. I’ve seen countless shirts dedicated to Romero, Carpenter, Craven, and even Fulci, but never the Black horror directors who have made incredible and influential films. It was Black History Month so I couldn’t NOT do it. Some people might argue that Jordan Peele and Nia DaCosta don’t belong on the list yet, but I wanted the shirt to be multi-generational and to reflect the past and the future. If someone sees it and doesn’t recognize all of the names, they can ask the person wearing it or ask the internet and learn something. I still feel bad that I had to leave a few people out (Ernest Dickerson and Kasi Lemmons especially), but I got to shout them out in an article for Insider. And they’ll definitely be on version two.

The artwork you create on shoes is incredible – was there something in particular about shoes that make them the perfect palette for your art?

Thanks! Using shoes as a canvas is something that grew out of loving sneakers and wanting to take the whole culture of exclusivity to another level. It’s one thing to own a “limited” shoe that maybe 10,000 other people have, but it’s another thing entirely to have something that is done by hand and that you know is unlike anything else you’ll see on the street. They’re also cool because, for people like me, they’re the first thing you notice about someone. I’ll paint or draw on just about anything, but prints and framed panels hang on a wall whereas custom sneakers turn heads out in the real world.

Do you have a favorite shoe design that you’ve done so far?

Several years ago for Halloween I made a pair of American Werewolf in London sneakers with metal fashion spikes, special FX silicone scratches, and hand-painted fur that took forever but came out really cool. I even lined the box in faux fur and covered the outside in Union Jack duct tape. I want to do more out there designs like that because it reminds me of the kind of customs I was inspired by back in the forum days.

Is there a shoe design you’re dying to do but just haven’t done it yet for whatever reason?

I have a mental list of film/TV themed pairs that should keep me busy for a long time. Personally, I need to make Howard the Duck and Michael Jackson: Moonwalker customs because those are the two films I watched religiously growing up. The Thing is also pretty high up there. As for dream customer projects, I get excited when someone has an idea for something that they are truly passionate about or, if it’s pop culture related, something that at first I have no idea how to translate it onto a shoe. If someone asks for Martyrs customs though, I may have to retire.

What’s been the biggest challenge for you as an artist working in the online marketplace?

Beyond finding the time to do it with a full-time job, I think a major challenge with art in general is customer expectation. It sucks when you read a comment from someone who doesn’t understand that there is more to making a shirt than a 60-second press, or that just because I love painting sneakers doesn’t mean I will do it for free or next to nothing. It can also be difficult to stand out, especially now that customs have gone mainstream and it’s more about Instagram and Tiktok than it is about the creativity and quality of the work. I like the lane I’m slowly carving for myself with my hobbies and I will always be grateful for those who have chosen to support me when they have zero obligation to.

[Daily Dead’s 2020 Holiday Gift Guide] Artist Profile: Dustin McNeill, Co-Author of Taking Shape II: The Lost Halloween Sequels

2020-11-14T23:43:00.017-08:00

For Taking Shape II: The Lost Halloween Sequels, writers Dustin McNeill and Travis Mullins dig into 24 lost Halloween sequels in their monumental follow-up book (they previously released Taking Shape last year). It’s an absolutely fascinating read for anyone who enjoys the Halloween franchise, or if you’re into the filmmaking process as a whole, and at 600 pages, it is a massive read but also massively entertaining and informative as well. You can currently purchase Taking Shape II: The Lost Halloween Sequels HERE.

With the first Taking Shape book, you and Travis dug into the history of the film series and all its iterations. I can see how the logical next step was to dive into all the unmade Halloween projects, but I was wondering at what point in the process you guys knew that you were going to do Taking Shape II? Honestly, Travis and I hadn’t originally planned on doing two books. We were just going to cover the lost sequels in an appendix, which quickly grew into a chapter, and then several chapters. There came a point where we realized the lost sequel chapters were going to overtake the actual films, which is when we made the call to split it up into two books. Plus, Travis kept discovering new lost sequels to cover. We couldn’t get all those new chapters written before the first Taking Shape’s October deadline, so we committed to Taking Shape II. Because you’re dealing with a ton of unmade projects for this book, were there any challenges in getting creatives to discuss these sequels, or was everyone pretty cool with opening up and chatting you guys about them? The overwhelming majority of screenwriters were only too happy to discuss their unrealized work with the franchise. Many of them still took a great deal of personal pride in their stories, which was cool to see. I think we interviewed nearly every writer we covered with some exceptions due to scheduling difficulties. I did find some Miramax/Dimension execs who simply did not want to revisit that tumultuous time in their careers, which is understandable. What was the most surprising aspect of this process in creating these two books from your perspective? The enthusiasm that most of these filmmakers still had for their lost sequels surprised me a bit. It’s understandably disappointing to put so much work into a script, only to have it die in development hell. These guys didn’t let that sour the entire subject for them, which was cool to see. Most are genuine fans, some of them quite diehard, and that enduring fandom really came across in our discussions with them. That fandom was also sometimes evident just from reading the screenplays. You know you’re dealing with a true-blue fan when they’re sneaking in multiple references to Halloween III. When looking at all these potential “what if” scenarios, were there some lost sequels that really bummed you out as a fan? Not really, probably because we’ve got two new Halloween movies in the pipeline to look forward to. That’s a comforting thought, isn’t it? I do think these twenty-four lost sequels represent a massive trove of missed opportunities, however. Some of those opportunities they can’t seize upon now due to time. (For example, Daniel Kenney and Marc Allyn Medina’s Halloween 4 with Laurie Strode or Shem Bitterman’s Halloween 5 with evil Jamie Lloyd.) But there are so many concepts that could still work. Several stories put Michael Myers on death row, which is a really cool direction that you could approach multiple ways. We also cover some ideas for rebooting the series a second time, all of which are forward thinking enough to world build for future sequels. That’s something important that the Rob Zombie entries never bothered to do. Speaking of Zombie, there’s a lost Halloween 3D by Stef Hutchinson in the book that focuses solely on Brad Dourif’s Sheriff Brackett that I think is just wonderful. Was there any material that you and Travis uncovered that didn’t make its way into Taking Shape II? Yes, but I think I’ll keep those to myself for now. We’re upfront in our introduction that Taking Shape II doesn’t cover ALL the lost sequels because that’s an impossible task. At a certain point, we just had to stop writing and release the book. If we didn’t, we’d be writing for all eternity. Taking Shape II is 600 pages long and 225k words. At that length, we don’t think anyone should feel shortchanged by our coverage, but there are always more lost sequels out there. The horror genre is well-known for its sequels, so I was wondering if you and Travis have any future plans to dive into the Halloween franchise in a new way, beyond what you’ve already done with both of the Taking Shape books? Personally, I’m always working on the next book and sometimes even the one beyond that. I can’t speak for Travis, but I’m a little overdosed on Halloween right now. In writing these two books, Travis and I have read over 4,000 pages of Halloween screenplays, made and unmade. My brain definitely needs to decompress from that. Would we ever cover Halloween again or do a Taking Shape III? We haven’t any plans for that, but never say never!

[Daily Dead’s 2020 Holiday Gift Guide] Artist Profile: Horror Decor

2020-11-13T23:36:00.030-08:00

As someone who has been purchasing from the fine fiends at Horror Decor for nearly a decade now, I wanted to make sure I included them in our Artist Profile series because their dedication to creating horror-themed decorative items is unmatched. Even more impressive is the fact that they have always taken a homemade approach to their wares as well, which is why I always encourage anyone ordering from the during the holiday season to do it as early as possible. For more information on all of Horror Decor’s amazing line of products, be sure to check out their site at: https://horrordecor.net/.

First of all, I just realized I have no idea just who is behind Horror Decor after all these years (I think my first order with you guys was back in 2011). Can you fill me in on your background and what inspired you to start Horror Decor back in 2007?

Haha, it’s ok! That is somewhat intentional. We don’t necessarily hide in the shadows on purpose, we just always prefer to put our products in the spotlight rather than ourselves. So to pull back the curtains a little bit, Horror Decor is primarily myself (Matt) and my wife, Nichole. It all started when we attended our first horror convention in 2006 (Rock & Shock in Worcester, MA). I had been a horror movie fan for a long time but had never experienced the community side of it before and was absolutely blown away by seeing so many horror fanatics in one place. As we explored the vendor floor, we noticed a trend; there were plenty of shirts, DVD’s, posters and toys, but that was it. There was definitely a void in the decor department. My first thought was, “Why aren’t there any bloody sheet sets?” Then Nichole made the fatal mistake of saying, “We can make them.” Horror Decor was then born and we were selling those blood splattered sheet sets the next year at that same convention.

You take a homemade approach to your products, which has to be so time consuming. Can you talk about the pride that comes from creating your products by hands and knowing a little piece of your hard work makes its way into the homes of horror fans worldwide?

It certainly can be time consuming to make almost every item we offer by hand, but ensuring unique, quality made items make it to our customers is something that is very important to us. Seeing our items in customer pictures or on Christmas wish lists is both a proud and humbling moment. Being reminded that things we made with our own hands are loved by so many can still be hard to believe at times, but fuels us to keep doing what we do. Especially seeing the younger horror fans enjoying what we’ve made, that truly warms our hearts!

From a creative standpoint, what’s been your most successful line of products that you’ve released?

Creatively, the Horror Buddies and Killer Carnival Punks lines have been the most successful, for me anyway. Getting to look at some of my favorite characters in a new light, while also getting to work with some amazingly talented artists to help design them is a ton of fun.

I’m a big fan of your Ecto Cooler candle (we have one we burn from time to time in our office). What’s the inspiration behind the different scents that you guys release? How do you capture “Amity Island” for example?

Thank you! A lot goes into creating a candle and getting it to represent whatever film, product, etc. we are aiming to represent. Wax color, container selection, label design, and most importantly the scent, we keep everything in mind when designing it. When it came to capturing “Amity Island,” the classic billboard was the main inspiration. The beach setting was the direction we decided to take for the scent, with notes of oceanic mist, suntan lotion, jasmine, and mandarin orange. We always try to lean towards keeping the scents in the “pleasant” category, so while doing something like a chum scented candle may be fitting for a horror inspired candle, it certainly isn’t something most people would want wafting through their house.

I know you’ve retired products from time to time – is there a product that you miss and would love to bring back some day?

I do have a deep love for our line of bloody bedding products that was called “The Rough Night Collection,” as that is how this all got started. How we initially made them was very labor intensive because we painted them each by hand. I often play around with the idea of bringing the line back in a way that incorporates the techniques we have learned over the years and utilize today. We’ll have to see what the future holds...

You’ve been in business now for 13 years; what do you attribute your success over the years to?

Resilience. We’ve certainly had plenty of ups and downs over the past 13 years and 2020 has certainly been a bumpy ride, but adapting to the constant changes has kept us going. We started this company to bring the horror community items that didn’t exist beforehand. Since then, we’ve seen many companies that have tried making the same type of products come and go, and we attribute that to this business being more challenging than one may initially expect it to be. The horror community has been so amazing to us by embracing and supporting what we do and we couldn’t ask for more!

Interview: Co-Writer/Director Christopher Landon on Representation and More for FREAKY

2020-11-12T23:21:00.030-08:00

As someone who has been a longtime fan of Christopher Landon’s directorial output over the years, his latest film – Freaky – is yet another home run for the filmmaker behind other genre entries like the Happy Death Day series, Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, and Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones. Co-starring Kathryn Newton and Vince Vaughn, Freaky follows an unassuming high schooler named Millie (Newton) who ends up the latest target of the infamous Blissfield Butcher (Vaughn) but instead of becoming his victim, Millie ends up switching bodies with him after he attacks her with a ritual dagger, and the race is on to get her personage back before they’re both stuck living out the rest of their lives inside each other’s bodies.

During the recent press day for Freaky, Daily Dead spoke with Landon briefly about his latest project, and he discussed the collaborative process he shared with co-writer Michael Kennedy, as well as with the film’s co-stars, the importance of representation in movies and more. Look for Freaky to hit theaters this weekend on Friday the 13th of November, courtesy of Universal Pictures.

So great to speak with you again, Chris. I really, really loved what you guys did with this movie. Truly. I think the way that you guys are able to blend the genre elements, the body swapping elements, but also give it this heart, really makes it feel like something very special. And I think what I've always appreciated about the films that you do is that you clearly love the genre, but you're also really committed to good characters. It's weird to say that feels unique, but it does to me. So really first of all, congrats on that.

I would love to start at the beginning in terms of coming into this project and this script. When you were working with Michael, was the majority of the pieces in place already? How did you guys work out the script beats for Freaky?

