Interviews
[SXSW Interview] Roundtable Discussion With the Cast and Crew of ‘I Am Not a Serial Killer!’
I Am Not a Serial Killer (my review), based on Dan Wells’ novel of the same name, had its world premiere at the 30th Annual SXSW Music, Film and Interactive Conferences and Festivals on Sunday March 13, and we were fortunate enough to talk with several members of the film’s cast and crew. We spent about 25 minutes discussing the film and basically just shooting the shit so here is what all of them had to say about their film,* which had just finished production 8 days before the premiere. Members of the roundtable included:
- Director Billy O’Brien (Isolation, The Hybrid)
- Actor Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit)
- Actor Max Records (Where the Wild Things Are)
- Author Dan Wells
*Interview has been edited to remove spoilers concerning specific plot details.
Bloody Disgusting: Billy, what brought you on to the project? Were you a big fan of the book?
Billy O’Brien: Yes. We found the book when we were looking for projects back in 2009. It was serendipitous. I found the paperback on a shelf and absolutely loved it. Then I contacted Dan and that’s pretty much how it started.
BD: And you co-wrote the film, too?
O’Brien: Yeah.
BD: So I haven’t read the book-
Dan Wells: I forgive you
[everyone laughs]BD: I wasn’t expecting as much comedy in the film, which I liked. I’m not sure if y’all have seen John Dies at the End–
O’Brien: I haven’t.
BD: Well it reminded me a lot of the tone of that film. It’s got a very similar dark tone with gallows humor. Was that humor present when you were writing it?
O’Brien: It’s actually there in the book.
BD: Perfect! I’ll do my homework next time before I ask a stupid question.
O’Brien: Yeah it’s dark and funny. Two of the touchstones for me.
Wells: Part of the issue of telling a story about a sociopath is that he cannot identify with the audience, so it becomes hard for the audience to identify with him. So making him funny was one of the little hacks that helped overcome that. John is hilarious while also being kind of awful and dark and hard to understand. So you like him even because of that.
BD: Max that’s actually brings me to you. John is a very lovable sociopath. Sort of a sociopath with a heart of gold. Did you do any research on sociopathy before taking on the role?
Max Records: Honestly, no. Though that might have been totally inconsiderate and a bad move on my part. But no for me the process was just me deliberately putting myself in emotional distress and see what happens.
BD: Christopher, your exact role is very ambiguous for quite a while until a certain plot development happens. Did you find it difficult in the beginning scenes to hide your what character’s true intent is eventually revealed to be?
Christopher Lloyd: Not really. I just played him pretty straightforwardly.
Records: What I like is that whenever the big reveal happens then the film could become this cool coming-of-age story where our characters go fishing.
BD: That would have made for a great movie. Anyway, the shoot looked pretty cold.
Records: Yes! You’re right.
BD: How was the shoot? It was in Minnesota right?
Records: Yeah, Minnesota.
O’Brien: Let’s put it this way: the people in The Revenant are pussies compared to us.
[everyone laughs]O’Brien: That was our joke though. They had $130 million and we had $1.3 million and our hot water budget was proportional to our budget. It was very cold though. It was -20° C
Records: In Fahrenheit the cold season was like 15° F or less every day.
O’Brien: Yeah so we had Christopher Lloyd out there in the snow on the coldest night.
Lloyd: That poor guy who had to lie on the ground though. He had to lie on his back for hours in the cold.
Records: Oh yeah! That poor dead guy on the ground.
O’Brien: Well I must have a sadistic streak because I found it great fun. Since I come from Ireland, I’m used to a lot of rain. To be in small town America in the middle of the most beautiful winter, filming on 16mm, it was a dream come true for me. We had fun on the shoot. Max loved it!
Records: I mean yeah but it’s also really challenging and hard.
O’Brien: But it was so cold that in the scene where we used a phone box [booth, for Americans], it was so cold that if you took your glove off for a second and touched the metal of your camera it sent a shock from your front to your elbow and it around five minutes for you to even get your arm back to normal again. But things like that. The cold will kill you if you’re not moving around. Your feet just turn into blocks of ice. It’s debilitating.
