Megan Fox is on top of the world right now. The actress who burst into overnight stardom thanks to Paramount Pictures’ “Transformers,” has just been seen in the follow-up to the mega blockbuster and now frontlines this comedic horror written by Diablo Cody. The conference takes place in a modestly sized ballroom/conference room which has been fitted with a screen for footage press can have a look at only. It’s refreshing over the standard Hall H madness at the Convention Center.
Footage that was shown, if you haven’t already heard about, shows (Jennifer) Fox and (Needy) Amanda Seyfried hitting some sleazy bar where a small band headed by Nikolai Wolf (Adam Brody) has come in to woo the tiny amounts of bar patrons. Fox is immediately keen on Wolf, much to the dismay of her best pal Needy. When the band’s equipment has a short and sparks a fire which burns down the bar, the band members take off with Jennifer in the van, leaving Needy to make her way home alone. Later, Jennifer turns up at Needy’s place covered with blood and spews up some black fluid before exiting. Footage oozes sexual appeal, same sex emotions and comedy amidst a very unique horror environment. We’ll catch it for sure.
First up, director Karyn Kusama enters followed by producer Jason Reitman who jokes with the press’ response to his entry saying “boisterous crowd!” and turns out a few laughs. Next up is writer Diablo Cody who last teamed with Reitman in the Academy Award®-winning “Juno,” Cody’s call to fame. Lastly comes Fox wearing a black dress.
Fox is asked about how liberating it was to play this character and says “What I think I like about the movie is it’s so unapologetic and how completely inappropriate it is, at all times. That was my favorite part about this script and about the character. It’s fun to be able to say the shit that she had to say and get away with it. People find it charming.”
Cody talks about the challenges of making the film – “For me I was simultaneously trying to pay tribute to some of the conventions that we’ve already seen in horror and yet at the same time kind of turn them on their ear. So it was truly kind of like a post-modern thriller. In that on one hand I grew up on these amazing eighties horror movies like ‘The Lost Boys’ this and that. I wanted to honor that and at the same time I had never really seen this particular sub-genre done with girls and I tried to do a little bit of both.
Cody is asked whether there were any horror films that had a strong female angle that she did like and responds “What’s interesting is that often the last survivor standing in the typical horror film is a woman.”
Interesting question follows this on whether there is this time around a final guy instead of a final girl.
There’s no response, just a shaking of heads. But a solid question nonetheless.
Kusama says “I think a lot of horror is about femaleness. I mean whether it’s ‘Carrie’ or ‘Rosemary’s Baby’…I feel like there’s a lot of fear of female or kind of celebration of it in some way. Something about this movie managed to take the fear and the sense that it’s the female that ultimately survives and sort of marry that in a really interesting way.”
Cody talks about writing the script “Well the funny thing is when I first set out to write this I was writing a very dark, very brooding, traditional slasher movie and then I realized about a third of the way through the process that I was incapable of doing that. I have a macabre sense of humor. A lot of things in the horror genre are funny to me. I’ve always said that I think comedy and horror films are kind of similar in a sense that you actually witness the audience having a physical release. They’re laughing, they’re screaming…it’s not a passive experience. I think they’re very similar in that way.”
Fox talks about the throwing up scene and says “That day I think what I was actually throwing up in the scene was chocolate syrup initially. We did like a few takes where I would just do the screen and sort of puke Hershey’s chocolate syrup. Scratch the Hershey’s because I don’t want to like endorse that or anything! And then special effects did a rig that clamps onto my ear and we visit it in a pool scene which you haven’t seen. It goes around the back of my ear and then I bite down on it on the side of my face and it projects whatever that material was. It was pretty intense. I think it was worse for Amanda because she’s the one who got puked on.”
Kusama’s asked about using more practical effects on set as opposed to CG and says “Yeah, it was a choice that we all sort of made organically. I think we appreciate those kind of effects in older movies and I question sometimes how much more effective it is to really use a ton of CG. So we always started with a practical effect and then moved forward from there, like to lay the groundwork for something that’s actually physically, materially there. It was more fun too.”
Reitman’s asked about the fact that this is very different to the other films his made and whether this scratches any itch he may have for the genre.
“I always loved horror films and certainly I’d go see more horror films than any other genre in the theatre. I mean, I saw the movie ‘See No Evil’ but I still haven’t seen ‘400 Blows.’ So I would love to. I hope I am as capable in doing them as Karyn is. It’s an intimidating genre.”
Kusama’s asked why she wanted to do this project and replies “I was blessed to read the script at a moment where producers were meeting with directors and it just knocked me out. It was just so original, so imaginative. That’s what it is about this script is that it feels like a fairy tale gone psycho and I think that’s what most fairytales actually started as. There’s something about this story that felt…old, like coming from old stories, but totally fresh.”
Fox is asked about this experience vs. other films she’s done and says “There’s no distractions. There’s no robots to distract you from whatever performance I do give. So if it’s terrible you’re going to fucking know it’s really terrible. That of course is intimidating but I think the character was so much fun for me and I wasn’t really sure what I was doing, I was just trying to have fun with it. I sort of felt like I was being able to make fun of my own image…sort of and how some people may perceive Megan Fox to be. I just sort flied freely and I hope some of it worked.”