'The Dead Thing' Director and Stars Talk Their New Dating Horror Story

Dread Central

We talked to 'The Dead Thing' director Elric Kane and stars Blu Hunt and Ben Smith-Petersen about navigating intimacy, digging into these characters, and more.  Dread Central https://www.dreadcentral.com/  Check Out Our Podcast Network- https://www.dreadcentral.com/dread-podcast-network/  Grab your Dread merchandise, movies, and more- https://store.dreadcentral.com/  Follow Dread Central on social media: Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/DreadCentral Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/dreadcentral/ Twitter- https://twitter.com/DreadCentral TikTok- https://www.tiktok.com/@dreadcentral

Transcript

00:00into the world. i know it's been in festivals and stuff but now it's finally getting released. how

00:03does it feel, Elric? uh it is it is nerve-wracking but i i'll say like i now i'm not gonna you never

00:11say you don't care how it's perceived because that's not what it means but it's like i think

00:15doing festivals is actually great to thicken your skin to be ready you know what i mean like if this

00:21just went to if this had gone straight to shutter i would have been a total mess because the first

00:25negative thing here you're going to be like oh my god but when you start to see a balance and

00:29realize oh that's just anything you create art movie you know is going to be like somebody's

00:35going to fall in love and somebody's going to be like i don't know what you're doing and so

00:39the festival's been great for that to connect with people and see and kind of almost understand

00:43what you've made because when you're making it you understand the story but you don't things like

00:49themes it's like yeah we had themes when we're writing it but you don't think about them when

00:52you're shooting a movie like i didn't once think about a theme when when we're in production you

00:57know you're just too busy trying to get everything every day uh so so now that we're there i'm really

01:02you know it's exciting and it's exciting to also do something a little different because we're going

01:06straight to shutter it to we we decided to get a film print made and so we're now doing these pop

01:12up we're going to have our premiere tomorrow at the new beverly in la and then we're going to

01:16ifc center in new york for one-offs and it's going to do a few one-offs and it's that's made me

01:21re-excited if in a way when you kind of just as you start to get over your own thing that you've

01:25been stuck in for so long you can go oh cool this is a little different so pretty stoked about that

01:30part but we congratulate you beverly that's so yeah well i do their podcast for the last few

01:35years so it was like oh yeah that's right obviously at least it's kind of an easy obvious like ask but

01:40i am curious what the actors because like for me the difference between our journeys is like

01:44they've been away from this somewhat you know uh doing other projects and other roles and i've just

01:49been you know in post perpetually for two years or whatever so and yeah and um ben and blue i would

01:59love to hear about why you were attracted to this film and i can understand it's like it's got that

02:03millennial on we like sadness to it but i'm curious starting with blue like what about this film was

02:10so interesting for you as an actor you're on mute by the way i'm sorry just

02:16sort of okay hi sorry um i just really liked the character i liked alex like i just i like the idea

02:27of like playing someone who didn't talk for the first i don't know 20 pages

02:34so i could just play silent characters like i would do that you know um uh so it was just like

02:42just reading the script i thought it would be like a really fun exercise and like acting and i

02:46had never done like an indie i hadn't done an indie film yet and now i'm obsessed with them like

02:52it's just like so nice no they are really fun yeah i mean it's just like it's so nice to just

02:57like be working with just like people who are your friends like everybody for the most part is like

03:03they're simply because they care and there's just like a lot more like creative involvement and like

03:09i like all the little things that go wrong all the time and you're rushing around like

03:14you know it's just like really like hands-on and i find it it's you can really think about

03:21your performance in different ways like you're not you know going and sitting in a trailer all day

03:27you know and like yeah it's like there's just something that's just so like i don't know it's

03:33just like what filmmaking should be for me i think like i like just feeling like you're not

03:37no one is like more special than the next person on set and i just like this like feeling of

03:42camaraderie and it's just like fun because then you can also there's less pressure to like have

03:48a performance that's like you can't fail on like certain projects like not that you want to fail

