On Episode 76 of The Boo Crew Podcast, we sit down with legendary former WWE champion and mixed martial artist Phil “CM Punk” Brooks and writer, director and producer Travis Stevens to discuss their new movie Girl on the Third Floor.
Brooks stars and really shines in his first lead role. This new home renovation horror flick serves as both the acting debut for Phil as well as feature-length directorial debut for Travis. Phil plays lead character Don Koch who’s trying to renovate a rundown mansion with a seedy history, only to learn the dark secrets and intentions hidden within the home itself.
Shot on location in a suburb of Chicago, the home serves as the perfect location and backdrop for this haunted house movie. On the production value of shooting in a haunted house, Travis had this to say: “The house is located outside of Chicago in a suburb in Frankfort, Illinois and that happens to be the home base for the production company that made the film, Queensbury Pictures and my fellow producer Greg Newman. So they knew of the house and the local legend is that it’s haunted and it was formerly a bordello and it sits across the street from a church. All of this is reality and so Greg was like it would be great to do a haunted house movie in an actual haunted house. Which in theory sounds good, but when you’re actually shooting in a haunted house it becomes a little tricky at points. Because it was a haunted house, my thought was let’s shoot it exactly as is. So, for the most part, the wallpaper, paint and moulding, all that stuff is as we found it. And then we brought in details on top of it. But yeah I think both visually and sort of vibe wise, that house has a personality that was a lot of fun to capture.”
Phil’s multidimensional character Don endures so much home renovation trouble while working on the house that at times it’s comical. Yet at the same time, there’s that perfect balance of an eerie feeling lurking within the home. As if something sinister is waiting, watching his every move and ultimately offering temptation.
On choosing his first lead acting role Phil recalls: “The first thing I see is Travis’ name (on the script) and I google his name. The next thing I see is Jodorowsky’s Dune. And I was like no way! And I start looking at all the things Travis’ name is attached to. I’ve seen like four other things. And I thought this is legit. I was told Steve Albini was attached to it doing the score. I was immediately like “How did they get Steve Albini?” I’ve lived in Chicago my entire life. I know bands who Steve has produced and I was like Steve doesn’t do music anymore really. The dude just plays poker, like I know that. So I was like what’s going on here. I was in before I read the script. Jodorowsky’s Dune is what sold me because I went to see it when it was playing at the Music Box in Chicago and that movie just spoke to me. That was a time in my life – like I had just left WWE and my leaving created this vacuum and Daniel Bryan was thrust in to fill the void. So he got to win the main event at WrestleMania. I remember sitting in the theater, looking up at the screen. I was with my friend Natalie, and the movie was over and she turned to look at me and said “Dude, you are Jodorowsky’s Dune.” But’s it’s true, Jodorowsky does all the heavy lifting on this stuff – Geiger, Mobius… all these people who go on to do all these amazing things that have layed the foundation for all these other people to go on doing amazing things. I was stunned. So when I saw Travis’ name on that, I thought yeah this is it.”
The movie is filled with great practical gore effects, some very subtle while others quite in your face and fun to watch. The movie also stars Trieste Kelly Dunn, Sarah Brooks, Elissa Dowling, Karen Woditsch, Travis Delgado, Marshall Bean, Anish Jethmalani, Bishop Stevens, Tonya Kay, and Eilea Pyrzynski.
Girl on the Third Floor is in theaters and on VOD as of Friday, October 25, 2019.
Listen to the full interview with Phil “CM Punk” Brooks and Travis Stevens on Episode 76 of The Boo Crew podcast. Available now wherever you get podcasts!
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Twitter: @CMPunk
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