Aubrey Plaza in ‘The White Lotus’ season 2. Photo: Fabio Lovino/HBO.
The actual plotline for the season remains unknown for now, but if past seasons are anything to go by, it’ll once more see the clientele of a White Lotus resort (this time with Château de La Messardière in Saint-Tropez, France rumored as a main location) dealing with issues of wealth, privilege, dysfunction and, of course, probably a death or two.
Walton Goggins in ‘The White Lotus’ Season 3. Photo: Fabio Lovino/HBO.
It’s certainly odd to see two horror-comedies about estranged sisters battling for their lives against a Satanic cult open within a week of each other, but Hollywood works in strange ways. Sadly, the newest one, ‘They Will Kill You,’ is less entertaining that the moderately enjoyable ‘Ready or Not 2: Here I Come,’ with ennui setting in quickly despite some hard work from star Zazie Beetz and a few impressive production values.
But ‘They Will Kill You’ otherwise comes across as soulless and pointless, with director Kirill Sokolov giving the impression that his entire range of influences consists of some early Quentin Tarantino and a few video games. A few morbidly funny images aside (a disembodied eyeball nearly steals the show), this is a movie made only to be lapped up by a late-night Fantastic Fest crowd who won’t even remember it the next day.
Asia Reaves (Beetz) tries to save her younger sister Maria and herself from their vicious, predatory father, but ends up landing herself behind bars while Maria remains in dad’s clutches. A decade later, Asia is released from prison and promptly heads to an old-school New York luxury hotel called the Virgil, the last place she knew her sister (Myha’la) to be working.
Posing as a new member of the cleaning staff, Asia is barely settled into her quarters when she is attacked by the hotel’s manager, Lilith (Patricia Arquette), and a number of the guests. It seems that the Virgil is home to an ancient Satanic cult, and Asia has already been designated as their next ritual sacrifice to the Devil – a sacrifice that ensures the immortality of the Virgil’s guests even if they are hacked, decapitated, and disemboweled by Asia, who’s ready to fight back with everything she’s got.
Sokolov (‘Why Don’t You Just Die!’) and co-screenwriter Alex Litvak have strung together the thinnest script they could stretch to 90 minutes, just as connective tissue for a series of outlandish, cartoonish scenes of violence and gore. Blood sprays out of gaping wounds like fountains and the now-overused and irritating gimmick of ironically using pop song needle drops to score these repetitive sequences is deployed.
‘Ready or Not 2’ does more or less the same thing, but here the stakes are even less consequential because none of the Satanists can die; they merely come back to life even if Asia chops off their heads (as she does, frequently). Between that and the music undercutting everything, there’s no emotional engagement here at all with Asia, her quest, and her plight.
The cumulative effect is indeed of watching a video game as people die and reset. As a result a sort of numbness sets in – not the best response as we see, for the second week in a row, a young woman beaten mercilessly by her enemies (and again, with little stakes, since she seems quite capable of getting up and going back at it). There’s nothing scary or particularly suspenseful here, and aside from some humorous moments – as when we follow that eyeball we mentioned earlier – the film settles into a rinse-and-repeat cycle that isn’t even enlivened by the appearance of the Devil himself as a talking pig’s head.
The production values are handsome enough and the sound design is particularly effective (that team seems to be in on the joke, as their work often resembles that of cartoons). But Sokolov gets in his own way by drawing attention to his camera moves, his cutscene compositions, and his stylized, over-the-top gore, and the movie ends up vacuous and lacking anything resembling real human feelings or outcomes.
We’ve got to hand it to Zazie Beetz: not only does she have more screentime here than in just about anything else she’s done, but she makes the most of it despite the movie’s shortcomings. She has presence and an intense physicality, and is fully committed to the action even if it’s just more brutalization of a woman. Her dialogue is minimal, in keeping with the bare-bones script, so she works with what she can.
