The Carnage Report Bonus Episode: Panic Fest 2025 Recap

(upbeat music) - Hello, and welcome to the Carnage Report Bonus Edition. We are here to talk about our thoughts on the recently completed Panic Film Fest. My name is Nick Spasic, and I'm Julie Holland. This is just going to be a short little roundup of what we loved. - Yeah, evidently so many people wanted to know what we thought, and we were just like, "Oh, well, we hadn't planned on it, but here we go." - Yeah, which is to say I got to meet several listeners at the Fest in which was awesome. I gave out a ton of stickers. I forgot a little bit about the buttons, but I did get some of those given out as well. And it was really cool to see everyone in person to put faces with the little avatars that live in my phone. And they all were like, "Why doesn't Nick come?" So next year, maybe. - Yeah, it's because it's on a weekend, and it's an hour drive each way for Nick. And, yeah, unfortunately, I work a job where the weekends are the busy time. - Maybe we need, like, a go fund me to get Nick a weekend off in an Airbnb in North Kansas City. - I wouldn't say no. I think we're going to start off by talking about a movie that we literally spent a solid five minutes talking about before we started recording the last episode. And that is free details. - Yeah, not truly horror, but still genre enough, still bloody enough to count for sure, and so much fun. - Yeah. It's from director Ryan Fleck and Anna Bowden. You can see it in theaters now. It is officially out and about if your movie theaters are awesome. And it's an anthology film, which we both kind of love that sort of thing. Takes place in Oakland in 1987, and four stories that kind of interact, not quite, like, Pulp Fictiony, but a little, like, trick-or-treat where you see stuff happening in the background and characters interact. It's so good. - It's so good, and it's so music-centered, which is very much, you know, very much for Nick and I. It's very coded to our tastes. So yeah, super fun. The cast is awesome. And it's not just like one music genre either. It's like all of the genres that we're going on at that time, which is really cool. So if it starts out with punk rock, maybe that's not your jam. Hold on, because your jam is probably coming. But quite literally jams, too. - Yes. - Yeah. It is. It was literally so good that I, who have not written, like, an actual movie review for any publication in at least a year or two, reviewed this movie for the pitch. - Yeah. I am supposed to be reviewing it, but haven't gotten the chance to do it yet. So you may see one for me. I may pivot. But it isn't that I don't want to review it, it's just sometimes when I like something. I'm just like, I just like it, okay, and I don't have much more to say about it, especially something that is kind of this, I don't know. It's not like a big movie, but it's a bigger movie than some of the stuff we saw over the weekend. - Yeah. Yeah, very much so. I mean, it is, if you watch the trailer, they lean really hard in the Pedro Pascal. And he is great in it unsurprisingly, but I mean, the real star of this movie for me at least is Jay Ellis, as Sleepy Floyd just kills it quite literally and figuratively. - Yeah. And there's some really cool cameos. There's one in particular that, like, you hear them before you see them, and you, I saw this with the in-person crowd and the whole room, the minute you heard it, it just popped and it's not someone even with, like, you'd be like, oh, yes, super recognizable voice, it is, but that's not what they're known for. So, like, it was just set up so perfectly that everyone was like, oh, hell yeah. - Yeah. Awesome. - It is. Violence, it is, it has romance, it has, like, positive uplift. It features multiple Nazis getting the shit kicked out of them. - Yeah. - It is killer soundtrack. It is everything you could possibly want in a genre film. And it, it, my editor at the pitch Brock put it perfectly. He's like, it's so awesome to see a movie and know immediately. It's a new comfort film. - Yeah. For sure. This is, this is going to be to the 20-somethings today, what Pulp Fiction was to us, older folks, where you're just watching it, like, three times a week for two months. - And just constantly catching weird stuff you'd never notice before. - Yeah. For sure. I hope, I think, I mean, this directing duo has already done quite a bit of stuff, but I hope this kicks off even more stuff for them, because it's really cool. - Yeah. Everybody who has seen this movie seems to just absolutely love it, and that makes me so happy. - Yeah, for sure. What else did you see that you liked? - I saw a lot of, like, interesting movies. The one that really kind of grabbed me, that I was expecting to be interesting, but didn't expect to quite love as much as I did was Stefan McDonnell, LaBelle's, had like a whole. It is, it is like a micro-budget movie. It all mostly takes place in a house. Most of it in the basement of this house, and it's a guy in dire need of a job takes this job where he every hour on the hour, he has to, for his shift, he observes a hole in the wall of the basement and measures it once an hour to see if it grows. And he doesn't handle it well. And then things start happening, and it's, it's surprisingly well done. It's very, very weird. I feel like if you like a show such as Severance, this would be like kind of your jam where it's like this weird sort of thing where you don't know what's going on. And it, it's a slow burn, but it's really uncomfortable all the way through. Like you're never quite sure if you're supposed to be laughing at it, and if that laughter is supposed to be because you're finding things funny, or because you're very, very nervous. Yeah. But yeah, it's black and white. Looks great. They, they, it's, it has a lot of stuff going on for, for such a, a small cast in a small setting. And it feels like it's one of those movies that could have been made during the pandemic, but doesn't have the, it doesn't feel like it was made out of necessity like this. It feels like very much, this is what they were going for, and it works really well. Nice. What do you got? I am going to start with Touch Me, which is what I did do a review for. If you want to see it on Downright Creepy, this is from director Addison Hyman, who had a film at Panic Fest two or three years ago called Hypochondriac, that was also really interesting. The log line on this film does not tell you what you need to know about this film. It just says two codependent friends become addicted to the heroin like touch of an alien narcissist. As I started my review and as the director introduced the film with simply one sentence, you guys know this is about tentacle fucking right? I didn't. I don't think the rest of the crowd knew that, but we're deviance. So we got very excited. And it is hilarious and really beautiful to look at and very horny and filled with tentacles. So it was a