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[Fantastic Fest] ‘Rift’ Director Erlingur Thoroddsen Talks LGBTQ Representation in Horror, Breakups, and Iceland

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If you caught my recent review of writer/director Erlingur Thoroddsen‘s slow-burn chiller Rift out of Fantastic Fest, you can probably tell pretty immediately how blown away I was by this rather modest, but deeply affecting film. Rift is not your typical mainstream genre fare, marrying horror, drama, and mystery creatively amidst a markedly paced story about the aftermath of a breakup between two men in Iceland. Bolstered by killer performances from its two leads (Björn Stefánsson and Sigurður Þór Óskarsson), gorgeous cinematography, and an emotionally layered script, Thoroddsen’s film is an effective amalgamation of all I tend to gravitate towards in indie horror fare.

As you may very well be aware, while reporting from the festival circuit, many of us journalists are contacted quite often to conduct interviews with talent following film screenings, and many times have to turn down such opportunities due to schedule conflicts and time constraints. With this film, however, the circumstances that led to my interview with Thoroddsen were quite different. Following my viewing of Rift–a low-budget, sophomore effort from a relatively fresh-faced director from Iceland–I was actually moved to contact the director immediately; I was dying to talk about the film with the talent behind the camera, to process what I had just seen, and to dig into the inspirations for this particular story, which I felt was especially important for the subset of gay-identified horror fans out there who rarely have an opportunity to see representation from our community so delicately handled in the horror genre. Luckily for me, Thoroddsen was more than willing to correspond with me and answer a few questions–even despite the fact that I emailed him like a crazed new fan well after midnight.

You can find our correspondence below as we discuss the film’s concept, representation of LGBTQ characters in horror, the Icelandic backdrop, and what’s next for this promising new director!

 Björn Stefánsson in 'Rift'

Björn Stefánsson makes a shocking discovery as Gunnar in Rift‘.

Ari Drew: Where did the idea for this particular story about the end of a relationship between these two men come from? 

Erlingur Thoroddsen: The idea for Rift came from two different directions. The first was that I was thinking of what I could do in Iceland with a limited budget and with a small cast and crew. I was trying to come up with stories that had two characters in one location that could sustain a feature-length running time.

The second thing was that I had just gone through a breakup of my own, and was having a lot of conflicting thoughts on that whole situation. Then I just started thinking, what if the story is about two guys who have broken up and are now in this isolated place together and are forced to talk about their relationship? That idea really clicked and the script started to take shape really quickly. Writing it was basically like a long therapy session for me!

AD: In a number of ways, Rift is a bit of a departure from your debut film Child Eater, which was a fairly straightforward, albeit atmospheric monster movie. What made you want to tackle a film that is more tonally and narratively ambiguous?

ET: After Child Eater, I knew I wanted to try out something very different, and because Rift was a very small movie, that gave me a lot of freedom to experiment during the writing process. I really wanted to push myself further and into a new direction. Even though I love the idea of a straightforward horror movie, I’m also a big fan of stranger and challenging, ambiguous cinema. Since Rift was pretty much my own baby with no one to tell me what I could or couldn’t do, I just went with my instincts every step of the way. I also liked the challenge of doing something that was scary, but in a less traditional way. I really wanted to create a mood that was full of tension and discomfort — basically how it feels when you have to face someone you had a bad break up with.

AD: I loved the genre-bending nature of Rift. What inspired you to make a film that crosses so many genre boundaries? 

ET: It was less a conscious choice to cross all those genres, and more just a result of letting the story go where it wanted and needed to go. When I was writing it, I always thought of it as a horror movie. The finished film definitely has horror elements in it, but it kind of refuses to stay in one category. Which I personally love. I was also watching a lot of European and independent cinema while I was working on Rift, where genre lines were being blurred all the time and it just felt refreshing. A movie like Stranger by the Lake, for example — on paper it sounds like a traditional thriller, but the execution takes it to a whole different place. Same with something like Don’t Look Now, which was a big inspiration for Rift.

Sigurður Þór Óskarsson and Björn Stefánsson attempt to reconnect following their breakup as Einar and Gunnar (respectively) in ‘Rift’.

AD: For gay horror fans like myself, it is a treat when we have an opportunity to see protagonists like us represented in the genre. Given that these are few and far between though, a movie like Rift is a breath of fresh air for me. I felt it very easy to empathize with Einar and Gunnar, even at their worst, and appreciated that they were presented as very humanized and complex individuals, as opposed to simply embodying gay stereotypes. Can you tell me a bit more about what went into writing these characters? Did you feel a particular duty to represent them and their relationship in a specific way?