Michael and I, I think we just were so in sync from the very beginning, so when we sat down to write, obviously we had the concept. And Michael had figured out who this cast of characters were. I think where my skillset comes in was that I really understood the beats, and how to really beat the movie out, especially the emotional components of the movie. So, we just hammered out a rough outline over the course of a couple of days, and then really got down to the business of actually writing the script together, shortly thereafter. I think all in all, it took us about three weeks to write our first draft, and it was pretty close to what we ended up with on screen.

I don't want to get into too many spoilers, but there's a scene in this movie with Booker and The Butcher and what I really loved about it is if this movie had been made in the '80s and by somebody else, I feel like that scene would have played for laughs and played for a completely different reason than how it plays here. I was wondering, can you talk about that? Because I think what I really appreciate about where we are today with storytelling is that we're really welcoming a lot of people into the fold who maybe haven't seen themselves represented before. And I think Freaky does a great job of opening that door a bit.

That was one of the first scenes we did. Actually, when Michael and I first met and talked about the movie, it was one of the first scenes I pitched him, was this beat between Booker and Millie in the car. And I always knew from the get-go that it was not a scene that I would ever want to play for laughs. I wanted to make it the most honest, authentic, sensitive moment in the film because it was more about this girl feeling seen for the first time, and the irony of that happening when she's in someone else's body. And that was really profound because I think that's what everybody's yearning for.

Whether you're a misfit teenager or a grown ass person, you want to be seen and you want to be appreciated for who you are on the inside. And that was the best possible way to do it. So when we shot that scene, I had initially planned on doing traditional coverage of it, but then I ended up in this two shot that had this very slow push on it and I realized, this is a genuinely romantic scene, so we didn't play it for laughs.

I had one opportunity to test this movie before everything was shut down. It was a very rough, rough version of the film, but that scene was in it, and hearing the audience's reaction was one of the highlights of my career, because people were cheering in the theater. I realized they weren't cheering because they were mocking it, they were cheering it because they wanted this to happen. They were so happy that they were actually seeing it happen, and that we didn't cop out. And it was awesome. It was great. But yeah, I totally agree with you in terms of this this new era of representation that we're starting to see, because people do want to see more of themselves, and different kinds of people.

I'd love to talk about Kathryn and Vincent because they're both hilarious, but they're both very endearing in very different ways here. Can you discuss working with them on the physicality of these roles? It all just plays out really well.

I am a big fan of rehearsals and really dedicating time to figuring these things out early. So right off the bat, I worked with Kathryn first and created these video diaries where I just followed her around with the camera while she was in character as Millie. It was all non-scripted stuff. It was just her walking through life, and then talking about her life's experience up to that point. Then I was able to give that to Vince, so he had something to study. So not only was he able to start to learn her mannerisms, because Millie is a very shy, nervous co-dependent person and she's a nail biter, she tends to hide her face with her hair, there's a lot of physicality to the role that he was able to study. But then he also was able to start getting into her head and vice versa. So that was a big advantage, I think.

Vince also has really strong instincts, and he really understood The Butcher and was able to convey a lot of that stuff, especially the physicality, to Kathryn. He was very instrumental in getting Kathryn to a good place with how The Butcher carries himself, and how he assesses people with his eyes and is constantly in this Terminator mode of “Who's next?”. Just having the benefit of two amazing actors who were willing to fully commit to the roles, and not in a way that felt like cheap impersonations because I wanted them to be authentic and to really go for it, I think that's part of why the movie works as well as it does, given its concept. It's such a heightened world that you need actors and people who can ground some of this a bit. Otherwise, if everyone is dialed up to 11 and just doing bad impersonations, then you just don't give a shit.

I know we're pretty much out of time, but I just want to say again, congratulations on Freaky. And also, just because I keep up with you on Twitter, it's nice to see that maybe perhaps Happy Death Day 3 isn't a totally complete loss cause. I know there are so many of us holding out hope, and I'd love to see you get to fulfill your vision for this trilogy. And I know I’m not the only one.

Well, maybe. I'll keep begging Universal (laughs).

Well, if we all collectively beg, do you think that would help at all (laughs)?

I don't know. I don't know, we'll see. But I hope so too. I think it would be really fun, and I think it'll happen one day, I just don't know when.

[Daily Dead’s 2020 Holiday Gift Guide] Artist Profile: Chantal Handley

2020-11-12T23:14:00.024-08:00

I first came across the artwork of Chantal Handley a few years ago on Twitter, and was immediately drawn into the intimacy of her work. Her portraits are absolutely stunning, and if you’re looking for some iconic horror art to fill your walls, or give as a gift this season, be sure to visit Chantal’s online store at: https://www.chantallaurahandley.com/collections/art-prints. Chantal also sells other merchandise, including face masks, with her killer artwork on them as well.

Was there a point in your life where you realized you had these creative inclinations and did you always know it would lead to creating these gorgeous works of art?

I’ve been able to draw since I picked up a pencil and I never stopped drawing. I have always loved it. I grew up in the ‘80s, so I was surrounded by awesome cartoons and epic movies, and I think they must have seeped in to my subconscious much more than I realized. I always knew I was going to make a career out of art but I never knew which path it would take. What was it about the horror genre that you found particularly inspiring where you wanted to incorporate that into your art? My love of anything spooky, horror movies or ghost stories was something that was always part of me. I’ve loved it since I was very little but it never occurred to me to incorporate it into my art. I’m a qualified animator and graphic artist, I used to create lots of surf art, but the emotion was never there. But once I made the decision to create artwork that I am truly passionate about, I never looked back.

If you had to try and describe your artistic aesthetic, what would you say?

Art theory… oooof! Ha! To sound like my art teacher, ‘aesthetics is the philosophy of art.’ Art encourages us to react with the emotional part of our souls and if you’re a horror fan, your reaction to my art is completely different to someone who hates horror movies. I’ve had so many comments from people who say they love my use of pastels but they hate the subject. I love this! I’ve caused a reaction in someone, which I suppose is what art is supposed to do. I could get all deep and meaningful in the theory of artistic aesthetic, the meaning of art and why it’s enjoyable but at the end of the day I’m really just channeling my love of the genre in the only way I know how. I just hope other horror fans love it too.

Your style seems to lean into these intimate profile pictures – is there something about getting up close and personal with these iconic characters and actors that you enjoy as an artist?

I have always loved portraits and there is so much expression, especially in the horror movie genre. A portrait enables me to capture all the emotions of terror and fright in a single artwork. I always feel like I have had a really great conversation with the actor about their film character after I’ve created it, probably because I’ve spent so much time pouring over every detail. What’s been the biggest challenge for you as an artist trying to carve out your place in the online marketplace? The biggest challenge for me is getting my work in front of horror fans. There are a lot of people who have never seen my work and finding other avenues aside from social media is very difficult. But I am so grateful for all the people who connect with me through those channels.

Do you have any pieces that are favorites of yours?

During the month of October, I challenged myself to create a portrait a day for 31 Days of Halloween. I usually give myself more time to work on larger portraits but with this series, I set myself a goal and stuck to it. I’m really proud of myself and the artwork I created, and the David Kessler artwork was purchased by David Naughton himself! Are there characters or actors that you haven’t had a chance to celebrate with your art just yet that you’re planning to do or want to do in the future? There are so many characters I’m dying to draw but I will get to them eventually.

Video Interview: Kathryn Newton Talks Getting Her “Vince Vaughn” Right for FREAKY and More

2020-11-11T22:53:00.013-08:00

Arriving in theaters this Friday the 13th is Freaky, the latest horror comedy from Christopher Landon (the Happy Death Day films, Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse), which is being released by Universal Pictures.

Co-starring Kathryn Newton and Vince Vaughn, Freaky follows an unassuming high schooler named Millie (Newton), who ends up the latest target of the infamous Blissfield Butcher (Vaughn), but instead of becoming his victim, Millie ends up switching bodies with him after he attacks her with a ritual dagger, and the race is on to get her personage back before they’re both stuck living out the rest of their lives inside each other’s bodies.

Recently, Daily Dead had the opportunity to catch up with Newton during the virtual junket for Freaky, and during the interview, we chatted with the actress about the initial appeal of taking on the character of Millie, her experiences collaborating with Chris and Vince on their characters, tackling the physical elements of her performance in the film, and more.

[Daily Dead’s 2020 Holiday Gift Guide] Artist Profile: The Stitchkeeper

2020-11-11T22:48:00.028-08:00

A few years ago, I discovered The Stitchkeeper on Twitter and totally fell in love with her yarntastic horror creations. So much so that last year for Christmas, I hired her to design my better half an 8-Bit version of Jason Voorhees doll (which was a huge hit). She currently has an array of yarn babies available to purchase on her site, but if you’re looking for a custom creation, it’s best to hit up The Stitchkeeper just as soon as you can (more on that below). For more information, be sure to check out her site at: https://www.talesfromthestitch.com/.

You mention on your site that you have had a love of horror and crocheting ever since you were young? Was there a specific moment where you knew it was the right time to bring these two loves together for you to start up Tales from the Stitch?

I actually found a book years ago called Super Scary Crochet by Nikki Trench. As soon as I saw the book, I knew I had to try out some of the patterns because, as you mentioned, horror and crochet are two things I’m passionate about. As soon as I tried out the first pattern in the book, I knew that this was something that I was very interested in pursuing. After a few years of playing around with my own patterns, I decided to showcase my work online just for fun. People starting asking about purchasing my dolls and I realized that this could potentially be a career for me. That’s when I started up Tales From The Stitch and used that platform to sell my work.

What has been the biggest challenge for you with your business from an artistic perspective? Is it keeping up with demand? More challenging designs?

I love a good crochet challenge. I love when I’m asked to create something out of my comfort zone because leaving my comfort zone helps build my talent. There are a lot of techniques I learn with each piece that can be applied to future pieces. As for demand, I never over-exhaust myself. When I began this venture, I swore that I would never create a situation where I hated what I was doing, so making sure to keep my stress levels low is a huge priority. I think the biggest challenge is being a mom and owning my own business. Kids are unpredictable, especially this year where COVID-19 has taken away things like daycare. Working from home with a 4-year-old is definitely challenging. Some days she lets me work and other days she wakes up, shoves her head up my butt and keeps it there until bedtime. Luckily, I am a night owl so I have no issues staying up all night working but it’s the unpredictability that bothers me the most. I like routine and unfortunately 2020 is not the year for routine.

Do you have favorite yarn babies that you have created over the years?

I’m always a fan of my Killer Klown yarn babies. And I once made this gorgeous Q The Winged Serpent that I think about quite often. I also adore my Creepshow crate beast and the witch from House. Those two stay with me in my office as I couldn’t bear to part with them, especially the House witch. House was one of my first horror films and that witch was one of my first “What the f--- is this insane bullshit” moments in horror. If you’re creating a yarn baby for fun, is there a specific design or horror icon that you tend to revisit more than others? I will forever and always adore making Jason Voorhees dolls. He is just such a versatile character. There’s so many versions of him that I never get tired of making him. Plus, he’s my number one dude in horror. Usually when I’m making a yarn baby for fun though it’s because I was inspired by a film I recently watched. There are a lot of films now where I will be sitting there watching and I’ll be like, “OMFG, I have to create that creature,” and immediately my mind starts making the pattern up. Is there a yarn baby design that you have always wanted to try but just haven’t done yet, for whatever reason? I have always wanted to crochet the giant clown on strings from Killer Klowns from Outer Space. If I had the time, I would want it to be life sized and I would just put it in the wooded trails in my town, just so people would be walking and then be like, “What the hell is that?” I actually would love to get into creepy yarn bombing around town.

What’s been the biggest highlight of your business so far?

There’s been a few things I’ve been proud of. I’ve done some work for different film releases, like Brightburn and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. I recently had my work showcased by Fangoria on their social media platforms. I’ve done work for Jennifer Tilly. I’ve had retweets by numerous celebrities and I’ve traded crochet yarn babies for autographs with celebrities. I don’t think I could pick just one highlight because every highlight gives me that positive energy that lets me know I’m doing what I was meant to do with my life.

If horror fans want to place an order with you for the holiday season, what’s the best way for them to do that, and what kind of deadlines are you facing during the holidays?

The easiest way to contact me on my website talesfromthestitch.com. I will admit I am almost booked for custom orders to be guaranteed for Christmas so if your planning a custom order for a gift, do it now. I usually stop guaranteeing Christmas arrival packages mid-December, but with the post offices being a hot mess this year, I’m really having a hard time guaranteeing anything after December 1st. But please, make sure to just contact me and ask because every situation is different.

