Editorials
18 Things We Learned from the ‘Patchwork’ Commentary
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has stood the test of time thanks to both its own merits and the strength of the Universal horror films that adapted it and its monstrous creation to the screen. The novel’s legacy also endures through the hundreds, if not thousands, of other works of art riffing on the core concept of mad, egotistical scientists and dead human flesh reanimated and recombined into something new.
Tyler MacIntyre is probably best known for the excellent slasher comedy, Tragedy Girls, but his feature debut came two years prior with his take on the Frankenstein tale. Patchwork is very much a low-budget affair, but its indie, genre-loving filmmaker heart beats loudly with a story about three lonely women brought together – quite literally – in death.
Last year marked its ten-year anniversary, and the fine folks at Terror Vision have celebrated it with a special edition 4K UHD/Blu-ray release packed with new special features.
Now keep reading to see what I heard on the commentary for…
Patchwork (2015)
Commentators: Tyler MacIntyre (director, co-writer, editor), Matt Donato (moderator, film journalist, lovable goober)
1. MacIntyre talks about the kinds of films that influenced his own love of horror as both a fan and a filmmaker, and Stuart Gordon’s Re-Animator is obviously and rightfully towards the top of the list. He also refers to other “splatstick” movies like Evil Dead II and Dead Alive.
2. His manager, Allard Cantor, played devil’s advocate with MacIntyre, suggesting that maybe this wasn’t the movie he should make as his feature debut, but the filmmaker was adamant. Cantor immediately got behind him on the project, and his first call was to Gordon to set up a meeting with MacIntyre.
3. The film was shot over twelve days, which was “shorter than it probably should be.”
4. While it’s never actually said on screen, the collective “monster” is called Stitch in the script.
5. Jennifer, arguably the lead as the main body of Stitch, is played by Tory Stolper. She also co-stars in MacIntyre’s short film that Patchwork is based upon.
6. MacIntyre attended the American Film Institute with cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski, with the latter including Patchwork among his very first features. He went on to shoot movies like Hereditary, Midsommar, and The Woman in the Yard.
7. James Phelps plays Garrett, but the role almost went to Jack Quaid. Similarly, Sharni Vinson almost played Madeleine (Maria Blasucci).
8. McIntyre’s given at least some thought to a sequel, and he suggests it would include a setup about how this film’s owl-cat “had gone on and proliferated.” The result would be a series of animal-focused creations that create all manner of fun mayhem.
9. Stolper watched films with Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and Charlie Chaplin to help with the physicality of her performance. MacIntyre also showed her films as varied as Oliver Stone’s The Hand and Carl Reiner’s All of Me.
10. They talk about having to prioritize and plan days that would involve stunt work, and that includes times when they took some risks and decided that certain scenes shouldn’t fall under that heading. They were budget considerations, and MacIntyre says those choices backfired on occasion, leading to minor issues, including one “stunt” that accidentally brought real glass into a scene. Thankfully, they never found themselves landing in truly dangerous territory with their non-stunt performers.
11. Donato shares a compliment from his friend, a self-described loud, angry feminist, who watched the film and said, “There are few men who can write women, and Tyler is one of them.” Having had the honor of meeting Amelia Emberwing in person, I can confirm that this is a pretty big deal endorsement of MacIntyre’s writing and characters.
12. There are various character traits and themes at play here among the three leads (Stolper, Blasucci, and Tracey Fairaway) that come, in large part, from the filmmakers being in their twenties at the time. From loneliness and the fear of being alone, two different things, to the kinds of predatory concerns that would eventually blossom into the “Me Too” movement, the film is very much the product of young people trying to find their way in Los Angeles.
13. MacIntyre’s second-favorite John Carpenter movie is Memoirs of an Invisible Man. Reader, trust me when I say that I was tempted to stop listening to the commentary right there. “I get a lot of shit,” he adds, and it’s entirely possible I may have muttered “clearly not enough” to an otherwise empty room.
