Interviews
[SXSW Interview] ‘Unfriended: Dark Web’ Director Stephen Susco Talks PG-13 Horror Movies!
Three years ago Levan Gabriadze‘s Unfriended surprised millions of viewers by actually being a decent horror film told entirely from the point of view of one girl’s MacBook screen. It was a gamble that paid off in spades. The film grossed $32 million domestically on a reported budget of $1 million, making it one of the most profitable films of 2014. It should come as no surprise that production companies Blumhouse and Bazelevs sought to make a sequel as quickly as possible. Filmed over the course of one week(!) at the end of 2016, Unfriended: Dark Web (my review) will hopefully see a release later this year. The film had its surprise world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival on March 9, 2018 and we were lucky enough to get to chat with director Stephen Susco (screenwriter for The Grudge), producer Timur Bekmambetov (director of Wanted and Night Watch) and actor Colin Woodell (Unsane) about the film.
PG-13 Horror
The first Unfriended had some brutal kills for its characters, including but not limited to creative uses of such household items like a curling iron and a blender. Susco opted to leave out the graphic violence when making Unfriended: Dark Web. In fact, he wanted to make it as different as possible. “I wanted to do PG-13 instead of R,” he said. “I didn’t want to have graphic kills. I wanted all the kills off camera and do more of a thriller than a horror movie.”
The phrase “PG-13 horror” has a negative connotation within the horror community. After all, how can any horror film be good if it isn’t rated R (that was sarcasm, by the way)? It’s a long-fought debate among horror fans and it’s unfounded. There are plenty of good PG-13-rated horror movies just like there are plenty of bad R-rated horror movies. If the subject matter of the film doesn’t lend itself to the R-rating, then why try to force it? That being said, I had to ask Susco if the PG-13 mindset was for marketing purposes, to which he responded:
“It wasn’t really marketing. That’s the thing I love about horror. The fans are so aggressively passionate that there’s in-fighting because there’s so many flavors of horror. I mean I’ll see anything, no matter what it is. I have my favorites, and my favorites are a little more suspenseful. A little more slowly paced. Like Alien, The Thing, The Shining, like those are my go-tos. I wanted to direct something that was in my kind of favorite wheelhouse. So that’s really what attracted me to this too. This is all suspense. It’s all just kind of setting up mechanical things and seeing how long we can take the audience where they know something’s coming that the cast doesn’t know is coming. But I think PG-13 would be great for marketing. I don’t know if we’re going to get a PG-13 though…It’s strange because in Marvel movies you have people getting decapitated and impaled and you see horrible, horrible things happen to people and they’re still PG-13.”
Susco has a point. Last year’s Kong: Skull Island sees a side character get impaled Cannibal Holocaust-style by the leg of a giant spider and that film somehow got away with a PG-13 rating.
Horror Vs. Thriller
Whenever a horror film gets even a modicum of recognition, studios and critics alike are apt to refer to it as anything but a horror film (just look at Get Out‘s classification as a comedy at the Golden Globes). Many fans (myself included) see this trend as a way to make the horror genre seem “less than.” Throughout history, horror has often been seen as an inferior genre that doesn’t have much substance.
When Susco said he sought out to make Unfriended: Dark Web more of a thriller and less of a horror film, I asked him what he thought about the issue. Woodell chimed in to defend Susco, saying “There was something far more terrifying [about Dark Web] and I personally am not a horror guy, but I love thrillers and for me that’s also what I would rather watch: something that could be real as opposed to something that is too absurd. That terrified me more so [than a ghost].” Bekmambetov was equally perplexed by the question, adding “I don’t think that’s a serious question because what’s important is the result. I saw yesterday how much people jumped and how scared they were and the reason is to enjoy the scare. It doesn’t matter what you call it.”
Whatever genre of film it is, I’m excited for audiences to get to see the film whenever it sees a release. It definitely has more in common with the superb The Den than Unfriended, but it’s still very much it’s own thing.
Unfriended: Dark Web will be released in theaters nationwide later this year. No release date has been set.
Interviews
The Work ‘Grind’ Is Hell, So Brea Grant & Ed Dougherty Made a Horror Anthology About It [CFF 2026 Interview]
Genre fans rejoice! Chattanooga Film Festival is back for its 13th year in 2026 with a killer lineup and once again offering audiences both in-person and virtual options. After having its World Premiere at SXSW this spring, the horror comedy anthology Grind is playing CFF 2026 opening weekend.
From a screenplay by Brea Grant (Torn Hearts, 12 Hour Shift) and Ed Dougherty (MLM) and segments directed by Grant, Dougherty, and Chelsea Stardust (Satanic Panic), Grind features four interwoven stories that parody the gig economy, hustle culture, and the evils of late-stage capitalism.
The anthology follows weary everyday people juggling side hustles just to survive, while going up against greedy oligarchs, and cleverly uses dark humor and bloody practical effects to portray a world much like our current economic nightmare.
Bloody Disgusting had the pleasure of chatting with Brea Grant and Ed Dougherty about the socioeconomic commentary in Grind, casting Barbara Crampton as a villain, and DIY filmmaking.
Bloody Disgusting: Every segment in this anthology feels relatable because people are actually struggling to survive in the gig economy right now. How did the two of you come up with the idea of creating Grind?
Brea Grant: Like you said, we were trying to come up with a cool idea that seemed relevant right now. The thing that everyone we know is talking about is the economy, the lack of work, and the nightmare hellscape that is late-stage capitalism. It felt like the right time to write something that really featured that as the main horror. As the main thing that people were scared of, this world sort of came to us over the course of a couple of years.
