The Resort: Brock O’Hurn shares his paranormal experiences

You might recognize Brock O’Hurn from Instagram, where he’s known for popularizing the man-bun, but these days he’s started doing more acting projects such as the new Quavo-produced horror film directed by Taylor Chien, The Resort. You might also remember him from the hit Tyler Perry films Boo! A Madea Halloween and its sequel.

The Resort follows a group of friends who decide to take a trip to Hawaii to investigate an abandoned resort where rumors of a terrifying entity known as the “half-faced girl” plague the area. Apart from O’Hurn, the film also stars Bianca Haase, Michael Vlamis and Michelle Randolph.

We chatted with O’Hurn about what it was like to work with the cast and his own experiences with the paranormal!

An interview with The Resort star Brock O’Hurn

Do you consider yourself a horror fan?

Brock O’Hurn: I do like horror, but it’s not my go-to, if I was going to choose.

Are there any that have stuck with you?

Brock O’Hurn: Freddy Kreuger and It when I was a kid, pretty unforgettable for me, especially the scares I received after watching the films. And The Conjuring was something I really enjoyed watching. It was extremely well done.

1428 Elm: So, how do you get involved in a horror movie that’s produced by Quavo? Did you get to meet him?

Brock O’Hurn: Yeah, Quavo came to set one of our days in L.A. He’s super nice, he brought a couple of friends, and they were hanging out and wanted to see the project. We were super grateful that he wanted to get involved.

Actually, it’s funny because I ended up introducing Taylor Chien to Will Meldman, the producer, and they were in Hawaii filming something, and they came up with the idea for the film and then they asked me to be a part of it.

1428 Elm: It seemed like you, and your castmates had a great bond between you since the entire film is mostly just the four of you. What’s it like doing a film where you’re mostly doing group scenes throughout with the same few people?

Brock O’Hurn: It was cool. We were fortunate we had such great chemistry when we met. It was my first time meeting everyone, for the most part. I met Michael Vlamis maybe a week before filming, and we just clicked right away, got along, and everyone knew we were in for a fun ride. We collaborated and worked things out with the script, and we’ve remained friends since. It doesn’t always work that way, so it’s super cool to work off each other and just have fun.

1428 Elm: You said horror wasn’t your “go-to” genre, so what was it like to do some of the gorier, more intense scenes? 

Brock O’Hurn: Oh, I loved it. I have a lot of fun with that stuff. Anything that tells a great story and blood and gore and guts and all that stuff is a lot of fun for me. It was cool to see it and then have it in front of your face and have it splattered all over me at some points, as well. [Laughs] So I really enjoyed that, funny enough.

1428 Elm: When I chatted with your co-star Bianca Haase, we talked about whether or not she believed in ghosts since that’s a big argument in The Resort. Where do you stand on the matter?

Brock O’Hurn: Yeah, I do. 100%.

1428 Elm: Have you ever had an experience?

Brock O’Hurn: For me, I’ve had different experiences. I’ve had good, and I’ve had, “uh, I’d rather that not happen again,” [Laughs].

When I was in high school –– and who knows if it was actually something or not, or maybe I was half-asleep –– but there was this face that appeared in my room one time. There was, I had no blinds on my window, and this light was coming in, and then the light went completely dark, and this face was coming in, and this face was like massive, half of my body, it was huge and just staring at me, and I remember being scared.

I kept telling it to leave, and eventually, it did, and the light came back in. I remember hiding under my sheets thinking, “What the heck are sheets going to do!? Nothing!” [Laughs].

1428 Elm: Wow, I think that would scare me more than The Conjuring!

Brock O’Hurn: [Laughs] Yeah, well, The Conjuring just reminds you of those little fun moments.

1428 Elm: What do you hope audiences take away from watching The Resort?

Brock O’Hurn: I hope there are some good jump scares. Maybe think twice before visiting abandoned places. I hope that for the time they watch the film it’s entertaining and it provides a great, fun escape, especially during a time when we’ve been more or less locked up in our houses.

1428 Elm: Touching on that, is it true the place you guys filmed was haunted?

Brock O’Hurn: Yes, that’s very true. That’s actually how the story came about. Some of the locals were telling them stories about the place. I think it had only been open for a few years, and then there were so many reportings of it being haunted that it shut down.

The Resort is now available to purchase or rent on digital and on demand.