Interviews
“We Definitely Want to Bring That Sequel to Life”: Director William Brent Bell on a Potential ‘Stay Alive 2’!
Years before making horror films like The Boy, this year’s Separation, the upcoming Orphan: First Kill, and The Devil Inside, William Brent Bell made his debut on the horror scene with 2006’s Stay Alive, which Ryan Larson recently revisited in his BD column You Aughta Know.
“Today, Stay Alive seems ripe for an update,” Ryan wrote in his article celebrating the 15th anniversary of the movie centered on a mysterious video game that bleeds into reality and knocks off its players one-by-one… in real life. We never did get any sort of follow-up to Stay Alive, but chatting with BD’s Boo Crew Podcast, Brent Bell says he still intends on making one!
“When I made that movie, I looked at it like… I love movies like Last Starfighter… I was like, ‘I want that to be what the movie’s gonna be like. When people watch it when they’re 13, 14, 15… when they get older, they’ll always have a soft spot for that movie. Here we are 15 years later and that’s exactly the response it seems to be getting,” Brent Bell notes.
He continues, “People just have a warm spot for this movie. We all knew… [it was] ahead of its time. The studios didn’t understand the video game aspect; they didn’t understand the importance of it. And how it can play as a story element, it didn’t just have to be window dressing. As far as a sequel goes, absolutely. We’ve been talking about that for a while.”
“It was ahead of the curve,” Brent Bell reiterates. “Five-ten years ago it would’ve been on the curve, ya know, riding the curve. Now we’d be behind the curve if we just did a straight video game. But AI and augmented reality… that kind of stuff is blending a video game and reality for real. So yeah, we definitely want to bring that sequel to life. And it’s a priority.”
You can listen to The Boo Crew’s full chat with William Brent Bell below.
As the inaugural season of Apple TV+’s stellar new series “Widow’s Bay” barrels toward its finale in two weeks, the latest episode gives Kate O’Flynn the spotlight as her character revisits her trauma with the Boogeyman.
“Your Baggage“, directed by Andrew DeYoung (Friendship), sees O’Flynn’s scene-stealing Patricia once again renew her fight with the Michael Myers-like stalker that slaughtered her peers during her adolescence. Thrillingly, it makes for one extended chase sequence that sees Patricia trying to warn others, while evading the undead killer.
In short, this episode’s incredible riff on Halloween and the slasher subgenre transformed Patricia into a fierce Final Girl.
“Well, that felt like a bucket list that I didn’t know was on my bucket list until I did it, but when I did it, I just lapped up every minute,” O’Flynn tells Bloody Disgusting of her triumphant turn this episode. “It felt fantastic for her to get that moment where she is becoming a badass. That was amazing.”
The actress turned to a few notable references for her performance. “Horror-wise, I go back to my youth, which was referenced in some of the episodes: Wicker Man, Carrie, and Rosemary’s Baby, that sort of thing is my kind of vibe.”
O’Flynn also notes how the series’ unique tone allows for so much creative freedom to make bold swings. “There’s something very freeing about it. Every moment is up for grabs, so it’s like we don’t have to totally land in one direction or another. It keeps it alive.“
Patricia is the eccentric assistant to Matthew Rhys‘ Mayor Tom Loftis, who’s at the forefront of trying to solve the island’s pesky curse predicament. Rhys felt the same about “Widow’s Bay” and its rare ability to make you laugh and scream in equal measure, stemming from series creator Katie Dippold.
“The mandate was, ‘It’s a real world with real people. You play for real.’ There’s no playing for comedy or horror,” Rhys echoes O’Flynn’s sentiments on how freeing the series’ tone has been.
New episodes will release every Wednesday through June 17 only on Apple TV+.
Kate O’Flynn in “Widow’s Bay,” now streaming on Apple TV.
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