very good time. All of the actors in it, Olivia Taylor, Dudley, Lou Taylor, two Taylor's, Lou Taylor, Pucci, Jordan, Gavarris are the three leads, very good, Marlene Forte also, very, very fun cast, very. Gavarris from Orphan Black, Jordan Gavarris? Yeah. Oh. Yeah. Also, this is a rustic film. So this has more head and Benson behind it. I think Aaron Morehead did the VFX if I'm not mistaken. So you know, they know their sci-fi. You don't usually see that group get quite this horny, but it was fun to see. And yeah, I don't know when we'll be able to see it. I imagine it will hit streamers because that's a, you know, decently sized production house behind it. Hopefully you'll be able to see it soon and you're going to want to because it is unhinged and hilarious. Oh, yeah, that sounds great. I did get to catch the lost episode from director Nick Warnam. It's a, it's a found footage movie that I feel would, after having watched it, it does really, really seem like it's going to be like of a part with a strange harvest. It's purported to be lost footage of like a cops like TV show and things that go awry. It doesn't quite stick the landing, but like the journey is so good. Like it feels like, it feels like a real cop thing where they like find out one thing from one person and then go back to another person that they talked to early because it reminded them of something like it doesn't feel like it's a lot of pinballing around like it's actually following leads and stuff like that, which makes it seem like it draws you in more than just like the usual like stuff keeps happening. Yeah, evidently they shot it. I talked to the producer via email, Paul Flair, and I guess they shot it on a camera from 2004 because that's when the movie set to make it look that way and they had to write their own code to be able to get dailies from it. Wow. Yeah, it's, it's absolutely, it's, it's wild. They won a best found footage at a night of horror 2025 of a no Claire Wisconsin a couple weeks ago. So it's already winning awards and I, I, I quite enjoyed it. I'm, I'm really glad at how I have been finding some really good, like technically proficient found footage where they're using it to their advantage rather than using it as like, they can't afford to make a real movie. You know, yeah, it's, it's been pretty great. Nice. All right. Another one for me. I'm going to talk about one that you can actually see soon, which is the ugly step sister. I think we knew we were going to like this one. I had no idea how gross it was actually going to be because it is gross now is it someone threw up in the audience and Sundance gross, not to me, but I could sort of see the moment where they probably did. There were several moments where they could have, but there was one moment in particular where I was like, if someone was going to, it was probably here. It is not unlike the substance in the nature of, you know, trying to make yourself more beautiful in this case, not necessarily younger, but it is, it is the story of Cinderella's ugly step sister trying to make herself more beautiful for the prince. And, you know, it's, it involves a lot of cosmetic surgery for a period piece where there were probably, it was probably not the sort of cosmetic surgery, but what do I know? Maybe there was some form of nose job in those times, times who knows. But it is not only gross, it is funny, it is, what language is it even in, is it Danish? So it is foreign language. You do have to read it. It is also, as Nightmare junkhead would call it a two-gong film because there are two dogs shown, so it does get, it does go that direction as well. But that's going to be on shutter very soon. So I think you all are going to want to catch that. If per chance you get to catch it in the theater, I think it's really fun to watch with a crowd. So I recommend that as well. I'm going to talk about a documentary that I didn't expect to enjoy as much as I did, and that's the spirit of Halloween town. It was, like, I am very not familiar with Halloween town, like I am vaguely aware of it. It was part of the Disney era when I did not have Disney and also was a little too old for that sort of thing. But the documentary, like, it's only tangentially about the movie. It's not like one of those documentaries that it's like, they talk to the actors and they show all these clips and it's the story of the making of it. No, it's the story of the town where they shot it and how this town over the last 15 years is really embraced to varying degrees, how much they use it as a tourist thing and they basically become Halloween town for the month of October. And it's a great story of, like, all these different people who are affected by it in different ways and how they use, like, the various events to, like, in some cases, get through some really horrible shit that they've been through. There is also a Christian woman who is, like, very against it and could have been portrayed as just being a complete out and out nutter, but they get grant her some sympathy. As much sympathy as they grant all the other people in this movie, I didn't really, I feel like the one flaw in this is that they have, like, a bunch of ghost hunters, like, and it just kind of takes you out of, like, all these other stories are, like, very personal and that one just seems like it was kind of, like, padding and you don't-- you could take it out in this movie. This documentary would go from good to great, I feel, but it's the story of, like, the woman who is, like, the queen of Halloween town is, is, like, a heartbreaking and kind of lovely. And if nothing else, watch it for the cheerleading coach and getting through, like, the stuff she's going through in her life and you get to see at the end this full, like, cheerleader zombie production that is just-- it's so good. Yeah, they really do a good job. Yeah, like, the makeup they put on each other and it's very, you know, like, it's physical, weirdness. It's legitimately-- it's a really good documentary and I say this as somebody who, like, that's the mark of a good documentary. Like, you know a thing about the subject or don't really care about the subject and you just find yourself entranced. Yeah. Agreed. I liked that one, too. Okay. I'm going to round out with one that you would think would not be my thing. And honestly, it wasn't totally my thing, but it brought the thing closer to being my thing than previously I would have thought. This is Duba Duba, which really falls into that analog horror that's going on right now. The Uppsal Vibes horror, like, it's going to Meringue and whatnot, except this isn't Uppsal Vibes. It's high vibes. It's very viby. It's very-- it's set in the current times, but it is filmed all on security cameras throughout a home. So it looks-- and the house they used is decorated very '90s or even '80s, and so it feels very retro. And so it has that-- I don't know. The folks-- the younger generation is very