ET: In terms of the characters, I think the only duty I felt, or that I put on myself, was to represent them in a truthful way. Or at least in a way that felt truthful to me. I didn’t want to write them as generalizations or representations for all gay men, but it’s that old golden rule of writing: the more specific you get, the more universal it reads. On the other hand, I do feel it’s important as a gay filmmaker to create stories about LGBTQ characters — because if I don’t do it, who else will? That doesn’t mean every story I do is going to be centered on LGBTQ characters, but I also don’t want to shy away from it. Representation in film and TV is still very lacking, and I actually think it’s gotten worse in a lot of respects, especially in studio films. And horror is such a great place for queer characters from a purely thematic standpoint. Horror is basically the queerest genre, anyway.

And for me personally, I was very upset that there were almost no movies in Iceland that dealt with gay characters in a serious way. So that was something I absolutely wanted to change when I was writing Rift. Iceland has almost no horror movies or LGBTQ movies, but now we have one that combines the two. I’m pretty proud of that!

AD: Stefánsson and Óskarsson are fantastic in the lead roles. They really have an amazing chemistry and embody two very distinct personality types that you really just want to see work out, but know probably aren’t meant for happiness with each other. How did these two actors get involved in this project? 

ET: Thank you! They are amazing, and without them, the film wouldn’t work at all. They are both primarily theater actors, and I had known about them for a little bit before I started writing the movie. But I didn’t know them personally, and in my mind, the only way I could get the movie made was if I convinced friends to do it for almost no money at all. However, that plan didn’t really work out so I ended up reaching out to Bjössi [Stefánsson] and Siggi [Óskarsson] to see if they’d be interested in reading the script. Thankfully, they both really connected with the characters — I think they had never been offered roles like this before — and agreed to meet with me, and we all just hit it off. They were truly a pleasure to work with. Literally, every take we did with them was good!

AD: There are some very ambiguous turns in the film and the audience seems to be left with the task of figuring out what really happened during Gunnar and Einar’s stay at the cabin. I found myself questioning this myself—which made discussing the film afterward a lot of fun. Was it your intent to have some of the turns in the story be so up for interpretation?

ET: Yes, the intention was always to end the film that way. I liked the idea of writing the story from the perspective of a character who enters a situation that is already in medias res and has to catch up. But [Gunnar]’s also a character whose point of view is tainted — he has strange visions and dreams, so we can’t be 100% sure of what he sees is true or even correctly interpreted. He’s trying to figure out the mystery with the clues he’s been given, just like the audience is.

I do encourage people to watch the movie less focused on understanding the logic, and more focused on understanding the emotions. Breakups are illogical and messy things, and the film takes its cue from there. If you look at the film as being about a person’s journey to deal with the aftermath of a breakup, I think that will give some of the more “out there” context and make more sense.

Erlingur Thoroddsen at the ‘Rift’ 2017 Fantastic Fest Premiere in Austin, Texas on Thursday, September 21, 2017. (Photo by Jack Plunkett)

AD: It’s impossible to chat about the film without making a mention of the gorgeous Icelandic backdrop in which it is set. The setting alone really elicits a chilling, isolated, and rather bleak sense in a story heavily shrouded in mystery and sadness.  Can you tell me a little more about what went into finding this shooting locale and your experience in filming there? 

ET: A part of what made the whole experience so personal and strange in a way, is that the location we shot in is actually the area my mom grew up in when she was very young. I had heard about this place before, but had never been there. So when I was writing the story, this area — Hellissandur, up on the Snæfellsnes peninsula in Iceland — came up in a conversation. I started asking my mom about the location, and all of a sudden I started to realize that everything I already had on the page could fit perfectly in that area. It’s remote, it’s creepy, and it’s beautiful.

When I did the first location scout up there, all the pieces just fell into place. It was just perfect. I ended up adjusting the script a bit to fit what we had there, and then we were off and running. My mom and grandparents actually lived in [the] scary dilapidated building [featured in the film] before it was abandoned. The cabin the two guys stay in is owned by friends of my grandparents.

On a story level, I thought that the barren fields and the empty, abandoned houses really worked for the idea of a relationship that’s gone cold. It was also important to film during the winter. The cabin is a summerhouse, so they are in the area at a time when they shouldn’t be. Basically, everything they had that was loving and warm has now grown bitter and cold, and I wanted the location to reflect that in every way possible.

