Hey, I'm Ed Gass-Donnelly, writer-director of Last Exorcism Part II.
And I'm Eli Roth, one of the producers of Last Exorcism Pan? II.
Good morning, Ed, how you feeling?
Good. It's 9 in the morning on the day of our opening
and we just had our first midnight screenings last night,
so a little tired after that.
But it's very sort of, I would say, auspicious and exciting time
to be recording a commentary track when on the eve of releasing a movie.
I know. I remember with Cabin Fever,
I recorded my audio commentary before the movie came out,
and you're just so excited, but there is this mystery
because everyone watching this knows how the movie did,
or whether or not people liked it. But obviously anyone watching this
and listening to the commentary liked the movie enough
to get the DVD or Blu-ray and to listen to us.
Or there's really devoted haters.
Exactly. Or they just wanna rip--
Or, by the way, you get the guys on the blogs that are like:
"Well, I had to review it so I had to listen to those stupid commentaries
and listen to Roth blather on."
But, yeah, but for those of you who did enjoy the film, welcome.
And-- So I mean, yeah, I mean it was an interesting thing in terms of
how to start this movie, I think. We initially wanted to--
My initial idea was to start with just... That shot of the camera in the woods.
I gotta say, by really embracing this beginning,
it really does throw you into--
It was your idea, I think, to have that montage at the beginning,
it throws you back into that crazy energy of the end of the movie.
- At the end of the first one - Yeah. It just throws-
it's one of those things that intellectually--
It's an interesting balance when trying to do a sequel.
On one the hand, you're trying to keep it separate but you--
Like, you're doing a sequel to a movie that not only happened
but also there's an energy that you're trying to pick up from
that you can't just do out of the ether.
Sure. And it's very tricky to do a sequel, very tricky.
And first of all, let me say congratulations
because you did a terrific job and you made a great film.
And the hardest thing about a sequel,
when you're picking up another director's work,
and certainly a film that was very loved by fans,
and obviously hated by some, but more loved than hated
or we wouldn't have done a second, but you really made it your own.
And you really had a very clear, decisive, bold approach
in how you wanted to change the style of the movie.
And I think you really got it right here, with these opening shots.
And I remember seeing the first footage that you guys shot.
It was so impressive.
And it was actually really, really enjoyable to see this story
and to see Nell suddenly in, like, a professional movie world.
Right. It was certainly actually too, at the midnight screening last night,
to have Daniel Stamm there, who I had never met before,
who, of course, directed the first movie,
and he wrote me a really lovely tweet, just that how much he enjoyed it.
And it's just interesting to see a mutual admiration, it seems.
But to, yeah, to take something-- I would have felt weirder, in many ways,
had I been trying to do the same thing as Daniel.
Like, it would've been-- I felt like--
If we'd been doing a found-footage movie again,
regardless of whether or not that made sense,
but by doing something different, it feels like--
I don't like feel I'm stepping on someone else's toes.
Like, I feel like he did his, now this is a separate thing and I think we can--
it would feel as-- It might feel weird, at least to me, to--
If I was jumping in on another franchise,
where the style defined the franchise and you couldn't break it?
- Absolutely. - I think this is so bold. I mean, to--
To, frankly, the producer's credit, Canal's credit, everybody.
It was, like, to take a franchise that was successful, very successful,
and now completely depart in terms of the style and structure, that's a bold--
- That's a bold choice. - Well, you know, we-- Thank you.
I mean, we-- You know, we kept thinking about
how would it work as another found-footage film.
We kept coming back to the story
of a documentary crew goes to find out what happened.
And we all thought, nobody wants to see a movie about that.
Ashley Bell is such a terrific actress and we were so interested in her story,
we really wanted to see what would happen
if we followed her as she tried to reintegrate into the world.
And this, you know, to have the first film exist as a viral video.
I think that was sort of the creative breakthrough.
But I will say this, you know, I want people to see your other movie.
They can check it out on-- I think it's on Netflix. Small Town Murder Songs.
And we should-- I don't know if you wanna talk about this scene
but I was gonna talk about how we found you.
No, you can keep giving me compliments. It's cool.
I remember the Boogie Nights commentary.
"I don't mean to wax your car, man, but allow me to wax your car."
You know, obviously Daniel Stamm did a great job on the first one
and everybody wanted him to direct movies, which was great.
And the idea with this was that
you find a filmmaker that has made a film before,
but maybe one that hasn't been widely seen or was a festival movie,
like Daniel's film, A Necessary Death.
And, you know, Ed made this fantastic, really elegant, smart,
smart film called Small Town Murder Songs, with Peter Stormare.
And we were just so impressed with the photography, with the pacing,
really how you just took your time with every single frame,
let the action play out within the frame.
You weren't forcing camera work.
You know, you really took-- I could say more the Roman Polanski approach
to making a thriller or horror film.
Well, thank you. And, you know, it's funny because that was--
When, coming to this, it was like,
trying to figure out what the elements that I really responded to
or what inspired me, rather, in Small Town
that I thought would apply to horror is the idea of restraint and how--
And a slightly more old school, Polanski,
just a bit more of a '70s-style approach.
Actually that was one of the things that I thought they did well, for example,
in the third Paranormal, just because you were limited to so few cameras,
there was so much restraint and you couldn't just cut, you stayed.
And then it was the terror that lurks outside the frame.
I think that's a very old school approach and--
And a very effective one.
And, actually, if done wrong, the movie's incredibly boring.
It's one of those things where you watch a scene,
there is a fine line between tension and boredom.
Because what makes it scary is that nothing happens.
And then if you pay it off with that,
like you did right there, then it's great, it's worth the wait.
But if you do it and do it and do it and you don't give the audience that scare,
then everyone goes, “What are we watching this for?"
it's a tricky balance as a filmmaker because you're trying to on the one--
Especially in horror.
On the one hand, you're trying to do something specific and inventive
and authentic to the movie you're making.
At the same time you have to keep-- It has to be scary,
so it's like, "How do you manage that?"
Like making sure that you're delivering for the fans,
but at the same time, not pandering to the fans.
I think it's just a constant thought process that I don't--
You know, that I think it's just-- You always look at.
But I think it's a...
I don't know, I think it's a cool balance to try and find where on the one hand--
The one great thing about horror is you can explore themes and ideas
that you wouldn't necessarily be able to in a pop culture audience
because, you know, you bring people in with the genre
and then you can actually then--
I think that's something the great horror movies really do.
Absolutely. And I thought in the first one was really that science--
You know, that faith versus science idea.
That somehow you listen to Cotton and he makes sense,
you listen to the father, he makes sense.
And in this one,
I thought there was a really interesting theme which you just really nailed,
which is someone having faith and then the faith letting you down,
and then realizing that maybe you're better off with this evil,
that's the only thing you can trust.
What happens when you embrace that.
And I think that that's actually something
that's very relevant in the world,
when you see people that embrace terror, embrace--
Like, become total fanatics to something,
that they don't even see it as evil.
But not to get too heavy-handed with the theme here,
but I also thought you really did a great job
because Nell is so isolated in the first one,
that in this one, you really did a terrific job
of integrating New Orleans as a character.
You're from Toronto, so how did you enjoy shooting there?
Yeah, I mean, that town is, for me, like a weirdo hybrid
between the wild, wild West and never-never land.
Like it is such a unique-- It's really unlike any other place I've been.
I mean, you've got, you know, 30-story buildings
with no windows, that are still, like, these standing skeletons from Katrina.
Then you've got-- Surrounded by a dozen drive-through daiquiri stands.
And you've got all-- What was interesting while shooting,
so many of these places we'd go as a location scout,
and they'd be talking about the ghosts that are in their house.
Like just as fact and--
Or the ghost-- They had somebody in, cleansed their house,
and now the ghost moved next door.
- And it wasn't-- And that was-- - Not ironic, not as a joke.
Yeah, like just totally straight.
That didn'tjust happen, like, one person, "That's that kooky lady."
It was a recurring theme.
Like, one location we scouted for Cecile's,
it was a brutally hot summer day, had no air conditioning,
we walk into one room and it's ice cold.
And the house has no air conditioning. So it was like this--
And everybody's just like, “I don't wanna shoot here."
We're not shooting there.
So I'm like, "Yeah, room's too small. We gotta go."
Yeah, did anything supernatural freaky happen while you guys were shooting?
Was there one weird--? That's pretty weird.
I don't know how you get weirder than that.
There was one-- When we were shooting the seance
a cross leap': off the wall and...
So that was A, startling.
And then B, I turned and like, "Where's my actress?"
She's not even-- She's left-- She's not even left the room,
she's, like, back in her trailer. She leapt out of that room so fast.
It was the middle of this-- They're screaming, the cast--
Suddenly this cross just, like, flies off the wall into the middle of the room.
Did you have the cameras rolling?
