Exclusives
Michael Biehn, Rosanna Arquette Talk Xavier Gens’ ‘The Divide’!
On the red carpet for the Saturn Awards last night I ran into actor Michael Biehn (there to accept a Lifetime Achievement Award), who rose to fame in the 1980s after starring in James Cameron films The Terminator, Aliens, and The Abyss.
Biehn – who was attending with his wife, actress Jennifer Blanc – has recently been screening his directorial debut The Victim for test audiences in select cities (the film will also be shown on Saturday, August 6th @ 7:30pm at the Laemmle Sunset 5 for anyone in the Los Angeles area interested in checking it out), and in addition recently starred in Frontier(s) director Xavier Gens’ postapocalyptic horror film The Divide, which was picked up by Anchor Bay at SXSW in a low-seven figure deal earlier this year. I asked him about the project, for which no release date has yet been set, which has been noted by reviewers for its utterly bleak look at human nature.
“ ‘The Divide’ is a really brutally honest look at mankind,” Biehn told me. “It’s very hard to watch. It’s a little bit like ‘Requiem for a Dream’ as far as like, you kind of feel like you need to take a shower after you’ve watched it, but it’s extraordinarily well-acted. There’s a performance in it by Milo Ventigmilia, and Michael Eklund…those two guys just blew me away as actors. They just are so good in this movie. And Courtney B. Vance, and Lauren German, and Rosanna Arquette. They all give such great performances. If it doesn’t make it into one of those ensemble cast awards next year, I’ll be shocked.”
Of course, given the intense subject matter and contained location (the film is about a small group of individuals who have survived a nuclear explosion in New York City by shutting themselves in a basement), he also admitted that shooting the film was no cake-walk: “It was tough. There was a lot of tension on that set.”
Also on the red carpet last night was Biehn’s Divide co-star Rosanna Arquette, there to present the Lifetime Achievement Award to the actor for his body of work, who also spoke to the intensity of the production process on the film.
“We had this incredible production designer, Tony [Noble], and he really [did a great job]…to the point where on the set, I got incredible bronchitis,” she noted. “It was so dusty, and it was really, it was so real that there was no way not to react to how real it was…It was quite a challenge, but it was great. The director, Xavier Gens…it was one of the most creative, freeing experiences I’ve had in a long time…It’s very dark.”
And as if the nearly two-hour running time weren’t already enough misery for one sitting, Arquette also indicated the the film may even be longer by the time it’s released to the general public: “Apparently they’re cutting a longer version now…uh oh,” she joked. “It’s pretty wild.”
Director Sébastien Vaniček has been set to helm the next Evil Dead movie, but up first from the filmmaker is the creepy crawly spider horror movie Infested. An exclusive new clip gives a discomfiting closer look at the spider terror, and it’ll make you intensely afraid of all bathroom drains and fixtures.
Infested will induce a new wave of arachnophobia this week; the spider horror film arrives on Shudder on April 26, 2024.
If you’re brave enough to face your fears, watch the new clip below to get a feel for the unrelenting wave of spiders that the characters (and the audience) will face in the film.
In the film, “An underprivileged suburb has been thrown into chaos following an invasion of venomous spiders. Ordered to be placed in quarantine, the project sees inhabitants living on lockdown alongside terrifying spiders that are becoming bigger and bigger.
“The story revolves around Kaleb, who’s about to turn 30 and has never been lonelier. He’s fighting with his sister over a matter of inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend.
“Passionate about exotic animals, he comes home one day with a venomous spider and accidentally lets it slip away.”
Théo Christine (“Suprêmes”), Finnegan Oldfield (“Final Cut”), Jérôme Niel (“Smoking Causes Coughing”), Sofia Lesaffre (“Les Misérables”) and Lisa Nyarko star.
Florent Bernard co-wrote the script.
In his review out of Fantastic Fest last year, Bloody Disgusting’s Trace Thurman raved that Infested (aka Vermines) is “one of the best spider attack movies in years,” noting in his 4-star review that the creature feature uses practical spiders – REAL SPIDERS – as much as possible. Thurman also wrote that the spider horror movie is “full of moments that will get under your skin (I kicked my legs up more than a few times in my screening).”
The spiders will be everywhere in Infested, are you ready?
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