Then there’s the actual “rift”, which is kind of an on the nose metaphor, but I think it works. Plus that specific location was too beautiful not to film in.

AD: You have now showcased your chops in crafting both a straightforward horror film and a more abstract and atmospheric story. What do you hope to take on next? 

ET: I always have a few things brewing at the same time because you never really know what’s going to take off and what’s going to fall apart. I definitely want to stay within the horror/thriller wheelhouse, and I’ve got some really exciting things that will hopefully take off not before long.

I am also adapting a best-selling Icelandic novel called Kuldi (which means “cold”) by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir. I guess you could say it’s a Scandinavian crime thriller with some spooky elements. It’s a follow-up to an Icelandic film called I Remember You which was released earlier this year and was a huge success back home. So I’m super excited about that project, although I can’t say much more about it at the moment!

AD: How can our readers catch Rift?

ET: Right now the film is doing several festivals across the globe, but we have North American distribution through Breaking Glass Pictures, and they will be putting the film out a bit later this year, both on demand and as a limited theatrical release, which is extremely exciting. There’s a little Christmas connection in the film, so it feels like an appropriately dark alternative film for the holiday season! Hopefully, there will be more news on the rest of the world soon!

We’d like to once again thank Erlingur Thoroddsen for taking the time to chat about his impressive new genre effort. It was a pleasure to dive into the film a bit more, and I hope it resonates with many of you all out there as much as it did with me.

Rift will see its US VOD/DVD release on November 21st, 2017. It will be available on iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, Xbox, Playstation, Vudu, Fandango, and on-demand via local cable and satellite providers.

Horror writer since 2016. LGBTQ+ advocate and occasional creative. Founder of the High Queerness. I love slashers, found footage, and high strangeness almost as much as I love my two pups.

Interviews

“I Don’t See Retiring from This” – Joe Bob Briggs Talks New “Last Drive-In” Format and the Show’s Future [Interview]

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Hey everybody, have you heard the news? Joe Bob is back in town!

The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs has returned for its sixth season on Shudder. While the show’s format has been slightly revised adopting a new biweekly schedule with one film instead of a double feature the beloved horror host’s approach is much the same.

“It didn’t really change anything,” Briggs tells Bloody Disgusting. “We were crowding all of our movies into 10 weeks once a year and then having specials, and we found that people would rather have more weeks. It’s actually more movies than we had before.

“And some of the people on the East coast fall asleep in the second movie,” he laughs. “It’s about a five-hour show when it’s a double feature because we talk so much. Also, it’s hard to get thematic double features every single time. So our specials are still double features, but our regular episodes are single features.”

The season kicked off last week with The Last Drive-In Live: A Tribute to Roger Corman, celebrating the legendary filmmaker’s first 70 years in Hollywood with a double feature of 1959’s A Bucket of Blood and 1983’s Deathstalker. The special was filmed live in front of a fervent audience of Briggs’ fan base lovingly dubbed the Mutant Family at Joe Bob’s Drive-In Jamboree in Las Vegas last October.

In addition to his usual hosting duties, Briggs conducted a career-spanning interview with Corman and his wife, fellow producer Julie Corman. They were also joined by one of Corman’s oldest friends and collaborators, Bruce Dern. In a heartfelt moment of mutual admiration, Briggs and Corman exchanged lifetime achievement awards on hubcaps.

“I’ve known Roger for about 35 years, so I’ve only known him for half of his career,” Briggs chuckles. In his long history of reviewing, interviewing, and talking about Corman and his legendary work, one emblematic encounter sticks out to Briggs.

“I remember the very first time I went to the Corman studio, which was a lumber yard on Venice Boulevard. He had a standing set for a spaceship control room, a standing set for a strip club, and I think he had one other one, and then he had all of his editing facilities there, but it was still a lumber yard. They had not really changed any of the buildings or anything.

“He’s showing me around the studio, and we were walking past a pile of debris, and I said, ‘Roger, is that the mutant from Forbidden World?’ It had just been thrown over in a corner. And he just said, ‘Yes, Joe Bob, I believe that is. He was apparently no longer needed.’ I said, ‘Roger, you gotta get with it! That stuff is worth money.’ But he was like, ‘When the movie’s over, the movie’s over.’ That was Roget to a T.”

At least part of Corman’s longevity can be attributed to his shrewd business practices and pragmatic approach to the industry, which has included working in every conceivable genre of cinema. “I couldn’t think of a single genre he has not made,” Briggs says.