Well, they weren't pointed at the cross, unfortunately.
Because that would've been out of-- We could've sold that
to Paranormal Investigators or something and doubled our budget.
I gotta give a shout out. That's Brendan holding the sign.
That's our director of photography.
Nice little cameo there for him. Well done.
Yeah, point out all those little cameos and things.
I love the station wagon you guys found.
Reminds me of the station wagon I had when I was a kid.
It was interesting, there is this style of this movie,
there was-- I just had a gut--
And I couldn't explain it at the time, but it felt like this should feel--
There's a certain timeless quality, like it's kind of in between, like it's--
Partly maybe it's the nostalgic sort of shooting style,
And maybe it's party New Orleans.
Everything feels like it's of a different time.
That bathroom that we saw, where she was being bathed,
I really wanted like old cast-iron tubs.
That's the one set that we actually had built because, you know, we couldn't--
We couldn't-- You can't find rooms like that anymore.
Same with that station wagon,
From the beginning, I wanted a wood-panel station wagon.
I don't know if I'm trying to just evoke things from my own childhood or--
No, you're not, because look here,
they're watching a flat screen and they use computers,
so you're not pretending it's in another time.
But I do think that there's a quality of New Orleans that--
And to nail into the character that she's kind of stopped in time a little bit,
that they're not up to date on technology.
And that's one of the things that I loved about Small Town Murder Songs,
was your eye for detail.
And, you know, I think you come from a theater background, right?
- You say your parents were in theater? - Yeah, yeah.
But your eye for detail and for sets,
but just even the way you have the wallpaper
and the curtains in the background and the lighting
and the lines on the radiator, the lines on the wallpaper,
the radiator in the background.
I know that when you set a frame, you're not going:
"We're just gonna put the camera here."
Even the shelf in the background and all the little details in the room,
you really, really art direct, you know, to the frame.
Well, I think that's an interesting difference
between, say, handheld and, like, classic--
You know, again, seeing more '70s-style shooting style,
we really generally went for, you know, locked frames.
There's-- I mean, except for certain sequences where it's slo-mo
or that there's a dolly move, you know,
I think the movie was actually pretty much either static or Steadicam.
So if it was, like, a traveling sequence where we're feeling,
you know, her movement or we're following her,
it would be Steadicam.
We wanted to embrace the stillness of her light.
And I think from that stillness,
we started to then build on the scares as they progress.
But it's an interesting model
because when you commit to that, you're stuck with that frame.
You can't suddenly pan over-- Re-boom and find a more interesting detail.
So the choice of the details that you keep in the frame,
you really have to be, I think, more thoughtful about.
You're gonna be stuck with them for a couple of minutes.
The fireplace in the room, the colors on the walls, the door, the chair.
I mean, talk about working with your production designer,
and the look you came up with for the film because I think--
I think that this-- It's so refreshing that not only is there a stylistic shift,
and the first one was very much about reality,
but you really created a reality in this beautifully.
What's interesting, Meredith, who designed the movie--
Funny, you were talking about the station wagon,
she said, “You had me at the station wagon."
Because she loved the specificity of that detail.
And for her, it just spoke to, again, there being a timelessness.
Which, you're right, it is New Orleans.
New Orleans, you've got all these, like, very old houses,
but they're often in disrepair, you know,
because of numerous storms, and there was just--
We wanted to have sense of, I guess, you're a little bit lost in time and...
So, I mean, it was funny, that detail really started to carry through.
I mean, in terms of the bathroom--
Finding this-- I gotta say, finding this house was our biggest--
Like-- We-- It was the first thing we actually saw.
I did a pre-scout in December, just to, like, get a flavor of New Orleans.
I had never been. We went there for like two or three days.
And it was-- That was the very first house we saw, and--
Wait, just for people listening, I should point out
that they way he's saying "house" is a very Toronto, like--
Anyone in Canada will be listening, not knowing, but everyone's going:
"Are they talking about the house?"
But when you hear "house," that is the most Toronto way to--
- I can't even do it-- I can't hear it. - He doesn't know. He can't hear it.
He's unaware. Just let it go Let's talk about the house.
What are you talking about?
Exactly. They're gonna think they're watching Terrance and Phillip.
I'm sorry, I just had to point that out.
I know this is a discussion going on right now in everyone's living room.
So please-- And first of all--
We gotta talk about Julia Garner and Ashley Bell.
These are two of my favorite young actors.
And I thought you just did such a great job
of just letting their faces and eyes do all the--
You know, just carry the movie.
Well that's-- I mean, what I love about Ashley is she's so present.
I mean, I have to say, like, right off the bat,
there was a nervousness, where you're taking a supporting character
from one movie and now making her the protagonist because you--
Especially because she's possessed, she's not possessed.
You don't know what is real, you don't where-- Who she really is.
So now you take and you put her front and center, it was like, who is she?
Just right off the bat in talking with Ashley, it was just really--
Ashley knew that character inside and out and was just trying to figure it out.
But there was such a bright, wonderful, internal life.
And I think what's so exciting about her performance in particular
as it relates to the character, you've got this person, like you said,
who was raised with such a specific devout religious background,
and now is thrust into this world that is, like, the craziest place on Earth to her.
Like it's-- You've gone from being, like, home schooled to being in, like,
you know, in Mardi Gras, which is, like, the biggest polar opposite.
So you've got this sense of discovery and seeking out and all of that,
you know, it just so conveyed in her eyes that it's--
You know, she really-- We didn't wanna be, you know, vocal about it,
But we wanted that kind of restraint. It was beautiful working with her.
These scenes, when she doesn't say anything,
it's actually me talking over it. I'd be playing with different thoughts.
It was a really fun way of working with an actor.
Yeah. And Ashley loved working with you too.
I remember-- You know, Ashley and Daniel had
such a strong connection on the first one.
And it was really just the three-- But the first one is Cotton.
The original title was Cotton, just as your original title for this,
which I loved, was The Beginning of the End.
It was really Cotton's movie.
And we sort of don't know who she was at all.
And I thought that--
I remember, right after you guys met and shooting started, she called me.
You guys really, really had an amazing working relationship.
But you gave her in this environment,
where you could really just let her face and her eyes say everything.
There are a lot of these scenes where she's not even doing it.
She's looking in the mirror, which could come off as,
you know, incredibly boring or dull or seem like someone overacting.
I think you guys really, really did a magnificent job.
Come.
Well, and just talking about Julia too. What I love about both of them,
they've got such-- They're just beautiful to look at.
I mean, like, they got-- It's so great to photograph them.
They're so expressive, they're so interesting.
And real. They don't look like Hollywood actresses.
- They look like real girls. - Yeah.
And by the way, they look different because when people watch a movie,
you generally don't remember anyone's name.
I find that people are like, “The blond one. The brunette one."
So I always try and cast girls with different color hair.
That's like, when you're watching a movie,
people don't wanna be responsible for remembering people's names.
You know, she's got this beautiful alabaster skin and the curly, curly--
It's just, like, she's so distinctive-looking
that, I don't know, it just became so much-- I don't know. It's just--
It's great when you find really just exciting interesting faces to look at.
Interesting faces like Muse.
I mean, Brendan loved lighting this guy, just the look of his face.
And he just, you know-- Brendan was always--
Every time he had a shot, he'd take a still, come running over me:
"Oh, my God, Muse looks great on camera."
Yeah, no, they-- Brendan did an amazing job with the photography.
What was great was how everyone saw the dailies and they were like:
"This looks so expensive." Barely double the budget of the first.
And I would say for anyone out there
that thinks you need $100 million to make a movie,
you know, look at what Ed is doing with this film.
I mean, a simple shot like this where--
It's casting the right people, it's getting the right costume, makeup,
hair, lighting it.
You know, just the way you have the sheer,
you know, curtains in the background. Really, really beautifully done.
And I love-- I kind of--
You've kept it very contained in the house
because we're about to go out to the world of Mardi Gras.
Well, what's interesting too, I find is that for me, like, the biggest thing
that always often gets cut on budgets, you know, is the number of days.
But I think just talking about somebody trying to make their first movie,
days is the one thing to fight for, to have time to work with the actors.
Because at the end of the day, like, they're gonna be, you know--
Them and the environment is gonna be the greatest production value.
I mean, if you're limited.
So it's like you're better off to, you know, have the time
to, like, nail a great performance and take the time to light it
than to, you know, I don't know, have the bigger explosion or whatever.
It's always a tricky balance. It depends on the movie you're making.
But, you know, I think we found, like, I think a really, you know,
good balance on this movie, having 27 days,
which was, you know, by some people's standards--
Not exactly a Kubrickian, like, schedule.
No, I mean, by Hollywood standards, we--
You know, we were like a weekend, but...
Yeah, most shoots are 80 days, a hundred days.
Low-budget movies are 40 days.
Very low-budget movies are like 24 to 30 days.