nostalgic for this time that they may not have even been alive for, and I find that really interesting. Kind of fun. This actually has a plot, and things actually happen, and blood is actually shed. Not that I require that, but, you know, as I'm sure I've spoken of, Skinner Meringue offered nothing for me because there was no plot, and nothing actually happened. And many people really loved that and didn't mind that, but it was not for me. So this is-- you start with a babysitter meeting the parents of this person. She's going to babysit for him finding out that this isn't a small child. This is like a 16-year-old. And the reason that she needs a babysitter is because, like, seven years ago, or maybe-- I don't know-- several years ago, her brother was killed in the house, so she doesn't like to be home alone. The parents are going out for an overnight, turns out it's a swingers party, which is a funny start. And so they just need someone to be there with her to make sure that she's not scared because being home alone is scary for her. And the reason it's called "duba-duba" is because when they walk anywhere in the house, because it's an old house on the floor's creek, they have to say "duba-duba" so that this teenager knows it's a safe person, it's not someone breaking in to stab me to death. So they just have to walk around and say "duba-duba, duba-duba" the whole time. It sounds like it would get annoying. It doesn't happen enough that it gets annoying. This is directed by Erlin Hollingsworth, and he and the producer-- I know the producer's first name was Josh, and the camera was last name, now so I apologize. We're both on site. The intro that Erlin gave the film was hilarious. I wish that I had recorded it, but I could not have known it was going to be ridiculous like that. It just went into how all the best cinema is based on Disney rides, which has nothing to do with this movie. And it was like a weird performance art piece to introduce the movie, which sort of set the stage for this movie is meant to be more almost performance art than anything else, but it was really interesting. I hope it gets picked up in some way, I'm sure it will, because this is kind of a hot genre right now amongst the young folks, but yeah, I didn't expect to like it, and even when I came out of it, I wasn't really sure how much I liked it, but kind of the more I thought about it, the more I was like, yeah, I liked it. I did like it. Did you see any shorts you really liked? I only was able to catch one shorts block, and I believe I liked all of the ones that were in it, but can I remember the names of them? No, because I did not mark those down on my letter box, so unfortunately I'm useless there. We still intend to catch some of the shorts, but they're all, I have, we're recording on Sunday, so things are still accessible, and we have the press thing to watch things a little longer anyway. But boy, I just lost steam about Friday and haven't been able to watch any other movies since. Yeah, my downside is that my, on my, one of my days off, I got a bunch of bootleg blue rays, and one of them is the complete series run of MTV's Liquid Television. Oh, wow. I have, that has just been running in the background, whenever I'm not doing other stuff around the house. That said, I do want to give particular notice to the short film, "Drivet Dawn" from writer director Joe, do video, it's no dialogue about 10 minutes long, and it is just, it's maybe one of the best short films I've seen in a while. It just, it tells a complete story, it's emotionally effective, it looks really good, and it's about to drive it down, and that's all I'll say about it. It was one of those where I was like, "Oh, well that sounds interesting," and then like watched it, and was just like, "Whoa." Like, very impressed. Also, there was a new, I watched it, and I don't really remember much about it, but there is, our favorite, Onyx, the fortuitous Andrew Bowser, has a new short, it's called "Franken Babes" from Beyond the Grave, and it's a lot of fun, and it has one of the McPoyle brothers, the one who is in Westworld, is in it, and he plays an evil bad scientist. I do need to catch that one, and Andrew Bowser was at the festival all weekend wandering around watching stuff, and I've not caught that yet. I am so bad about the shorts, I'm always like, "I'll watch them when I get home," and then it's just hard. It's a lot of stuff to watch, and there's so much stuff that I liked that we don't even have time to get into, and there are a few things that I honestly really, really disliked that I won't get into, but that doesn't usually happen. There's usually precious few things that I'm like, "There were more kind of divisive things for me personally this year than usual," I can see that. I think we are definitely on different pages with chain saws we're singing. Very much not for me, and that I was kind of surveying around, because obviously the people who like it really like it, and so I was trying to figure out where that divide, who likes it and who doesn't like it. My friend Chad that I was with really, really liked it, the rest of us were like, "No." I was like, "Well, maybe it's boys. Boys like it, girls don't like it, but that didn't seem to be the case either, so I don't know what the dividing line is, but it's a strong line." It's a very specific set of things you have to enjoy. You have to enjoy musicals. You have to enjoy kind of stupid comedy. You have to enjoy movies with subtitles. I enjoy all those things. Well, musicals here and there on, but everything else, it seemed like, but I just, yeah, this one did not work for me. It could have been shorter as everything could. It is two hours long. There is definitely a whole segment that I think could have just been a different short on its own that didn't need to happen in the film. These songs are surprisingly catchy. It's not to say that there's any way a bad film because obviously people love it. It was just funny to me, a funny sociological question of who's this for and who is it not for and why when it seems like it would be for there was another person and I won't say who I thought would really like this and who also was not for them and I was like, "Okay, that one surprises me." I thought you'd be on the like list, interesting. But overall, I think we got to see, that's the entire thing about Panic Fest, as you get to see a bunch of movies that you didn't know a lot about and you discover surprising new favorites and things that you point into. We may end up championing at the end of the year. For sure, I watched, I have 28 films on my Panic Fest watch list. Most of those in person because I really didn't get much watched at home and that's a lot. That's a lot of movies, so it's no wonder I lost Steve, I lost Steve. But most of them were good as we sat here and tried to figure out what I was going to talk about. I was like, "What about this? There was a lot that I