Movies
Comic-Con ’11: ‘Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance’ Press Conference
Nicolas Cage brought his signature craziness to the Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance press conference at the San Diego Comic-Con this afternoon. The actor talked cobras, compasses and the origin of the word weird and, erm, there was some Johnny Blaze stuff in there too.
Amid the kookiness, Cage did promise fans the second Ghost Rider film – directed by Crank duo Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor – is a departure from the lighter tone of the first and closer to the comic book series.
“When I did the first one I wanted it to be like a Grimms’s fairy tale; scary but still something you can enjoy,” he said.
“This one, with (directors) Mark (Neveldine) and Brian (Taylor), is really going into the wonderful bliss of the nightmare imagination.
“I think that there’s a lot of humor to be found in the sarcasm and darkness.
“You talk to any paramedic and they survive by developing a pretty off-kilter sense of humor.
“I think Blaze has that. He’s dealing with the fact his head goes on fire, for years now.
“When you have a lot of comic book movies being made everyday, most of them are good boys so it’s nice to have a few bad boys.”
‘Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance’ is directed by the team behind the ‘Crank’ series, Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor. It sees Johnny Blaze (Cage) hiding out in Eastern Europe when he is called upon to stop the devil, who is trying to take human form. The film also stars Idris Elba (“The Wire”) and Johnny Whitworth (‘Limitless’).
Co-director Brian Taylor said he and Neveldine “didn’t really consider the first movie at all“.
“We wanted the darker version the fans wanted,” he said.
“He’s not a superhero that wears tights, he’s a dark entity.
“We like the stuff Garth Ennis did, that was a lot of inspiration for us.
“It looks like he crawled out of an opening in hell and into your face.
“Immediately you’re going to know you’re in a different world.
“It’s got dark humor, it’s got scary stuff, it’s kind of what we’ve just always done.”
Taylor said Cage really inhibited the darker version of his character on set and even “scared” other actors when he was in make up.
“The first time he showed up as Ghost Rider on set there was this silence and creeped-out feeling,” he said.
“He (Nic) wouldn’t talk, he was very quiet and he had these big black glass eyes in.
“At one point Mark said to him ‘did those things hurt?’ and Nic said ‘it’s personal.”
Neveldine said he wanted to bring “a lot of action” to the movie and they tried to use as little CGI as possible.
“We come from a background where we didn’t have the money to do CGI,” he said.
“We approached this by using CGI to enhance the film.”
Taylor added: “Someone in a computer lab in New Zealand didn’t come up with what the Ghost Rider is. It’s an amazing performance. We tried to put our actors in peril as much as possible. If it looks dangerous, then it probably is.”
That attitude made co-star Idris Elba – who plays Ghost Rider’s “pretty cool sidekick” – a little uncomfortable.
“When I was 19 I fell off a motorcycle and never wanted to get on one again until this movie,” he said.
“But Brian was like ‘you’re doing these stunts.’
“I was a fan of their work and what I like about their films is you feel the momentum.”
Taylor said he and Neveldine were “nervous” because it’s their “biggest film” and that ‘Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance’ is an “audience film.” He went on to say he and Cage had discussed it and Ghost Rider would beat every other superhero in a fight; “even Superman.” Cage added: “Because he has the Penitent stare and can look at you, everyone’s done something wrong. He can make you look at it over and over and over again, like the internet.“
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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