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STARBURST spoke with co-directors MATT BETTINELLI-OLPIN & TYLER GILLETT and producer CHAD VILLELLA (otherwise known as the filmmaking collective RADIO SILENCE) about their latest movie, the critically acclaimed comedy-horror READY OR NOT…

STARBURST: We found Ready or Not hard to describe or classify genre-wise. What would be your elevator pitch of the film?

Matt Bettinelli-Olpin: You know, that difficulty is one of the things we really talked about. That tonally it’s a bit of a dance, and that it’s a mash-up of so many genres that we love. Typically, what we say is that this film is about a young woman who is marrying into this very wealthy and eccentric family. And on her wedding night, she realises that to be truly accepted into the family, she has to sit down with them and play a family game. And she happens to draw Hide and Seek, and Hide and Seek is the one game that you can’t win. And she spends the rest of her wedding night fighting for her life!

And despite the film defying pigeonholing, would you say that your film belongs to ‘social issue horror’ genre that’s been making noise recently?

Chad Villella: I definitely think there’s elements of that in all genre movies, and this one’s no exception. We love the way that Grace [Samara Weaving] came from a very underprivileged background, and now she’s married into this wealthy family, and how she sees the lengths the rich will go to in order to keep what they have. So yeah, I would say it fits into that category.

And what do you think makes horror the ideal vehicle for this kind of social commentary?

Matt Bettinelli-Olpin: I think it works well because it gives you context to talk about something you might not otherwise want to talk about. You have to create the language to talk about it. When things are uncomfortable, it might be hard to have a straightforward conversation, but a horror context gives you the jumping-off point. And all of a sudden, we’re having a discussion as a society! Horror’s always done that, but it’s especially true right now. It’s exciting to see people tap into it who aren’t strictly genre fans, and to see that hit the mainstream.

Yeah, it’s definitely a genre that’s previously been relegated to the fringes, or lacked the respect afforded to dramas and the like.

Matt Bettinelli-Olpin: Yeah, exactly. Like all of a sudden, it’s cool.

Oh, it’s cool. It’s getting Oscars! And would you say that your tendency to blend comedy and horror, something that’s prevalent in your filmography, is also to ease those conversations?

Tyler Gillett: That’s certainly part of it. And it’s also about letting the audience in and allowing them to relate to something that feels more emotionally grounded. The stories we love to tell are about normal characters that you see yourself in, walking into a heightened situation that they’re totally unprepared to deal with. It’s often that people think that comedy and horror are very separate, but that isn’t how real life is. They’re really compatible genres.

I think Samara Weaving’s portrayal of Grace does a huge amount to ground the film. What was it that sold you on her as the lead?

Chad Villella: She just got it right from the beginning. We knew that we needed to find a very strong Grace and base everything off her, and after our very first meeting with Samara, she was like, “I don’t want you to be scared the entire time, I want you to receive a little bit of lightness through me.” We knew that Grace had to have this punk rock image to show that rebellion, and Samara got it right from the start. She’s fantastic, and we can’t imagine having made the movie without her.

To be honest, the whole cast is amazing. How did that ensemble come together?

Matt Bettinelli-Olpin:  I don’t think we ever envisioned the cast we ended up getting, and we also can’t imagine what the movie would have been without them. We feel so lucky to have gotten everyone, especially since it was such a rush process. I think we got Adam Brody maybe two weeks before shooting, maybe a week and a half? We were really lucky that everybody vibed, and everybody understood the tone and their character – which goes back to your last question about grounding it. Samara is our ‘in’ for us, the audience, but then you also need each family member to have their unique point of view. It can’t be a nebulous body of bad people. And I think everybody brought their best and went beyond anything we’d hoped for.

Did the cast have any input in creating their characters?

Matt Bettinelli-Olpin: The characters were incredibly well drawn on the page, and a big part of what we loved about the script. But at the same time, as we got to know the actors, we had to give them room to create their own version of it. We wanted it to have dynamism, and everybody really brought something that I think we weren’t expecting.