wanted to talk about. It was like, what needs your attention drawn to it and what doesn't and what can you watch and what can't you watch. But yeah, if anybody wants to further talk about anything, I can send you the list of what I watched and we can chat about it online, very happy to continue to talk about all of these films. I hope you get to see them all soon. Yeah. Well, thanks for listening, everybody. Thanks everyone. And thanks to Panic Fest for giving us press credentials and all of that. Yeah. And always being awesome. Click noting, there is a movie that you, we did like completely not discuss as part of this episode. And that's because we will be covering Marshmallow as a full episode of the next one. So like if you're wondering like, they didn't, did they not like it? Stay tuned. Stay tuned. I also already have a review out for it. So you can spoil for yourself if I liked it or not on Downright Creepy, but we'll talk about it more. And it minds on my reviews up on Letterbox. Let's put it this way. I've reviewed four actors from the film and the director. So that may, may tell you something and that may be another bonus episode. Honestly. Oh, nice. So yeah, we'll be back in about a week talking about Marshmallow. Yeah. Bye. Bye. Hi there, everyone. Nick here. As we mentioned, our next episode will be all about Daniel Del Pergatorio's Marshmallow, which releases Friday, April 11th. While we make sure that our episodes drop after the movies come out so you have a chance to see it first, I didn't want to wait another couple of weeks to share these interviews with the cast and director. First up, our actors, Georgia Wiggum and Q Lawrence, followed by Kai Chek and Pearson Fode and ending with director Daniel Del Pergatorio. Enjoy. Hello. Hello. Hi. Yeah. There we go. Hi. Thanks so much for taking time to talk to me today. I appreciate it. Of course. Um, my first question for you all is like given that, you know, you are playing campers and counselors. Did that relationship like extend off screen? I think to extend, yeah. I think, um, I think, I mean, I can't speak for you and your fellow campers, but I think you guys seem to all kind of get along really well and yeah, um, but I think, yeah, there was a, we really wanted to establish early on, um, just the dynamic. And I specifically wanted to know a lot about the kids and get them comfortable being around me. Because you show up and it's like, here's a camera now act natural, you know, and so, um, I wanted to make an effort to kind of get to know them first and, um, we did a little bit of that. And yeah, I mean, I can't speak for you though. Yeah. I mean, my, my relationships definitely extended past the screen. Um, I have, uh, a lot of friends from that, uh, film, um, I'm still friends with, um, Dylan. He's like one of the people that we, uh, are running away with him and we play video games over now and then so the relationship's definitely extended beyond the screen. Uh, like, like, there's the whole thing about this is, you know, it is a summer camp slasher at, at a, at a time, um, did either of you ever get to go to camp before this or was this sort of, like, a brand new experience you were throwing yourselves into? Um, so at the time of filming this, I had only been to one of the camp, um, it's just, it was a church camp in the middle of a mountains in Colorado and just ran in location, just, they just plopped a camp down and it's freezing and it's like cold and snow all the time. So like, the, that camp is much, much different than the camp that we're trying to portray as a camp on arm, but, um, was it sleep away? No. It was, uh, Twin Peaks. No, like a sleep away camp. Like, you want to look up? Oh, sorry. I don't understand you. Sorry. Uh, yes. So cool. Yeah. I didn't do sleep away camp, but I did. I was a counselor at, um, like a day camp kind of situation, um, at like our local park out here in LA, um, and that was really fun. I did that for like four years and that was super cool. Um, so I kind of came in with a little bit of experience. So, uh, trying to keep, like, wrangle all the kids and stuff was, um, not a totally foreign idea to me. Given the number of twists and turns that are in Marshmello, like what were the, the challenges for you all in making sure that, you know, when they were, are revealed later on that you've done the work to, to sort of like lay the groundwork, I guess, while also not giving it away. Yeah. I am, I mean, that was not challenging at, I don't think really because I think the twist just kind of comes, you know, I mean, we weren't trying to hold anything back from anyone while shooting, you know, everyone kind of knew what was going on. But, um, keeping that like under our belt character wise or, you know, for me, I guess specifically because Rachel has such a like 180 change, you know, in the third act, um, that was not difficult, but more just fun to experience, I would say. And for you, Q, what was the question keeping, like, the twist under wraps, like was that difficult for you at all? I don't think I found it difficult, I mean, it was, I feel like everyone, like you said, already knew it, but I feel like even if somebody were to want to know the twist, I don't think they, they either want to ask me because I'm a kid and I might give them the information quicker. Well, they'd either not want to ask me thinking I'd give them the wrong information. I don't know. Um, like, you got to work with Corbin Burntson, who is like, like up there in terms of like acting in terms of like all of the crazy stuff he's done. What was that like getting to work with someone of like his caliber, like in, like a picture like this? Uh, I mean, it was, it was amazing, uh, it was, uh, definitely an experience. It was nice to, um, act with someone who really, really, really knew what they were doing, you know, and he definitely gave me a lot of good advice for, um, later in life. So it was great working with him. No, uh, Georgia, like you are kind of known for, like comedy and things like that. Like, what's it like dropping into this sci-fi horror movie? Um, really fun and not as difficult as it may seem because I think comedy and horror have a lot of similarities in a weird way, um, at least in the way I approach it, I think that, you know, both of them have to be played very seriously, um, and taken very seriously in order to be believable, but also not being afraid to be really big and, um, it's very like cathartic to like, I don't think I screamed in this movie, but like to scream and to do that. It's very, very cathartic and therapeutic and similar to high comedy when you are big or in like a loud argument. That's funny, but also just super bold. There's something really, um, yeah, therapeutic about it, and I think that it wasn't as difficult as I was kind of expecting it might be because my process approaching both, um, it's kind of similar, actually. There is so much running in this movie did