Wish we could say the same about Patricia Arquette, but her odd, sort-of Irish accent keeps distracting us. The rest of the cast, even Heather Graham, doesn’t really register, because they’re mostly there as fodder for gore.
Between this and ‘Ready or Not 2’ (which is the better film), it’s time to put a stake in the quickly ossifying horror-comedy tropes that have been rolled out in the last few years. But in addition to that, ‘They Will Kill You’ works too self-consciously hard to be something it’s not: an organic, authentic B-movie.
A film like this, released in the ‘70s or ‘80s, wouldn’t have necessarily been considered good. But years later, the same esthetic – filtered as mentioned above through the combination of Tarantino’s oeuvre and far too much time on the Xbox – now just comes across as a copy of a copy of a copy. Even when it gets to its boss level, ‘They Will Kill You’ never comes to life.
‘They Will Kill You’ receives a score of 40 out of 100.
‘They Will Kill You’ opens in theaters on March 27th.
What is the plot of ‘They Will Kill You’?
Searching for her sister, an ex-convict answers an ad to be a housekeeper at the Virgil, a mysterious New York City high-rise. But she is entering a death-trap that has seen a number of disappearances over the years, and discovers all too soon that she is next.
Heather Graham as Pandora in the horror/thriller, ‘Place of Bones’, a The Avenue release. Photo courtesy of The Avenue.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with actress Heather Graham about her work on ‘Place of Bones’, her first reaction to the screenplay, her strong character, working with Tom Hopper, collaborating with director Audrey Cummings, making a Western and more.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch the interview.
Heather Graham as Pandora in the horror/thriller, ‘Place of Bones’, a The Avenue release. Photo courtesy of The Avenue.
Moviefone: To begin with, what was your first reaction to the screenplay and why did you personally wanted to be a part of this project?
Heather Graham: Well, when I read the script, I thought it was surprising. I didn’t know where it was going. We had a screening last night, and actually, a few of my friends said, “I really had no idea where this movie was going. I had no idea what was going to happen”. I just think it was a great character. As an actress, you want to find a juicy role, and it was fun to play this tough badass woman who’s super smart and gets to shoot bad guys with a gun. I think that you feel drawn into the story. You care about the characters. As an actress, you want an interesting role. For me, it’s doing something different where I feel like I get to play this tough badass character who can outsmart these bad guys. That was very fun.
MF: Without giving anything away, were you surprised by the direction that the script goes in?
HG: Yes, the ending is a super surprising ending that I was totally shocked by, but I like that, when I feel like I’ve never seen this before. It’s a different way of telling this kind of story.
Heather Graham as Pandora in the horror/thriller, ‘Place of Bones’, a The Avenue release. Photo courtesy of The Avenue.
MF: Pandora is a strong, independent, and resilient character. Can you talk about your approach to playing her?
HG: I think my character’s had a hard life, so I basically have decided I’m going to keep my daughter safe. I’m going to keep her away from the rest of society because I don’t want anything to happen to her that happened to me. This fierce independence, I love that about my character. I’m flawed but I’m also a good mom in some ways. I think I have a lot of anger and bitterness and maybe I’m protecting her too much, but at the same time, I can understand why she would do that.
MF: Pandora has spent a long-time away from civilization, can you talk about how she feels when these strange men approach her home?
HG: I think a lot of bad things have happened to my character and my husband died, and I think I’m just incredibly resourceful. I think I read a lot of books. I think I know how to do a lot of things, so I know how to survive in the most difficult circumstances.
(L to R) Heather Graham as Pandora and Corin Nemec as Calhoun in the horror/thriller, ‘Place of Bones’, a The Avenue release. Photo courtesy of The Avenue.
MF: Can you talk about the unlikely alliance that Pandora makes with Calhoun?