Yeah. I mean, I keep getting sort of told you know, people saying:
"Shooting movies in like 18, 20 days." I find that crazy.
These shots look beautiful. You grabbed the camera, we set it up
and you guys just went out, just shooting, just to see what you got.
Well, that was it. The whole-- From the beginning,
based on when we talked about when we were gonna shoot,
and, of course, Mardi Gras, you know, was--
it was during prep, so it was--
I was like, there's no way we can be in New Orleans and not shoot.
Yeah, this was before we started shooting the movie,
when there were script discussions and people weren't cast.
But you just grabbed Ashley and the camera and went out.
- Yeah. - Look at what you got, it's amazing.
And I mean-- Yeah, she came out just for that. But it was--
You know, I think if memory serves me,
this was, like, second week of prep
and it was-- No, I--
There was just no way we could not do it.
What was actually fun, that was my first time working with Ashley.
We had this little min-- A little one day mini-shoot before the real shoot.
It became this fun bonding experience too because we're going out,
into, like, real-world Mardi Gras and just like, you know, again,
it felt, in some ways, probably a similar style
to the way you guys did the first movie, where it was just such a small crew.
I mean, there was like four of us, you know,
just pushing our way through a crowd in Mardi Gras
and just capturing, you know, that product--
That just natural New Orleans production value.
Yeah, and you got Ashley, like, experiencing this.
It's so fun to watch the character that we, the audience, know
has spent most of her life in that house.
Not trapped, but just very, very secluded and isolated.
Sort of watch her experiencing the beads and the colors.
And I love that you really took the time to get those little details.
And I think that's one of the things that you do so well,
even in the background,
with all the actors and the girl whipping and the--
I love that guy with the box and the saxophone.
Like, I think you really, really took your time
to get the details right.
Thank you. I mean, it is, like, you know-- You know, it's like--
- My favorite extra. - Devil's in the details.
- The one with the tiger on her back? - One with the tiger.
I think we should do a commentary about her.
Well, because, if you remember, there was--
You know, there was more tiger stuff in the movie at one point because--
And at one point, you know, at the end of the movie,
she had a key line saying like, "I am the tiger."
Background performer was there and I saw this tiger tattoo on her back.
Like, "Okay, she's getting featured."
Yeah. I could see why.
This guy's terrific. I think this is one of my favorite sequences in the film.
I remember, you know, when you shot this, thinking--
Those things are naturally creepy.
It's so hard to explain. I think Edgar Wright in Hot Fuzz,
those guys had a whole thing about the gold man in town.
But this guy, he really, really did a great job.
Well, it's true, there is something,
you know, odd about those guys. And I've had that thing where like,
they start like-- It'll be-- Whether it's a mime or like a frozen guy.
Then they'll start interacting, following, and-- On the one hand, you're like:
But then you're like, “Seriously, you're invading my space.
Like, that's actually legitimately creepy. Stop it."
Yeah. No, I've had that where I go into haunted houses,
the monster walks out of the house and follows you around.
It's very uncomfortable.
But this whole sequence-- This is where it starts to get creepy.
Everything's been kind of safe for Nell up until then.
Yeah, that was the balance of taking the time to breathe
and let her settle in to some sense of normalcy
and let her start to get excited about:
"Hey, like, there's a whole world out there that I've never seen."
And then just as she's starting to acclimatize to that,
I think this is, like, the first, you know, sign that there's...
You know, something bad's gonna happen.
I love how you kept Mardi Gras going in the background here,
with all the details. I thought you really, really did a great job.
I mean, for anyone thinking that Ed just got written a huge check
and had some Hollywood sequel budget to a successful movie,
no, we put him through the ringer.
It's basically like, this is the movie we wanna do
and this is the amount we have or don't have.
It was very low-budget.
But there is something great about shooting on a low budget.
I do, as much as-- As painful as it is,
it allows-- It kind of breaks through to sort of a different level of creativity
it squeezes out of you.
And also on a low budget, you can really get to do what you want.
Yeah, true. There's definitely not a studio breathing down your neck
when you're sort of floating below the radar.
And I do believe in the idea
that desperation breeds innovation, where it's--
You don't-- You can't just throw money at a solution,
so figure out a creative solution.
And I think sometimes that's often the most exciting, I think--
Like a shot like this, the bike and the wheel, it sets-
You know, it sets up the next scene perfectly,
- but that's not an expensive shot. - No.
- It's very simple. - Actually, that was a $5000 bike that--
Even the way you did the telephone, it's the way you production-designed it.
You knew the house was important, you knew where to spend the money.
That was one of the reasons, I should say,
that I left you alone on the shoot was-- I know that as a producer,
I could be, you know, helpful and be a creative sounding board.
But if I'm on set on a movie like this,
because I've directed movies, and I'm like a presence in horror,
I didn't want it to feel like there were two directors.
And I also trust you. I mean, I don't-- You don't need me there on set.
You don't need to be babysat. You know what you're doing.
All of the producers-- I found, on the one hand,
if you look at, like, the setup, it could have been, like, terrifying.
All you guys were so-- That was the thing I felt is,
it was so supportive, that there was such a sense of, like--
There was a commitment we all felt.
We knew what the movie was we were making and there was--
It's obviously not to say that nobody's ever like, "No" or brings in new ideas.
There was just a sense of--
We were all definitely on the same team,
had the same vision, and were fighting for it.
And I think that's, you know--
Suddenly, you get into a project where there's four producers.
Like you could imagine, four opinions getting pulled in different directions.
It really felt like it was five of us really all moving in the same direction.
Yeah, and we're talking about our other producers,
Eric Newman, Marc Abraham and Tom Bliss,
and that was our team on the first film.
- Brie Neimand. - Of course, Brie Neimand.
Yeah. And so everyone...
You know, everyone was there with Ed and we really...
You know, we liked Ed.
We wanted to basically empower Ed to make a great movie
but at the same time, keep, you know, our eye on the prize,
that this was, you know, we're making a scary sequel to a movie.
Yeah, yeah. You know what? One of the things is,
it really is nice to actually work with good people, like, as human beings.
And, like, it's so--
But it's-- You start to realize you can take that for granted,
but, I mean, I felt we had just good people.
Like, I felt like, I loved-- I don't know, I loved working with everybody on this.
That there wasn't-- It wasn't about ego.
It was really just about people, you know, trying to make a good movie.
And there was just a lot of trust and mutual respect.
And I think-- That I think is a great creative burden
because you're focusing on the movie and not ego and bullshit.
Yeah. I mean, that's-- Thank you. I mean, I obviously love those guys.
We did the first film in Man with the Iron Fists together.
Oh, this sequence is fantastic.
I thought this was one of your-- Really, really great that--
Is she possessed?
Is she having a seizure? What exactly is going on?
- Talk about shooting this sequence. - That poor girl.
So when the foam starts coming out of her mouth,
she was, like, almost drowning every take because--
- Oh, really? - She's trying to, like, be upside down.
You basically waterboarded her for a take.
Yeah, we did. Basically, we put I think, like--
Like-- I was gonna say Aqua Velva, that's not at all what I meant.
But one of those effervescent tablets in her mouth and I think then, like--
And sparkling water or something.
Suddenly it started-- But when her head's upside down,
it's going straight down her nose while she's trying to
- It's terrifying. - like, bend and--
But she was certainly a trouper--
But that said, after 27 takes, you finally got the one you were happy with.
That's right. And then in the edit, I used the first one.
- No. - Yeah.
This dog is great. I love that scare. That always happens to me.
I get freaked out when I walk by a yard and a dog jumps.
I find dog-- I mean, I guess, because I have a dog-- A dog actor and--
I've had a dog actor-- You know what? This is my brand.
- This is a great shot. - I have dog acting in every movie.
Would you call this your Kubrick shot or your Paul Thomas Anderson shot?
I guess it's a little-- Well, we definitely--
It's funny, speaking of Kubrick,
I mean, like The Shining definitely was a reference for us.
Just in terms of the Steadicam, I didn't realize this,
that they invented the Steadicam for that movie.
That was my own ignorance. But-- And you--
But you really-- It's such a wonderful tool
when you've got a motel and narrow corridors, you just--
There's that sort of perspective shift as you're moving that--
Especially when you've got an interesting location like--
I loved the hallways inside the hotel. I mean, that's what I think,
one of the most distinctive things about The Shining is
those Steadicam shots down that hall while he's on the little tricycle.
Spencer's terrific in this.
Wanna talk about working with him?
Yeah, for those of you who are like, "That guy looks a little familiar."
I mean, he was, like, the kid in Gladiator, he was the kid in...
- Unbreakable. - Yeah, and so many-- It's funny, like--
He was in a couple of these giant movies as a kid, you know, and...
But, you know, great actor.
Not that he wasn't in his own right. Sounds terrible.