03:53in like an independent film because actually your performance is going to be like the key

03:58thing that carries the film because like a bad performance in an indie film will tank the whole

04:03thing really you know it will it's like no matter how good it is it's like bad acting

04:09bad acting can almost like be kind of held up in like you know bigger films because everything

04:12around is like great you know and even then it's like but in like a smaller film it's like

04:19everything is geared for the performance so it's like you have to be good but also you can get

04:25weird with it you know like i feel like doing this movie kind of taught me to be more naturalistic

04:31since i'd done like a lot of tv and like getting to like try out how i actually want to act was

04:37like really fun opportunity and i could sense that like when i read the script i was like oh

04:41i think i can like really try out like what i always envisioned for myself in acting which

04:46was like much more naturalistic and like quiet you know that's so awesome that's gotta be that's

04:51gotta be so cool for you as an actor especially if you've been acting and being able to do something

04:54new like that has just got to be an awesome experience that's so cool and ben what about

04:59you what about the script was attractive for you and the character you play because

05:04well you play a very interesting character yeah i mean if i'm if i'm honest

05:10it wasn't the character that got me it was just the script in general that i was like damn this

05:15thing is so cool like um and i thought alex was so interesting as a character and there were all

05:23these kind of um just the writing and the descriptions of what was happening i was like

05:30this is so like this is just so someone who gets it you know like it's just written perfectly you

05:37know and i think even some stuff that maybe is not in the film there was this thing about there

05:42was this shot described of a pair of shoes by a door and light changing behind the door and

05:49this this um thing of like i think alex is going like uh experiencing the same thing so

05:58often that she's starting to lose what day it is or or that that kind of thing and i was just

06:03like it was just written so well and the thing with the light and i was like this is so cool

06:08you know like um yeah that's awesome well and then between ben oh sorry were you saying oh

06:16no i was just gonna say about the details it's funny because like when you then put a rough cut

06:20together or whatever you know some people would be like i'll just cut the first five minutes you

06:23know i'll get into your movie and it's like you know the things that you have to fight for even

06:27when you're making an indie i had to keep telling people like the first few minutes is the whole

06:31point of the movie like if you cut the repetition if you cut the shoes by the door if you cut her

06:38her long way which you were as you were just saying then you can't understand her you if i

06:43just because if i started it at the date and she just starts talking and it's kind of existential

06:47then it's just a character's existential but if you see that the first few minutes of this

06:51are what kind of set you up now it's not it's not maybe the comfort of every horror fan right like

06:56watching a movie they might i know if i watch um amazon ones now i always call hulu i always comment

07:01that somebody's head explodes in the first like 30 seconds because they're everyone's so scared

07:05no one will keep watching i'm like i'm pretty sure they'll keep watching at least a few minutes so

07:10so i just think sometimes that you have to be um you have to end up being truthful even if

07:14sometimes um you're at odds with that when you're actually cutting or whatever you have to go back

07:18to the idea what is the idea and it's like that is the idea i have you have to experience alex's

07:22world otherwise you've ruined the thing you know other things change quite a lot along the way just

07:26you know rhythm and editing wise and you know um but but the idea itself is the thing you have to

07:32kind of still hunt for yeah well i want to think about creating intimacy on set because it's

07:36obviously is a movie about intimacy but there is this really awesome chemistry between your

07:40characters ben and blue and you know it's an indie movie you're shooting fast you don't

07:45probably have you might not have a lot of time to rehearse so what was it like for the two of

07:48you to create this i'll just say chemistry between the two characters and that becomes

07:53intoxicating while you're watching i don't know or are you just lucky to have like a cool acting

08:02partner which is obviously like a valid question i always like to say that i could have chemistry

08:06with anyone but um um no i mean honestly i think we have like not similar dispositions but

08:15we just kind of like got along i mean like in a friendly way like pretty immediately when we met

08:21like we're both kind of easy go i mean i'm not like i'm like i'm an actress i'm not that easy