BD: Yeah I can imagine.
O’Brien: Dan Wells had the best head gear ever.
Wells: The night that we filmed the truck scene I had a ski mask that looks like Cthulu. It’s covered in tentacles and stuff at the mouth and everyone loved that. I was the only one with a warm face on the whole shoot.
O’Brien: I remember one time my jeans had frozen into tubes because they had gotten a little wet for some reason. I thought I had a copper wire or something in my pants, and it was just that my jeans were frozen. But using 16mm and filming it in the cold like that gives the film a real “authentic-ness” I think.
BD: I actually want to come back to the 16mm, but first I have to mention the poor guy lying on the ground in the snow. I interviewed the director of another film showing here at the fest and he had a similar story about a guy who had to lie on the ground all day covered in sticky fake blood.
O’Brien: [sarcastically] Oh no! Stickiness!
BD: Stickiness is my least favorite tactile sensation. Like, I would love to get butchered in a horror movie but I can’t handle being covered in sticky fake blood.
[everyone laughs]BD: So from anyone here, was there a particular moment or scene where you were just like “Fuuuuuck this. I’m done?”
Records: We had a lot of them, actually!
O’Brien: The worst thing for me was the frozen lake scene because I imagine that as a really overcast, cloudy day. For some reason, that day was really hot and the ice on the lake was melting. We shot the scene from very far away so I kept having to run to the middle of the lake to direct the actors and then run all the way back to the shore to film. It was horrible but beautiful at the same time.
BD: It is a very pretty movie. Going back to the 16mm, I think the grainy look gives it sort of a dirty feel were you as an audience member feel dirty while watching the movie.
O’Brien: Really?
Records: [tauntingly] Ooooooooh.
O’Brien: That’s a first. Were you at the screening last night?
BD: No, I watched a screener.
O’Brien: Oh you should come to a screening. Seeing that image blown up on the big screen? Everyone last night was saying how beautiful it looks.
BD: Oh no! You misunderstand. I’m not saying that the film looks dirty. I think the film looks very pretty, but the textures of the grain give it an unclean and dirty feel.
O’Brien: Oh okay I’ll buy that.
Wells: I think you’re absolutely right. A big part of that is Virginia, Minnesota. The town is run by steam power, which is all of those billows of steam coming up out of the ground everywhere. It gave it this kind of apocalyptic, grungy look.
Records: That town was wicked.
BD: Was the intent always to shoot the film in 16mm?
O’Brien: Oh yes.
BD: What was the motivation behind that?
O’Brien: Because we grew up on American films. Digital is a bit antiseptic and it gets mushy. We wanted to make a strong film that felt a sense of place about itself. There is something organic about film. There is something organic about the town. We even recorded the music analog. Plus, I just love film. So that was always the intent.
BD: Christopher and Max, how did you two come on the project? Did y’all have to audition together?
Records: We were actually cast years apart.
O’Brien: Max was cast when he was 12. He is 18 now. We spend six-and-a-half years getting financing for this film. I made a short with Max in 2009 before Where the Wild Things Are came out and knew I had to work with him again. Then we watched Where the Wild Things Are and really knew. We just had to get financing and wait for him to get older. It all worked out and was meant to be.
Records: Yeah I couldn’t have played this role when I was that young. I needed to be a bit older. This role required a lot.
BD: Well you did a lot in Where the Wild Things Are.
Records: I did, but that was also a four-month shoot and a huge laborious process.
O’Brien: And you had a Revenant-style budget.
Records: Yes! Something like that. But even if I was 15 I think the set regulations would have prevented me from doing much.
O’Brien: Yeah we call them the “child catchers” because they come on set to yank child actors out of there to follow regulations.
BD: So you were 17 when you filmed this?
Records: 17 when we shot. Yeah. I got emancipated from my parents so I could be there independently.
O’Brien: That sounds so intense. I always think of the Civil War when I think of emancipation.
Records: I mean I still live with my parents. It was just a work thing.
BD: Christopher, did they pitch it to you?
Lloyd: I don’t know if “pitch” is the right word. They sent me the script-
O’Brien: And I’m not good at pitching.
