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‘Men’ Director Alex Garland Explains How Anime ‘Attack on Titan’ Influenced His Horror [Interview]

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A24’s latest horror offering is Men, the brand-new movie from Ex Machina and Annihilation director Alex Garland.

Men will be released in theaters on May 20 and stars Oscar nominee Jessie BuckleyRory Kinnear and Paapa Essiedu star alongside Buckley. 

The film marks Garland’s first foray into full-blown horror that “coils with mounting pressure, increasing in scares and intensity until it explodes in an insane, jaw-dropping third act that veers into Grand Guignol.

Ahead of the film’s release, Bloody Disgusting participated in a roundtable chat with Garland, where he discussed the surprising influences on his folk horror movie.

It was revealed that the filmmaker completely rewrote a significant horror sequence after watching a popular anime.

Garland explained, “That particular sequence was written as mutations, just as a sequence of mutations. There was a kind of loose thought that because we had had this Green Man character that it would be about seasons. The mutations would come via things like green growth coming out, or, if you have a dead fox and leave a camera on it for a week and then do time-lapse photography, it will decay and change. Maybe we’ll do the mutations like that.”

A24's ‘Men’ Review – Alex Garland Unsettles With Surreal Folk Horror!

Then I got slapped right in the face, creatively, by watching this show Attack on Titan with my daughter, which was taking human forms and making, in some ways, quite subtle changes. Ones that lent, in a way that I like, towards ridiculousness because I think actual ridiculousness is quite an important part of this film; a funny kind of patheticness, silliness in some respects, that sits alongside the horror and the strangeness. It’s important that those two things sit right up against each other. When I saw Attack on Titan, I could see how inventive and creative it was, and it made me think really hard. I spent that Christmas doing loads of sketches of forms, which became that [redacted] sequence.”

When asked if any more conventional genre influences might’ve shaped his folk horror, Garland answered, “Inevitably, there would be. I’ve seen The Wicker Man three times, and I know the film very well. So, that will sort of roll around in the back of my head, even if I’m aware of it or not. But not really. Honestly, I try to avoid making movies about other movies. I’m aware that other movies will filter into the thinking.” 

There’s a shot in Men, which is a first-person running shot towards a house, and even as we were setting up, I thought, ‘Oh yeah, Evil Dead,’ right? So that happens, but I’m not doing knowing nudges and winks towards the audience. It’s more like straight-up influence, which is borderline theft, you could say, or unconscious theft. But I really do avoid doing that. I always think that filmmaking is a broad church. I know many movies are incredibly keen to be referential and knowing to other movies. I get that, and it’s fine, and I’m not criticizing it, but it’s not something I want to do. I’ll make films with an awareness of other films, but I’m trying to make the movie about something not to do with cinema if that makes sense. Something as it were in the real world, I guess. But there are tons of movies in it. I mean, loads. If I stopped to think about it, like that Evil Dead rip-off, there’d be loads, but yeah.”

Horror journalist, RT Top Critic, and Critics Choice Association member. Co-Host of the Bloody Disgusting Podcast. Has appeared on PBS series' Monstrum, served on the SXSW Midnighter shorts jury, and moderated horror panels for WonderCon and SeriesFest.

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‘Late Night With the Devil’ – Exclusive Clip Begins the Supernatural Horror on Halloween 1977

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The upcoming Late Night With the Devil is one of the most buzzed about horror movies of the year, currently 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and earning rave reviews from both Stephen King and Kevin Smith. King raves that the film is “absolutely brilliant,” adding that he couldn’t take his eyes off it. Smith comments, “I love it. It’s Rosemary’s Baby meets Network.”

David Dastmalchian (Dune, The Suicide Squad) stars as the host of a late-night talk show that descends into a nightmare in the Ghostwatch and WNUF Halloween Special-inspired film.

IFC Films & Shudder will release the hotly anticipated Late Night with the Devil theatrically on March 22 before it heads to Shudder exclusively on April 19, 2024.

Begin the horror with a brand new EXCLUSIVE clip below…

David Dastmalchian stars as Jack Delroy, the charismatic host of “Night Owls,” and the film traces the ill-fated taping of a live Halloween special in 1977 plagued by a demonic presence.

The energetic and innovative feature hails from Australian writing-directing team Colin and Cameron Cairnes (100 Bloody Acres, Scare Campaign). 

The film premiered last year at SXSW. Meagan wrote in her review out of the fest, “Late Night with the Devil captures the chaotic energy of a late night show, embracing the irreverent comedy and stress of live television with a pastiche style. It’s a clever trojan horse for a surprising horror movie that goes full throttle on unhinged demonic mayhem.

“The ingenuity, the painstaking period recreation, a riveting performance by Dastmalchian, and a showstopper of a finale make for one Halloween event you won’t want to miss.”

Spooky Pictures founders Roy Lee (It, The Grudge, The Ring) and Steven Schneider (Pet Sematary, Paranormal Activity, Insidious), Derek Dauchy (“Al Kameen”) and Future Pictures’ Mat Govoni (“Lone Wolf”) and Adam White (“Lone Wolf”) and John Molloy are all producing.

Joel Anderson (Lake Mungo), Rami Yasin, and David Dastmalchian executive produce.

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