[Daily Dead’s 2020 Holiday Gift Guide] Artist Profile: Jennifer McCarthy, Final Girl Designs

2020-11-10T22:37:00.031-08:00

For over 20 years, Jennifer McCarthy has been making jewelry and with her company, Final Girl Designs, she incorporates her passion for the horror genre into her dazzling creations. Final Girl Designs has been featured in several past iterations of our HGG, so I thought it was time to catch up with Jennifer and talk about her love of jewelry, horror, and more. For more information on Final Girl Designs, please visit Jennifer’s site at: https://www.finalgirldesigns.com/ or follow FGD on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/finalgirldsigns or on Instagram at: http://www.instagram.com/finalgirldesigns.

Was there something in particular that inspired your passion for creating jewelry and then bringing that together with your love of horror?

I started out with those little kits you get at the toy store when I was in my teens. They were just fun to do. Then I started working at a second hand store and began learning about vintage jewelry. What was valuable, or worth fixing and what I could use for parts. It just grew from there. It was always just a hobby, but I wanted to make it more than that for a long time. Then I started going to horror cons and really wanted to become a part of the community. I’ve always loved horror and it just made sense to bring those two passions together. I started listening to the Movie Crypt podcast in 2015. Hearing creators from all walks of life share their stories really legitimized being a working artist for me. I knew that sharing my work was going to be the way I could contribute to and become a part of something I love so much. I trademarked my name and went from there.

With the name Final Girl Designs, I was wondering if there are certain final girls that are your favorites?

Laurie Strode is the Final Girl that’s probably had the biggest effect on me. Her survival story speaks to me on a visceral level. She was one of the first Final Girls I ever saw. Final Girls are usually thrown into their roles and have to fight their way through their situation while coming to terms with what they are becoming. The end of the movie is the end of their story. We get to see Laurie at different stages of her trauma/recovery showing that we can through it, but it will always be with us. Jamie Lee Curtis owns that role. It has been a privilege to watch her grow with it and I am so grateful she has been able to play it consistently.

On your site, you mention that you rescue broken jewelry and breathe new life into these pieces (which makes you like Dr. Frankenstein in a way!). Is there something extra satisfying for you on a creative level when you’re able to recycle items and turn them into something new for people to enjoy?

I love the Frankenstein reference! As a Final Girl, rebirth through destruction has been a major theme in my life. Transforming something broken and discarded into something beautiful brings me joy. Sourcing vintage goodies is like a treasure hunt. And it saves useable material from going into a landfill. How would you describe your design aesthetics for your jewelry? Spooky, dark, and badass. I use horror elements but not horror movie references specifically. Fan art is awesome, but it’s just not what I do. I like things that are simple, but make a statement. I use a lot of weapon charms in my work. The weapons channel the Final Girl vibe but also subvert the danger of them by making them into something cool and fun to wear.

Do you have a certain type of jewelry you enjoy making more than others (earrings, necklaces, etc.)?

Not really a certain type of jewelry per se, but my favorite pieces are those that have meaning. Jewelry is a very personal item. I like to make pieces that make people feel special and pieces that make people feel powerful. I even have a Wear Your Bravery Collection available on my website. I often post materials I just got and works in progress on my Instagram account: http://www.instagram.com/finalgirldesigns. People can customize their jewelry by choosing chain type/length or what charms or beads to use etc. It makes the pieces that much more personal and meaningful.

What’s been the hardest aspect of running your business?

The hardest part of running my business is running my business. Like most creators, I just want to make stuff. Building and maintaining a website, marketing, social media etc is a full time job in and of itself. And it’s a pain in the ass. If I could have another me that just did all that I’d be happy. Plus I have a full time job and a son. I feel like I have four full time jobs; a mother, a therapist, an artist, and a business owner. Is there a design you’ve wanted to do but just haven’t been able to yet? There are certain designs that I’ve already done that took forever to do because I was looking for just the right finishing touch. My Arm the Matriarchy collection is a perfect example. Trying to find the right materials that looked like what I wanted was a struggle. And I am still looking to expand and improve that line. I try and learn a new technique and/or make a new kind of product every year to keep things fresh. I do want to create more original, fabricated pieces. I’ve always wanted to learn how to metal smith. However, I have learned that right now I need to work within the price point I have success with and as my business grows so will my body of work.

Review Round-Up: HIS HOUSE and TREMORS: SHRIEKER ISLAND

2020-11-07T00:03:00.022-08:00

As this writer continues to play post-Halloween catch up with reviews, here’s a look at two films I recently had the pleasure of checking out – His House from up-and-coming filmmaker Remi Weekes and Tremors: Shrieker Island, the seventh film in the Tremors franchise.

His House: After premiering earlier this year at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, writer/director Remi Weekes’ His House is now available to stream on Netflix. By blending together a haunted house story with his poignant examination of the dehumanizing treatment of refugees, Weekes creates a truly haunting experience where trauma and terror manifests itself in very personal ways, resulting in one of the most harrowing genre films to come along this year.

In His House, we follow Bol (Sope Dirisu), his wife Rial (Wunmi Mosaku) and their daughter (Malaika Wakoli-Agibaba) as they are desperately fleeing a war-torn Sudan in hopes of finding a better life in the U.K. Tragedy strikes during their dangerous boat ride to this promise land, leaving the refugees shaken but still optimistic about starting their lives over in a new country. They’re finally granted the opportunity to begin the assimilation process in the U.K. and the immigration board gives them a low-income property to move into, a meager weekly allowance, and several strict rules that both Bol and Rial must abide by in order to satisfy their ability to stay in their new country of residence. But as they settle into their new home, the couple are faced with unimaginable horrors, both real and imagined, turning their dream of a new life into a waking nightmare.

What works so well about His House is how Weekes is able to confidently blend together moments of gut-punch horror and devastating emotional stakes for his characters, making his directorial debut a truly remarkable moment for the genre in 2020. Weekes is also able to manipulate some of horror’s most well-known tropes into these unexpected scares that will undoubtedly leave viewers rattled to their core. Both Dirisu and Mosaku also deliver up truly wonderful performances in His House that help ground the story, and make us care deeply about them and the things that they have to endure here, which makes the film’s conclusion that much more satisfying in the end.

A film about the social and emotional disconnect that can eat away at us and consume everything we care about if we’re not careful, His House is truly a standout effort in so many ways. It’s a true horror show with a lot of heart that also manages to explore a handful of timely issues in some very thought-provoking ways.

Movie Rating:

4/5

Tremors: Shrieker Island: One of the biggest joys of my career over the last few years is being able to cover the Tremors film series. The original film was a huge favorite of mine growing up, and my better half and I bonded early on in our relationship over our shared love of the Tremors series as a whole (which was only four films at that time). I’ve really enjoyed to varying degrees what both Bloodlines and A Cold Day in Hell brought to the table over the last few years, but I must say that Tremors: Shrieker Island is easily the best sequel in the series since Tremors II, nearly 25 years ago.

For this latest installment, we are transported to a tropical island where a big game hunter named Bill (Richard Brake) has transported Graboids and then genetically altered them, all in the name of sport, as he brings wealthy trophy hunters out to try and snag them a Graboid for their prized collections. Bill’s ill-advised activities catches the attention of conservationist and scientist Jas (Caroline Langrishe) who works in the area, and she realizes there’s only one man who is capable of handling this type of job – the one and only Burt Gummer (Michael Gross). Jas sends her trusty second-hand man Jimmy (Jon Heder) to retrieve Burt from his life of isolation in Papua New Guinea, and Burt agrees to take on these supped-up Graboids after he learns of just what scummy entrepreneur Bill has been up to. The only catch is that Burt and his ragtag group of helpers don’t have access to any sort of heavy artillery, but what they lack in firepower, they more than make up for in ingenuity.

I’m sure I’m a bit biased when it comes to the Tremors series, and especially this latest trilogy, so I know my mileage is definitely going to vary in comparison to what other viewers will get out of Shrieker Island, but I do think that this is the first entry in the latest batch of sequels that really and truly feels like it was made in the same spirit of the first two Tremors films. It treats the Graboids and Shriekers as real threats once again, and there are several sequences in Shrieker Island that would have felt right at home in the Jurassic Park series, too. I also have to say that another aspect I enjoyed about Tremors: Shrieker Island is that the story feels like it’s trying to distance itself from being so gun-crazy, too. Burt’s penchant for weaponry was a great source of humor in some of early Tremors films, but these days, it feels a bit out of place in the context of where the world is at right now, and so I was happy to see Shrieker Island pivot away from using guns as a character trait for Burt.

I also appreciated how this latest entry in the Tremors series makes a statement about trophy hunting and just what kind of morally bankrupt people would participate in such activities. While some of the dialogue is admittedly a bit ham-fisted at times, Gross once again gives it his all in Tremors: Shrieker Island and Richard Brake, who has quickly established himself as one of the best character actors working these days, is a real presence here, and I could watch him ooze his smarmy charisma all over the place for days.

For those who may not have enjoyed these latest films in the Tremors series, I don’t know how much Shrieker Island will do for you, but as a longtime fan, I was pretty surprised by how much this latest sequel was able to once again recapture the magic of the first few Tremors movies, and it was also great to see this latest trilogy in the franchise come full circle for the character of Burt Gummer as well.

Movie Rating:

4/5

Interview: Co-Writer and Director André Øvredal on the Visual Language of MORTAL and More

2020-11-06T23:00:00.025-08:00

Arriving in select theaters and on digital and VOD platforms this Friday, November 6th is Mortal, the latest directorial effort from André Øvredal. The film is centered around Eric (Nat Wolff), an American traveler who finds himself mixed up in a series of unexplainable events and on the wrong side of the law in Norway. The police bring in a psychologist named Christine (Iben Akerlie) to meet with Eric, and he warns her that he has these supernatural abilities that puts anyone who gets too close in danger. Unwilling to let him end up a statistic, Christine and Eric head out in search for answers, but what they uncover during their journey is beyond anything they could have ever imagined.

Daily Dead recently spoke with Øvredal about the mythological inspirations behind the story of Mortal, his thoughts on collaborating with both Wolff and Akerlie, establishing the ambitious visual language of the film and more. Saban Films will be releasing Mortal this weekend digitally and in theaters, and then the film will make its Blu-ray debut a few days later on November 10th.

Great to speak with you today, Andre. I enjoyed how you incorporated these stories and characters that we've all lived with for hundreds of years now here for Mortal, and were able to bring it into these modern times. I think this story is really fascinating because with Eric, everything is very much is a double-edged sword. There are these positives to who he is and his abilities, but you know there are also the negatives as well. Can you discuss your approach to Eric as a character, his mythology and figuring how he fits into our modern world?

Yeah, I mean, it's both. I do believe that we all have good and bad in us and we all have the ability to do good and do bad, and I think that is a fascinating way to portray our character like that. Also Thor, who he's a descendant of, was a God with a temperament, and he was also a protector of mankind and there was a lot of elements to that character as well. I found that I wanted to bring that out in addition to talking about humanity on a very, very basic level. I think that was a big part of the approach that you can see Eric by accident killing someone, but he also knows he's going to. So there is a double edge thing to him right there from the beginning. But with the character of Christine, she is able to care for him, and that Henry, the police officer, is able to understand what he's up against in a way, and understand him as a human being and the value of him, too.

And speaking to that, I think that this story has a fascinating way of examining the foibles of humanity. In some ways, it reminded me of social media where people have a tendency to just latch onto the worst possible aspects of things, as opposed to trying to find the best in people or situations. I appreciated that this movie confronts that in a way, in terms of how it feels like society is going into this downshift these days.

I think you're onto something there. That is actually the way social media works today and the first impression that you always get of something, the headline, if you will, is what you react to instead of actually digging deeper. People tend to do that instead of actually trying to understand the subtleties and the balance of the situation that you're actually dealing with. I think that's a very good point of view into this movie.

I want to talk about Nat in this movie, because he is the cornerstone to this story, where everything goes through him in some very unique ways. Can you talk about what it was you saw in him in particular for this role, in terms of being able to capture this guy who is so full of conflict, the weight that he carries with him because of his abilities, and the way he's able to manifest his abilities, too? It’s a performance that is very emotionally driven, but Nat definitely had a lot of physical demands to his character as well.

