1428 Elm:
First, I want to start off a question for Ryan. Between this film and your V/H/S segment, Terror, which I absolutely adore, by the way. It's from my favorite V/H/S, V/H/S/94. What, in your opinion, makes horror the perfect vehicle for commentating on societal issues?
Ryan:
Yeah, it's just that you can... It is the perfect vehicle. You can have fun, and it can be what movies should be, action, movement, everything, but then all wrapped up in themes and a message that you don't have to belabor or make a big proclamation It's there to enjoy either side of it.
1428 Elm:
I love how that's such a thing with horror. It's always been that.
Ryan:
It's from that. It's built from that. The first horror movies are still political movies, and it will never stop being that.
1428 Elm:
It's always held up a mirror to society for sure. RJ, are you a big horror fan yourself?
RJ:
I am now. I told Ryan, I used to be scared of horror movies, but I can watch them and actually laugh. I also think it's because now I've been behind the camera. Now I'm like- The movie magic is gone.
1428 Elm:
Some exposure therapy.
RJ:
Yeah, I'm like, "That's not a nun that's possessed, that's a mannequin head pushing forward." I got it now.
1428 Elm:
With your newfound love of horror, do you have a favorite?
RJ:
The Pope's Exorcist is my new favorite horror movie because it actually creeped me out as an adult.
1428 Elm:
Is that the one with Kurt Russell?
RJ:
Wait, is it? No, that's... Why am I drawing a blank? Russell. Russell Crow. Russell Crow. Yeah. Kerr Russell. Because I heard Russell, and I was like, No, it's the other Russell. Yes, Sam. Yeah.
1428 Elm:
He's in a lot of exorcist movies. I've noticed that's a thing. He's back. He's back all the time.
Ryan:
He probably just doesn't want to do Gladiator movies anymore. He's like, Give me an exorcist.
1428 Elm:
Also, RJ, for acting on this film, was there any… What was the hardest part of coming into this character? Did you have any struggle with that?
RJ:
It was pretty easy. Put on a loose sock or a silk sock. Very smooth on the toes. The slide. Yeah. Wazi was pretty simply put together. Luckily, we have a director that doesn't want to overdo stuff or try to find too much in a character or wants you to be too deep or when it doesn't match, it doesn't match. He's not just trying to grab a moment. I was able to let Wazi just live honestly to the script without messing it up or trying to be like, "Oh, well, my director says I need to…" no, if it's too much, don't do it because it looks stupid. I don't want my movie to look stupid, which is great because some people really reach for just the acting moments or how much can I pull from the audience? I need them to feel this. It just is simple with Wazi.
Ryan:
Well, and RJ. Is being a little humble in that there's so much... I mean, just he dug in and there's craft and everything there without, like you said, reaching for these acting moments. It was so cool to watch him just inhabit it and inhabit the world and the characters and interact with everybody and just live in it, which was a big... Our whole cast were down and ready to play and get into very scary scenarios and do it with aplomb.
1428 Elm:
I love that. The movie is really fun. There's a moment in this film, and I'm dancing around spoilers here for the readers, but there's a moment in this film where it goes in a totally different direction than what some people might be expecting. For sure. It totally flips the story on its head. Could you tell me, as one of the people involved in the writing process of the film, about pinning that script and flipping the story and accelerating it with each given moment afterwards?
Ryan:
Yeah, that was the fun of it. There was a group of us that wrote it together, and it was like we the broke story where we almost treated like a TV writer's room. That's how we work together. We plotted out the whole thing. We went away and wrote sections of it. I think that that was a great way to come back and be a fresh audience for the other writer, where we were surprised, too. So we knew where you locked in on different moments or different beats in the script, had to play when that big surprise or when that turn comes. And hopefully, we've laid the groundwork leading up to it. And it's not completely out of left field, but it's still surprising and shocking, but also inevitable. I would say, the cool part of having multiple writers was we could be fresh eyes and say, Oh, I could see that coming, or, No, that got me.
1428 Elm:
I love that, actually, because I'm a writer myself, and I always worry about the whole too many cooks in the kitchen, that's a concern. But I love that perspective on it. I think that's great.
Ryan:
Yeah, because we wrote my first film together as well, Low Life. Same deal. I write stuff solo, but the fun of this was being in a theater as an audience watching it together while you're writing, which was a cool trick.
1428 Elm:
Sort of a sillier wrap-up question for the both of you guys. Again, we're avoiding spoilers, but I feel like it's safe to say this is in line with monster, creature feature films. Do either of you have a personal favorite movie monster or just monster in general that you're fond of?
RJ:
The Lorax doesn't count, huh? I think Chucky is now mine. He used to be the most dramatic creature on earth to me, but now he's pretty cool, especially because I feel like I'm a little bit like him.
1428 Elm:
I love Chucky.
Ryan:
I always love you're on the cusp of, could this happen or not? Or is science caught up to this or not thing? So The Thing or the Xenomorph or something like that, where it's like, I guess that could exist in nature, but I really hope it doesn't. That, to me, is the scariest shit possible. And then on the other side of it is Coppola's Dracula. You get a taster's choice menu of what form he inhabits and what creature you're getting from scene to scene, which is really fun.
1428 Elm:
Oh, yeah. I definitely love those answers. I mean, the Xenomorph is terrifying. I saw a video the other day where it has eye holes on its skull, it doesn't have eyes. And I was like, "Why does it have that? That's horrifying." that's so creepy. I've always been very fond of Moth Man myself. I think he's an old but gold cryptid monster.
Ryan:
Our fun cryptozoolologist, Blood, Borneelius, and Freddy Gives and Y. G, and Flying Lotus would have an entire encyclopedia, like you I'm sure, of what creatures they would love to bring in.
1428 Elm:
They have the bizarro cryptids.
Ryan:
Yeah, exactly.
1428 Elm:
Because you kept mentioning lizard people in the film. I'm like, "Are there going to be lizard people in this movie? Is that the biggest setup ever?"
Ryan:
There you go. Maybe there are.
1428 Elm:
Is that a sequel you're planning with the lizard? Lizard Patrol?
Ryan:
Lizard Patrol. I love that.
1428 Elm:
Well, thank you guys so much again. Congratulations on the movie.