In Our Blood cast and director on seeing the unseen and crafting a twisty thriller
Director Pedro Kos is best known for his Oscar-nominated documentary Lead Me Home (2021). Now, he’s stepping into the world of genre filmmaking with his first horror feature, In Our Blood, which recently premiered at the Fantasia International Film Festival.
The movie is a faux documentary starring Brittany O’Grady as Emily Wyland, a young filmmaker who returns to her hometown to interview her mother, Sam, played by Alanna Ubach. The mother and daughter had a falling out due to Sam’s drug addiction, which severely affected her daughter.
Emily is joined by her cinematographer, Danny (E.J. Bonilla). Suddenly, Emily's mother mysteriously disappears, and the documentary turns into a quest to find her. The results are quite grisly, with plenty of twists along the way, leading to a surprise ending. Before that point, the film highlights the unseen and underscores issues of homelessness and addiction, especially in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
We spoke with Kos, O’Grady, and Bonilla about the film shortly after its Fantasia premiere. The interview was edited slightly for clarity.
1428 Elm: Pedro, why the decision to shift from documentary filmmaking to genre filmmaking, even if the set-up here is like a documentary?
Pedro Kos: That is a great question. When Aaron Kogan, my dear friend and producer of this film, approached me over a decade ago with the idea and the script for this film, I wasn’t sure it was for me. I was always fascinated with telling stories and exploring all the unseen corners of humanity.
I come from theater and through wonderful twists in life, I ended up a documentary filmmaker. It’s been such a gift. For me, documentary is so powerful because it puts us in the shoes of someone else and another perspective.
I’ve always loved genre films. One of the things about genre, for me, is that this beautiful allegory has the ability to supercharge the emotional response. Like documentaries, it allows us to look at the world in a different way and explore real issues that we face as a people, as a society, and make us question.
What a great film does is make us question and look at our world in different ways. I saw the opportunity to do that with In Our Blood because for me, this isn’t some magical world. This is about a world, a world that pushes so many to the side. It was an interesting challenge to take that and approach it as a documentary.
As my dear friends Brit and E.J. can tell you, we approached this in kind of both ways. We approached this as a documentary and a way to look at our world. With this documentary format, it really helped ground us in the everyday and talk to the people experiencing homelessness in Las Cruces, including the migrants, and really bring the humanity. There’s been so much dehumanization. We wanted to put that lens back on the humanity. That’s why I wanted to do this film.
1428 Elm: Brittany and E.J., this film has so many twists and turns. When you both read the script, what did you think of the story, including its multiple narrative turns and eventual horror elements?
E.J. Bonilla: I’ll be candid. It was one of the best scripts that I read in years. Brittany and I have been doing this for a little while. A lot of scripts come across our desks. Every once in a while, you have something that you call your friends about that just gets you really excited to even potentially be part of a project like this.
That’s me trying to be honest. It was one of the best scripts I read in a long time, to explore the idea of this film in the format, to play the cinematographer of the film, and how that shifts and how we tell the truth. I was geeked out from the moment I read it. When I met Pedro, there was an immediate love there.
Brittany O'Grady: I agree with what E.J. said. When I read the script, there was so many twists and turns. When I read a script, I look at the emotional journey the character will undergo. I think I had the script for a while. When we started filming, I was able to step in the shoes of Emily at the right time.
To be honest, I didn’t understand the depth of the script until we started actually putting things into motion. It was almost like unwrapping a gift and finding layers in the project. I knew I wanted to work with Pedro. He said, I see the unseen. I said, I want to work with this man. I think our industry can be a very powerful one and one that can really shed light, but I also think it can be a very superficial industry.
The experience we all had creating this film and watching Pedro’s work was just so profound and touched my soul deeply. I had a strong feeling that this production was going to be able to be a thriller and genre film, but also touch the soul. This film touched my soul in a way I never expected. I could start crying, but I’m not going to do that. [Laughs].
I consider Pedro a modern day saint of art and history for the way he sees people, for the way he sees humanity and the beauty and soul in our world and human beings in communities that are normally dehumanized. To be able to work with Pedro, E.J., and everyone involved in this film was one of the most magical experiences I’ve had on a job.
E.J. Bonilla: The blessing that having filmmakers that aren’t normally narrative filmmakers is that you get an eye that most people don’t have. These guys are students of human behavior in a way that transcends the stage and normal screen. You have to have the ability to capture a moment as it’s happening with no second takes. Between Pedro and Camilo, our DP, the ability to find the frame that tells the story the most really pushes forward that every frame was intentional, that this is our way of telling the story. The ability to dance between Brittany and I, and our DP, and Pedro, we had to love each other. It was absolutely magical.
1428 Elm: Talk about the experience of shooting this film like a documentary. What were some of the benefits and challenges of telling the story in a documentary style?
E.J. Bonilla: I don’t know if I’ve ever had so much trust with my director of photography before. Camillo [Monsalve] absorbed a little bit of me as an actor, because the reflection of the camera had to reflect a little bit of what Danny’s going through, as much as he wants to keep a steady frame. Half of the film is not me holding the camera. It’s me dancing with our cinematographer as if I were and still giving an eyeline to Brittany and being able to connect. I never had to do an entire film hugging a very handsome man with long hair. [Laughs].
I think that shifted things, especially because the goal is to tell the truth about this town. The journey you go on is different. They went in with an intention. It was an education for me, for sure.
Pedro Kos: There’s an awesome photo of E.J. sitting in Camillo’s lap, both with big smiles. For me, that image embodies the process of being this little beautiful family. There’s a photo of Brit hanging onto Camillo with the iPhone camera, while talking to E.J., who was filming the beautiful sunrise. That dance was really important to us to come together and put ourselves in these shoes.
I really remember such a wonderful experience it was coming to Las Cruces and meeting the people. The place you see Ana [Krisha Fairchild] working, that’s real. It’s called Community of Hope of Mesilla Valley. They work with the vulnerable. What she says on camera is what the work there is. We spoke to the people there and incorporated those elements in the script. They work with people who experience homelessness. They work with people to find housing, and right next door is a food bank.
We filmed there with the permission of the extraordinary residents who you get to meet in the film. These guys asked the people there the questions. We got the most extraordinary answers. I think for all of us, it was such a beautiful gift to see life through that lens. The challenge was that we had these rules we crazily set up for ourselves, that these are the perspectives we wanted to embed. The way that you look at life is through the eyes of Danny and Emily. We don’t break outside of that. The cinematography is a literal personification of two points of view. It was important to give that space to both Brit and E.J. to immerse themselves in the characters and get to know the world.
Brittany O'Grady: I just remember feeling at home there and really comfortable in the space. I loved doing the scenes at Community of Hope. They were pretty intense and amazing scenes. Everyone was excited to be part of it and graciously let us in. I was happy to be a guest. I think about it, and I miss it. I’m so grateful to everybody there that allowed us to be there.
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