I agree. I think what I'd seen of Nat before we made the movie was him in these lighter movies where he would be playing a very open character, very different than what I was looking for in this. Then we had a chat on Skype, and it was so great to see his darkness when we were talking. I could see that as a human being Nat was different than what I'd seen him previously portray on screen. And I wanted to bring that into the movie, what I saw in him, as a human being, a person who is able to take the weight on his shoulders and carry it and actually let it show the pain and let it show up on screen with very simple means. Because it's not really a necessarily outwardly physical manifestations of that pain here. It's often internalized, and it's very rooted in him as a human being. The guilt of what he's become and the dangers he puts people in, and how is he going to relate to it? How is he going to become a part of society again? There are so many elements to his character there that I think it's really tricky to play because there are a lot of aspects to his character that people really talk about in real life.

I also enjoyed Iben in this, too. She ends up becoming this emotional anchor for Eric in this story, and I thought it was lovely that there’s this sense of grace that she treats Eric with, and the compassion she has for him that was really nice to see. In fact, for as cool the spectacle and the visual effects were in this movie, I really relished the quieter moments between their characters, especially when they’re at the cabin, because those moments gave them both some great character beats.

That is my favorite part of the movie as well. I love the quiet beats. It's like the moment outside the Beetle when they're standing there in the rain and she's deciding to stick with him. I think those are my favorite moments in the movie, too. But I think Christine is the driving force of the story. She's the one that really drives the story, because without her, he would be lost, and he would end up completely in the wrong hands. She's the one who's taking a chance, risking her life just for a gut feeling that this is the right thing to do. This is beyond just a normal situation. This is beyond a mathematical decision. It's something you either go with or you don't. I also loved that where they're both coming from is a place of guilt. They're both coming into the story with a similar outlook on life. And in this story, I wanted to explore something where it’s not always opposites that attract. Sometimes it's just the fact that you have a similar position in life or you have a similar view on things, and then you find each other. You bond over the similarities more than the differences, and I found that balance intriguing between them.

Before we go, I’d love to chat about the visual effects in Mortal. I know you’re not working with a huge Marvelesque type budget, but I think what you guys were able to pull off here is great.

Thank you. That's great to hear. I think the movie was always supposed to be about a person who has a supernatural and intimate connection with atmosphere and with nature, so that became the basis of everything that happens in the VFX and with how I wanted to handle the storytelling. It's about the intimacy of the moments, and it's not just about wind and or hair, but about the texture of humanity and nature all blended together. That became a huge aspect of how I wanted to portray to the VFX. Sometimes it's very intimate, sometimes very small, but then to counterbalance that, I had to make it feel huge during other parts. I always had this idea that the movie was going to be told in two different types of imagery settings. One is in very intimate shots, moments and scenes, and then you have these huge expanded scenes, like the helicopter and the bridge. Those were done in wide shots from a distance because this was about the loneliness of nature and putting them in relation to the surroundings. That was the visual language that I was going for here.

Interview: Co-Writer/Director Joe Marcantonio on Getting Personal for KINDRED

2020-11-04T22:40:00.024-08:00

Arriving in select theaters and on VOD and digital platforms this Friday is Kindred, co-written and directed by first-time feature filmmaker Joe Marcantonio. The film follows a grieving mother-to-be named Charlotte (played by Tamara Lawrence) who ends up staying with the mother (Fiona Shaw) and brother (Jack Lowden) of her deceased boyfriend. The longer Charlotte lives at their remote family estate, the more she begins to become suspicious of their motives, and she begins to fear for both her safety and the well-being of her unborn child.

Daily Dead recently had the opportunity to speak with Marcantonio about his transition into feature filmmaking for Kindred, and he discussed the personal inspiration behind the project’s story, his approach to the characters and more. Kindred is being released this Friday, courtesy of IFC Midnight.

So first of all, congratulations on Kindred, Joe. I was completely shocked that this is your first feature, but I've noticed that you you've been working in commercials and doing a lot of short short films and things like that for some time now. Can you talk about making that transition to features for this project?

I mean, it's been a bit of a long process for me. I feel really old. I'm 39 and Fiona kept referring to me as a young filmmaker, which was quite nice (laughs). But I went to film school in Newport, in South Wales, which is not one of the world's most glamorous film schools, but me and Jason [Jason McColgan], my co-writer studied together. And from 1999 to 2002, and then I left there and I was like a runner and was quite lucky. Before that, my dad worked in commercials; he wrote TV ads, some of which were quite famous in the U.K. But I remember going on set with him to shoot a beer commercial and I think it must have been the first Batman was also being shot there. I remember seeing that and it blew my mind. And from then on, I wanted to be a filmmaker. I worked for Ridley Scott's company, RSA, for a while.

They're a big commercials company, but I was only there for a couple of years, and I only met Ridley a couple of times because he was always in L.A. Then I worked in commercials and did corporate videos for fashion brands and kind of all kinds of weird stuff, and then, I started doing these documentaries and short films with my money and my spare time trying to up my show reel. And that's been like a 10 year process for me. But as I was doing documentaries, that’s when I started realizing what my voice, stylistically, and what I was into and what I wasn't. Up until then, I guess I'd always been trying to mimic what other people had done or trying to make things that were a bit more stereotypically when they're supposed to be, if you know what I mean. The process of doing all those shorts was great though because there was no risk involved and I was paying for them myself, so they gave me some freedom to express myself. I think during that process, I found what I like to do and what I didn't like to do and what worked and what didn't. Jumping forward a few years, I did a short called Red Light with Jesse Buckley in it, and after I finished that, the producer from that, Dominic [Norris] and I decided to try and do a features together. By that point, I had a couple of other films written but they weren't really right for a first time. So, we settled on this idea and developed it from there.

What was the genesis of this story in particular then? I really love this central character of Charlotte, who has already been through a lot and she ends up dealing with even more trauma than we could possibly imagine by the time the film finishes. Her journey is positively frustrating, but in the best possible way.

Pretty much every film I've made, I seem to be slightly obsessed with the idea of truth and manipulation, where you realize that you never really get to know the inner workings of other people's minds. I think that's something that naturally I seem to be quite drawn towards, probably some repressed childhood trauma or something. But with this concept, I came up with this idea a long time ago, like 10 years ago probably. I just toyed with it and realized it was a bit dark, but I didn't really know the right way into the concept then. So, I stuck it in my ideas folder.

When it came to finding a good debut film, I thought about starting to write something from scratch, but I re-read this idea and it really popped out at me this time, which I think is because I'm a parent now. We had a three-year-old at the time and we were expecting our second. I had a lot of the anxieties and the worries and the things were going through my brain, and I think that really played into the angle on the script that I hadn't seen before. It was the same for Jason, who I had never actually written with before. We've been good friends for 20 years and he's got a day job working at an ad agency. We had been looking for something to do together and I don't know why, but as soon as I came up with the concept and I knew I needed someone to work on this with me, and he seemed like a really good fit.

The odd thing was he was also expecting twins at the time and they were born incredibly premature, like at 27 weeks or something like, so they were in the hospital for like two months almost. Suddenly, he had loads of time on his hands because he had time off work for the babies, but they were in hospital and he couldn't go and see them, so that was a window for us to do a lot of work. I think a lot of our anxieties and what we were personally going through at the time came through in our work, because at that point, we had just had my daughter and she was born on my bedroom floor. We were going to have a home birth anyway, but it all went a bit faster than we thought, and it ended up being just my wife and I. So we had quite a lot of stuff going on. I think a lot of that found its way into the film, that parental anxiety. And one of the nerve wracking things about this film, more than any other written or tried to develop, is that this a lot more personal. There's an awful lot of me in it, as potentially terrifying as that sounds.

How was it working with Tamara on her character Charlotte for this film?

There are two parts to this story. The first part is that I met her actually through Jack, who plays Thomas in the film, and he just worked with her a TV series that was on the BBC called The Long Song. When he got back from filming, we had a chat about casting this and he suggested that I should speak to Tam. So we got her in on a bit of a whim, at the end of the casting session just to see what she was like, and I was just totally blown away by her. She hasn't done a lot of film at this point, but she's come up through the national theater, which is quite a big thing in London, so she certainly knew what she was doing.

As far as the character of Charlotte goes, in writing her, I worked quite a lot on the character, even before we wrote the script, during the outlining phase. I had like eight or nine pages of Charlotte’s background; what she’s like, what radio station she listens to, what kind of newspaper she reads and what kind of food she eats. I try to work out the character for the most part and then build them up from there. Another thing I do is during the rehearsal period is I tend to work with the cast, rather than have a traditional rehearsal space where you go into the location and work out where everyone's going to stand. I tend to workshop and worship the scripts.

We all just sit in a circle and go through the script line by line and go over what the character is saying and what they mean and why they're saying it. And in that process, we changed the script a bit, and the dialogue, because I want them to feel invested in the character, and I wanted what the character is saying to feel authentic. I think that all that early work is a very useful tool for getting what you need on set.

Gialloween 2020: You Always Remember Your First – My Long-Time Love Affair with Dario Argento’s TENEBRAE

2020-11-01T22:25:00.002-08:00

While Tenebrae wasn’t my first foray into Italian horror (that honor would go to Suspiria), it was my very first experience with Giallo cinema, which is probably why it’s always been my favorite entry in this subgenre of mystery thrillers. I first watched Tenebrae on a whim somewhere between the ages of 14 and 16, and while I’ll be the first to admit I didn’t totally “get it” at the time, there was something endlessly fascinating about it all the same that completely hooked me as a viewer and as a horror fan.

As I got older, I tucked Tenebrae away somewhere in the back of my brain, and it wasn’t until I went to Coachella 2008, of all places, when the film would find its way back into my life. It was on the final night of Coachella when I decided to ditch out on Roger Waters’ set on the Main Stage and headed over to the Sahara tent to check out Justice to cap off my festival experience. So, what exactly does this have to do with Tenebrae? Well, it was during Justice’s set when they started playing “Phantom” and then eventually “Phantom Pt. II” when all these memories I had of watching Tenebrae as a child came flooding back. I remember buying Anchor Bay’s Tenebrae DVD while waiting at LAX to board my flight back home to Chicago, and from there, my love affair with my favorite Giallo from Dario Argento was rekindled all over again.

And even though I’ve been able to catch up with so many more of Argento’s films over the years, Tenebrae still remains one of my favorite films from the Maestro, as I regularly revisit it several times a year. If you’ve somehow never seen Tenebrae (and if you haven’t, the Synapse Blu is a work of art and totally worth owning), the story follows an American mystery writer by the name of Peter Neal (Anthony Franciosa) as he travels to Italy for a book tour to support the recent release of his novel, also titled “Tenebrae.” When he arrives, he’s greeted by his charismatic literary agent Bullmer (John Saxon) who’s ready to make his client an international writing star. Things don’t go exactly as planned once a mysterious killer decides to use Neal’s book as a template of sorts, killing off a series of beautiful women in Rome while the author is still visiting, utilizing many of the techniques of the killer featured in his best-selling novel.

As the body count continues to rise, Neal takes a personal interest in the murders after Detective Giermani (Giuliano Gemma) involves him in the investigation, and he tries to put the pieces of this dangerous puzzle together before its too late for him or anyone he happens to care about, including his doting assistant Anne (Daria Nicolodi).

Of course, because this is Argento we’re talking about, Tenebrae takes a decidedly left turn about halfway through, where we end up following a second murderer after the story’s initial killer – the prudish TV interviewer Christiano Berti (John Steiner) – gets his head split open by an axe. We watch as more of the American writer’s associates end up dead, including his estranged fiancée Jane (Veronica Lario), Bullmer, and his young helper Gianni (Christian Borromeo). Tenebrae culminates in a blood-soaked finale where this second killer is revealed to be none other than Peter Neal himself, who had previously been sexually humiliated in his youth and had killed the young woman responsible in retaliation. Neal had repressed these memories until he found himself in the middle of this murder investigation, which triggered his violent tendencies, and Peter saw the opportunity to destroy those who he believed had wronged him (Bullmer and Jane were having an affair), as he thought he’d be able to pin his devious and deranged acts on someone else.

While I’d call Tenebrae very much a prototypical Giallo – a mysterious killer, stylish death scenes, shocking violence, sexual deviancy (by the standards of the early 1980s) and lavish visuals – there’s also a case to be made that this film could be considered an antithetical Giallo all the same. Tenebrae lacks a certain sense of calculation when it comes to its murders, where they don’t have much influence over the plot, and by splintering the narrative into two distinct parts, it feels like Argento has assembled two movies into one here. There’s also definitely a Hitchcockian influence that looms over Tenebrae, particularly during the murder of Bullmer, and even the reveal of Peter Neal in the end gives off some serious film noir-esque vibes, too. There are a multitude of literary references made throughout Tenebrae as well, including the works of Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (specifically The Hound of the Baskervilles, which happened to be my favorite Doyle story growing up).