08:26going you know but i'm easy going i'm like surprisingly easy going for an actor but um

08:33so i think we were just like kind of like you know i don't know we just hang out and it just

08:40yeah you know yeah it's also it's like it's so professional and like you know it's funny you

08:46know i'm just like like remember the thing where you had to like hold me on the board

08:51like stuff like that like that's just like i'm just there like topless and everyone's like trying

08:58to like kind of create this like weird stunt for the camera and it's just it's like it gets so like

09:04familial and friendly and it's like yeah i think you know yeah at the end of the day you know that

09:10i guess the game is to show like we're trying to act like we have chemistry you know like yeah

09:16yeah chemistry there there has to be a certain real amount of chemistry you know yeah at the

09:23end of the day that's the goal is to look make it look that way so hopefully it looks that way for

09:29sure every time i saw them talking they seemed very chill when they weren't acting they just

09:36looked like they were listening to each other and like creating a little pocket of something so for

09:40me it was like that makes it so much easier yeah oh yeah did you have an intimacy an intimacy

09:45coordinator you guys worked with at all on this one no no we can afford it i mean just because

09:51of the scale but like partly i mean if we were forced to yeah yeah i mean that's the thing like

09:58if they you know want every movie to have an intimacy coordinator and there needs to be

10:02something in place for movies to have more money and fun oh absolutely yeah too you know

10:08i will say i don't think we could have achieved what we did and how far we can take it without

10:14like we literally have like a 15 20 year stunt person helping us orchestrate that thing too

10:20actually like it really did honestly there were a lot of things that we did that i did feel like

10:24genuinely so much more not like so much more comfortable doing because i never felt uncomfortable

10:30ever but just feeling like really safe like i think it really did help because it was like again

10:34it was like it was my first time doing any kind of scenes like that like really like and so

10:41having been there just just like having like we were able to like it was actually really nice i

10:48think like having been there to do it like being like a stunt man too because it was like it really

10:55since it was my first time got me into thinking like this really is like it's a physical sex stunt

11:00work really you know it's like i like trying to figure out how to like move to make it trick the

11:04camera it's the same thing as doing like a fake slap you know and like it like i think actually

11:10like for it being my first time doing scenes like that it was really great but and you know

11:17a lot of like intimacy coordinator for coordinators also like do like kind of stunt things like in like

11:23you know it's like they really kind of like mixes a bit you know oh no that's awesome

11:29it wasn't like i think it would be different if it was just and again this is a you have to

11:34have seen it to understand this but the love scenes aren't normal love scenes and so if it

11:37was two people in bed making love then i think that's when it's like okay that's somebody who

11:42just to protect everyone's rights but this was like literally okay we're gonna be you know we're

11:47gonna be lifting somebody on a board then we we have a giant yeah like half of the love scenes

11:52were like stunt scenes really yeah they were like they were effectively like a fight scene you know

11:57it would be like it would be like doing a a fight scene or uh like i keep bringing it up but the

12:02hitchcock quote he says film your murders like love scenes and your love scenes like murders

12:06and that's what i circled before i started filming i was like okay if the love scenes are

12:11more like looking at a murder set piece the way we shoot them have to kind of echo that and that was

12:16and so then when then we're all there and we're working out how it's going to look and feel

12:21ben became you know very very helpful with just some of the you know just also like helping

12:26mobilize a crew to understand a stunt so i don't think it was quite like it was intimacy

12:31still but it was also something else so it was just interesting but yeah that's cool

12:35that's so interesting though i had never thought about like sex scenes being like

12:38stunts but they really are like that is really interesting to hear about that

12:41experience it's just it's just bodies matching up against bodies so it's the same stuff like

12:53yeah well that's the art of it is like you can do something in the room shoot it a hundred

12:58different ways and it's not gonna look like what's happening in the room you know so like

13:02yeah it's just understanding that what you think is happening might not be in lens and just like

13:08being able to make sure what's happening in the lens is what you're trying to tell the story so