She's great. She's so funny.
You best be knocking three, four, five times before entering in.
I love her. I've seen her on Snoop Dogg's YouTube channel.
Oh, really? I was just-- I ju-- I love her hair.
She's very, very, very funny.
Yeah, Spencer I thought was really terrific.
These scenes, I thought just the way-- You know, and this was a lot--
By the way, like, that hallway shot, the Steadicam shot,
is a perfect example of a scene that can be so tense,
- it then becomes boring. - Right.
Because you had that all in one take.
And I remember watching it and trying to be like,
if there's a way to pull this off so that it works--
And, ultimately, we relinquished to, like, we've gotta cut the shots
because everyone's getting caught up in the gimmick.
You're out of the movie, you're like:
"Look at them trying to do the world's longest Steadicam shot."
That's when you know it's not working, when everyone's aware of the shot.
Yeah, I mean, seriously, Michael, who is the Steadicam operator--
Because, I mean, the poor guy,
he had to go up two flights of stairs, like, 15 times.
He won Mr. Olympia in New Orleans.
Yeah, I think he lost 10 pounds on just doing that shot.
But, you know, he was like:
"I'll go again, but promise me you're gonna use the whole shot."
He's probably listening to this, shaking his fist now.
Cursing us right now from his wheelchair.
- His withered stumps. - Yeah.
This is terrific. I love the way you used the old radios.
Yeah, again-- That was, again, similar and just--
When Meredith and I were talking about the look and feel of the palette,
those old radios, and similar to the bathtub and the car.
There's a neat little thing she found, it's a tiny detail.
It was actually in every single room. We've missed it here, but there's a--
Right behind Ashley, to her right, there is a--
You can see a little bit of it behind her.
There's this little print that Meredith found.
I can't remember where, but it's meant to be the king of hell.
And it's this owl and it's in every one of the rooms and it's a subtle--
it's in the back-- I never ended up featuring--
There were shots but they never made it to the movie.
It was this detail that she found--
Now that you know that, I gotta go look for that.
- I didn't know that. That's awesome. - I don't know what myth--
Like, exactly where it comes from, but it was a-- It seems benign,
but then when-- If you know what it is, it's actually really creepy and ominous.
It's cool. I've been accused of being the king of hell before.
And speaking-- I love that in that previous shot--
Previously, we had the girl walk in and put her head
in the jaws of that fountain sculpture.
But now that she's sitting there, nine times out of ten,
nobody notices that she's there until-- It was actually like one of the--
One of the execs on the movie, when we were doing the final mix,
he's like, "Is that a girl's head inside that hippopotamus mouth?"
Yeah, it's really great when you can slip
the girl's head in the hippo's mouth.
Slip that by the studio executives.
I love that shot of the tiger eating the meat.
- I think that tiger's dead now. - You killed it during the shoot.
I didn't. Abalam killed the tiger.
I work with PETA. We did not--
We only-- I'm telling you, the--
The tiger was treated very well during the shoot.
- We did not poison him. - We actually didn't even--
That-- We just filmed the tiger actually in its own natural habitat.
We weren't even--
That was a genius moment where--
That's the great thing about movies where you get magic.
Those two tigers, they play together,
and then just suddenly they started fighting,
and I happened to catch it on camera.
But it's like you say, those were two, like, famous tigers in New Orleans
and six months after shooting, we found out that one of them died.
- That's horrible. - RIP, tiger.
Wow, did we get the dead tiger to use for the third film?
- Because if that tiger's still around... - Right.
I mean, yeah, it's in my fridge.
We could probably stop--
I don't know why we're talking about this.
I just-- I think you're really pretty. And...
This is a great scene between the two of them.
- I think they're such terrific actors. - The funny thing--
Interesting scene. We're trying to find the balance.
On the one hand, it's like you're trying to have-- There's--
You've got two awkward people trying to have semblance
of, like, teenage romance, but-- And what I-- What--
I think where you found the balance was by playing--
It had score that actually was a little bit creepy.
So on the one hand, you've got this sort of earnest,
you know, straight forward sort of, you know, girl trying to talk to the boy,
but we're under-- But we're playing against it
by putting in this slightly creepier music.
Because I think there is some of the danger of, like--
As soon as you start, people start revealing things
or talking too much about their feelings,
it can feel cheesy or earnest.
But I think by playing against it with the music, I think it really--
And, obviously, an authentic performance. We pull it off.
And what I like too, it ends up playing out with just--
But, you know, we're--
It was like, "What do we do about the baby from the first movie?"
So by acknowledging here that she said she was pregnant and--
I don't know when it came up.
Definitely in postproduction when-- It happened shortly thereafter.
But then having the baby crying on the phone,
I think that was a nice way to, like, again, acknowledge that first movie,
but at the same time without having to be--
Trying to address every beat and pull it-- Move it forward.
- And over-explain it. - Exactly.
That was one of the things in the first film is everyone's...
Part of the fun of it was the ambiguity of exactly what happened
and why did it happen and how did it happen.
And then, you know, there's the one explanation
that, yes, she was possessed the entire time,
probably after the mother died, Caleb got involved.
Was it a party? That stinking Pastor Manley's--?
- Yeah. - And got involved.
Pastor Manley bringing out the Ouija board.
Yeah, and sold out his sister, and that she was--
That something came out of her in this ceremony,
that this creature was reborn and brought back into the world
in this terrible way.
But now, it's like it's still in love with her
in some very, very strange, sick sort of way.
I love these shots you did on the stairs and the house.
I think you really did a great job of taking advantage of the location.
Again, I don't know what we would have done
had we not found that house because every other house that we looked at,
just none of them--
I remember Brendan was, like, terrified until we locked this location
because he was like, “This house is amazing."
As soon as he came there, he's like: “I see the movie. Every other locat--"
I was like, “Don't marry the first girl you meet."
It was, like, we looked at other places.
But none of them just matched this at all.
So it really became a character in the movie.
Oh, it absolutely was. That was-- If you're setting the movie in this house
where these troubled broken girls...
Then, you know, you've gotta have a great location for it.
This is great. Really, really nice cue.
This is where it first starts to really turn into a horror film.
Poor Ashley. This poor girl is so put upon.
The ringing, it's fantastic. But I love you get the dark wood, the dark walls--
- And that old-school phone. - Oh, yeah, of course.
The old, like, 1970s telephone.
And it's good because we really feel like we're in a horror movie for sure.
I like the restraints we ended up taking. Again, you take your time and--
Which is again, funny. You re-watch The Exorcist, and that's a movie--
Everybody remembers the crazy stuff at the end, you know, but it's really--
- It takes time getting-- - Forty minutes in Iraq in the opening.
- Yeah. Yeah. - That movie takes a long, long time
- before she gets possessed. - Yeah.
Louis Herthum, he's terrific.
Wanna talk about him? One of my favorite people.
One of the things that don't--
That made me wanna make this movie was, first and foremost,
was just how good the performances were in Last Exorcism.
Like, I went into that movie as an audience member
just, you know, knowing nothing about it.
I hadn't seen a trailer, just the poster.
I went and watched it and I was so struck by, you know--
Because, you know, just how good the acting was.
You don't expect it in horror. People have terrible standards
- for acting in horror films. - Yeah.
And what I personally feel is that when the acting is authentic,
it makes it scarier, it feels real.
It's like, if you've got, like, you know, a girl,
you know, with an...screaming and, you know, and running,
you know, down into the basement where the monster is,
if it just feels fake, then I-- You know, I find you don't emotionally participate,
but when you actually-- When you've got great performances-
And so that was right off the bat. I was like, "I wanna write--
I wanna find a way to write Louis into this movie."
Shut up!
Ashley's great. I love how she's--
I love how you start to see this side of her come out.
Before, she was the weak, scared girl,
and now, you know, she's starting to toughen up a little bit.
Well, what I always like, the movie, at the end of the day, really,
is like a coming of age story.
It's a girl discovering, you know, her dark side or discovering--
I mean, I always like the idea, it's a girl discovering,
you know, the taboo of sexuality, except, in this case, it's the discov--
The girl discovering and taking ownership of, "Hey, I'm the Antichrist."
Yeah. And by the way, what better girl to do that than Ashley Bell,
- Yeah. - who's the nicest, sweetest person.
And look, Ashley is such a trouper.
I mean, I've known Ashley for a while and she's the kind of person
that on set, off set,
like, she's just there for you in absolutely every way.
Everything's wrong with me.
Bull.
Wait.
What do you even like about me?
I don't know.
You're just...
But in all those scenes-- And I remember in the first one,
it was very, very hot and uncomfortable shooting.
It was like a hundred degrees.
But what time of year did you guys shoot?
They shot it in summertime. It was brutal.
- Yeah, New Orleans-- - No makeup on the first one
because everyone would sweat it off. They were just melting.