It’s interesting that you resist making the family uniformly bad, to the point that you start sympathising with some of them.

Chad Villella: Yeah, that’s something we talked about very early on with Guy [Busick] and Ryan [Christopher Murphy], the writers. Their approach to it was that by giving the audience an inside look at those ‘bad’ characters, you get an insight into the effects of wealth and family tradition on people. And just talking about how privilege and wealth make people complacent in where they are in life, and ask what they’re willing to do to maintain that life. And you kind of feel for them because you see that they’re doing it for their family; Andie McDowell in particular really brought a maternal instinct that inspires sympathy.

This movie is obviously a satire on wealth and privilege, was there an element of catharsis to making this film, considering the current socio-political climate?

Tyler Gillett: Yeah, that was part of what interested us from the start creatively, and to have something fanatically dense to continue to draw from throughout the process was very, very valuable. And honestly, it gave us something to keep returning. It’s a well that never runs dry! And our first meeting with the studio [Fox] was the day after Trump got elected. That certainly did light a different fire under the project, because that theme became more of a megaphone to explore something that felt very urgent and vital. We really want it to resonate with people, but we also want the movie to be, first and foremost, a fun and exciting thrill ride. But that’s what the genre does, this great magic trick of entertaining you whilst also pushing you to think more deeply and to find the commentary.

As we finish, for the horror fans reading this, what would you recommend they go watch after they’ve seen Ready or Not?

Matt Bettinelli-Olpin: We talked about so many different movies, everything from like, Gosford Park to Seven, Alien, to inspire different elements, from the tone to the look. We also talked a lot about those movies where you just have to make it through the night. Like After Hours, The Most Dangerous Game, Adventures in Babysitting, Into the Night. Those keep the action going. Then there’s fun ones, like The People Under the Stairs, Clue. And ones that have a sense of humour without being comedies, like The Lost Boys, Nightmare on Elm Street, the Ghostbusters films. Also Joyride! A very underrated movie from 2001, and it’s one we go to all the time. It got written off because it came out right after 9/11 so it wasn’t really the tone, but it’s a really good, thrilling type of movie that’s also very funny. So quite a list!

UK audiences can seek out READY OR NOT when it sneaks into cinemas on September 25th. You can also read our review HERE.

Writer and actor Nicholas Vince is famous for his portrayal of the Chatterer Cenobite in Hellraiser and Kinski in Nightbreed. He is about to head onto the stage for a one-man show entitled I Am Monsters!, which will be premiering at the London Horror Festival. We caught up with him to find out more…

STARBURST: Where did you fascination with monsters come from?

Nicholas Vince: Two sources: Doctor Who, I was four years old when the TV series started so I watched it from behind the sofa particularly Daleks but I knew by the age of five and a half, I was really entranced by the monsters on the programme, like the Zarbi, the giant ants. I can’t remember anything about the plot, but I remember making Zarbis out of cut offs of the pastry that because my mother was making. Then there was a book, the Golden Treasury of Myths and Legends that I read as an eight-year-old; I was fascinated with things like the Minotaur, Medusa, and the Sphinx; I vaguely remember the heroes’ names, but knew which monster they killed.

So what was the impetus to put this together into a stage show?

I’ve been telling all the stories about the makeup and so on, and the experience of making the films, which was a huge amount of fun. I just wanted to flesh out the background, and put it in a bit of social context. It’s also my personal story about being fascinated with monsters. I realised I was gay when I was 18 years old in the late ‘70s, and it wasn’t the easiest time to be gay. It got more challenging in the ‘80s with Thatcher; they were interesting times. I just wanted to share my love of monsters, I think that monsters are fun.

And they do say a lot about society today, there’s a lot of there’s a lot of a correlation there.

Yeah, absolutely.

So how did you manage to condense your whole life in to an hour?