Ed Dougherty: We wanted to make a hit film, and we said, “Let’s make a horror anthology, that’s the most marketable thing there is.” [laughs]
BG: [laughs] Definitely not!
BD: I love anthologies!
ED: We do, too. We feel like it’s kind of an undervalued form of horror film, but it’s a hard sell.
BG: People told us not to make it. They said, “Don’t make an anthology. It’s too hard to sell.” But we did it anyway.
BD: I guess I’m just one of those weirdos who likes anthologies and watches them all.
ED: We believe that there are a lot of weirdos like you out there. It seems like every good horror anthology has a long life, but it’s just getting over the initial hump that’s difficult.
BD: Chelsea Stardust directed some of the segments with the two of you and serves as a producer. How did she first get involved with this project?
BG: The project has a long history. We shot the first segment, which is about multi-level marketing, a couple of years ago. We had decided we wanted to make a full anthology, but it took us about a year after shooting that initial segment to shoot the rest of the movie. When we did that, we knew we needed to bring on a producer aside from Ed and me, since we were directing the bulk of the movie, so that was how she came on board. I’ve been friends with her for a long time, and the one thing I know about her as a friend is that she is very organized, so it felt like a good fit. I just called her one day and said, “Would you want to produce these three segments that we have left to shoot of Grind?” and she came on board.
BD: There are some fun cameos in Grind, but we have to talk about Barbara Crampton. She’s so good as a villainess. Why did you want her for this role, and what was it like working with her on this film?
BG: She’s in her villain era, which is so fun. [laughs] Obviously, we’re huge Barbara Crampton fans, and when we were making MLM, it was a smaller part of the movie that we knew we needed to call on people who could do a good job but were also friendly to us [laughs]. I’m friends with Barbara Crampton, and we’ve done three movies together before this. So, it felt like someone within our reach, but could also really draw a horror crowd. She has a huge fanbase, and she’s also super supportive of all the projects that she’s been in, so that was also really exciting. She’s a great actress, and she’s super funny. I think a lot of these horror actresses, especially those who came up in the eighties and nineties, weren’t given an opportunity to be funny. I think she was ready to jump on an opportunity that was different than what she was used to; it’s not running around and screaming. She is a cult leader, and she is quite funny in it. She just takes the comedy so well and seriously, and she does such an amazing job with it. She has a scene across from Rob Huebel, who is obviously a comedy master, and I feel like the two of them together were hilarious. It’s been fun to watch Barbara go from these iconic roles to a different kind of role at this point in her career. We’re super happy to be a part of that.
ED: And she loves the movie and has been so supportive. Every time she posts about it, I’m like, “I can’t believe this. This is amazing.”
BD: This is an accurate parody of the current socioeconomic situation in this country, as well as our obsession with online culture. It repeatedly asks the question, “What are you willing to do to make money,” in a world with wealth inequality and evil oligarchs. It’s fun, and it’s a horror movie, but it’s thought-provoking. What do you hope audiences take away from Grind, besides having a good time?
ED: I read every review and every Letterboxd review; Brea does not. So, I’ve seen it all. I’ve seen some reviews that say, “Good movie but doesn’t propose a solution.” I think we do propose a solution, which is that the power of unions and organizing is the only way that we will be able to fight back against oligarchs. I do think that is the message of the film. Organizing is the only way to defeat these villains. I do think we have a lot to say in the film. I’d want someone to say, “Man, I’ve never seen a horror anthology that had a political message before.” [laughs]
BG: I think the other thing is that what is currently happening is that we live in a world in which people kind of feel alone in this. They’re like, “Well, I’m doing bad, “or “I’m having trouble paying my rent.” We wanted to hang a lantern on the fact that this is happening to everyone, that wealth disparity is at an all-time high. We’re pointing out to people that you aren’t in this alone; you’re not the only person doing side hustles. Every filmmaker friend I have is working a side job of some sort at this point, and that is just in Los Angeles. Outside of this city, I think things are more dire. I think it was about infusing some politics into something that could make people realize that they aren’t alone and that there are ways of fighting back and fighting the system that has been set up against them.
ED: I think the tone of the movie, which is darkly comedic, also really matches the tone of life right now. Everything seems almost at a parody level as far as the disconnect between oligarchs and trying to make a living and reality. The absurdist nature of the film kind of captures the real tone of life.
BD: There are some cool creature effects and makeup effects in this movie. Can you talk a little bit about the practical effects and makeup?
ED: I think especially because of the message of the film, which is pushing back against the current hellscape we’re in, we wanted to use as many practical effects as possible. We used matte paintings, miniatures, and practical creature effects. I’m always afraid of the matte painting because we used the old school matte painter, but they do look a little AI. I heard someone make a noise behind me during one of the shots, and I was like, “I hope that noise wasn’t them using AI because that’s a matte painting.” [laughs] There’s also the fact that it’s pretty DIY. It’s a film that we financed ourselves and shot in our houses as much as possible. We wanted the whole thing to feel handmade and very tactile.
BG: We’re old school horror fans, so we love seeing practical effects. The practical stuff is really fun for us. It’s the stuff that we think is actually cool. [laughs] So, practical stuff made the most sense for us. We both grew up in the punk scene in the nineties, and I think it just kind of comes naturally to us to try to do things ourselves. And we both work on projects for big companies, with smaller companies, but always for other people, so trying to do something ourselves to see what that felt like was also part of the experiment of Grind.
ED: This was our chance to do everything we wanted our way.
Grind screens at the Chattanooga Film Festival on June 20.
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