I mean, it was hot when we were there, but it was nowhere near--
Like, when we were wrapping, I was like,
"Okay, I'm glad we're leaving town."
And that was, I think, April? I mean, if memory serves.
I think we shot March, April.
But it was--
It gets-- It's crazy how hot it gets there.
I love her smile here. We glossed over that scene, but I love Neil's first kiss.
It's really, really nice. I mean, yes, we know she's probably had sex
in some sort of satanic way and gave birth to a demon baby,
but she really had the innocence of a teenager getting her first kiss.
- I think it's f-- - I agree. That smile she does, it--
Again, the details. I love that little smile as she goes around the corner.
And speaking of smiles, that's one of the moments I loved in the first movie,
that little smile to the camera.
- As the door closes. - It was brilliant.
It was so good.
Yeah. Now, I--
And that's what Daniel Stamm was really all about,
was those little subtle moments and quiet moments.
And, you know, as a director,
it's scary when you're shooting a movie that's supposed to be scary,
but the movie is a movie of little subtle moments that slowly build.
And people watch the footage and they watch it like, "But it's not scary."
But I thought you did a really great job, again, with the restraint.
And I love this where the people who you think they're having sex,
and then, suddenly, you realize the voice is hers
and it just starts getting weirder and creepier.
And you started to go a little--
And here's where the visual effects start really coming into play.
And what I like about it was that you don't always play them as reality.
Like, that this is what's actually happening in this motel room.
You don't know if she's hallucinating this on her mouth. It's beautiful.
And then cutting right to her dreaming, it's like, was--?
Is this what's going on in her nightmare?
I thought you really did a nice job of slowly integrating these things
into the very real world you set up.
There's an interesting thing too of this, you know, sort of metaphor
of this girl discovering--
You know, there's a sensuality that she's discovering,
and then growing, just even the way she's stroking her face,
coupled with something wanting to be inside her.
So it was just-- To play that the-- That the reason--
Really, and what the demon is really doing, it's a seduction.
It's trying to seduce her
both, you know, through temptation or through whatever to ac--
To get back inside of her to where she will embrace it, but--
It's sort of, like, Ninja Iv: The Domination.
That was exactly what I was going for.
It's literally that, which I have seen a 35-mm print
that Quentin Tarantino owns. I will completely brag and name-drop.
Yeah, no, this--
I don't think I'll ever see a 35 mm of this.
- Like, that's the sad-- I mean, I think-- - Let's talk about that.
I mean, it's interesting. So I mean, like my last movie, Small Town,
we shot-- We wanted to shoot 35, and it was a week before shooting,
we managed to get a crazy deal and shoot 35.
Because at the time, digital was--
It was good because it wasn't that long ago.
But, like, Brendan was really, like, you know--
We wanted to go for this subtle naturalism, he's like, "it'll get killed."
No, the Red camera at the time wasn't--
The chip wasn't-- Weren't enough to deliver.
Nowadays, I mean, we shot this on the ARRI ALEXA and--
- It's a great camera. - Yeah, and it--
But it's the point where you've got, like, major, you know--
You know, like Roger Deakins switching--
Everybody shooting-- Yeah, everybody's shooting on the ALEXA.
- No, I shot on the C300. I loved it. - But--
Yeah, I mean, and what I found interesting
is when I found out, you know, the movie opens today
on 2,700 screens here, 100 of those are film prints.
- No. - One hundred are film prints.
I can't believe that only a hundred are film prints.
Because now, in budgets, they make you do all this deliverable with the--
I guess it's for international. You gotta waste time with prints.
You know, I was so against digital.
I was really-- Because I shot Cabin Fever, Hostel,
Hostel: Part ll on Super 35.
And I love it and I love it and I cannot tell you the unbelievably--
Like, how heartbreaking it is to walk into a theater
and the projector is, like, dim
and the color is off and the sound is shit.
- And it just kills you. - Yeah.
Because then you transfer it back onto HD and you're like,
"Oh, this is how it's supposed to look."
And maybe there are those one or two marquee theaters
that turn the bulb all the way up and projected it correctly
and the sound was good.
But most of the theaters that I saw on 35-mm prints were shocking.
And I had heard that Kubrick used to send his brother to every theater
to make sure that the picture-- Which is awesome,
because I would have my parents do that in Massachusetts.
They would go to the theaters and go, "Make sure it's loud because if not--"
And, you know, when you're shooting a scary movie, like a scene like this,
you're on the-- You know, that edge of darkness.
You want it to be just-- Sometimes you don't wanna be able to see everything.
It's just dark enough, it's just--
And then if they dim the bulb, half your frame is, like, dark.
So muddy that you can't see anything.
And people come out like, "it wasn't that scary."
- What was it, scene that was black? - Yeah, it was terrible. It was boring.
And I saw it happen. I watched scenes
where you were supposed to see what happened.
And, you know, shooting digital, it's just like that the truth is,
I really think that most people watch movies.
If they don't see it in theaters, they're watching on an iPad.
Well, obviously, we know because we make movies.
People who watch, they wanna be entertained.
They don't like-- You know, they don't care what the budget was.
They don't care what you shot it on or what film stock it was or wasn't.
They, you know, it's, can you use whatever?
I mean, I'll shoot a movie on a PXL 2000 if it makes--
If it becomes an entertaining movie, or an iPhone or whatever.
It's just finding, like, what serves... It's a toolbox. That's it. It's a toolbox.
- What's the best way to tell your story? - Exactly.
But I think that, you know, whatever tool you're using,
you gotta know how to light it and how to shoot it.
And this is a great scene, when Louis comes in,
the way you lit this, photographed this.
- The total blackness. - They're so good.
But it's really like-- And this must come from your theater background.
I mean, because this is lit in a very naturalistic and a very realistic way,
but it does feel like they're on a stage.
I mean, it's funny. Like, Brendan and I, you know, we just get along so well
and we both have very similar tastes, and it's interesting, I mean, so much--
I feel like he keeps me honest and I keep him honest at times.
Like, does it feel authentic? What's the motivation for that light?
It's trying to find that balance of things that are-- Finding natural beauty--
Looks stylish but not just not trying to make it real.
Yeah. I gotta say, like, working with them both on this scene, it was like--
It was actually really neat
because they had such a bond in the first movie.
And I can't remember if this was Louis' first...
I think this was the first scene we shot with him,
but I can't remember now what the order was.
So it was just-- But what was so great was
you had the father and son--
Or, sorry, father and daughter reunited in this scene,
but you actually had the actors, suddenly,
who loved each other so much, being reunited.
So the-- Like, that emotion that I think that they really sort of authentically find
is they had such a bond, haven't seen each other, and they're back together.
And it was-- I love it when you can do that
and somehow use just the real-world circumstances
of people's relationships
to, you know, to manipulate, like, a great performance.
Yeah. I think Louis is a superb actor.
- He's so good. - And he anchors the first film
where Cotton is this huckster. Like, you just--
He was so sympathetic and so real.
What I love about him in the first one,
and I think, you know, people that were people of faith loved in the first one,
was how intelligent he is and how everything he's saying,
he doesn't just seem like a religious fanatic.
He's like a concerned, loving father
who truly believes in God and in the Bible.
And I just love that he's correct about absolutely everything.
If you go and re-watch the first film,
the only one to listen to who's ever making any--
- The only one telling the truth is Louis. - Yeah.
And then he shows up and he, unfortunately,
has to be the, you know, the bad guy for this moment.
And this is where you really start to fully go:
"Yeah, there's some supernatural force that's watching her.
She's not imagining it." Like, that's the moment when--
When Julia turns around, they're like:
"This isn't a dream sequence. This is what's happening."
You know, that was, for us, like, trying to find that balance
of, you know, how long can we--?
You know, it's-- How long can we sustain the debate
between, you know, “Is she crazy? Is it real?"
And at, you know, at some point, that, you know, if you go too long,
we get-- The audience gets mad.
But here, we definitely commit at this point
that, you know, we need Ghostbusters.
What happened?
They won't be as kind in a psychiatric hospital.
I am not crazy.
I love Frank's office.
- I know. - Like, the fireplace, the details,
him in the bathrobe. It's really, really great.
And poor Ashley, you just feel so bad for this girl.
And I like how her eyes almost look as creepy
as Julia's eyes in the last scene.
Well, it's funny. This poor girl-- I mean, so much of this character,
because I really feel that, you know, watching people cry on-screen
is, you know, less, you know-- I find it--
- I hate it. I hate it. - Yeah, because-
I just-- I'm like, "We get it, you can act. Next. Move on, stop blubbering."
But watching somebody trying not to cry,
there's conflict inherent in that, and that's what, you know--
So poor Ashley, this day in particular, like, she got emotionally beat up.
She had to do all these scenes where she's terrified.
She just wants to burst out and cry.
But to cry is to have an emotional release.