HG: I think it’s an interesting relationship that we have. It’s not your typical movie relationship, but he’s likable and unlikable. He’s a good guy and a bad guy, and I think that I see who he is, and I don’t let him fool me, like he probably is a smooth talker. Even though he’s kind of a bad guy, he’s complicated and he shows up at the end being more of a good guy. I like that I don’t ever really trust him. Everybody’s really complicated in this movie, and nobody’s perfectly good except for maybe the daughter, but she’s pretty screwed up, too.
MF: Brielle Robillard plays your daughter, can you talk about working with her?
HG: Yeah, she’s awesome. She’s new, she’s young. She is so good. I just watched the movie on the big screen last night for the first time, and she did such a great job and she’s so real. The whole story for me is about how much I love my daughter and want to protect her and help her to have a better life than I had.
(L to R) Heather Graham as Pandora and Brielle Robillard as Hester in the horror/thriller, ‘Place of Bones’, a The Avenue release. Photo courtesy of The Avenue.
MF: Can you talk about preparing for the action sequences?
HG: The gun shooting is fun. I had to do a stunt where I’m shooting at this guy and then I fall over, and they had a stunt woman there for me, but I ended up doing it myself. Then everybody clapped, and the stunt people were like, “Great.” So, I felt like I got cred with the stunt department. That was cool.
MF: I know you only have a few scenes with him but what was it like working with Tom Hopper?
HG: We have a big scene at the end where he’s so scary. He’s so cool. He’s so nice. He’s super cute. Him and his wife, they eat healthy. He was showing me this food that he cooks that looks amazing. He’s kind of the opposite of this character, but in the movie, he’s terrifying and horrible. The thing is, you take this guy whose so movie star handsome, and you want to like him because he’s just so handsome, but then his character is so horrible.
Tom Hopper as Bear John in the horror/thriller, ‘Place of Bones’, a The Avenue release. Photo courtesy of The Avenue.
MF: What’s Audrey Cummings like to work with as a director on set?
HG: It’s awesome. I love working with a female director, and she’s cool. She loves genre movies, and it’s just fun. I think we both related to the Pandora character, so we had a great time together.
MF: In general, what are you looking for from a director when you’re working on set?
HG: I think you want to work with someone who’s supportive, who believes in you, but also helps you bring out your best work. I think Audrey really helped ground me and make me more natural and real in the movie, which I really appreciated.
(Right) Director Audrey Cummings behind the scenes of the horror/thriller, ‘Place of Bones’, a The Avenue release. Photo courtesy of The Avenue.
MF: What’s it like making a western and are you a fan of the genre?
HG: It’s a mixture of being very beautiful, and it was freezing. It was so cold, I was dying. It was very uncomfortable. I like Westerns, but I sometimes feel like there’s not enough female energy or female characters in them, so I felt like this was exciting because it told a little bit more of a female story.
MF: Finally, and again, without giving anything away, the film mixes the Western genre with other genres, can you talk about that?
HG: Yeah, it’s got aspects of being a thriller, it’s got aspects of being horror, and then I feel like there’s a lot of humor in it, which I was surprised last night at the screening. A lot of people were laughing in a lot of places, so it’s kind of disturbing, but also it makes you laugh. It’s not so much horror that you can’t sleep at night because of your nightmares.
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What is the plot of ‘Place of Bones’?
On a remote ranch, a mother (Heather Graham) and her daughter fight for survival when a wounded outlaw (Corin Nemec) seeking refuge brings a notorious bank robber (Tom Hopper) and his ruthless gang, all desperate to reclaim a stolen fortune, right to their doorstep in this action-packed horror Western.
(L to R) Corin Nemec as Calhoun and Heather Graham as Pandora in the horror/thriller, ‘Place of Bones’, a The Avenue release. Photo courtesy of The Avenue.
Joe Lynch, director of ‘Suitable Flesh.’ Courtesy of AMP and Eyevox. An RLJE Films and Shudder release.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Joe Lynch about his work on ‘Suitable Flesh,’ Dennis Paoli‘s script, adapting H. P. Lovecraft, the themes he wanted to explore, balancing the movie’s different tones, Heather Graham’s brave performance, and working with producer and actress Barbara Crampton.