Lloyd: I read it and wanted to do it. I also just really liked the character. It wasn’t like anything I had ever done before. So that appealed to me. Well, working appeals to me.
[everyone laughs]BD: What is the release plan for the film?
O’Brien: Well we just finished 8 days ago. We’re here at SXSW and we’re very interested in buyers. We’re hoping to secure an American distributor and we’ll talk to them about their release package and see what the options are.
BD: And now with things like Netflix there are plenty of options.
O’Brien: But this is a film with a lot of elements, so we need people like you to tell us what kind of film this is. We’re not really a “horror” film per se, we’re a lot of things.
BD: I feel like genre films with comedic elements can be a hard sell. Writing for a horror site, I love gallows humor, but mainstream audiences don’t always seem to get it.
O’Brien: And I like films that don’t fit in a neat little box. They’re not just one thing, and that’s what I Am Not a Serial Killer is. I completely understand what you’re saying, but I just hope that people seem to like the film and want the story to continue.
BD: I’ve talked to several people who saw the screening last night and they all seem to like it quite a bit.
O’Brien: Cool. Well it’s original and very different, you know?
BD: Right. You can’t really pigeonhole the movie. It doesn’t fit into just one genre.
O’Brien: I think we were even told yesterday that it was Donnie Darko meets Brick.
BD: That is an accurate description. I believe what I put in my review was John Dies at the End with a touch of Jeepers Creepers.
O’Brien: I vaguely remember Jeepers Creepers.
BD: I only mentioned it because of the villain. Anyway, are there any other stories anyone wants to tell before I get pushed out of here?
Records: Billy does.
O’Brien: What?
Records: Spirit in the Sky.
O’Brien: Oh! Yes. We learned while filming that the second most popular song to play at funerals is “Spirit in the Sky,” so the fact that we include it in a film that is centered around a family that own a funeral home-
Records: There’s going to be two morticians watching the film who will be really excited about that.
O’Brien: We’ll have to come up with another one for the sequel.
BD: Is there a plan for more of them? I mean, there are a few more books in the series.
Wells: There are five books published. I’m writing the sixth one right now. I was in the process of writing number five while we were filming and we filmed that super cold freezing midnight scene and Chris said “Never write a scene like that again!” So [sarcastically] book five is set in the summer in Texas. Book six will be in Tahiti. But yes there are more books but it all depends on how successful the movie is.
O’Brien: You know how it is: if I killed off every character and the film was a huge success then they would find a way to bring them all back.
BD: So assuming the movie is a success, is there interest between all of you to do another one?
O’Brien: Well I haven’t read the sequels because I didn’t want to read them during the editing process of this one so that I wouldn’t try to plant clues for sequels. But yeah we’d love to do another one because there’s plenty of material there.
Wells: One of the things that concerned me was the character of Brooke. Because she’s here but she’s not really a big part of this story. But she becomes a huge part of the story, arguable the second biggest character after John, later in the series. So I was just sweating that casting and when we finally met Lucy I fell in love with her. And Max too of course!
O’Brien: Oh Max played John perfectly.
BD: I agree, and this is clearly a credit to you Dan, since you wrote him, but film is littered with annoying teenagers and here we have a sociopathic teenager who is not annoying. It’s a testament to the film and how unique it is. But I’m getting the wrap-up wave over there so I’ve got to head out. It was great talking to all of you!
Of all the places to find a coven of witches, the attic above a Christian youth camp is probably the last place you’d think to look. But that’s just what we find in Camp, a surrealist nightmare of feminist empowerment from Canadian filmmaker Avalon Fast.
Emily (Zola Grimmer) is still reckoning with her involvement in a horrific tragedy when she accidentally contributes to the death of her best friend, Charlie (Giselle Morison). Unable to move on, the traumatized teen takes a job at a rural summer camp, hoping to forget her own sorrows by looking after at-risk kids. She quickly connects with a counselor named Clara (Alice Wordsworth) and finds comfort in her close-knit group of female friends. But a mysterious whisper from deep in the woods warns that they may be leading her down a darker path.