And you only do that when you're feeling safe.
If you're still, like, you're trying to hold on--
So just watching this girl struggle,
I think that's what makes us-- You know, we see her fight.
If she just started crying, we wouldn't care.
Yeah. You know what? It's absolutely correct.
And those subtle details are, I think, what make you an excellent director.
- Thank you. - Understanding of performance
and psychology, not to wax your car more.
But I love how you went for now.
You're, like, “We're in a haunted house."
That this house which was safe before,
now you totally went for some-- Like, with the creepy--
With the way you lit the trees, and the stillness and the quiet,
like, you fully commit to:
"We're in a haunted house right now." It's fantastic.
What I love in terms of just the quality of those effects there
was they were very subtle and simple, but, like, you just--
You know something bad's about to happen.
Yeah. You feel that there's a presence.
Yeah. And this is great. This is one of those...
I remember there was a-- We should talk about this.
Now, the levitation.
I will fully admit, I was like--
I mean, this is one of those instances where as a producer,
you wanna help the movie, you wanna support your director,
but you've gotta say your opinion. I was, "We can't do levitation
because The Exorcist--" And Ed insisted.
I was like, "I don't think--" And, Ed, you were so--
It's one of those things where it's like, if there's a director
that so believes in something so strongly,
then I'm gonna go with it, because--
And I thought you defended yourself very, very articulately.
When you talked about it, first of all, obviously,
The Exorcist was, you know,
it was like, I think Nixon was still in office
when that movie was in theaters.
So-- And people know it but it's not like a relevant film to teenagers
as much as we love it.
But I think you just-- And I remember the first time people saw this scene
and saw clips of it, the whole audience gasped.
It's a beautiful, elegant-- And I remember you saying:
"I got a new way to-- Like, it's not--
No one will even be thinking about that.
This could be a dream, be a hallucination."
But it's-- The way you did it was so, so, so good, Ed.
It's funny, we nicknamed this "the masturbending scene"
because she's touching herself but she's also floating and bending.
And it was an interesting thing where the bending--
Her back bend was so iconic in the first movie.
And it was always that question of how do you--?
On the one hand, I didn't wanna just have her
bent over backwards, like in the first movie.
But I also felt it was too bold a visual to not--
How do you acknowledge it but with--?
How do you repeat it while not repeating it,
and acknowledge it in a way that it's referencing it
and integrate it? Perfect.
And that's one of those tricky things within the genre too,
because people are so, you know, curious and excited,
and there's an anticipation and expectation
of how are you gonna do those things,
that I think it just really--
It just requires, like, you know a lot of thought.
I think if you just try and cheap out, just do the same thing again...
People are gonna feel ripped off. That's the trick with a sequel is,
you wanna give people more of what they got in the first one.
But what makes a scary movie scary is that people don't know what's coming.
And then if you do it again, you're repeating yourself.
If you don't do it, you've betrayed your audience.
So you really-- And that's why I really was so happy with it
that you were so focused and committed
to really making a great film, making it your own.
That scene, 100 percent was yours.
That was your conception, that was your vision.
I thought that you and Ashley just executed it perfectly.
And now I watch it and it's, like, my favorite scene in the movie.
I love this too here, when she comes down the stairs,
the way you photographed it. You know something bad's coming.
I love dread.
That sense of just that something is gonna happen...
That was great. I love that you go-- You don't forget.
You're like, “We're still in a scary movie."
That was that balance where I'm-- You're trying to find--
There's the cat. Like, it's perfect.
Like, I love that you weren't above that.
You just, "Oh, I remember watching that, that scare got me."
Well, I mean, and-- You know, it is that balance of, like, you know...
Let's not pretend we're not making a scary movie.
We're, like, we can't-- You can't not do those things.
I guess it's finding a way to, like, still make them feel
that they're in the world of the movie that we're making.
It's not like suddenly, I don't know,
like, an alien just pops in the window.
I would say there's an elegance. That's the word that came to mind.
That you have very classical taste, even in her nightgown
and the way the thread moves, and, like, the clothes you wear.
Those door handles. Those little, little details
that really, you went for something like Robert Wise's The Haunting.
Like a real classic kind of gothic horror film.
It's terrific.
And this was the scene that kind of-- When we were writing the story,
that was the big breakthrough. It was like imagining a scene
of what if she was in this house and everyone else,
all these other girls saw the video.
And suddenly, you hadn't seen it.
And I love how-- I think the other girls are fantastic.
Wanna talk about those girls? We haven't talked about them.
It was funny. It's a tricky balance where, you know,
we wanted to, you know, find us a bunch of authentic actresses
to put in the movie. But at the same time--
You know, because-- I don't know. Because of the nature of Nell's story,
it was like, we don't actually devote a lot of time to them
but I feel like they feel very present when we-- When we're with them.
- But-- And it's funny-- - They're like a good sounding board.
I mean, they'd say-- There would be the voice of the audience.
- If they were in the house, they're-- - Yeah. What was funny is that--
There really was, like, a real bonding between the girls
that by the end of the shoot, there was this sense of, like,
you know, people come together, get close, and don't wanna separate.
So I liked that, again, in many ways,
you have, you know, the character of Nell
showing up in this house not knowing anybody and--
But slowly starting to make friends.
I think that was in much the same way it actually was with the actors.
And then they turn on Ashley once she starts bending all over the place.
Yeah. I remember in the original draft, she went in and they were--
First the girls were kind of mean to her and it took us awhile, like-- We're like:
"No, when she moves in-- There's no reason they wouldn't all be friends."
It gives you somewhere to go. That was the thing,
that if she moves into the house--
You need some sense of hope. We know it's a horror movie.
We know that things are gonna go bad to an extent.
If you do it right from the first minute, we can't actually get anywhere.
Unless like, you know...
Unless, you know, she starts carving everybody up, and--
- She's so funny. - Yeah. I know.
This is such big laugh from the audience. It's great.
Poor Ashley.
And it's nice. I got a very nice note from Patrick Fabian,
who played Reverend Cotton Marcus in the first one, is really excited.
- He's gonna check it out this weekend. - You know, and it's funny, you know,
if there is a third one, I love the idea of still, like, there being a bigger--
It would be great if Patrick somehow came back as, like, a burned Cotton.
You don't know if he's real or not in the third movie. Scarred and burned.
We talked about, like, what if Cotton came back
and he was Cotton,
and he was somehow changed from the experience,
like, you didn't know what had gone on.
Or they go back to see his family and he's there, like, with no memory,
as if it never happened and don't know what he's talking about.
- There are a lot of ways to go. - Well, and I remember, in--
In one version, I wrote a scene,
that one where Louis shows up with a shotgun.
There was a version where originally that, I think--
Or least I had done a pass of it, where that was gonna be Patrick.
But in terms of what-- When you start looking at, in terms of motivation,
like, what is the demon trying to accomplish?
Is he trying to sort of emotionally manipulate her?
The most emotionally manipulative thing for her
- would be to see her father. - Absolutely.
I love the idea of bringing Cotton back. It just never made sense.
Like, right now, you know, the demon takes the shape of her father like that.
Or-- We don't know, like, or is it actually her dad then.
We really just don't know in that scene.
But, you know, if it had been Cotton, it just wouldn't have been--
It wouldn't have meant as much to her.
But-- You think your dad's dead and he shows up in front of you,
like, your heart would just break.
Now, this scene here, which I remember,
actually it was Eric Newman who loved the idea.
He's like, "I wanted her to go to the church for help,
and all the candles blow out and suddenly turns--"
You know, this place you go, because literally, the place literally is sanctuary,
that it's somehow not safe for her.
Yeah. Within the genre, you always think that you're safe in a church.
Always, of course, until the creepy priest comes out.
This church you picked was beautiful. And this has--
It's weird how there's certain scenes you might not intend for them to,
but this has become one of the signature scenes from the film.
Like, I remember when I did the Tonight Show,
this was the clip they showed from this.
And when you see the trailers,
this guy in this scene became the one that everyone responded to.
Well, you know, it's interesting how-- When you start looking at movies,
obviously, as a collaboration as opposed to a singular voice,
I mean, part of that camp out too was, frank--
You know, credit to CBS, it was when they came--
They brought in ideas for some effects in the windows
that we thought of it being small--
There were no-- There was other effects that we tried
that were practical that I just-- They didn't deliver and then...
It was gonna be hundreds of birds hitting the windows.
Yeah. And it just didn't quite work.
But I think with movies, it's like, it's not about ego.
This didn't work, but how can we now turn it into something that does?"
Yes, sir.
And it's lonely, isn't it?
Fighting a losing battle.
Day after day.
When you know you can't win.
You're just putting off the inevitable.
And for what?
They put silhouettes in the windows
of all these hooded figures watching her.
And all of us went, "Wow, that's really cool."
But it wasn't in the movie at that point.