[Laughs] With huge difficulty! There’s going to be a Q&A at the end, so I’ve got to learn about 50 minutes of me talking. When I did the first read-through, it was about an hour and 20 minutes, so it needs working on! I think it’s just concentrating on the points; I want it be about bringing home what’s important to me and make it an entertaining evening. I’m incredibly fortunate that Clive [Barker] asked me to be in Hellraiser, and then Hellbound and Nightbreed. It’s not going to be my long life! [Laughs] That would be a very long show!

Is there a structure to the show or is it more free flowing?

We’re still working on that at the moment. I’m working with a director and they keep coming up with good ideas: let’s try this, let’s do it like this. We started off kind of: ‘I was born, I fell in love with monsters, etc…’ We said that’s ok, but it’s not as interesting, so now it’s more weaving the story of making Hellraiser and then in flashback relating that to growing up and the monsters I’ve encountered and so on. There are a couple of biographical pieces in there as well. There have been times in my life when I’ve been made up to be a monster, but I’ve done things wrong in my life. Things I regret. It’s not all isn’t life lovely… there is fun, but there’s a little bit of darkness in there as well.

You have to have the light and shade.

Yeah, and I think I want to say to anybody who’s going through what I went through that it’s okay. It does get better, it’s true. There have been times in my life when I have been completely lost and not known what the hell was going on and I look back now and think ‘yeah, I’m okay’. I’ve been very lucky. From difficult times really interesting fruits can grow.

You did a couple of storybooks about monsters, did that influence you to to do this?

There’s been a couple of things. I’ve been the patron of the London Horror Festival since 2016, and I’ve been involved in it since 2013. I’ve watched a lot of their shows. I love horror theatre; there’s something very immediate it; it’s a completely different experience to being in a cinema. I was inspired by watching these people, but I’m not intending to terrify people as much as I have been in these shows! [Laughs] In terms of the books, you’re right. I’ve written short stories, and Hellraiser and Nightbreed comics back in the ‘90s. I was lucky enough to bring Clive’s characters from Nightbreed bring them back into the comics that Marvel did. The title of my first collection of short stories is What Monsters Do – the subtitle was ‘it is not our flesh but our acts which make us monsters’. Clive’s Nightbreed is about people who are strange, who are wonderful and human beings want to destroy that, because they’re different.

And very similar to the way homosexuals were treated; they were treated as monsters at one time…

Oh god, yes! When I was doing the research, a part of the show was very difficult to write – I went back to the Thatcher years, with Section 28, and there were horrible, horrible things said about gays that I found really distressing reading and listening to what politicians were prepared to say. You can see today that gay rights has come on leaps and bounds but the price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

A lot of what is wrong in the world is because people are scared. We saw it in the financial crash. Horrendous things were done to people in terms of losing their homes, jobs and job security. We’ve now got it that profit is everything and zero hour contracts. People are treated appallingly in the workplace. This is because power is moving towards the few rather than the many. We’ve got some tough times at the moment. You can see what happened during the last war that my parents were part of, a lot was being fought for, and you can see what was done then and how easy it is to exploit people’s fear of a group. The people who scare me the most are the bombasts who create monsters for their followers to fear.

Absolutely.

I was talking to Clive Barker about the show and he said, “It’s not that the demon’s different. It’s that difference is the demon”. We don’t handle different well. It seems we can only feel safe by oppressing another group. Those are the things that worry me.

Will there be any performances elsewhere?

We’re talking about that, I’m really hoping there will be. Either in this country or in the US. There are conversations already taking place. So Yeah, so if all goes well, that is the definite plan. It won’t just end as part of the London Horror Festival, I hope to take the show out on tour to various parts of the country and abroad.

So could it be performed at conventions and the like then?

Yes – I deliberately designed it so that it doesn’t require technical things. At the end of the day is making on stage telling stories and chatting with people. I was talking to an actor friend of mine and he said, “You’ll be fine, you’ve just got some people in your front room and you’re telling stories – that’s all it is”. I like that idea!