And to me, it feels like Argento was utilizing a multitude of influences in Tenebrae that stretched far beyond the world of Italian cinema, making it one of his most accessible and thought-provoking Giallo entries from his career, with a scope that extended far beyond the filmmaking language of his native country. Another aspect of Tenebrae that I really admire is how Argento utilizes the concept of mirroring, or doppelgangers, throughout the film. One of the most prominent examples is with Jane, Peter’s fiancée, and the woman that we see on the beach in the flashbacks who ends up fooling around on her lover, who eventually learn is Peter. Both women are only seen wearing white in the film and it’s certainly no coincidence that the young woman on the beach is wearing bright red heels and right before she goes to meet with her lover, Bullmer, Jane is also gifted a pair of bright red heels as well. Visually, that should have been a tip-off to the identity of the killer, but I was completely obtuse to this connection until like my second or third viewing.

We even see double with both Peter and Detective Giermani several times in Tenebrae, too. In their first meeting, both actors are wearing similar dress shirts and ties, and they’re both often dressed in shades of brown here as well. The most memorable instance of them acting as mirror images of each other is during the finale, when Giermani crouches down to investigate a switch blade, and once he resumes a standing position, he is standing in perfect synchronicity with Neal, who is directly behind him (which is one of my favorite shots in the entire film). Argento even fakes us out a bit earlier in that scene, when Peter believes that he’s just killed Anne, but it is revealed that he actually murdered Detective Altieri (Carola Stagnaro) instead, as they are both wearing beige trench coats during the finale.

These are only just a few of the double vision occurrences in Tenebrae (one subtle example comes from a pair of bros playing video games early on), but they act as a visual representation of this theme of duality that Argento explores throughout the film. In many ways, Tenebrae also feels like Argento’s cinematic confrontation of how this style of filmmaking had often been accused of being highly misogynistic. And make no mistake, Peter Neal’s actions, as well as his work as a writer, is steeped in his deeply-rooted hatred towards sexually-charged women, but Argento never paints his character in a particularly positive light, especially as we watch him mentally break down during Tenebrae’s climax.

Peter’s clearly disturbed, and I never get a sense that the death of the women here are presented in any sort of manner where they “deserve what they got.” In fact, in the case of Detective Altieri, she’s often seen as very capable despite working in a field that seems to favor men, and her death in the finale feels truly tragic. The same could be said for Tilde (Mirella D’Angelo), a reporter who confronts Peter about his latest book and its prejudices towards women during a press event, and her gruesome demise (which comes in the form of Tenebrae’s iconic shot through the white fabric of her blouse) also feels harrowing as well. Don’t get me wrong, there are definitely shades of female prejudice at play in the deaths of most of the women in Tenebrae, but just because a character is motivated by their own chauvinism, that doesn’t necessarily make a film’s story misogynistic in its intentions.

In terms of the performances in Tenebrae, the film features one of my favorite supporting roles from the late great John Saxon (the bit with his fedora is absolutely priceless), and I also think that this might be one of my favorite performances from Nicolodi as well. Franciosa walks the fine line of charismatic protagonist and horrifying antagonist throughout Tenebrae, and I appreciate that even the characters that we don’t spend a ton of time with here all feel so vivid and like real people. They’re often messy and emotional, which makes these characters (even down to Elsa, the book thief) so compelling to watch.

I could probably go on and on for about another thousand words as to just why I love Tenebrae as much as I do (I wrote a review for the Blu-ray release a few years back that digs into some other aspects of the film, which you can read HERE), but there’s just something wonderfully audacious about what Argento manages to achieve as a storyteller in Tenebrae that just checks off all of my boxes. Plus, I’ve always been drawn to stories about writers (thanks to my obsession with Stephen King), and I think the way Tenebrae explores the creative culpability that we have as artists, especially when it comes to depicting violence, makes it such a standout during this era of Giallo filmmaking.

Review Round Up: THE SWERVE and DON’T LOOK BACK

2020-10-31T22:49:00.001-07:00

October has been a busy month for horror and genre-adjacent releases, with nearly 40 different titles hitting various digital platforms and streaming services. Here’s a look at a pair of recent titles that this writer had the opportunity to check out – The Swerve from Dean Kapsalis and Jeffrey Reddick’s directorial debut, Don’t Look Back.

The Swerve: In writer/director Dean Kapsalis’ The Swerve, we’re introduced to the very stressed out Holly (Azura Skye), a high school teacher and mother of two boys whose marriage is practically on life support. Holly has spent most of her life trying to do right by everyone else, as we see through her masterfully created homemade apple pies, her penchant for keeping everything organized in her family or the amount of verbal abuse she passively absorbs from her bitchy younger sister Claudia (Ashley Bell). The reality is that Holly is a woman on the verge of totally losing it, and when something seemingly innocuous as a mouse showing up inside her house, we see just how thinly stretched she is and how quickly Holly’s life can spiral out of control.

While “women on the edge” narratives are hardly a new thing, there’s something about the framing of Kapsalis’ character study in The Swerve that feels unique, compelling and extremely relatable, even if most of us wouldn’t dare travel down the same destructive path that Holly does here. Throughout the film, we watch as this woman who has been put upon by so many people in her life as the proverbial glue holding everything together as she slowly begins to unravel, where ultimately, she ends up becoming something of a bystander in her own life, unable to step in and take full control any longer, and you can’t help but feel horrible for where it’s all leading, despite some of the missteps she makes along the way.

What makes The Swerve such a powerhouse viewing experience is just how easily everything falls apart with Holly, which is why aspects of the story end up packing such a wallop. One bad decision takes her character to some unfortunate places, leading up to a tragic conclusion that hits like a huge gut-punch. The Swerve may not necessarily be a genre film per se, but there’s something quite unsettling about watching someone self-destruct in front of your very eyes. Skye’s performance is a revelation, and her portrayal of Holly’s quiet desperation that bubbles over into full-blown self-destruction by the end of The Swerve is something that deserves to be discussed for years to come.

Movie Rating:

4/5

Don’t Look Back: For his directorial debut, Jeffrey Reddick blends the supernatural with real-life horrors in Don’t Look Back, a genre-infused morality tale that has a bit of a social conscious to it that also manages to work in a handful of other elements in as well, like slasher tropes, a home invasion angle coupled with PTSD, a stalker-esque subplot and a dash of religious iconography to boot. There’s certainly a lot going on in Don’t Look Back, but Reddick does a great job of managing everything, resulting in an impressive first feature for the long-time writer and producer.

Don’t Look Back is centered around Caitlin (Kourtney Bell), a young woman who suffered through a horrendous home invasion that left her father dead and is now doing her best to live with that trauma. One day while she’s out on a run, she witnesses a violent crime alongside several other onlookers that results in the death of the victim. Caitlin ends up calling the police eventually, but the damage is done: she and the other eyewitnesses are dubbed by the media as “Bad Samaritans” and soon enough, society dubs them all social pariahs. Beyond being ostracized, those who stood by the attack end up being hunted down by a mysterious entity, and these “Samaritans” must try to figure out just who – or what – is after them before it’s too late.

As mentioned, there is a lot going on in Don’t Look Back, and while the story does get a little too overly ambitious at times, Reddick does a great job of reining it all back in during the third act. The film definitely gives off some Final Destination vibes at times (especially with its setup), but it’s very clear that Reddick isn’t looking to retread the same territory here as he’s done before, and he’s able to subvert expectations at various points in the story. Bell’s performance provides Don’t Look Back with a much-needed emotional anchor, and overall, I really enjoyed what Reddick was able to bring to the table as a director here, and I do hope we get to see more projects with him at the helm in the future.

Movie Rating:

3/5

Video Interview: Co-Stars Cailee Spaeny, Zoey Luna, Lovie Simone and Gideon Adlon Discuss Their Characters and Friendships for THE CRAFT: LEGACY

2020-10-31T22:44:00.003-07:00

Yesterday, Blumhouse’s The Craft: Legacy arrived on VOD and digital platforms everywhere, courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Written and directed by Zoe Lister-Jones, the sequel is centered around a group of young women who come together to explore their powers as a coven of witches, and must fight together against a sinister force that threatens to destroy them all. The Craft: Legacy stars Cailee Spaeny, Zoey Luna, Lovie Simone, Gideon Adlon, Nicholas Galitzine, Michelle Monaghan, and David Duchovny.

During the recent press day for the sequel, Daily Dead spoke with the four actresses at the heart of The Craft: Legacy, and they gave us some insight into their characters and discussed how they bonded during production as well.

Video Interview: David Duchovny and Michelle Monaghan Talk THE CRAFT: LEGACY

2020-10-31T22:20:00.012-07:00

Earlier this week, Blumhouse’s The Craft: Legacy arrived on VOD and digital platforms everywhere, courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Written and directed by Zoe Lister-Jones, the sequel is centered around a group of young women who come together to explore their powers as a coven of witches, and must fight together against a sinister force that threatens to destroy them all. The Craft: Legacy stars Cailee Spaeny, Zoey Luna, Lovie Simone, Gideon Adlon, Nicholas Galitzine, Michelle Monaghan, and David Duchovny.

During a recent press day for the sequel, Daily Dead had the opportunity to speak with both Duchovny and Monaghan about their involvement with The Craft: Legacy and they discussed the social message of the film, how it relates to a new generation of fans, and their experiences collaborating with Lister-Jones as well as the rest of the film’s ensemble.

Check out our video interview with David and Michelle below and be sure to check out The Craft: Legacy now that it’s available to rent and/or purchase on a variety of digital providers.

Interview: Co-Writer/Director Remi Weekes on the Importance of Character and More for HIS HOUSE

2020-10-30T22:33:00.005-07:00

After enjoying its world premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, Remi Weekes’ His House is set to premiere on Friday, September 30th exclusively on Netflix. Earlier this week, Daily Dead had the opportunity to speak with Weekes about his feature film debut, and he discussed blending real-life trauma and genre tropes for His House, as well as the importance of having good characters in horror, and more. Be sure to check out His House when it hits Netflix tomorrow.

Congratulations on His House, Remi. Can you discuss making the transition from shorts to features for this project? And was there something about this story in particular where you were like, “Yes, this is it. This is my first film.”

I've been wanting to make films ever since I was a young child. I went to film school and I was making short films and then I moved into commercials to make ends meet. So, it was a gradual thing but during all that time, I was writing. I don't think I was that great at it so I really had to practice and work at it. Eventually, I did a short film called Tickle Monster, which is another horror film, and after writing that, I wrote His House.

I'm here in the States, but I think we have similar issues when it comes to refugees and the idea of otherism. I really appreciated how this opened me up to perspectives that I didn't know a whole lot about. What was the research process like for you with this story and utilizing this concept as a backdrop for the horror that these characters face?

So, when we developing the script, we did a lot of research. One thing I noticed when researching was that as an asylum seeker, the government will give you accommodations. It fulfills this very draconian rule, and you can't just leave the house and you have to stay put. You can't get a job, you have to go weekly to check in, where it's almost like you’re being punished. And for many asylum seekers in this country, that can lead to this feeling of re-traumatization, because they're forced to be in this place and unable to take the necessary next steps to move into this new life.

For me, as someone looking at it from a horror perspective, specifically the haunted house genre, it just seemed like a very interesting way to explore those limitations that come from this place where you're forced to reckon with your past.

You just mentioned those limitations and how you parlayed them into the horror that's inside of this house, and ultimately, the horror that's inside the psyches of these characters. Beyond that, you also have to visually manifest these things, making them these representations for what they’re facing while trying fit into this new world. Can you discuss how you approached those elements?

With the haunted house aspects of the film, it was really important to me to find the ways to use all those genre elements, but also, to reflect upon the grief and the characters and their trauma. But also, the easier way to explain it is that I just wanted to find really fun, spooky ways to scare the audience. Part of me wishes that I had given myself an easy job where I could just scare the audience for an hour. But one of the hardest things about this movie for me was that I had to make sure that the scares were always relevant to the characters and to the story and the storytelling, where the scares are revealing something about where the character is in that moment. That was really challenging for me.

In regards to these characters, they really are the heart of this story and I really enjoyed both Sope [Dirisu] and Wunmi [Mosaku]’s performances in this. Can you talk about working with the actors on their performances here?

I have always believed that you can't really make a movie scary if you don't care about the characters. I've seen a lot of films and the ones that, for me, fail are the ones where you want the villains to get these characters in the end, because I'm sick of them. So when I was making this film, it was really important to me that the audience cares about these characters. Part of that is willing to show favor to the actors and allowing them to find the heart of their characters.