Fast burst onto the scene in 2022 with Honeycomb, a psychological horror film that follows a burgeoning matriarchy. Known for their focus on “Girl Horror” stories, the talented young filmmaker tackles similar themes in Camp as Emily leaves the modern world behind to embrace a dark vision of self-discovery through magic.
Ahead of the film’s U.S. release on June 26, Bloody Disgusting sat down with Fast to chat about the nebulous nature of good vs. evil and the intoxicating power of female-driven horror.
Bloody Disgusting: What inspired this unique story? Did you go to religious summer camps when you were young?
Avalon Fast: I did. I went to lots of different summer camps, but all of them were primarily Bible camps. The memory I have of camp is kind of strange. I was very homesick as a kid, and I didn’t necessarily enjoy all my time there. I definitely remember meeting some interesting girls at camp and having that presence of religion hovering around the whole experience.
BD: I really love the film’s gorgeous natural setting. Camp is the kind of surrealist nightmare that you don’t just watch. You feel it too. How did you approach creating this world?
AF: Well, a huge part of it was working with my cinematographer Eily Sprungman, who’s a very close friend. We spent years prepping, shot listing, storyboarding, and mood boarding. She’d had a similar experience to mine. We grew up around the same place, and so we understood each other’s visions from the get-go. But there are so many other pieces that came together. The costuming, the art, and the animated sequences were done by Sofiya Iurkevych. One of our producers, Taylor Nodrick, was obsessed with shooting on Super 8 film. I’ve always wanted to as well, so all the memory sequences were shot on Super 8. It was just a lot of people with an understanding and a vision for what this project was. I’m really happy with the way it turned out.
To the extent that you’re comfortable sharing, what’s your relationship to witchcraft, and what does Camp have to say about modern witches?
Well, that’s the question of Camp. It’s not that I don’t resonate with any of these things, but I specifically wanted Camp to be a little bit ambiguous around what witchcraft looks like. Is this witchcraft? Are these girls witches? Emily explicitly asks if that’s what’s happening here, and the answer isn’t yes. The film isn’t going to answer that question for you. My relationship to magic and witchcraft? It’s tough. I feel like there’s so much magic, connection, and spirituality that comes from these friendships, the closeness of these women, and what’s happening around them. A lot of what Camp is trying to say or show is just that magic can come out of friendship.
I loved watching these female friendships develop. And you’re right. No one ever says the word “coven,” but you can feel that connection, and you can see a change in Emily as those relationships grow. I’m also really fascinated with the way Camp plays with the idea of good and evil. At one point, Clara says, “Maybe God drew us to the devil,” which stopped me in my tracks. How do you view witchcraft or the magic these girls are experiencing in regard to good and evil?
That was such a huge part of the script’s construction. The story is really trying to keep a balance between those two things. I like asking people if they think these girls are good or bad, because I feel like a lot of people come out of the film thinking one or the other. They’ll say things like “thank God Emily found her people” or “God, I really wish she’d gone home.” I just don’t think there’s ever an answer. I wanted to explore the idea of going down the wrong path, especially coming out of grief. What makes you a bad person, and does healing mean you’re looking to become a better person? I don’t have an answer, but I do feel like that’s a huge part of what Camp is asking. What is good? What is bad? Why did God bring me to the devil?
Yes, because this is all happening at “God camp” in Emily’s words. So how can both of those things exist at the same time? Along those lines, I’m also fascinated by the voice Emily hears in the woods. Without spoiling too much, what is this voice asking, and what is required in return?
Emily comes to camp with a shout into the void, asking can anyone hear me? Does anyone want to? And it’s answered so clearly by these girls, specifically responding only with love, care, support, and trust. It’s like her prayers were answered. It doesn’t mean that everything is going to be alright, but Emily is looking for peace. She’s looking for a moment where she feels pure good. And I think, even at its surface level, she does get that experience.
Personally, I don’t really think people are good or bad. I think we all exist somewhere in the middle. Camp centers traditionally villainized characters, but that’s where Emily seems to find her peace, however you choose to define it.