Joe Lynch, director of ‘Suitable Flesh.’ Courtesy of AMP and Eyevox. An RLJE Films and Shudder release.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interview.
Please Note: Some adult language and ideas below.
Moviefone: To begin with, can you talk about your first reaction to screenwriter Dennis Paoli’s script and the challenges of adapting an H. P. Lovecraft story?
Joe Lynch: First impression that I had with Dennis Paoli’s script was, “This is cool. It feels a little old-fashioned,” and he’ll be the first person to admit that as well. It was a script that was written 15 years ago, and when I got it, it felt a little outdated, especially in the progressive element and time that we are in now, where I think casting two older men and one younger woman would’ve felt a little bit passé in the Me Too movement. I mean, as a filmmaker, you always have to think about the modern purview. The modern purview at the time was the future is female, which is why I wrote that into the draft. But that was something that I was a little scared of because that was the pitch that me and my writing partner had. We said, “What if we flip the genders.” Thematically, it needed to be more than that, and they embraced it. They were like, “We really like this idea. Let’s run with it.” So there was that. What’s it like adapting Lovecraft? I mean, Dennis did the heavy lifting, to be honest. He was the one who kind of cracked the code on how do you tell this type of story. Lovecraft is known to be very verbose, and if you’re going to take a modern sensibility to this, you can’t have a lot of people walking around in corsets and buggies and having that vernacular that would be indicative of the ’20s or ’30s. You needed to take the essence of all of the things that he would write. One of the things that Lovecraft did for this particular story that Dennis kind of harnessed onto was a more film noir-ish element, which is the art of a character telling a story. Then you have voiceover in it because this is being recounted in the modern form, but the whole movie essentially, except for the bookends, is one long flashback. That was something that I think Dennis kind of cracked in terms of making sure that was a structural part that felt very Lovecraftian. If you go back and read the story, it is someone recounting this tale. It’s actually a different character retelling the story, but we felt like it needed to be, “Let me tell you my story because I’m not crazy.” That was something that I felt was incredibly important to harness in terms of the Lovecraftian elements. Then we thrust it into the modern age and added a lot of modern elements, cell phones and horniness and all that good stuff, too.
(L to R) Heather Graham as “Elizabeth Derby” and Barbara Crampton as “Dr. Daniella Upton” in the horror/thriller film ‘Suitable Flesh.’ Photo courtesy of AMP and Eyevox. An RLJE Films and Shudder release.
MF: What were some of the themes that you were excited to explore with this project?
JL: Look, I had a lot to say with this movie, both personally, just cinematically in terms of the way that the world has gotten less sexy, it’s gotten less free with its eroticism. It feels like the pendulum has swung in a very conservative form. Whereas I grew up, and for better or for worse, everything I learned about sex, I learned from watching movies. But a lot of the eroticism that I think audiences really embraced from the ’70s, when the ratings code eased up a little bit and the New Hollywood kind of blazed in with their own ideas of sex to the ’80s, when it got commercialized to the ’90s, when independent cinema really opened up all different avenues of sexuality. Then we kind of got a little stale post-9/11 and post the studio system and the indie world kind of falling apart a bit. Sometimes for good reason, especially when you hear about some of the horror stories of what it was like to make those movies. I can understand why it is harder and harder these days to get people aroused, cinematically. Plus, with the advent of the internet, you didn’t have to sit through half a movie to see these two beautiful people get it on, hopefully with a good reason story-wise and character-wise. You can just go on the internet and type in a couple of keywords now. So, those themes. But also, gender identity, sexual fluidity and body authority, there were all of these themes that I was so excited to just infuse. The second you say theme, a lot of people get really bored. So I wanted to make sure that we still took them on a fun ride and an exciting ride, especially once they’ve earned through watching the first hour of more erotic thriller histrionics and then you just literally hit the gas at the end. I wanted them to go on that wild ride but then look back and go, “Oh, I didn’t even think about that. Wow.” Or maybe they walk out and go, “What would it feel like if I was in this position or I had someone come steal my flesh?” Those are things that I like to call “way-homers.” It’s like that really bad joke that your dad told and then driving home from Thanksgiving dinner, you go, “Oh, yeah!” That’s some of the themes that I want to come to light after you enjoy the movie.