13:14it doesn't really matter what's actually happening over there cool and i'm pivoting from intimacy but

13:22alrick i love the music in this between the score and then also just the music that

13:27alex listens to and i want to hear more about your process behind that and working with

13:31your composer and a music supervisor about getting all these all of this music to create

13:36the soundscape for this movie which is i think really good especially with like

13:39the new wall like neo-noir vibes with the score as well so i just wanted to hear about that process

13:44yeah so it's like obviously we're we did we made one mistake i think where everyone's like shoot

13:49all your budget shoot all your budget don't worry about post just get it on the screen and so i

13:52actually took that literally probably needed every cent of it but then you get into posting

13:57like now i have nothing and so it took a lot longer to get what we needed to do um my editor

14:03star he had been talking about a composer for a very long time michael krasner who's part of this

14:08thing called box set ensemble he he records a lot of the biggest like indie bands he's like a you

14:12know a lot of people that you would recognize their albums he's recorded it as well as being

14:16a composer and um what one of the others it's not a mistake but something that'll happen on

14:21every film it as you know like you're a filmmaker to it you you lay down temp stuff but you can get

14:28overly attached so this movie was almost entirely oh god i hate yeah so it's a thing to the temp

14:33music yeah so for me this movie was actually just strange vice of mrs ward uh the jalo film

14:40basically almost the entire score of that and then we happened to watch klute again

14:44while we're editing and then suddenly the klute flourish became the she has a haircut now

14:49uh she's got the james but it became the score and as and it really suited it like it really

14:55because i always thought of it had a almost like a jalo in the back of my head it's like not the

14:59literal black gloves and stuff but it had some dna of that and so you start listening to your

15:04movie through and you're like oh now i'm attached to this and now it's it's a little dangerous when

15:08you then send that to the composer because you don't want to influence them but you also need

15:12to give them some indication so it took a while i think from then for them to i know he was really

15:16trying to get away from the clue below and eventually they keep going and they keep going

15:21and producing they're very improbably and they just like literally send you like here's four

15:25hours of music and you're like where are we meant to sync it up and they're just like um just go for

15:29it and we're like okay so it was amazing stuff coming in and you just like drive and listen to

15:35the music going man this is like amazing i have to go and so eventually the dna of the film starts

15:40coming folks but it did take a while because because it was i felt like i was so we're still

15:44in the world of the original the stuff you place temporarily and then it became this very somber

15:49uh especially the last piece and the first piece the first and last piece but were very late and

15:54they felt like um uh what like a funeral procession and i think he found the theme of the like i think

16:02he at the end discovered oh no this is important and changed out the start music to feel like even

16:07at the start where we see this person walking down a hallway with the phone there was some sort of

16:11um there's a you know there's something sound somber and sad about where this is gonna head

16:16and he he i think he really found that emotion through the way michael kreisler and robin

16:21vinning is um the person who was doing with them and so and then in terms of the songs it was um

16:27we have a music supervisor who helped find some of the tracks but coco moria she does

16:31the the pop songs in it so you hear about four of them in there and she's she's really good she's

16:37really good she was a songwriter has written for a lot of like you know pop star and stuff but her

16:40own stuff i've always really liked it and so they used it for one of the tracks for the trailer which

16:44was really fun and uh i had had an idea a couple years ago before like right before we actually

16:48shot to do an all-female um it was like almost like a mixed tape but the soundtrack would be

16:53all-female artists just like coming up with an idea that would make sense for what the character

16:57listens to but then as you go i realized that the key song she has to listen to hadn't probably

17:02had to be a male vocalist just because it's kind of a siren for something that it had to kind of

17:07represent uh ben's character when he's not there in the film and so so you know these things are

17:13all processed but you know you know whether any of it would be stuff blue's character would actually

17:18listen to i don't know um well thank you all so much for chatting about the dead thing this was

17:24awesome just to get to pick your brains a little bit and congratulations on coming to shutter

17:29it's amazing perfect date movie guys

17:42you

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