- But it was in the commercial. - Yeah.
We thought, "We better damn well have these in
the movie or we're in trouble."
And they said, “We're really glad you guys liked that
because we thought that would actually be really cool effect to add."
And we went through the movie--
And I don't like to throw digital effects at things.
But I think that, like-- You know, like camera, like anything,
VFX can be a great tool.
Especially when you're doing a movie that's reality-based and subtle,
when people don't necessarily notice that it's a visual effect.
I mean, sometimes they do. It doesn't matter.
But it's a really, really great, great way to bump up the scares.
And I think this is a--
This is a terrific example of collaborating with the studio.
Yeah, I mean, it started with the birds and then the hooded figures.
Yeah, I mean, it's--
You know-- And funny, this is my first movie actually playing with VFX,
and so it's a tricky balance, where on the one hand,
you're always trying to make it feel as authentic as possible and--
- The fly. The fly was fantastic. - Yeah.
But, you know-- But-- And what's great is, you know,
they can-- How you can use them to really tell a story.
And, you know, or take something that you thought worked and did work,
and now by adding another layer, it just becomes way better than it was.
- Actually, one little-- - Like adding the crows, adding more--
That's something that digitally you can add. It makes the scene.
You're not noticing it but it makes the scene really work.
I gotta give a shout out to Anthony Burns,
who did a bunch of the VFX.
And, like, we had, like, so many different people doing it, VFX.
But it was funny, he's one-- He's like--
He's one of those, like, single genius guys
who does effects in his basement. He was the one added those crows.
Like-- And it was just little things like that, that, you know,
it's just-- And a lot of his work is really subtle in the movie,
but it's just-- You know, I know--
I love that we're at a point where,
you know, a guy in his basement can make that stuff.
We'll get to that when we talk about the last shot of the movie.
The final shot of the film.
But just from an ability as a filmmaker to, like, have a sense of independence,
like, I mean, you know, I cut this movie
in my tiny little office at home on my Avid.
And again-- And then you've got like, you know,
effects artists making stuff in their basement.
Like, it's an amazing place, where on the one hand,
you do that, you go from a basement to 2,700 screens.
- Like, that is just a bizarre-- - Dude, it's the greatest thing ever.
And that's what's so wonderful about where we are with making movies now,
is that you literally--
Like, I've been editing Green Inferno on my laptop in Easter Island.
We went out. I was going through dailies and cutting stuff, on Final Cut.
And then you e-mail the file to your editing room.
It's so great now.
And I actually remember going to your house in Toronto
because I was there shooting Hemlock Grove.
And I'd literally come from the editing room
where I'd just cut the first episode.
And I went over to your house. It was like a pouring, rainy day.
And we went up in your office and we played the cut.
And you'd been just cutting right there.
It's really-- It's terrific that--
You know, I remember back in the day,
even Hostel II times, you had to really have that--
The full editing room and the Avid Adrenaline and all this expensive stuff.
And now you can literally cut your movie on a laptop
and it goes out on 2,700 screens. Amazing.
Even just from a color-correction perspective,
like, you know, Brendan, you know...
Again, shooting on the ALEXA, you know, he loads up that stuff.
- I forget the software he uses. - Color correct at your house?
Yeah. He's doing a color grade on his laptop. A preliminary grade.
No, I know. We do the same thing now.
That the software that you're using to color correct the movie, it's free,
and it's the hardware that you buy.
But all you need is, like, a nice HD monitor
and you literally can color correct your movie.
Then you can go into a professional color suite to, like, finalize it.
- But Davinci decided to give away-- - The Resolve.
The DaVinci Resolves, they decided,
instead of selling the software, they were gonna give their hardware--
Sell the hardware and give the software for free.
Yeah. I think at some point if you get into, like, a big--
One of the big hardwares you have to pay for the stuff.
But basically-- Or if it is that classic like, you know,
you can have-- It's like crack, you know what I mean?
First one's free so they get you hooked on their basic model
and down the road, it'll be like:
- "Now you just gotta pay us a grand." - No, it's free.
It's amazing that the DaVinci-- And so--
You know, even while I'm cutting my new movie now,
we have-- You know, our editor, Aaron Burns, is just--
He's color correcting as we're going,
so that when I give it to the color correction,
it's not like the old days where he'd sit there for three weeks in a color suite.
You can just knock it out in a couple days.
It's incredible. That's a great thing for--
What advice would you give to young filmmakers?
I think you're a really great example.
You're a fairly young fellow. You went out and you made your first--
What did you make your first movie for and how--?
What advice would you give to young directors that want to break in?
You can always come up with a million reasons
why you can't make a movie and--
But the best advice I think you could do is just:
"Just go make it." And that's the thing.
And, I mean, we made our fir-- My first movie, I think it was 300 grand.
But-- And again, I'm Canadian, so, of course, you know,
it's a socialist country and you can shake trees and money falls.
But we all know that. We all know what I'm talking--
Three hundred Canadian dollars. It's like 40 American dollars.
Thirty thousand Canadian or 40 American.
But the biggest thing was, I remember we just said, you know,
October 16th, start shooting. We are a train with no brakes.
That was our motto. And we said this in May.
And there was three of us and we just committed to making it.
Because so many people talk about stuff and don't do it.
And at some point, I was just like, if we raise--
The worst-case scenario was,
we raise $10,000 each and make it for $30,000.
And if we do above that, we do above that.
But, you know, it was just commit to doing it.
You know, and not to say, obviously, every movie can be told,
but there's just so many--
The best way to make more movies is to make a movie.
And you learn from it.
But look at this sequence. Cecile, she's fantastic.
She really, really did a terrific job.
It's funny, Tarra Riggs, she was in-- Oh, man, I'm blanking on the movie.
She was fantastic in this Sundance-winning film
and I, you know, I can't--
I'm blanking the name of it. I saw her in that.
Right off the bat I was like-- I offered her the role,
I thought she just so great in that movie.
Yeah, she's amazing.
We'll look it up, so that no one has to look it up on their phones now.
Yeah, we don't want you to stop listening to us
and pay attention to something else.
This is the scene where the cross flew off the wall,
and Tarra just, like, leapt out of her chair.
She's fantastic. But this is a great-- Like the way you photographed this,
the way you cut this, this is a great example.
I mean, this looks like big-- Like any big-studio, Hollywood movie.
And when people see the film and when they see the trailer,
it looks like a big movie. I think what you did really well, which I would--
The advice I would give to any young filmmaker out there is
make a film in your town with the resources you can get for free.
Make it look great. Use that as a calling card.
You know, whether you-- If you can get it into film festivals,
to get it in front of producers,
to get an agent, that's what that movie should be for.
And then if you can get on a movie like this,
you suddenly show that you can, you know, adapt to making, you know--
To taking a movie, making a-- Taking a franchise,
making it your own, doing a great job with it.
Oh, this scene gets really creepy.
It's fantastic, this little possession scene.
I love it. And this is where it starts to fully go into--
Everyone wants to see some kind of strange possession stuff in the movie,
and I like that she didn't hold back here.
One, two, three, four...
This was another neat thing for me, just in terms of how a movie evolves.
Again, using ADR here in terms of that mythology
that we start to weave into the movie.
You know, but a lot of that came as we were cutting the film,
and just, you know, having this sense of a bigger world
in terms of like, you know, what does Abalam actually want from her?
And the idea of that, you know, if he gets her,
the fate of the world hangs in the balance.
Because A, you know, I love that that actually sets up--
- I think it sets up a great third movie. - I know.
But I love the idea that the movie--
You know, that, you know-- I love the idea of a trilogy
where the first movie's this found-footage movie about a preacher
and Nell is the supporting character.
The second movie is this sort of, like, '70s style,
old-school horror movie where she's the protagonist.
The third movie, it should be like an action--
It's a Godzilla movie. An absolute rampage of destruction
and some other preacher that knew Cotton tangentially.
No, I was thinking--
You know, I have a good idea for the opening for the third one.
But there are people that can help.
The Order of the Right Hand Path.
You can't help me?
Not alone. He's too powerful.
He knows everything about you.
- Ballast, was that the--? - Yes, that's the one Tarra made.
And it was fanta-- And I think it's Lance Hammer who was the director.
But she was just-- I mean, she was nominated
for an indie Spirit Award for her performance.
As was Ashley, of course, for her work in the first film.
Yeah, I know. MTV Movie Award nomination too.
Pretty cool.
But yeah, no, I love that idea for a third one.
And this is great. I love seeing their houses,
the static, the old television.
And it's funny, you don't see as much of--
This is one example of a scene where--
Or least of a location where the art direction and the most--
I would actually say the set dec in this scene is fantastic.
But there's so much stuff you don't get to see just because the scene--
The way the scene played out,
like when she comes into the house, you don't see it.