14. The frat house rampage plays to a song by Generationals called “Ten-Twenty-Ten.” The band wouldn’t sign off on its use here until they saw the scene itself, and obviously, they were pleased with the results.
15. “It’s probably the weirdest thing we’ve done in our apartment,” says MacIntyre after the film’s rambunctious sex scene. Garrett’s apartment is actually MacIntyre’s own apartment in Koreatown, and this was the one scene that his neighbors complained about hearing.
16. Garrett is wearing a brown t-shirt at 1:00:24 with an 8-bit sprite image on it that’s actually the lead character from Dead Alive. It was made for the film, but MacIntyre really could have earned back some of the goodwill he lost after that Memoirs of an Invisible Man debacle by producing this shirt for sale. Missed opportunity there.
17. It takes until 1:10:32 for someone to mention Frank Henenlotter’s brilliantly weird Frankenhooker, and it comes when MacIntyre admits that he hadn’t seen that film yet when Patchwork went into production. He and co-writer Chris Lee Hill actually took a day in the middle of filming and made a point of closing that gap, and they were pleasantly surprised to see some similar elements to what they had found on their own.
18. The film ends with the reveal that the recently deceased Garrett has been Frankensteined back to life, and MacIntyre suggests that a follow-up would also have explored that the two bumbling lab techs (Eric Edelstein, Craig Anstett) are now part of him. Between that and the promised return of owl-cat, the commentary really leaves you wanting that sequel to happen.
Quotes Without Context
“I’m always amused by how dead Tracey managed to look in this scene.”
“We do not have the time to shoot any of these scenes right.”
“I’ve been, over the years, saddled with people I did not want to cast.”
“There’s a certain type of post-art school douchebag that this is channeling.”
“There’s a lot of amateur wig experts out there.”
“I cut myself out of the movie. That’s the first lesson of doing a director’s cameo.”
“Dating in L.A. is hard.”
Keep up with more horror commentary breakdowns here.
On July 13th, 2026, the world lost one of its brightest stars.
Beloved New Zealand actor Sam Neill passed away from pneumonia after a long battle with stage 3 lymphoma. The multifaceted movie star will be remembered by mainstream audiences for his iconic role as Dr. Alan Grant in Steven Spielberg’s 1993 masterpiece Jurassic Park, as well as powerful turns in A Cry in the Dark (1988), The Piano (1993), and Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016), and prestige TV series The Tudors and Peaky Blinders. But horror fans know him as one of the genre’s most surprising Scream Kings.
Through a handful of memorable starring roles, Neill spent the 80s and 90s bringing life to a wide variety of characters and finding humanity in the most unusual leading roles, regardless of how heroic or villainous.
The Final Conflict (1981)
After a decade on the stage and screen in New Zealand and Australia, Neill made his international debut as Damien Thorn in Graham Baker’s The Final Conflict, the third installment of The Omen franchise. Now a 36-year-old businessman, Damien is fully aware of his devilish parentage and hell-bent on world domination. But rather than a hooved and horned monstrosity, Neill’s Antichrist is a suave businessman who leads his followers in an expensive suit and seeks to bring about the apocalypse through deceptive altruism rather than grand proclamation.
Despite his austere demeanor, the man’s true evil knows no bounds. When a prophecy foretells the second coming of Christ, known in the film as “the Nazarene,” Damien commands his followers to commit widespread infanticide, murdering all baby boys born on a specific date. He seduces a high-profile reporter while transforming her teenage son into a bloodthirsty disciple, then uses the child as a human shield. This tricky role allows Neill to demonstrate his trademark versatility, easily charming the outside world while dropping his suave mask of normalcy behind closed doors. Though certain aspects of The Final Conflict are admittedly dated, Neill’s performance feels eerily prescient. He’s mastered the heinous portrayal of a politician willing to sell his soul for power that will ultimately bring about the end of the world.