either of you have to do any sort of prep for it in terms of like calisthenics or aerobics to, to like prepare for, like, there, there's a lot of shoe leather that gets worn out in this movie. You was at the gym every day before I am running on a train. Yeah. Yeah. From four to eight, and then I went over to set. No, I don't think, uh, it, I don't even know, I mean, you had a lot of running, I didn't really have that much running. Yeah, you didn't have much running. I didn't have much running. I was just kind of overseeing everything and being, you know, uh, watch it being the, um, legal eye, but I think, I mean, yeah, then I guess it's more of a u question. Was it difficult? Honestly, no, like they really didn't run us too much, um, luckily, they only, like even the running scenes, they rarely made us take more than like five takes. And when they needed us to be out of breath, uh, they just have us go up here and then just run down and then of course, you'd be like, and it perfect for the scene, right? So I honestly wasn't difficult. They made sure that we didn't do too much to the point where we'd be like, uh, exhausted physically. So it was good. Yeah. I would imagine that like the, the scenes where you're getting drenched in water were probably a lot more difficult than the running scenes, then honestly, I think those were easier. Really, it, it sounds absurd, um, but like just the, they might have been more, um, mentally challenging, um, just because of the dark environment and the fact that you're soaking wet. And that, those things just, uh, um, play into like your, your mind and you're like, oh, I'm, I'm shivering. I don't know, you know, like, and, and you kind of, you kind of get wore out just from, you know, sitting even in one of my, um, scenes, I'm sitting in nightmare, scenes, I'm sitting in a bed. But, you know, I still get soaked and it was, they were great about keeping me dry. So I, luckily, it was not, they, it was honestly easier than they're running. They took great care of this. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I think for me, it was a lot of, um, taking on a different character than I've ever really had to do or gotten to do that's terrible. And gotten to the opportunity to, um, play, I think that reaches like a little more tightly around, a little more straight edge, um, but in that there's, weirdly, a lot of comedy in there. So I could kind of bring a little bit of that to it, um, but I was just really looking forward to, um, doing something different. And I think the twist in the movie itself was, you know, I think we were talking about it earlier when we were both reading it, like it was just, you're like, you know, I did not see that coming. Like it was, and you know, I mean, people say that about a lot of movies with twists, but this one genuinely, I was like, not sure where it was going. And that's always really fun for me as a, um, as a horror lover, you know, I love the genre so much. And I think that, uh, this movie takes on that, um, really well. Yeah. Um, for me, it's kind of the opposite for her. I think the reason I really, uh, wanted to do this movie was, um, the writer wrote Morgan exceptionally like me like it was like almost word for word. I, uh, it was, uh, he's an introvert and like a social outcast and he, he wants to be alone and then at the same time doesn't want to be alone and it's a lot like me like I'd rather not go out to party. I'd rather stay home and just like, uh, watch TV on my couch or something. So I feel like I related to Morgan a lot, which is mainly why I really wanted this. So for my last question for you all, like what was the, uh, like, what was your first horror movie that made you like that made you want to be able to be in one eventually? I really do think mine was Friday the 13th and I know it's like, of course, you say and like, of course, that I'm not kidding. I think that if I'm remembering correctly, my dad showed me and my brother, my mom was so mad. Like, oh my god, my dad did not hear the end of it for a while, but I was fine. My brother was really scared to see a little younger than me, but that is the movie that not only made me want to act in horror because I don't know, I always knew I wanted to act ever since I was young, but I think I just wasn't sure about genre or anything like that. But that just is the movie that introduced me to horror itself. And ever since then, I just, I mean, literally every night, like if I want to watch anything, it's going to be that the horror movie. Yeah. Um, if I had to give a reason for acting, it was my sister, um, she was an actor before me. And then when I turned to five, I was like, you know what? I can act too. And I, um, I really liked horror movies because of Pride of the 13th because when I was younger, I, and it's still the same thing right now, but I always want to know who's under the mask. Like, there's the weird thing I have. Like, I need to know who Jason is. And I think that that intriguing, um, curiosity is what really made me a horror fan. Well, I want to thank you both for taking time out of your day to talk to me about this movie. I can't wait for everybody else to get to see it. Um, and enjoy all the twists and turns as much as I did. Um, again, I hope you both have a great rest of your day. Thank you so much. Have a good one. Bye bye. Bye. Thanks for you both for taking time out of your day to talk to me. I really appreciate it. Um, of course, I'm curious, like given that this is a summer camp slasher, did like the like camper counselor relationship, like between like the older and younger actors, like translate off screen as well. I think maybe a little bit just maybe because of the age gap at times. But yeah, I think, you know, the camp counselors, we had all of our scenes together and the kids had a layer of scenes together. But at the end of the day, I mean, the kids were phenomenal. They're so funny and so talented that when we all hung out and grabbed dinners together and things like that, they were just, they were blessed. So, and Kai, especially mags, Q, like they were, they were phenomenal. And so I think there's definitely some moments where we adopted and set the tone as actors and thus fans. And then other times that we totally were acting more like children than anyone else on set. So yeah, no, it's great. Yeah, um, I feel like we all definitely got very bonded. I mean, at times, like Pearson said, it, it felt like that camper and counselor, it's like a situation, but at the end of the day, you know, we were all just kind of hanging out. It was really great. I mean, everyone just got along so well and that made everything flow so much easier and, and it just felt like a big family. So we were all just having a great time. Well, I mean, for, for you, Kai, like it really was family because your sister Mai is in this movie as well, right? My sister, yeah, she got to have a little cameo in here. She played girls in