I also wanted to show the experience of having decided that you are a bad person, you’ve made mistakes, and you feel cursed. Then when you meet other people who have done things that you would consider worse, you can actually feel good in their presence. You feel like less of a bad person. I think that’s a huge part of the story as well. Emily’s finding her version of other fucked up people, and she feels less fucked up around them. I’ve found that in my own life. It’s a cool thing. I don’t think it’s bad.
I don’t think it’s bad either. It’s finding your home, your people. We meet Emily in the aftermath of unthinkable trauma. Is this a story about mental health and healing?
Witnessing it myself. witnessing other people experience tragedy and then move through grief, you hear a lot of talk about healing or coming out the other side. There’s so much conversation around what that looks like, with self-care and showing up for yourself. I always felt really averse to it. It annoyed me. I think the beginning of the film speaks to that. The therapeutic version of what getting help looks like is obviously very different from what Camp is showing. And again, I don’t have an answer for what you’re supposed to do. But I think that’s another question I was asking: how do you heal? Do you heal at all? Is that the end goal, or are we just trying to get better? It’s something I experienced in my own grief. And the answer, for me, at least now, is just that I’m not looking to get better. So I felt like I hadn’t. I found it hard to find people to have those conversations with. And I think that’s what I ultimately wanted to make a film about.
I love that unanswered question. In my own experience, I’ve had to reframe what healing actually looks like. There’s not really an endpoint. It’s just finding a way to keep going. There’s also an element of sacrifice in this story, particularly regarding another counselor named Jo (Sophie Bawks-Smith). What role does she play in Emily’s journey?
For me, Jo is this human embodiment of Charlie, Emily’s friend. As Jo, she had a life at this camp before meeting Emily, and then was kind of taken over by Charlie’s spirit. I think a lot of people view Emily’s final choice as horrendous and tragic. In a way it is, but for me, if Jo becomes her angel, it’s almost like a self-sacrifice. Jo knows that by sacrificing herself, she’ll be giving Emily power to move forward. In the original script, the girls were supposed to bring out another counselor, JB (Aidan Laudersmith), and burn his body. But I just thought, there’s no way sacrificing this guy could give the girls enough power. There’s just no way, right? Logically, that just didn’t line up for me.
I’m glad you mentioned JB, because he has his own tragic arc. How do men factor into the world of Camp?
The way men factor into my world is so bizarre. I have such little respect for them in my films, which is something I’ve been called on. I think I have to challenge myself in the future to make a movie about a boy because, these boys … It’s not that the men in my films aren’t redeemable, but there’s no depth to these characters. They’re just treated with such disrespect. I don’t know why I do that, actually. That’s something for me to look into. It was the same with Honeycomb. They’re just such peripheral characters. I’ve had people ask about Kayne (Henri Gillespi), the scary guy at the fire, what happens to him? I just think, I don’t know. I don’t care. That’s not the point of the story.
Well, I can say after a lifetime of watching women on the periphery of the story, the course correction feels nice. In a similar vein, I’m in love with your homepage, avalonfast.com. There’s an image of girls on a film set and then a still from Honeycomb in which a blood-covered girl is screaming at the sky. And in the middle, it just says Girl Horror. It’s a really powerful statement that gives me chills. How do you define Girl Horror, and what draws you to these types of stories?
I was obsessed with the term when I started making my movies. It was something I’d come up with to kind of brand myself and describe what I was doing. Then I went through a period where I felt like it was a bit gender exclusive and didn’t interest me as much. But now I’ve come full circle on the term. I think it’s a bit of a commentary on youth and the horror of growing up female. But I think everybody can relate to that experience. I don’t want it to feel like this exclusive thing, that I make movies exclusively for girls, because I don’t think I do. I’m interested in exploring what Girl Horror means. Originally, it was just a title, something I came up with, and now it’s become something that resonates with people. You said it gave you chills. That’s cool for me to hear because there’s obviously some depth there.
Are you working on anything new?
Yes. I am actually making a movie about a boy. That’s the next thing.
That’s exciting! The more I think about feminism, the more I end up coming back to men and boys, because they have a place in the world of Girl Horror too.
Absolutely. It’s all just part of being human.
You must be logged in to post a comment.