Possession (1981)
Though Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession is often remembered for Isabelle Adjani’s stunning depiction of a woman on the edge, Neill delivers an equally unhinged performance as Mark, a spy returning home from a lengthy assignment in divided Berlin. Upon discovering that his wife Anna (Adjani) wants a divorce, Mark desperately tries to hold his family together even at the expense of her sanity. Filmed the same year as The Final Conflict, Neill dives headfirst into this visceral role, managing to evoke sympathy for the distraught father who becomes ever more desperate to regain control. Inspired by his own divorce, Żuławski resists blaming either party for the separation, instead showing the chaos and heartache that comes in the wake of a family’s dissolution.
Once considered to replace Roger Moore as the next James Bond, Neill has fun with the international spy persona as Żuławski’s plot grows increasingly bizarre. But the skilled actor never lets us forget that Mark is a flawed human being struggling to keep his life from falling apart. A second character emerges in the film’s mesmerizing climax, allowing Neill to lean into full villainy with a glassy-eyed stare that chills to the bone. Now a cult classic, Adjani and Neill bounce off each other’s seething rage, creating one of the most effective cinematic duets in the history of horror.
Jurassic Park (1993)
When Steven Spielberg’s creature feature first hit theaters, Neill was by no means a household name and hardly a traditional leading man. Without the swashbuckling swagger of Harrison Ford, the mega-watt smile of Tom Cruise, or the chiselled jaw of Brad Pitt — all famous action stars of the era — Neill felt like an unconventional choice for this massive role. But he perfectly captures the essence of Grant, an aloof academic who prefers dig sites to fancy fundraisers and social events. Despite an aversion to children, the dinosaur expert finds himself tasked with saving the theme park’s youngest survivors who gradually break down his emotional walls. Grant’s transformation into a courageous caretaker is a landmark deconstruction of traditional gender norms wrapped in the guise of a rugged outdoorsman.
Neill proves to be the perfect action star, effortlessly navigating Spielberg’s stunning set pieces without losing the character’s relatable hook. But perhaps the film’s most touching moment is Neill’s childlike wonder at seeing a dinosaur for the first time. Stunned to speechlessness, he channels the audience’s wondrous joy when Grant first spies a real, live Brachiosaurus. But he seamlessly weaves this infectious awe into serious concerns about the creature’s existence, amplifying the story’s prophetic messaging. Jeff Goldblum may utter the film’s iconic warning, but the duality of Grant’s performance perfectly illustrates the scientific imperative, reminding us that just because we can doesn’t mean we should.
Neill would go on to lead Joe Johnston’s 2001 sequel Jurassic Park III, in which Grant is again tasked with saving a child. In 2022, he would appear in Colin Trevorrow’s legacy sequel Jurassic World Dominion, which merges the franchise’s two distinct eras while bringing the carnage onto mainland shores. Despite turning in strong performances, neither film is able to top the magic of Spielberg’s original or Neill’s captivating performance as the stoic leading man. But his nuanced depiction of Alan Grant inspired a generation of would-be paleontologists and quiet kids who could now see themselves as courageous academics capable of surprising strength.
In the Mouth of Madness (1994)
After catapulting to worldwide fame, Neill returned to horror proper to lead John Carpenter’s mind-bending In the Mouth of Madness. We first meet John Trent (Neill) as he’s dragged, kicking and screaming, into a padded cell. An unknown stretch of time later, he recounts an unbelievable story while covered in protective crosses scrawled into his skin — and the cell’s walls — with black crayon. A private investigator, Trent has been tasked with locating Sutter Cane (Jürgen Prochnow), a world-famous yet elusive genre author whose work has been driving his ravenous readers to disturbing acts of random violence.
A love letter to fans of horror fiction, we delight in watching Trent explore literary easter eggs that lead him down jarring rabbit holes. A late-night road trip takes Trent and Linda Styles (Julie Carmen), an editor for Cane’s publishing house, to a tiny New England hamlet teeming with darkness. While investigating an ominous cathedral on the outskirts of town, Trent realizes that he’s somehow been transported into the author’s interdimensional story and become its unwitting protagonist.