one of the cabins. And it was really fun. It's always great to work alongside someone you know so well. And she's just, I look up to her so much and she's helped me throughout my whole journey. So, you know, it's great to have her. And yeah, it's just amazing. I was so lucky to be able to be with her. Along the lanes of this being, like, have either of you been to camp yourselves rather instead of just making this movie. I have you in the camp. Never been to camp. I know. I know. I know. Yeah. But I think we count this movie as Kai's summer camp as a federal rule of thumb at this point. First year. Yeah. She was lighting bonfires. She was out there cooking shmores. Yeah, guys. I was out of fireflies. I was making the hot chocolate, actually. That was all me. Yeah. You made that hot chocolate? Yeah. That was all me. You know what that did to the campers, right? Never again. Pearson, did you did you go to camp when you were younger? Yeah. I grew up on a farm in Washington state. So we did a lot of camping up that way. Summer camp specifically. I remember a few not like specifically kid summer camps, but they were like family camps. So your whole family would go to and be out in the woods somewhere. And it was, it was great. It was super fun. I was absolutely a menace and should not have been allowed to run around with the knife in the forest. No, when when when you're making this movie, like in terms of acting, what were the challenges for you all in like laying the groundwork in your performances for the twists that would come later, but not like telegraphing them too much? Yeah. I think, um, you know, when you're prepping a character in general, a lot of the fun comes from like the backstory and where you plan the journey of the character, where its arc is going to. And I take a lot of my notes just directly from the script, right? Like I'm act one act two act three and I'm breaking down it into, you know, let's say the Blake Snyder beat sheet. Like, all right, in this moment, this is where this beat is happening. So let's make the character arc follow this, the fun and games. This is a dark night of the soul. And in order to keep that from telegraphing, you kind of just like play out the beats on the script and then allow it to play out naturally once you get there on the day. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but man, it can be really fun. Like with Kaz, it's a fun character that you just get to be an absolute mess to everybody else around you. Yeah. I mean, when you really, I like to feel like, I mean, everyone, you know, you try to get into that moment and you can just kind of make it feel real in a way. And that was really helpful also having the kids around me and everyone. And they just made it so much easier to get to be in that moment. So even if we were filming, you know, out of order, it all just came very natural. And it was, you know, had amazing director and so many good people with it that it just, it was phenomenal. It was just great. What was the point where you're reading the script for the first time and you're just like, oh, I want to be in this. Let's see, I think I got the script maybe a month before we started shooting. And literally as soon as I read the first twist in it, I was like, I'm interested. I really want to see where this goes. And then when I read the next twist, I was like, I called my agent manager. I was like, dude, let's, we got to make this happen immediately. Let's go. Yeah, I like, when I was first reading it, I mean, automatically the the format of it and everything, just knowing that I would get to be with, you know, so many people and in kids, I always find it easier to work when there's people your age around too. So that was, that was really fun seeing that. And, and I was just reading it and then I was just amazed. It's just, it's gets so crazy. And, and like Pearson said, there's so many twists and, and it's unexpected. And that just made it so intriguing because I, you know, you never see anything like this before. So it's really awesome. And, um, this will not go in the article because I don't want to spoil it for anybody, but Kyle, like, you get the last twist. Oh, yeah. It's so good. Yeah, that, that was the best. That was so fun to film. That was actually the first day I was filming. Yeah. I was, I didn't, I underestimated how much they would actually put on, but, but they, they, they dumped it all over. So it was really surprising. No, like, there's, like, running and yelling and screaming in this movie. Did you have to do, like, any sort of, like, calisthenics or aerobics to get yourself ready for the, like, the physical parts of this movie? Yeah. Um, I mean, the stunt coordinators were so good. I mean, they were constantly telling us to, like, just run, just, just run in place and get out of breath and then film it. And it was just, like, in between takes. That's all we did. We'd, we'd reset and then just run, run, run in place and then, and then go. So it was just constant running. I mean, you never really stopped in those, those takes. So, um, so that was honestly really fun in a way. Got all my exercise, you know, yeah. I didn't, I, I worked out quite a bit, but, uh, in, in those moments, the thing that I actually struggle with the most, especially in a horror film, uh, is the yelling specifically. Uh, what you don't realize, you could yell in normal life and eventually lose your voice at, like, a concert, you know, you spend too much time in Coachella taking pictures and yelling, uh, you're gonna lose your voice. But in a movie, you're filling a room with carbon dioxide, the mist that gives it that foggy feeling. And in a horror film, you do it till it feels like it's just, oh, just completely oppressive. Uh, and yelling in a carbon monoc, or not monoxide, but dioxide mist just tears apart in your vocal cords. And so I remember the next day I tried talking to my, buddy, and he was like, what's wrong with you? I got, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, we're good about it. Now, um, what for either of you was like the first horror movie you saw that made you want to be in a horror movie. You're like, what's got? I don't watch much horror. Um, it's not necessarily like, what I'll typically just sit down and watch, but being a part of it just felt so different. Like, I mean, you know, you, I've watched some things. I mean, I get scared very easily. So, you know, I don't watch often. But, um, just reading about this one and then doing it, it was just like, I feel like it's just so cool. It's just crazy. I mean, it's nothing like you'll, you'll ever see. So I think that's just so unique. Uh, for me, I, it wasn't a horror film, but it was a horror moment in a great film. Uh, Indiana Jones, the Ark of the Covenant, or when they're at the Ark of the Covenant with, uh, Indiana opening it up and the ghosts fly out of that thing and start melting the Nazi. It was terrifying for me as a