On Episode 135 of The Boo Crew Podcast, Actor-Producer Kevin Bacon and Writer-Director David Koepp sit down with the ‘Crew to discuss their latest project starring Kevin, Amanda Seyfried and Avery Essex. It’s a fantastic new horror film entitled You Should Have Left (Available now on Digital and VOD).

It’s been 21 years since Koepp and Bacon initially worked together on the horror thriller, Stir of Echoes. This duo of renowned storytellers are once again reunited in 2020 for this new psychological thriller adapted from the 2017 novella You Should Have Left: A Novel by German writer Daniel Kehlmann.

In the film, Kevin Bacon plays Theo Conroy, a man with a mysterious dark past involving a past relationship with his ex-wife. Although we get glimpses, it keeps the extent of his previous relationship a secret except for a quick flashback scene or two. In the present day, Theo is remarried to a young beautiful actor named Susanna (Amanda Seyfried) and has an adorable six-year-old daughter, Ella (Avery Essex). For reasons that unfold in the movie’s plot, a getaway plan emerges and the family retreats to a post-modern architectural rental estate in the countryside of Wales. Soon enough the multi-room house begins to reveal itself. Is the house haunted? Is there a presence of a ghost? WHEN DOES IT END?! We are not telling. This is a fun horror movie with twists and revelations. Kevin, Amanda and Avery are all fantastic in their respective roles. We loved it and we are recommending you to check it out!

So much horror produced over the years has been repackaged tropes and scares that play out very similarly time and time again. Once in a while directors and actors challenge the status quo to deliver something new or different when it comes to shaping a horror film with fresh ideas.

“The challenges are that a lot of things have been done before. There’s only so many ways you can tell a story,” Bacon explains. “People have seen people walk down halls. People have seen people open closets and see things pass in the back. So it’s envisioning a fresh take on that and also not being afraid to embrace those moments when they do work. One of the things I think David (Koepp) is so skilled with is that he’s able to take everyday kind of moments and give them a level of creepiness or concern for the audience that it’s just very very creative you might not even think of it. There’s a moment in You Should Have Left where we’re in this rented house and I go and I try to get the lights going. I go from light to light to light switch and it’s not like a super scary moment but it’s also this specific way of saying you’re in this place you don’t quite understand and it’s new and it’s not functioning the way a home is supposed to function. So it’s kind of laying into this subversive feeling that something could go wrong. Those are the moments that are really kind of fun to explore.”

The movie has some really effective scenes as Kevin’s character Theo goes room to room exploring out of curiosity the different rooms, doors and hallways. It’s all very confusing to him and to us as a viewer. Koepp reflects on the unsettling nature of the piece:

“There’s a feeling you get when you’re traveling and you wake up in the night to go to the bathroom. You forgot where you are for the moment. You’re in a hotel someplace or somebody’s house and you go to where the bathroom door usually is and the wall is there. You’re feeling along this wall at night and for about five seconds you can’t, you’re like what happened to the door? Oh yeah I’m in Chicago, okay fine. I wanted the last 45 minutes of the movie to feel like that. What’s great about scary movies is, ever since they’ve been around, if you make a promise early on in the movie that you’re going to be scared – there will be jumps and scares and things to worry about. You can settle into a different kind of movie for a while. And we tell a story of a fatally flawed marriage, so we snuck in a marital drama for about 45 minutes then things get scary again and upsetting.”

The filming of this movie brought up some interesting challenges in shooting in the beautiful Wales countryside home as well as commuting to the studios in London where some of the interior sets were built for the movie. Kevin notes the continuity was a monster all its own.

“One of the challenges David had was that we were shooting it at the house and we were doing a lot of work there. But then we were also building these sets down in London so that he would have the flexibility to have halls expand and doors could go places that they didn’t go and walls could fly. Not to mention we added a second story and there’s all kind of stuff and our production designers were doing a fantastic job at that. But keeping straight what you shot in Wales and what you’re going to have to shoot in London when you’re jumping back and forth between scenes is extremely complicated. It’s a real house of cards. Not only for basic locations and geography but also for me, going like I can’t remember how many times – I’m in the same goddamn outfit for the whole movie! The outfits not going to tell me anything. And so I really really relied on David. I’d just ask okay which one is this and what’s happened. I’m usually really good about keeping that straight but it was really challenging with this one.”

Looking to the future, not that long ago, Robert Englund spoke about the possibility of playing Freddy Krueger one more time in a possible reboot or sequel in the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. He also publicly stated that he’d like to see the torch passed to Kevin Bacon to don the fedora and gloved knives.

“I entertain all offers. I’m a guy that goes where the characters are. So, if I feel like the character is there, sure. I think it’s a cool idea, it’s a great franchise.”

For more with Kevin Bacon and David Koepp, check out The Boo Crew Podcast episode 135 available on Apple, Spotify and everywhere podcasts are available!

You Should Have Left is out now on VOD and on demand.

Follow Kevin Bacon on:

Instagram: @kevinbacon
Twitter: @kevinbacon

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Instagram: @talesfromtheboocrew
Twitter: @talesfromtheboo