When we were on set, they both would come up with new lines, which added a bit of humanity to their performances, which I thought was excellent. It was very collaborative.

You also had Javier Botet in this, who is one of the premiere physical actors working today. Was it cool to work with him on His House?

He plays our creature, and yeah, I loved working with him. He takes his performances very seriously, but he really has fun with it, too. He's such a pro and he was helping all of us out on set, especially during the ending, because we had to make sure that had to be blocked out so well. But there he was, in his full head to toe suit, with these fake teeth and fake eyes and he can barely see anything. But he's still there helping us out, showing us where to place everything so we got the most out of those moments. And when we’d say, “Cut,” he was just ready to go all over again. He was really great.

Video Interview: Co-Star Nicholas Galitzine Discusses His Character and More for THE CRAFT: LEGACY

2020-10-30T22:27:00.001-07:00

During the recent press day for the film, Daily Dead spoke with Galitzine, who plays Timmy in The Craft: Legacy, and he discussed what initially drew him into the project and how he enjoyed that the script explored the concepts of masculinity in a very thoughtful way. Galitzine also chatted about collaborating with Lister-Jones on his character and how they dug deep into his backstory too.

Video Interview: Writer/Director Zoe Lister-Jones Talks Witchcraft and Empowerment for THE CRAFT: LEGACY

2020-10-29T22:23:00.003-07:00

Today, Blumhouse’s The Craft: Legacy arrives on VOD and digital platforms everywhere courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Written and directed by Zoe Lister-Jones, the sequel follows a group of young women who come together to explore their powers as a coven of witches, and must fight together against a sinister force that threatens to destroy them all. The Craft: Legacy stars Cailee Spaeny, Zoey Luna, Lovie Simone, Gideon Adlon, Nicholas Galitzine, Michelle Monaghan, and David Duchovny.

This past weekend, Daily Dead had the opportunity to participate in the virtual junket for The Craft: Legacy and we spoke to Lister-Jones, who discussed how ahead of its time The Craft was and how she’s been a long-time fan of the original film, which is why she wanted to take on this sequel. The writer/director also chatted about the importance of the messaging in The Craft: Legacy for today’s teens and why it was so important that the sequel have an authentic and respectful representation of witchcraft as well.

Review: THE CRAFT: LEGACY is a Worthy Follow-Up for a New Generation of Outcasts

2020-10-28T01:39:00.003-07:00

As a teenager, there were a handful of films that were essential to me during those tumultuous years, with Andrew Fleming’s The Craft being one of movies that I watched the most when I was in high school and in college. Being someone who still considers The Craft to be one of the most iconic and influential genre movies to come out during the 1990s, I was pretty curious about what The Craft: Legacy was going to bring to the table after all these years. And while I wouldn’t say that it is a perfect outing by any means, there’s still a lot to appreciate about what writer/director Zoe Lister-Jones achieves with Legacy, delivering up a light-hearted examination of teen culture in contemporary society that also thoughtfully explores gender dynamics. Plus, it was also nice to see a female-centric film that didn’t have its dramatic arc revolve around a huge fight between these young women.

I’m not sure how long-time fans of The Craft will feel about Legacy, but I feel like it has the potential to be an influential experience for a new generation of outcasts out there just looking for a filmic experience like this one.

The Craft: Legacy begins with Lily (Cailee Spaeny) and her mom Helen (Michelle Monaghan) on the road, loudly singing along to Alanis Morissette’s “One Hand in My Pocket” (a fun nod to the time period of the OG Craft) as they are making their way to their new home, which happens to be with Helen’s boyfriend Adam (David Duchovny) and his three sons. For Lily, the struggle to fit in extends beyond her male-dominated new domicile, as she’s immediately treated like an outcast by her fellow peers after an unfortunate period-related accident on her first day leaves her feeling totally humiliated. But not everyone in school is ready to dump all over poor Lily. There’s a tight-knit group of witches – Frankie (Gideon Adlon), Lourdes (Zoey Luna), and Tabby (Lovie Simone) – who immediately can sense a power within Lily, and they invite her to join their coven to be their fourth. And as the girls bond, their powers and friendship grow stronger, until an unfortunate incident causes them to question their powers and a sinister presence swoops in, threatening to destroy them all.

As someone who still regularly watches The Craft, I’d say that Legacy is a worthy follow-up, but it is far tamer than its predecessor in a variety of ways. That doesn’t necessarily mean I didn’t enjoy it, because I did. It’s just that The Craft: Legacy has a much different agenda than the first movie (which is a good thing), and as a result, the character interactions are a lot different here, and part of the fun of the original came from the eventual attitude changes that we saw in those characters. Legacy is more focused on a sense of sisterhood, and uplifting others, which is definitely something I appreciate about it, because that’s what makes it unique. Lister-Jones isn’t looking to do a retread at all, and it’s unfortunate that having a core group of girl friends who aren’t in conflict with each other is such a revelatory concept for movie characters these days, but that’s just the way things are.

That being said, there were some aspects to The Craft: Legacy that didn’t really gel for me. I enjoyed all of the girls’ performances here, but admittedly, there’s no real character development that happens with any of them throughout Legacy, which makes them feel a bit static as a whole. In fact, the character who has the most fulfilling story arc in Legacy is Timmy (Nicholas Galitzine), a bully who the ladies decide to cast a spell on to teach him a lesson, and the results of their magical endeavor are most unexpected. Timmy’s story ends up feeling like the most emotionally riveting aspect of the narrative, and I wish that the women at the heart of the sequel were given that kind of care, too.

In comparison to everything that precedes it, The Craft: Legacy’s climax also feels a bit rushed as well. Everything quickly builds to this ultimate showdown, which should be this huge moment in the film, but it all just breezes right by rather quickly and before I knew it, everything was over. I do wish that Lister-Jones had taken some time here to allow the dramatic elements a chance to breathe during that entire sequence, which would have allowed the finale to land a bit more emphatically. The scene that follows Legacy’s climax sequence totally rules though, and it definitely makes up for how slight it ended up feeling.

But as a whole, The Craft: Legacy is still a lovely endeavor by Lister-Jones that feels like an essential cinematic moment for today’s teens. As a sequel, it gets far more right than it gets wrong and I love that, in spirit, it feels right in line with the original film. It definitely sets out to do it’s own thing here, which I really appreciated, and it does all this while delivering an empowering message for a new generation of outcasts.

Movie Rating:

3/5

Interview: Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead Talk SYNCHRONIC

2020-10-24T01:27:00.001-07:00

Arriving in theaters and drive-ins today is Synchronic, the latest collaboration from filmmaking duo Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead. Starring Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan as Steve and Dennis respectively, the film is centered around a pair of paramedics working in New Orleans who keep crossing paths with victims of a psychedelic synthetic drug known as “Synchronic.” Beyond some odd side effects, as it turns out that the mysterious drug also has the ability to alter space and time, and after receiving a life-changing diagnosis, Steve becomes obsessed with Synchronic when he realizes the drug has also affected Dennis’ family in some pretty devastating ways.

Recently, Daily Dead had the opportunity to speak with both Moorhead and Benson about the real-life inspirations behind Synchronic, and they discussed the personal nature of their filmmaking, exploring relationships and why New Orleans was such an important component in their latest film.

Be sure to check out Synchronic this weekend, courtesy of Well Go USA.

So great to speak with you guys once again. I really enjoyed Synchronic immensely, and I loved that it very much felt like it was in the wheelhouse of what we've come to love and expect from you guys. But also, it was something very different. Can you guys discuss the inspiration behind Synchronic itself and how this drug became a catalyst for this storytelling? One of the things that hit me when I was watching the film was that it reminded me of this synthetic fad that was going around a few years ago, where people were getting really messed up on it.

Justin Benson: Oh, for sure. It was definitely inspired somewhat by that industry of things like Spice, and I think the other one's K1. The most infamous one is bath salts. But it's the designer synthetic analog drug industries, which are these substances that they sell over the counter in head shops and smoke shops that are basically just chemically different enough from the legal version of the drug to sell over the counter and put a little label on them that says, "Not for human consumption." Or, "Research purposes only." You start looking into it and find out that the bath salts thing is really exaggerated, and there's a lot of misinformation about it. For example, the guy who ate the person's face, unfortunately, that person was not on bath salts. That was incorrect reporting. But there is still something really fascinating and dangerous about these substances that is, where do I put it? They're just not researched at all. You can almost say that there is research into an illegal drug in the sense that if it's been around for decades, many people have taken it. Now, there is some presumption of what's going to happen when you take it, and the long-term consequences and the short term consequences of that. But with designer synthetic analogs, we just don't know anything about them, and thus was born in Synchronic where I was like, "Hey, what if you took one out and it made you see time as Einstein described it or as Dr. Manhattan sees it, or as Alan Moore oftentimes describes it in his voice?"

Jamie's great in this, but I really feel like this film is Anthony's vessel, and he's very much driving the narrative in some really interesting and compelling ways. Can you talk about working with him and using the struggles that he's facing, where his time is so limited, but then ultimately what he's doing is playing with timelines, as well? I just thought there’s this really interesting juxtaposition in your story between this guy who has been given this diagnosis, but ultimately, he's really living beyond the scope of time, with this drug.

Aaron Moorhead: Yeah, I think a lot of it is this idea of the fact that at a certain point, every single one of us has to reckon with the fact that we're going to die. It's true, and that's easy armature stuff you learn when you're about five, and you explore your entire life. He actually is a character who's now on a real timeline. He's actually watching his time seconds tick down towards some nebulous, inevitable, probably painful death from cancer. And putting it on an actual timeline for him makes him reevaluate what he finds important. So of course, that idea of being able to look at the end of your life on any kind of an actual, physical timeline, that idea plays very, very nicely with somebody who is now able to view time as we say in the film, like it's a record. It's a solid state thing, it just matters where you put the needle, and you can go back. He can't personally go back and save himself, but he can do something with his time to give it what he considers to be meaning. So, that's why we wanted to make those two things play with each other, about him looking at it and seeing his actual time until he dies tick down, and messing with time itself in order to make a potential sacrifice for his best friend.

I think you guys have found a really great way to explore different dynamics in male relationships, whether it's with Resolution or The Endless and now with this film. Can you talk about that? Is that your way of exploring the collaborative connection you both share, or is it just happenstance that you guys tend to go into these kinds of stories with the films that you guys do?

Justin Benson: Yeah, obviously, anything anyone writes, you have to from some extent, take it from the fabric of your own life or your own experiences. That said, we've never done anything that was autobiographical in a way that can easily be checked. Also, it's weird because the script was written in 2015 and it's made in late 2018, so it's hard to even remember which parts of that were truly autobiographical to you in some way. Actually, it's funny, when we made The Endless and we're in it, and those characters happen to have our names, someone asked me once if it was like a metaphor for our career and our relationship, and someone asked Aaron once if it was a documentary and stuff like that. It's funny because those two characters are probably the farthest things away from us than anything we've ever done. Literally Spring might be closer, I'm probably more like Louise than I am Justin in The Endless. But, there's also this other thing too where it's weird because we have so much material that we just haven't been able to get made and I don't think any of that material features two male leads, it just happened that way. It's an uncomfortable thing where it like you don't want to be the person whose known for expressing the viewpoint of just characters who are like you, so it's just a weird thing that happened. But since it has happened, it's always really nice to hear someone say something like, "Hey, I felt like that was a somewhat unique take on a male point of view." So, at least there's that, but you do wish there were others.

Aaron Moorhead: Genuinely. And tacking onto that is, all of our movies will always just be about probably a central relationship or centrally about relationships. But as Justin said, it is basically coincidence that three of the four have been primarily male because it's just the way that the business winds have had blown. It's just hard to get the other projects off the ground, and so it's just coincidence.

I know a lot of films go to New Orleans to shoot because of its production value, the benefits and the aesthetics. But I think the city itself almost feels like a character in Synchronic in a way, because it really adds to that, "What the hell is going on here?" feeling. Was that something that was hugely important to you both when choosing to film the movie down there?

Justin Benson: I mean, there is probably no other place in the planet where the line between life and death is blurred so much. It's such a spiritual place and it goes back so long. And the idea that Anthony’s character going through a story who is learning to find comfort in his own inevitable death, that we're all going to have. New Orleans is such a beautiful place in such a perfectly thematic way. The city has seen different ends, but on top of that also, it's like when you first look at certain things in New Orleans. You look at something like voodoo and you see it through a prison of scary things, or what scary movies have made it out to be. But you take a closer look and you examine voodoo, and it has a beauty to it, a beautiful spiritual examination of life and death. And in that way, New Orleans is very similar to the way Steve, Anthony Mackie's character, is viewing his own existence.