Neill serves as a skeptical everyman and the audience’s conduit through this bizarre tale of literary monsters that find a way to burst through the page. An often overlooked Carpenter film, In the Mouth of Madness spirals into insanity, but Neill keeps us grounded throughout each outlandish twist. A shocking conclusion leaves us gaping at our screens and contemplating our own relationship with horror fiction. After all, does free will truly exist? Or, like Trent, are we merely pawns in someone else’s monstrous creation?
Event Horizon (1997)
One of the scariest movies ever set in space, Paul W.S. Anderson’s Event Horizon builds upon the heroic image Neill established for himself in Jurassic Park. Dr. William Weir (Neill) is a physicist temporarily joining the crew of the Lewis and Clark to assist in their latest rescue mission. Seven years after vanishing without a trace, a spaceship called the Event Horizon has suddenly reappeared near Neptune’s orbit. As the creator of a top-secret gravity drive designed to facilitate faster-than-light travel, Dr. Weir has been sent to explore the ship and find out what happened to its missing crew.
Still haunted by his late wife’s suicide, Dr. Weir is a sympathetic figure, particularly in comparison to the harsh Captain Miller (Laurence Fishburne) who commands the crew of the Lewis and Clark. But Weir’s desperation to return to the infamous ship hides a sinister secret that leads his fellow astronauts to the threshold of hell. Neill’s talent for playing the everyman pays off in spades as the formerly sympathetic widower transforms into a disciple of this frightening dimension. Resembling a long-lost cenobite, Weir claws out his own eyes and prepares to drag the crew into a world consumed with sadistic pain.
Daybreakers (2009)
Neill returns to his Omen roots in Michael and Peter Spierig’s action-packed film as a secretly sinister businessman. But rather than the Antichrist, Charles Bromley (Neill) is a proud vampire convinced of the species’ superiority. With human blood in short supply, Bromley Marks Corp. is working on a synthetic substitute to prevent the human race from impending extinction. While hematologists perfect the formula, Bromley oversees disturbing fields of humans chained to massive machines that systematically harvest their blood.
Neill chills in this sinister role with vampiric yellow eyes, a pale complexion, and subtle fangs. But more upsetting is the fact that he honestly doesn’t believe he’s wrong. Once diagnosed with cancer, Bromley was delighted to find that vampirism would totally reverse his illness and grant him the gift of eternal life. He begged his daughter Alison (Isabel Lucas) to turn alongside him, but she has rejected her father’s controversial choice and is now hunted by his bloodthirsty goons. In a heartbreaking moment of clarity, Bromley brings his daughter to the brink of death, then turns away in disgust when she will not embrace his undead lifestyle.
Daybreakers is a surprisingly thrilling exploration of survival and sustainability. Similar to a plot Damien Thorn would hatch, Bromley’s ultimate plan is to placate the vampire population with synthetic blood while allowing the human population to replenish itself. With a larger stock, he plans to sell authentic humans at a premium, hunting these poor souls to season the meat. Bromley rejects a cure that would reverse the vampiric disease, choosing to enrich himself over saving the world. The strangely captivating villain’s end is a cathartic nightmare and fitting punishment for a wealthy man who places himself above everyone else.
In the Mouth of Madness
While the world may remember Neill for his signature role as a gruff but compassionate paleontologist going head to head with a raging T-Rex, horror fans may picture the versatile actor maniacally rocking back and forth in a filthy Berlin apartment, commanding a boardroom of corporate vampires, disappearing into the darkness of a haunted spaceship, sermonizing to satanists, or giggling over popcorn in a deserted movie theater. Or perhaps you have another favorite role in the beloved actor’s stellar career. But whether he was playing a hero or villain, Neill brought undeniable humanity to every role, redefining our idea of masculinity and the very nature of goodness vs. evil. By bringing such disparate characters to life, Neill challenged audiences with a variety of complex roles, asking us to examine the humanity of each character no matter how flawed or virtuous.
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