“When we did this interview at the Jamboree, I said, ‘I’m gonna name the genre, and you tell me what you love about that genre,’ and every comment that he made involved money and box office performance,” he snickers. “None of it was involved with love of cinema, although I did get him to say that his favorite genre is a genre that he didn’t dabble in much other than his first movie [1954’s Highway Dragnet], and that was film noir.”

While the fourth annual Drive-In Jamboree is still in the planning stage, Briggs is delighted by the event’s continued success. “The Jamboree is something that we literally just threw together. We’ve had three of them now. It’s something where we just show up and try to come up with programming for each day.

But I really think the Jamboree is more about the mutant family meeting the mutant family. It’s more about people who know each other online gathering and partying with each other in person. It’s not so much about what movies we have. I mean, we always have an anniversary movie, and we always have some special guests and everything, but it’s more about the gathering of the mutants. It’s fun from that point of view. They’re exhausting, I can tell you that.”

The zeal among Briggs’ audience has only grown over the years, from hosting Joe Bob’s Drive-In Theater on The Movie Channel from 1986 to 1996, to MonsterVision on TNT from 1996 to 2000, and The Last-Drive-In on Shudder since 2018. “I’m amazed, having been in the business for this many years, that I still have a show at this time, because they say you can’t repeat TV,” Briggs notes.

“Nobody wants to see old TV, and yet I’ve done the same show three times on three different networks, and every time I try to change it everyone says, ‘No, no, don’t change it! That’s the part we love.’ I always want to do something new, and I’m always told, ‘No, you’re the CEO of Coca Cola who went to New Coke.’ You can’t do that. People will revolt. So we’re still doing it.

“It’s one of the few shows that I know of that’s just sort of grown organically over, gosh, almost 40 years. We’ve just added elements to the show. We try things. If something doesn’t work, we throw it away. If something works, we do it forever!”

The mutant family will be happy to know that Briggs plans to continue hosting and writing about movies for as long as he’s able to. “I don’t see retiring from this or retiring from writing. I’m primarily a writer, and the good thing about writing is long after they don’t wanna see you on TV anymore you can still write.

“The difference today, though, is I was pretty much the only guy doing genre films when I started. Now, there are academics that do it. There are entire books written about Dario Argento and Tobe Hooper and even lesser names than those, and there are, of course, a massive number of websites, including your own, so that when something comes out today, there’s immediately a hundred reviews of it; whereas in 1982, I was sort of the only guy, because the movies were considered disposable trash. So I have been surpassed in my deep knowledge, because who can keep up with all that? It’s impossible!”

Diana Prince, who serves as Briggs’ co-host Darcy the Mail Girl and was instrumental in getting him back in the hosting chair, has been promoted to an associate producer this season. “She was sort of always the associate producer, but I guess they finally gave her the title,” Briggs explains.

“Diana Prince is in on all the decisions about programming. I always listen to Austin Jennings, the director, and Diana Prince, the mail girl, because they come from opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of what kind of movies they wanna watch, and we try to strike a balance between. You know, she’s not gonna vote for Possession, and he’s not gonna vote for Mountaintop Motel Massacre,” he chortles.

“They’re probably the principal advisors, as far as what we show. Of course, [Diana] has a lot of social media clout, and she’s extremely knowledgeable about pop culture. Wow! She has seen everything. She’s seen more than I’ve seen!”

While surprises are part of the fun of The Last Drive-In, Briggs previews some of what’s in store this season. “The place we normally live is the neglected ’80 slasher, and we still live there,” he assures. “But we’re gonna pay a lot more attention to the ’70s especially. I’ve always thought the ’70s are more interesting than the ’80s anyway. And we’re gonna pay attention to some really recent stuff.”

He teases, “We’re gonna bring back Joe Bob’s Summer School, which is something that we used to do at MonsterVision. And we may have a marathon. There’s a possibility of that. But I’ll be digging this new format of being on every other week between now and at least up to Labor Day.”

While Briggs’ hosting format hasn’t changed much across four decades, the world around him certainly has and that’s why The Last Drive-In remains relevant. He points out, “In the era of streaming, where everything is menus and there are thousands and thousands and thousands of choices, we are that thing called a curator that can direct you to the fun places on the spectrum of streaming.

“Streaming is very confusing for people, and a lot of people don’t like it for that reason. I hope what we’re doing is cutting through the weeds and bringing things into perspective. And, you know, it’s just more fun to watch a movie with us!” he concludes with a Texas-sized grin.

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