Nicholas Vince will be performing I Am Monsters! at the Pleasance Theatre in London as part of the London Horror Festival on October 8th to 10th at 7pm. For more information and to book tickets, head here.

Texas-born author Adrienne Young is best known for her New York Times bestselling novel Sky in the Deep. Her new book, The Girl the Sea Gave Back, comes out September 3rd. We caught up with her to find out more about it…

STARBURST: What’s the elevator pitch for The Girl the Sea Gave Back?

Adrienne Young: A girl with a gift to read the rune stones and see the future holds the fate of her world in her hands.

What inspired the story?

After the events of Sky in the Deep, I really wanted to explore what the evolution of this world would look like. In Sky, two warring clans are forced to find peace. But that doesn’t mean peace is permanent. We also know that those two clans aren’t the only ones that exist in this world. So I wanted to look at how this newfound peace affects the greater society outside of the mountain and the fjord that Sky focused on.

How is it different from Sky in the Deep?

The heroine in The Girl the Sea Gave Back, Tova, is really different than Eelyn was. She’s not a warrior, but she has a quiet inner strength that has kept her alive. She’s really smart and strategic, and has a deeper understanding of what’s happening around her. We also dive deep into Halvard’s story and his doubts about his own ability to lead. Where Sky was so sure and determined, Sea is much more questioning in the nature of its characters and its plot.

Now you’ve finished The Girl the Sea Gave Back, would you have done anything differently?

I don’t think so. The process for writing this book didn’t come as easily to me as Sky did. I had to dig really deep and be a better writer in order to pull it off. It’s also different than anything I’ve attempted before, in that it’s dual POV and it’s a companion novel. There was a definite learning curve there and I’m really proud of the work I did.

Which character from the novel would you most like to meet in real life? And why?

I would love to meet Halvard. I just see him as this strong, quiet, sensitive being  – I feel like he loves so fiercely and is so dedicated to his community.

What approach do you take when writing fantastic elements such as predicting the future?

I really love approaching the fantastical with a heavy dose of reality. I love that in-between place of wondering if it’s real or not real. It’s the same in Sky, when we are looking at their gods and their superstitions. There’s nothing so overtly supernatural that you couldn’t imagine it in our own world and it’s the same with the idea of fate in Sea. I feel like it keeps the fantasy elements accessible and feeling as if they could be true.

How do you approach your writing?

The most important thing to me in writing is feeling connected to what I’m working on. If I don’t feel that gut connection, then it’s probably not what I should be writing. I’m an all-in type of person, and my work is no different.

Why do you think fantasy so popular now?

I think it’s kind of a timeless genre. There’s no expiration date on fantasy so it stays relevant across generations and time periods. There’s also the overarching truth about humans that we love to escape and there’s no better way to do that than to transport to a completely different world. I think fantasy will continue to stay steady in the market for both of those reasons.

When Sky in the Deep came out, what response delighted or surprised you the most?

I was totally blown away by the reader response to Sky. I had no idea that it would strike such a chord and although every author hopes for the best, it definitely surpassed my expectations. To hear from so many people who resonated with the book was really special and I feel so fortunate to have such amazing readers.

Is it easier to get published these days?

I think it is, but only because of the amount of information that’s out there. Anyone can figure out the steps to publication with a quick google search, which means more people than ever are trying to get their work published. Publishing houses are bigger, they have bigger lists, and with the trend of books getting turned into movies and TV shows, there’s a lot of demand for content. But that’s not to say that it’s easy. Getting published is an incredibly difficult, tedious process that usually takes years. I don’t think that part is likely to change.

What’s next for you?

I just finished revisions on my next novel, Fable. It’s the first book in a two-book series and it’s coming next year!

What authors are you reading? And why?

I’ve been reading a lot of poetry this last year, probably because I’ve been drafting so much and haven’t been able to really commit to reading novels. My current favourite that I keep coming back to is Mary Oliver.

The Girl the Sea Gave Back is published by Titan Books on September 3rd.