(L to R) Heather Graham as “Elizabeth Derby” and Johnathon Schaech as “Edward Derby” in the horror/thriller film ‘Suitable Flesh.’ Photo courtesy of AMP and Eyevox. An RLJE Films and Shudder release.
MF: The movie not only has horror and supernatural elements, but it also is an exotic thriller, a melodrama, and has comedic moments. Can you talk about balancing all the different tones of the movie?
JL: It’s a really good question. And you know what? I’m the worst person to ask because life is a tonal rollercoaster. My life in the last few months alone has been a romantic comedy, a horrible found footage horror film, a melodrama and an action film, all rolled into one. That’s life though. Life today could be a horror film, tomorrow it could be a comedy, and the next day it could be ‘The Notebook,’ who knows? But when you’re dealing with a story like this, I mean, the closest cousin or relative to this movie is Stuart Gordon‘s adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s ‘Re-Animator.’ It’s even set in the same hospital. I grew up in an era where the splatter film was becoming pretty relevant in at least the genre lexicon. For those who don’t know, splatter takes horror and comedy and puts it into the blender, hits puree and you get this very red smoothie that blends humor, horror, melodrama all into one bouillabaisse. That’s kind of when it came to some of the filmmakers that we were watching, and some of the films that we were watching, that if a lot of horrifying things happened in this film, we needed to make sure that there was enough sugar to make the medicine go down. Especially when you have something as bombastic as a body swap movie. I’ve had some critics ask, “Where’s the tentacles? This is a Lovecraft film.” I felt like there’s only so much you can do before you lose an audience to the supernaturality of the story that you’re telling. I felt like as long as we ground this enough, we’ll hopefully enrapture the audience to put themselves into Elizabeth Derby’s shoes, or Asa’s shoes, or even Johnathon Schaech‘s shoes, who plays the hapless wife that is usually played by a woman. We wanted to make sure that that tone was realistic enough and grounded enough, but then just enough of a wink to the audience to go, “We know this is crazy, you know this is crazy, so let’s have fun.” That’s the kind of tonal rollercoaster I wanted the audience to go on. By giving them enough hints that they know that they can take it seriously, they can think it’s sexy, but also have fun with it and think it’s funny too, once you have that license and know all of those tones are in there, that’s where I feel like we earn that last third of the movie because you never know what tone is going to come next, if anything.
Heather Graham as “Elizabeth Derby” in the horror/thriller film, ‘Suitable Flesh.’ Photo courtesy of AMP and Eyevox. An RLJE Films and Shudder release.
MF: Without giving anything away, Heather Graham has an extremely complicated role to play and gives a very brave performance. What was it like working with her and was she prepared for everything that she would have to do in this movie?
JL: We knew that we needed someone who would give no F’s when it came to putting themselves out there and be fearless. I had always been a fan of Heather’s. I think everyone thinks of the post-‘Boogie Nights’ part of her career, but I think of her as my first crush from ‘License to Drive,’ the Corey Haim and Corey Feldman classic. But there was a part that she played in ‘Drugstore Cowboy’ that I remember going, “It’s the girl from ‘License to Drive’ and, wait, she’s playing someone completely different.” Knowing that she had that range was really exciting. Then I just felt like here was someone who I knew would at least be worth discussing to see how game she was in terms of the extremities that we wanted to go to. But also there’s a lot of different characters she’s got to play. Some actors are not into that because they’re like, “Tell me the assignment. Wait, I have to play more than one character? Hard pass.” She was not. Within 15 minutes of our first Zoom call, she was like, “I am so excited to do this. This is the kind of role I’ve been waiting for a while and no one’s given me the opportunity to do it,” and we just went to the races with that. The amount of work she put in, the amount of passion that she put into the role, I mean, she gave us so much every day, without ever looking back. That was the thing, she was fearless, absolutely fearless. That kind of energy fueled everybody else. It’s like a sports competition sort of situation where if you’re number one on the call sheet gets on set and she starts hitting for the cheap seats, you have to do that as well. That fueled everybody else, from Judah and Johnathon, to Barbara and Bruce. Anytime Heather stepped on set, it was like, “Game on, let’s go.”