little kid because I just, I, I wasn't supposed to watch that scene. I opened my eyes and my parents were like, Oh, no, I saw it. And it ruined me for like a week. I nightmare after nightmare, but it was so enticing that I was like, it's amazing what they can do. That's crazy. And, uh, that was like my first intro into being like, you know, sucked into the horror world. Now I've watched any time a new horror film comes out. I'm, I'm immediately addicted. That is so awesome. Well, uh, I am so excited for everyone else to get to see this movie and get like surprised by all the twists and turns as much as I have. Um, so I'm very excited that this is coming out in a bit. And I want to thank you both so much for taking time to talk to me about it. Um, I really, really do appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks, man. Appreciate your questions. Yeah. I hope you have a great rest of your day. Also, I see invincible in the background. Uh, do you see the entire season? I haven't. I haven't yet. I haven't seen the, the end of the new season yet. What? Pleasure to meet you. Uh, it was such a delight getting to talk with the various cast of your movie last week. And one of the things that Kai brought up is the fact that essentially the last scene in the movie was the first thing that like one of the first things you shot. Yeah. What is it like starting shooting by getting to the one of the mini surprises in this film? Yeah, it was interesting. I mean, obviously there's, you know, shooting logistics and it's, you know, trying to figure out all of that stuff. But um, I think for this, you know, it without giving any spoilers, it was a very fun thing to do. I think for her and for me. Um, and I, it sort of set the stage for the rest of the shoot, which is nice, you know, like a lot of times when you're doing, uh, you know, horror films or films that have like any effects in it. Everything leads up to that, you know what I mean? And then that's like the last thing that you do. And it was, it was fun to do it the opposite. Started off like with a bang, I guess, you know, and got everybody like super psyched and, and excited. And um, and then it just, it set the stage for the rest of the production, which is really, really cool. And you shot on site at an actual summer camp. What was the atmosphere like on set? Because like talking to everyone who was in the film and also just watching it, it feels as though it really had like sort of a fun, like, atmosphere, um, throughout. Yeah, yeah. It was cool. It wasn't, it wasn't old camp. Um, and now it, you know, it wasn't operation. It wasn't make operated as a camp. It was more of like a nature preserve. And also, um, people would like rent it out for graduations and weddings and all of that stuff. So everything that we needed that was written in the script was there, which was really cool. We had to do some operational stuff in terms of getting like plumbing working again in electric and a lot of cleaning, you know, and then we built things up to match the aesthetic and the vibe of what we wanted to, you know, do with the film. But it was a really beautiful place. Um, we sort of add the, the, the space, the entire time that we were running in the show, which was great. So we lived there essentially from early in the morning to late at night. Um, and it did feel like we were at camp really did. And everyone was just, yeah, it was great. I was sending pictures to my wife while we were shooting and she's like, oh, yeah, it looks like you're working real hard. It's like people fishing in the background, campfires and people are like chilling in hammocks and it was, it was an amazing, it's great because then it, I think that translated over to the, to the performances. Like, you know, the biggest thing was we wanted to have, we wanted the movie to be fun. Um, and, and I feel like when I watch it, I, I feel like you could see the fun. That's, you know, that's on screen, which is cool. Oh, absolutely. And like, what's kind of great about this is that you have like these very new young actors, you have some, you know, older, but still up and coming actors. And then you have folks in it who are fairly established like Paul Soder, Paul Soder and, um, Corbin Bernson. Yeah. How did you, uh, what was the process of assembling this cast, uh, to like, sort of craft this just great selection of folks? Yeah. Yeah. We really, I know everyone says it, but we really locked out. I mean, it, everybody, every person that was on the film was just phenomenal. And, you know, for me, it was, it's interesting because like, the, the kids, right, when they came on set, I would run long takes for every single, every single thing we shot, start to finish. It wasn't just like do this line, do this line. Those kids action, they ran a whole scene against established actors and actresses and, and we're right there with them. And it was beautiful. Um, but early on, you know, like we, I read the script. I'm like, Oh, this is great. And then there was that moment where I'm like, Oh, this is a movie with a lot of kids and it's all at night. And then they're okay. Okay. There's some things we got to figure out, but we started doing casting and we found, I mean, like, we found everyone that's in the film right when we saw them. We're like, that's it. That's it. And it was just, it was like this comfort that came over me because I was like, I know these kids are going to do great. And then it was just sort of filling in from there. What, what was going to compliment that? And we were really lucky to have just a, such a fantastic group of, of people that have our new and have been doing this for years. And that's since that was inspiring to me. You know, it's as you know, surround yourself with people that are better than you. We definitely, we definitely did that on this for sure. You sort of alluded to it, but the idea of a movie that features a lot of young actors, it's being shot at night. There's a lot of moving around. There's a lot of running. There's a lot of physicality in this film. Like, what are the challenges for you as a director in making sure that you get everything done when you know that, like, as soon as you start shooting, a clock starts running? Yeah. Yeah. I think the biggest thing at first was when we found all of the talent that we wanted to bring onto the movie, it was important that we all met and talked individually. So, like, I talked with all the kids and then we did a group meeting where we all together to make sure everybody kind of hit it off. Of course, this was through Zoom. And then I chatted with everybody's parents to make sure that they obviously felt comfortable with me and what we were going to do. You know, I have a bunch of kids as well. So, I think that there was a comfort level there. So, that was the first step because, you know, as you mentioned, there was a lot of different pieces that we were going to do. And then when we got