I'm glad you mentioned seeing New Orleans differently. I really loved that for as odd as some of the locales are, there was this one scene when Jamie and Anthony were sitting there by the water and he was just taking in the skyline. I thought that was just really nice because we don't often see characters that just take a moment and steps back like that, and show their appreciation for New Orleans.

Aaron Moorhead: I appreciate you saying that because New Orleans is also an extremely consumptive place. You go there to lose your mind, to drink and eat and listen to great music and have long conversations and stay up late and all of that. And so, it is hard to, as you say, step back and appreciate the city during that consumptive process. But we found ourselves while making the movie just thinking about how lucky we were to be there making movies and getting lost in New Orleans. That is absolutely incredible. The moment that you're talking about was always in the script, but you feel it there, you really do. And it's funny also, because Anthony’s character calls it “delicious.” That word, in that moment, you can feel how there's sustenance there too in that city.

Nightstream 2020: MAY THE DEVIL TAKE YOU TOO and FRANK & ZED

2020-10-23T03:32:00.003-07:00

Earlier this month, the 2020 Nightstream Film Festival offered up genre fans a ton of amazing online offerings to enjoy throughout its four-day festivities. Here’s a look at two of the films I had the opportunity to watch during Nightstream – May the Devil Take You Too from Timo Tjahjanto (which hits Shudder soon) and Jesse Blanchard’s puppet splatterfest, Frank & Zed.

May the Devil Take You Too: Two years ago, Timo Tjahjanto unleashed May the Devil Take You, his demonic thrill ride pitting a young woman named Alfie (Chelsea Islan) and her step-family against sinister forces that want nothing more than to claim their souls. Now, Tjahjanto is back with his follow-up effort, May the Devil Take You Too, which feels slightly more ambitious and polished than its predecessor, and once again evokes a Raimi-esque sense banana pants filmmaking that delivers up a ton of devilishly fun gore and violence.

May the Devil Take You Too catches up with Alfie two years after the events of the first film, as she’s now responsible for taking care of her young step-sister Nara (Hadijah Shahab) and is doing her best to put the past behind her. But after they are both kidnapped by a mysterious group and taken to an abandoned orphanage where they reveal to the siblings that they all grew up at the locale and were subjected to a ton of trauma and horrific events. As it turns out, their reasoning for bringing Alfie to their former home has a connection to her prior experiences, and before they all know it, the proverbial shit hits the demon-fueled fan, and chaos ensues.

There’s a clear sense of growth in Tjahjanto’s directorial style between the first May the Devil Take You and its sequel, and while I definitely enjoyed the original film, the follow-up just totally goes balls to the wall with a reckless abandon, and I had a blast with what he does here. That being said, there’s still a great deal of finesse to Tjahjanto’s filmmaking as a whole, and the immersive and energetic cinematography from Gunnar Nimpuno does a great job putting viewers square in the middle of the action.

We get a lot of expected supernatural/horror beats in May the Devil Take You Too – a creepy locale, a disturbing backstory, possessed entities defying the laws of physics, items violently being hurled about and a number of gnarly deaths to boot. But the way Tjahjanto is able to utilize these elements and do something very different in the sequel proves he’s truly one of the most exciting filmmakers in this modern era of genre storytelling. His passionate for the genre shines through here, and the way he’s able to set up this buffet of bloodcurdling thrills and chills is nothing short of impressive.

Islan is once again front and center in May the Devil Take You Too, and the way Alfie goes from being someone who has a weariness to her, because of all that’s she has been forced to endure, to a true woman of power is highly enjoyable. Islan’s performance has a vigorous sense of determination to it and Tjahjanto puts her (and pretty much everyone, really) through the ringer here. And even though the actress is great throughout the whole film, she’s particularly compelling during the sequel’s gonzo third act where Alfie really has to step things up in some big ways.

As someone who’s been a big fan of Tjahjanto’s filmic output for years now, I had a ton of fun with May the Devil Take You Too, and the way he infuses all his action sensibilities into these intricate horror set pieces is quite impressive. There may be an air of familiarity to certain aspects of this sequel, but make no mistake, what Tjahjanto does here is purely all him, and him alone.

Movie Rating:

4/5

Frank & Zed: A true passion project that was seven years in the making, Jesse Blanchard’s Frank & Zed is an absolutely marvelous achievement in puppet-centric filmmaking that feels like the wonderfully bizarre love child of Jim Henson and horror director Peter Jackson (not Lord of the Rings Peter Jackson). And not only is the puppetry on display truly impressive, but Blanchard manages to pack in a ton of practical gore effects as well, which only amps things up here even more.

The story for Frank & Zed is a pretty straight-forward set-up: the titular characters, who happen to be a Frankenstein-like monster and a brain-hungry zombie, are living their best life away from the rest of society in their castle. Meanwhile, the nearby village’s king has got himself a huge problem: 200 years prior, he summoned a demonic entity in order to destroy his enemy, and now this God of Death is ready collect on his debt and fulfill the prophecy that has been foretold involving an “Orgy of Blood.” This results in a huge conflict that brings hordes of angry villagers to Frank and Zed’s doorstep, and it’s up to the lovable monstrosities to defend their abode before these humans can get the best of them.

As someone who grew up loving properties like The Muppets, Sesame Street or even Fraggle Rock and Dinosaurs (which were just larger fabricated characters with a sense of humanity to them), Frank & Zed hit that proverbial sweet spot for me when it came to watching these monstrously lovable characters battling it out against these horrible humans who only want to do them harm. What’s even more remarkable about Frank and Zed is that they never speak in the film either. Their sense of communication comes from within, and despite a lack of dialogue between them, you immediately get a sense of their camaraderie and total devotion to each other. Honestly, I was totally enamored by them here and the design work that Blanchard and company put into creating them is wholly impressive.

While the ambitious puppetry that went into making the film is one of Frank & Zed’s biggest assets, the meticulous production design is also incredible as well, and I must admit I’ve never really seen a movie that mixes practical gore effects and puppets the way that Blanchard does here. And we’re not talking about a decapitation or losing a limb here or there – at some points, there are geysers of gooey goodness spewing about, and it is glorious to behold.

I do feel like Frank & Zed works best when it stays focused on its main characters, as the movie’s momentum tends to slow down just a smidge whenever we leave them and focus on the human characters. But as a whole, the level of ingenuity and commitment that went into making Frank & Zed is truly a feat of filmmaking magic, and I absolutely had a blast with this monumentally bold gorefest, and I suspect many other horror fans will as well.

Movie Rating:

3.5/5

Review: THE WITCHES (2020) is an Adorably Charming New Adaptation of a Children’s Classic

2020-10-22T03:09:00.019-07:00

In our house, one film that gets watched every Halloween season is Nicolas Roeg’s surreal and darkly wholesome adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The Witches. Now, some 30 years later, legendary director Robert Zemeckis is tackling Dahl’s classic novel, with Anne Hathaway stepping into the role of the Grand High Witch, and the results are a highly entertaining and adorably charming fantasy film that will make for perfect viewing for families during this spooky season (and in the future as well).

For the uninitiated, The Witches follows an unnamed young boy (Jahzir Bruno) who moves in with his grandmother (Octavia Spencer) after both of his parents are killed in an automobile accident. As he settles into his new life, it’s the responsibility of his grandmother to fill him in on all sorts of life lessons, including letting him in on a secret: witches are real, and he needs to be very careful around them, because their motivation is to kill human children and witches will try and lure kids in by offering them candy and controlling them with their powerful gazes. One day at the local grocery story, the boy has a run-in with a serpent-clad witch, and he narrowly escapes, which prompts his grandmother to book them a trip to a swanky resort so they can lay low for a while.

Little do they know, the Grand High Witch (Hathaway) and her coven of crone-y followers have also arrived at the same hotel for a special meeting so that they can put their plan in motion of ridding the world of children by transforming them into mice. The boy stumbles upon their meeting, and from there, he must find the way to put a stop to the Grand High Witch’s nefarious agenda, and he enlists the help of his grandmother, as well as fellow youngster Bruno Jenkins (Codie-Lei Eastick), to outwit these supernatural baddies before their plan goes too far.

As someone who is only moderately familiar with Dahl’s novel (I read it a few times, but that was more than 30 years ago), so my frame of reference with this story comes mostly from the previous filmic version of The Witches. That being said, there were elements of this latest adaptation from Zemeckis that were far closer to the spirit of Dahl’s original story than we saw in Roeg’s take, and I really appreciated how well this screenplay from Zemeckis, Kenya Barris and Guillermo del Toro was able to retain the spirit of the novel, but also add in some touches, like setting the film in Alabama back in 1968, that elevates the children’s fantasy into something a bit more thoughtful, especially in regards to the issues of racism, without ever being heavy-handed with its messaging either (this still is a kids movie, after all).

The mythology of the titular creatures in this iteration of The Witches also follows Dahl’s approach more closely too. Square-toed shoes are out, pointy shoes are back in, and the fact that they have exaggerated nostrils (so that they can sniff out children better) is more of a focal point here as well. The one big change in The Witches (2020) is any sort of face removal done by the Grand High Witch, and instead, they have Dark Knight Joker-esque slits on the sites of their mouths, which open to reveal their overly-toothy grins. I’m not sure I totally love that change, because part of the magic of Roeg’s The Witches was whenever Anjelica Huston would rip her face off, revealing a hideously grotesque visage just below the surface. This version of The Witches relies more on CGI elements than the previous adaptation, which has its plusses and minuses; the extended grinning of the Grand High Witch sometimes looks a bit silly, but when the boy and Bruno are transformed into mice, having the advantages of technology now really gives Zemeckis more freedom with these characters that provides this version of The Witches with a grander sense of adventure overall as the tiny rodents can get into far more active shenanigans this time around.

Also, there are some hilarious bits involving the Grand High Witch’s cat that often left me cackling at times, and again, being able to utilize the digital arts to bring the creature to life here really adds an extra bit of humor to the film as a whole.

Hathaway is clearly having a ball in The Witches (2020) too, as she infuses her take on the Grand High Witch with the perfect blend of camp and menace, and I must say that the Devil Wears Prada fan inside of me was extremely happy to see her reunited with Stanley Tucci here, as he plays the hotel’s manager, Mr. Stringer. Spencer’s performance in The Witches (2020) also adds a lot of warmth, and I love how proactive her character gets throughout the film, which makes sense because we learn that she’s something of a healer (in the book, her character was a former witch hunter, but her past is slightly more ambiguous in this iteration) and anything that gives Spencer an opportunity to do more to do is always a plus in my book.

While it may not have the menacing undertones and heightened surrealism that we saw in the 1990 film, Zemeckis’ take on Dahl’s The Witches is wholly faithful to the spirit of the book but still finds ways to add in some new surprises that never feel at odds with the author’s original vision for this story. Featuring a top-tier cast who bring a lot to the table, The Witches (2020) is a wonderful new cinematic exploration of this material that will surely delight viewers of all ages.

Movie Rating:

4/5

Gialloween 2020: Dario Argento’s Subversive Vision of Death in OPERA

2020-10-21T03:01:00.001-07:00

This time, our director OD’d on weird. It isn’t like the movies.

With Opera, Dario Argento creates an inescapable waking nightmare of violence and voyeurism that could also be considered one of the Maestro’s most unapologetically philosophical and introspective entries in his entire filmography. Throughout Opera, Argento boldly toys with Giallo conventions in a variety of unique ways, often blurring the lines between reality and imagination, and examines the effects of trauma that haunt both Opera’s protagonist and antagonist alike.

Go back to horror films. Forget opera.

Even though Opera feels very much in line with Argento’s sense of style as a visual storyteller, there’s something incredibly singular about his approach to his cinematic clash of high art and Giallo-infused hysteria. While there is certainly a mystery that propels the film’s narrative, one involving an up-and-coming soprano named Betty (Cristina Marsillach), who finds herself taking on the role of a lifetime in a bold, revisionary opera production on Macbeth from horror film director Marco (Ian Charleson), who may have bitten off more than he can chew.