(L to R) Heather Graham as “Elizabeth Derby” and Barbara Crampton as “Dr. Daniella Upton” in the horror/thriller film ‘Suitable Flesh.’ Photo courtesy of AMP and Eyevox. An RLJE Films and Shudder release.
MF: Finally, actress Barbara Crampton is also a producer on the film. What was it like working with her as both a producer and actress, and with the inclusion of screenwriter Dennis Paoli, did you realize that you were also making a mini ‘Re-Animator’ reunion?
JL: Of course. Oh my God, Barbara’s the reason why I am here talking to you right now. She was the one who fostered the script from Dennis. I’ll print the legend on this one, but she supposedly had talked to Stuart Gordon about this before he died and he had mentioned my name, which is unbelievable that he even remembered me from all of the conversations we would’ve had at the ‘Masters of Horror’ dinners. So Barbara was the reason why I got that email saying, “Would you be interested in this?” Then we just kind of took it from there. Now, as an actor, I got to work with Barbara, this was after she had contacted me, after I was in, while we were working on the script, I ended up getting two episodes of ‘Creepshow.’ When we were casting one of the episodes I was doing called ‘Pipe Screams,’ I was looking for a “Karen.” I’m like, “God, how great would it be to see Barbara Crampton play a Karen in this moment?” I was like, “But also this, is my opportunity to kind of audition saying, ‘Here’s how I work.’” Because at the time, she was only going to produce, she wasn’t going to be in the film, but I wanted to show her I can make my day, I can get cool shots, and I can work with actors. I wanted to prove to her because I was such a fan and I hold her in the highest regard even more now having worked with her. She means so much to me, but I wanted to prove myself to her as a boss. So she worked on ‘Creepshow.’ We had a great time. Watching her act there made me go, “God, I really wish she was in our movie.” Then once we got the cast together, she was kind of like that kid who was off in the corner who wanted to play with everybody at the playground and went like, “Why can’t I play?,” and that’s why she jumped in. She was not supposed to be in this movie. But then to watch her, like when we have those scenes in the basement, we did twenty plus pages in one day. It was just her and Judah going back and forth playing multiple parts. Because when you film something like that in such close corners, you have to shoot everything going this way before you flip the world and shoot everything going that way. So with all the scenes, we had to shoot everything facing one way through the beginning of the day and then do the same thing all over again, shooting the other way for the second half. It was daunting. But watching Barbara Crampton snap into place the second I called action, and then the second I called cut, she’s like, “Okay, that was great.” She would smile and then she’d go, “Hey, do we want to make sure that lunch is prepared for everybody? Hey, do you need anything? Are you good?” She was producing immediately. She is a whirling dervish and she is exactly what the horror genre needs right now. She’s amazing.
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What is the plot of ‘Suitable Flesh’?
Psychiatrist Dr. Elizabeth Derby (Heather Graham) begins to helps a young patient Asa (Judah Lewis), who has an extreme personality disorder. She digs further into the situation, and realizes there is something dark and supernatural at play with the patient.
Who is in the cast of ‘Suitable Flesh’?
Heather Graham (‘Boogie Nights’) as Elizabeth Derby
In an exclusive interview with Made in Hollywood, the stars of the Netflix rom-com, Rachael Leigh Cook, Damon Wayans Jr., and Heather Graham talk about making the film and their own experiences with dating websites.