on set, it was, you know, kind of pulled everybody together. And I wanted to make sure that they felt comfortable doing whatever stuff we needed to do, but also felt empowered to take scenes and dialogue and all of that stuff and expand and push in different directions that felt natural to them. And I think that helped ease some of the the bigger stuff that we had to execute. But the hardest part, obviously, was at night. So, we were shooting, you know, it didn't get dark until 9.30 at night. And we had to wrap the kids on school nights at 10 o'clock. So, we were like sitting there, like we'd shoot all day long, we'd shoot reverse stuff, we'd shoot blackout stuff, you know, day for night. And we would just have to make a, it was like a, like a Tetris board for the shooting schedule. Like shoot some of the scene, go shoot other stuff, go shoot other stuff and come back and then do the night stuff. But everybody was like really into it. And you know, it when it started to get assembled, it worked well. But that was the hardest part was really trying to manage the time that we have with the actors and how long they'd take a shoot for. And you know, we're throwing people in water and falling down hills and hitting the face with stuff. Like there's a lot of like big moments too, which was a lot of different departments, you know, pulling the pieces together. What is sort of the appeal of like a summertime slasher? Like specifically like a summer camp slasher. Like it feels like it is a subject to which folks return time and time again. And everyone kind of wants to put their stamp on it. What's the appeal of that for you as a director? Was it like specifically the script for Marshmallow that like really attracted you to this particular subgenre? Yeah, I think so. I feel that like summer in general has a lot of like memories for everybody. You know, like we growing up and going to school, we all look forward to summer. So I think that you're already tapping into something that resonates, right? And then growing up in general, again, we all have something that we could relate to. And the hardest part about growing up is trying to find your place in the world. So I really like the idea of this coming of age story, the nostalgia aspect of going to camp. And you know, we all want it to believe those creepy scary stories, you know, and even when you didn't believe it, you wanted to have that sort of connection to it. And I like to be idea of all those pieces just like connected really well for me. And being a parent, there was a lot of heavy themes in here, which were emotional for me. But then I'd like the idea of, you know, bringing in, you know, the Friday the 13th, you know, we're going to have our Black Mirror aspect, but wanting to make a film that I would have wanted to see when I was a kid. And treating our actors as adults like, hey, like, this is your show, you're in the movie, we're not going to dumb your character down and like, you're going to do the things and say the things that adults are going to say, because that's what we did when our parents run around, you know? And so that was, I think all of those pieces just for me worked, you know, and it was what was exciting. And I think it's what a lot of people that worked in front and behind the camera sort of gravitated to was just something that was relatable, you know? Were there any tricks or anything that you used as a way to sort of build the things in the background or in performances from your actors to lay the groundwork for the reveals that would come later on? Yeah, you know, I think everybody sort of had an understanding of what was going to happen, but you know, we, they didn't know what everything was going to look like, you know? And when you read something on a page or in a book or whatever, everyone's got a very different interpretation of it. So I think what was exciting for people as they were, you know, that the story is progressing and we were moving around in it, they were able to see some of the sets that we were building or some of the gags with like the water that we were doing. But there was also a giant leap where it's like, okay, cool, we're shooting all these crazy different things at different hours of the day. I see how I read how it's going to happen on the page, but like when everyone started to sit, they're like, oh, okay, that makes sense. And it creates a different experience. So I think that was fun too for a lot of the people involved being able to watch the film and know what it was, but experience it for the first time. I think that's a really cool thing. So yeah, you want to give people enough that they could like latch on, but enough, you want to leave a little bit out. So it's exciting, not only performing, but watching it and experiencing it for the first time, you know, oh, absolutely. So you have so much like genre and horror related stuff on the wall behind you. Oh, yeah, nerd. You have, you have this slasher movie coming out. What got you into horror? Like what made you want to be part of this and make it yourself? Yeah, I mean, I grew up watching scary movies like most of us nerds out there. My dad had a bunch of horror stuff and my parents left one day and I stole a VHS tape that he had and it had the road warrior, Friday the 13th, part two, and Texas Chase on Asker. And I watched all three, I watched all three of those and they destroyed me on different levels. And I remember thinking being a little kid, like I have a kid that's the same age now and I can't imagine showing in those movies, but I remember seeing that stuff and saying like, oh, I didn't know that you could feel like this after watching a movie. And there was something exciting about that. And that really got me into art and music and film. And I just loved, you know, I love working with people. I love collaborating with people. That's really exciting to me more than anything, you know, and just having fun in a good time, like being able to work with your friends and new friends. And old friends is amazing and it's a really cool thing. And I think that, yeah, I just, anytime I can do it, I jump, I jump at it for sure. Well, I absolutely loved this movie, so did my friend and co-host Julie and like everyone I know who has seen it is like so excited for this to like get the theatrical release so that everyone can see Marshmello and get as surprised and like legitimately pleased by it as I think we all have been. So Dana, thank you so much for taking time to talk to me this afternoon. I really do appreciate it. Thank you so much. I really appreciate that means that means a lot. It's always fun, exciting and nerve-wracking to release your baby in the world. But we really appreciate you taking the time and talking with, you know, some of our amazing cast on this. So thank you. You're very welcome. I hope you have a great rest of your day, sir. Cool YouTube, take it easy. Good bye to meet you. Bye. (gentle music)