Between the battle-worn sets, back projection, and a murder of unruly ravens, Marco clearly is looking to make his creative mark on a world he doesn’t necessarily fit into, and Betty’s lack of experience leaves her feeling just as daunted as her director, unsure if she’s truly ready to step into the spotlight. But there is someone who believes in Betty—an unknown entity who clearly fantasizes about her, and makes the burgeoning singer the centerpiece of his deadly murder spree. And as the body count surrounding Marco’s production begins to rise, it’s up to Inspector Alan Santini (Urbano Barberini) and his partner Daniele Soavi (played by director extraordinaire Michele Soavi) to try and stop the killer’s reign of terror once and for all.

Betty’s journey is front and center in Opera, but I find Marco’s story arc in the film extremely fascinating, as it clearly feels like Argento is using the character to project his own insecurities and work through some real-life creative frustrations throughout this story. There’s an intimacy to the filmmaking in Opera, between the role of Marco as well as how up close and personal the camera often gets throughout the film, resulting in an experience that is as vulnerable as it is horrifically unsettling.

You’ll just have to watch everything.

In the first murder scene that Betty finds herself helplessly forced to watch in horror while the killer attacks her boyfriend, Stefano (William McNamara), she’s tied to a pillar, with her mouth covered in tape and the assailant has taped a row of small needles just below Betty’s lower eyelids. Before he attacks Stefano, the killer warns Betty that if she dare closes her eyes, her lids would be shredded as a result, which forces the innocent ingénue to bear witness to the grisly and unflinching violence as it unfolds. And in Opera, the deaths are all brutally invasive, with Stefano’s hands and upper torso being stabbed repeatedly. Once he’s finished, Stefano’s executioner allows Betty to go free, but doesn’t provide a reason behind his unexpected decision.

It’s a technique the masked killer utilizes once again when he attacks Guilia (Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni), the seamstress, who happens to stumble upon a clue to his identity the next day. After she discovers a mysterious bracelet entangled in Betty’s costume, Guilia realizes there’s a worn-down inscription on it, and figures out that it must tie into the murderer’s motivations. But before Guilia can fill Betty in on her discovery, the young singer is once again held against her will. This time, the songstress is placed inside a costume display case, with the killer once again mandating that she is to observe his merciless actions, which involve removing the bracelet that Guilia swallows by cutting a hole in her throat so that he can retrieve the incriminating jewelry. Before he leaves, the killer subtly reminds Betty of the power he holds over her, pushing the scissors close to her abdomen as a warning before he sets her free.

By having her character as a witness to these vicious crimes, Argento makes Betty, and ultimately us as the viewers, complicit in these murders. It’s a confrontational and masochistic approach that serves Opera well. And in some ways, it feels like the director is also challenging himself and his use of violence as a storyteller here as well. Opera is about the observation and fetishism of the inhumane acts that we commit against one another, and through a series of flashbacks, Argento lays out just exactly why Betty has been chosen by the killer. It’s because, even as a child, Betty has always been surrounded by acts of cruelty, malice, and rage, and we see how that trauma nearly consumes her all these years later, and ultimately leads to the death of the homicidal perpetrator during Opera’s epilogue, too.

And in regards to the intimate nature of Opera’s filmmaking, the greatest example of that comes during the innovative death scene of Mira (Daria Nicolodi), Betty’s agent who makes the unfortunate mistake of looking through a peephole at the worst possible moment. It’s a shocking, ghastly moment in Opera, and it might just be one of the greatest cinematic deaths that Argento has ever concocted in his career (which is saying a lot when you consider just how impressive Argento’s efforts have been whenever it comes time to bid one of his characters adieu).

I can’t decide whether it’s just a dream… or the memory of something that really happened.

Opera also seamlessly blends elements of the real and the imaginary, which are heightened by Betty’s confusion and paranoia. She’s often an unreliable narrator in the film, despite the fact that she’s in attendance for most of the deaths (barring the stagehand who meets the pointy end of a hook during her first onstage performance). We’re left wondering just what exactly is going on after Betty confides in Marco that what’s been happening to her somehow connects to these nightmares she’s had ever since she was a child. There are numerous shifts in time and place throughout Opera, leaving viewers to try and figure out just where exactly the Maestro is taking us on this particular cinematic journey.

Argento and his cinematographer Ronnie Taylor also do a fantastic job of keeping us guessing throughout Opera. By often changing the first-person POV camerawork to represent different characters’ perspectives, it plays up the mystery at the center of the story, and allows Dario to push boundaries in ways he hadn’t really attempted before in his career. We even experience the POV of the ravens being utilized in Marco’s avant-garde interpretation of Macbeth, and beyond the fact that it allows for some dazzling camerawork, this bird’s eye view becomes a crucial element in Opera’s audacious reveal, where the ravens expose that it was Santini who had been behind Betty’s ongoing torment and the series of grisly murders as well.

All I wanted was your love.

At the heart of Opera is a pattern of trauma, in the form of everything that Betty has endured and with Santini, too. While he’s most definitely a villain, and Argento never once tries to excuse his behavior, we learn that his warped fascination with Betty came about because of the emotional and sexual manipulation he experienced at the hands of her mother decades prior. She demanded Santini carry out heinous murders as a means of satisfying her own cruel desires, and eventually it drove him to murder her in the end.

It’s also worth noting that I don’t think it’s a coincidence that it’s Macbeth that is the story featured in Opera, as both Santini and the titular character in Shakespeare’s story both suffer from PTSD, and the condition causes them both to lash out in very destructive ways, ultimately leading them towards a tragic fate in the end.

It’s unclear as to whether or not Santini continued to indulge in these murderous activities prior to the events of Opera, but he does admit in the finale that once he laid eyes on Betty, it awakened something deep inside him. He sees the young singer as the reincarnation of her mother, and that vision fueled his barbaric rampage that culminates in a fiery finale where we’re led to believe that Santini wants to die at the hands of Betty, but it’s eventually revealed that the inspector faked his own death and has escaped.

The epilogue catches up with Betty and Marco in the idyllic Swiss Alps, licking their wounds after the hellish events that Santini put everyone through. While the cinematography and natural setting would indicate that they’re both now finally safe, looks can be deceiving, and somehow Santini tracks Betty down and sets out to put an end to his torment. After a well-meaning Marco is repeatedly stabbed, Betty turns the tables on Santini, and is able to manipulate him into following her, only for him to be captured by a group of policemen.

The final moments of Opera, with Betty sitting in the grass as she gets closure on the trauma that had been haunting her for so long, are so important because it shows that she’s finally reclaimed her life after all this time. Betty no longer will allow herself to be exploited, and she has finally broken free from the twisted legacy of her mother as well. This ordeal has changed her, for the better, and Betty is no longer a victim willing to serve as a spectator to anyone’s manic agenda. Opera provides a beautiful and powerful conclusion for Betty’s story, one that feels wholly satisfying, proving that it is possible to find peace even after you’ve been to hell and back.

Nightstream 2020 Reviews: MANDIBLES and CLIMATE OF THE HUNTER

2020-10-20T02:55:00.006-07:00

Last weekend, the 2020 Nightstream Film Festival offered up genre fans a ton of amazing online offerings to enjoy throughout its four-day festivities. Here’s a look at two of the films I had the opportunity to check out during Nightstream – Mandibles from Quentin Dupieux and Mickey Reece’s Climate of the Hunter.

Mandibles: While I haven’t had the opportunity to check out Deerskin just yet (which also began making the festival rounds), as a big fan of his work on the blissfully absurd Rubber, I had a sneaking suspicion that I was going to enjoy Quentin Dupieux’s Mandibles immensely, and it did not disappoint. Made in the same spirit of all those slapstick ‘80s comedies of errors that so many of us grew up loving, Mandibles is delightfully offbeat tale of two friends who come across a giant oversized fly and they set out to domesticate it in hopes of fame and fortune in the future.

While Mandibles is chock full of all sorts of mishaps and misadventures, the basics of Dupieux’s story involve a hapless beach bum named Manu (Grégoire Ludig) who gets by in life by doing seemingly easy errands for low-level criminals. His latest gig involves him needing to steal a car with a trunk, retrieve a briefcase and deliver said briefcase to a crime boss by the name of Michel-Michel. Easy, right? Not exactly. As he sets out on his job, Manu asks his pal Jean Gab (David Marsais) to come along and help out and as they are driving, they hear a mysterious thudding in the trunk. They stop to inspect the noise, and to their surprise, Manu and Jean Gab discover a gigantic fly inside, and the duo decide that the real solution to their problems is to teach this natural marvel how to do tricks, and once they do, the money will follow and all their problems will be solved. If only it were that easy.

Throughout his career, Dupieux has carved out a niche for telling truly oddball stories, and Mandibles is easily his most accessible effort to date. There’s an instant likeability to both Manu and Jean Gab who feel like the latest members of the Hapless Comedy Duo Hall of Fame, and I just adored watching them try and deal with all sorts of wacky shenanigans that they come across during their journey. At one point, they end up staying at a vacation home of a girl who thinks she went to school with Manu, and as Jean Gab tries to work with their giant fly (that they’ve named Dominique) outside of prying eyes, they get accused of sneaking a dog into their room. Rather than cop to the fact that they’re harboring this wonder of nature, Manu ends up stealing a Chihuahua to help sell their story, but Dominique has her own plans for the pup when she’s left alone with it in the room.

Some folks might not be into Dupieux’s brand of storytelling, which is understandable – I feel like you have to be a willing participant in the zany journeys that he often takes viewers on, and as someone who always enjoys genre stories that fall on the lighter side, there’s just something about Mandibles that made me immediately fall in love with these characters but also left me really rooting for them in the end. Also, I don’t know much about the design and fabrication of Dominique the fly in Mandible, but there’s something about her being a practical FX creation in every scene that roots her existence in a sense of realism (despite the surreal circumstances of her existence), and honestly, I would give my life for this gargantuan insect, she’s just that adorable.

It may sound weird to say this but, even though Mandibles smacks of originality, there’s something about Dupieux’s approach in this film that reminded me a lot of films like Weekend at Bernie’s or even Repo Man to a degree. And as someone who enjoys films who tread along the unbeaten path, there’s just something that is so wonderfully weird and delightfully demented about what Dupieux has created here that I was easily won over by its charms.

Movie Rating:

4/5

Climate of the Hunter: In Climate of the Hunter, co-writer/director Mickey Reece crafts a kitschy vampire-infused psychedelic talky that has a bit of a psychological bent to it. Often feeling like you’re walking through a cinematic fever dream, Climate of the Hunter is certainly an intriguing project, oozing atmosphere and symbolism. But I don’t know if all of its narrative elements fully come together in the end, and as a whole, there’s something about the film’s conclusion that just felt like Reece got really close to finding a way to make it all work, but just misses the mark of greatness. Climate of the Hunter is a good film, but it had the potential to do so much more than it does.

At the start of Climate of the Hunter, we’re introduced to sisters Alma (Ginger Gilmartin) and Elizabeth (Mary Buss) who are spending time together at Alma’s vacation cabin out in the woods. They are anxiously awaiting the arrival of longtime friend Wesley (Ben Hall) who also owns a cabin not too far from them. Once Wesley shows up, the trio of friends catch up over dinner, and both sisters find themselves immediately drawn to their guest, which as you can imagine, causes a great deal of sibling rivalry on their part. And when both Alma’s daughter Rose (Danielle Evon Ploeger) and Wes’ son Percy (Sheridan McMichael) make an appearance, it further complicates things, and Wes’ potentially sinister agenda unravels a bit as certain truths about just who and what he is are revealed (sort of) along the way.

I think the biggest issue I had with Climate of the Hunter is that it feels like its script is working with two sets of truths, and the dreamy metaphors that are abound in the film don’t exactly prove the case of either narrative path. Part of the film is centered around Alma being unreliable and off-balance, and we really never get any solid answers in regard to whether or not she’s totally bananas or not. The other part of the film clearly wants us to believe that Wesley is a vampire, but the evidence that Reece and his co-writer John Selvidge provides viewers with doesn’t exactly add up either, resulting in a bit of frustration on my part while I was watching the film. I am all for movies that play up ambiguity, but Climate of the Hunter feels like it wants to have it both ways, and I’m not sure that it all totally works out in any kind of satisfying way by the time we get to its conclusion.

That being said, there was still something extremely hypnotic and captivating about Climate of the Hunter, and the performances in the film are strong and engrossing, and I loved all the production design and wardrobe choices made in the film as well. It certainly has a unique and intoxicating aesthetic to it, and as a period piece, it’s ostentatious nature does make the film a standout in that right. It’s not something I would probably outright recommend to all horror fans, but for those looking for a vampire (maybe?) story that goes against the grain, Climate of the Hunter just might be exactly what you’re looking for. Movie

Rating:

3/5