But there's like-- It's like-- There's crazy creepy stuff
that actually they put in there that you would never notice
because it's all soft focus in the background.
But, you know, I think when--
It all adds to a world. It gives it an authenticity for sure.
And, you know, all that specificity is just the minute you see a little--
Any time a detail pops, it's because, you know,
somebody took the care to make sure-- This is not just a set.
This is meant to be, like, an apartment lived in by a character.
And that's what drives me crazy on movies,
is when you see T-shirts with the creases in them,
or the sheets in the bed, when it doesn't feel real.
- Right. - When you don't take the time to--
Even all this artwork and, like,
you got these creepy clown masks, and there's just like--
Are there any clown masks that aren't creepy?
Now, this is a scene--
Look, I think, you know, the way it turned out was great,
but this was, you know, and--
It's very tricky to make a PG-13 horror film.
And dealing with the MPAA, who by the way,
if you've ever had to deal with an organization
outside of the United States,
you realize how incredible the MPAA is.
They're the only organization that lets you have discussions with them.
That lets you submit multiple times, that will talk to you.
They're terrific. Whereas in other countries--
And for the record, we're actually watching now the unrated version.
- There's a couple of bits in this-- - Okay.
- So this one shows a bit more than-- - Shows a bit more. Okay.
Well, which completely nullifies the point I was actually making.
I could never really love you. Not like that.
Chris...
You deserve so much.
You could never get away with that full throat slit,
which I thought was really, really fantastic.
I think that you did a really, really great job
of making it scary within the confines because we knew that the film
wasn't going to be an R-rated movie. That was not--
That was set right from the beginning is we're making a PG-13.
It became one of these things. I remember the discussion
because we could have gone R, but then we realized,
the only thing holding us back from an R-rating was that one--
Would be this one scene. Nothing else was--
Do you take an R-rating just for one shot?
You don't. You don't. It's not worth it.
When you're committing to Hostel, that's a diff-
Like, you're committing to it.
But it's like, if there was only one scene of violence in that movie,
you'd be like, "Well, is it--?"
If it doesn't compromise the whole movie.
And this is a movie about mood and creep and atmosphere.
And I think that The Ring and Cloverfield and The Grudge.
And Jurassic Park.
There are a number of movies that are very scary and a PG-13.
And also you gotta think about your audience.
You know, this is an audience-- This is like a fun, popcorn scary movie.
But, like, the audience for this movie that's going to see this
is also, you know, teenagers and teenage girls,
and that you're gonna make a movie that 14- or 15-year-olds...
You know, if you're a jaded 40-year-old horror nerd like me,
like the creepy, “Oh, The Exorcist was scary,"
But, like, 15-year-old kids,
like, they were losing their mind when they see this film.
And that's okay because they need a scary movie too.
This is a creepy little trio you put together here
for the Order of the Right Hand, all these people.
They'll be here any minute.
And then what?
We put an end to it.
Devil's root. It'll help prepare you.
Drink.
I love this house, by the way.
The stairway, the banister, the classic--
it was-- You know it was funny, again, you know, sometimes just--
If it's kismet or you just fall in love with something.
This, I think was-- I think was the first Cecile house we saw.
And it's funny, we just-- We drove-- We liked the--
It was an interesting thing where we liked the exterior,
had no idea what the interior was.
But, you know, really hoped-- And the owners, you know--
We just came and showed up on their door, knocking.
And, actually, the owner is a cop.
So initially he was like, "Can I see some identif--?"
- He just thought-- - Yeah, of course.
- "Can I frisk you guys?" - Exactly.
Like, "Why are all these people at my house trying to come in?"
One thing we haven't addressed that you do very well is costume design.
You know, like the details on Nell's costume,
Cecile's costume and necklace, the way these guys look.
- Talk about your costume designer. - Yeah, Abby was amazing.
And, you know, it's funny-- You know, it's a tricky balance too.
I think the costume budget on this, just to put it in perspective,
was more than the budget of my first movie, but--
I'm always like, "What do you need all that money for?"
- We don't have enough money. - But it's such an interesting balance.
But, like, you know, she really-- Again, it's specificity. We talked--
You knew how to spend it. You didn't waste it on nonsense.
- Exactly, yeah. - There's also stuff that's--
That looks-- That's cheap, that looks amazing on camera.
And stuff that's expensive, vice versa, that doesn't make a bit of difference.
You need a really good costume designer that will--
By the way, the actors will fight you on their clothes, all the time.
So they don't wanna wear cheap-looking stuff either.
But it's tailoring, it's doing-- Even, like, the gown that she's in right now.
Everything about it, it's really, really great.
Oh, it's funny, as a wrap gift, she gave me a pair of assless chaps.
Did--? Is it like--?
How many--? Do you have trouble deciding which ones to wear now?
Or are those the ones you usually wear?
I mean, they're now my de facto chaps.
The ones you have on right now? Are those the ones that she gave you?
- It helps with my hemorrhoids. - That's good, that's important.
This scene is really creepy.
I love the medical approach that you took to the exorcism here.
Because everyone's waiting for it, and you know it's coming,
but to do it as if she's going, you know--
Like that scene in The Exorcist where they scan her brain in the hospital,
and then the doctors are smoking, talking about it
- is one of my favorite sequences. - Well, especially now because--
When they shot it, probably doctors did smoke,
but it's so strange now that, like, it just--
But it adds so much. It adds so much, just that specificity.
They're like, "Miss MacNeil... let me tell you about your daughter."
"My daughter's got the devil inside her."
It's amazing. It's, like, they're smoking in the hospital. I love that.
This was an interesting thing. Talking about the medical approach
where, again, we're like, well, the movie's called The Last Exorcism.
There's gonna be some sense there has to be an exorcism.
But at the same time, we don't wanna just retr--
We don't want it be Catholic, in New Orleans.
And I like the idea, all of these symbols like on his arms,
you know, we really tried to build a mythology, you know--
You know, it's totally like a mix of like Santeria and voodoo.
And-- But, you know, I loved the idea of mixing in the medical aspect
and not explaining it, just suggesting it to--
Because, obviously, I hated that, you know, these guys are the experts.
We tell as much to the audience so we understand what they're doing.
But I didn't want to have to over-explain.
Oh, no, you did that great.
And that was a big thing, where we talked about,
what is the mythology?
And sort of having the internal logic of us, the filmmakers,
even if we don't fully explain it,
understanding exactly, exactly what happened in the first one.
What is Abalam's agenda?
Why doesn't Abalam just go and take her right away?
And he wants her to voluntarily let him in and want him.
Like, sort of that difference. And also, who these people are,
what the symbols mean, where it comes from.
Even if it's ultimately not explained, that you, the filmmaker,
have a very, very clear line of logic.
And you did a great job of that.
This is really creepy.
I love all these scenes. People love this. I think that there's--
You know, you can't-- It's weird how there's certain stuff, I'm like:
"God, are we gonna really--? Another exorcism scene?"
In the writing stage, you're having this discussion.
You're like, no. It's like you're taking it on and doing your version of one.
And your spin and your take.
And again, people go crazy for it.
They just love possession and exorcism stuff.
They can't get enough of it. I do too.
I gotta say, you know, funny, I think, you know, Roger did such a great--
It's funny, I don't even actually know if his character name even gets said.
But as he's pouring the salt, he's just like--
This is, I think, a great example of, like, having a really good actor,
you know, just being fully present.
He's like-- He's so authentic in the scene,
but at the same time not the star of the scene.
But just having, like, a good actor really committing to the moment,
I find, like, he just adds so much heart and authenticity
even though Jeffrey is ultimately a supporting character in the scene,
but, like, honestly, after working with him on this, like, I was like--
I wanna write a new-- I wanna write, like, a bigger character for this guy.
He was just-- He really just committed and was--
It's great when you have an actor that comes in that's just, like, so committed
and so good, and just elevates--
All the supporting characters I think just elevate the whole movie.
I was gonna say, the poor guy,
he had this idea that he really wanted the character to have a gold tooth,
so he-- We tried it and it didn't--
It kept falling out, but we didn't know if he'd seen it.
We'd already shot one scene.
So he keeps, this entire time, for like several days,
keeps having this bloody, fake gold tooth
- you never actually see in the movie. - Amazing.
He keeps trying to keep it up with his tongue and it just was like--
And he was fretting over it, like, "Is it looking bad?" But--
- Funny they fixate on stuff like that. - Yeah.
Actors are nuts.
- What does it say on her stomach? - Croatoa.
So cool.
I mean, that was like a bit of a shout out to--
It's funny, like, it's in that comic book, 100 Bullets.
I think it's referenced in that TV show, Supernatural, like--
Funny, it's this thing that keeps popping up.
And it's actually, you know, based that-- I forget--
it was a town somewhere, you know, in the States in, like, the--
I think, like, 1700s, where basically--
It's, like, a village that they-- All the people disappeared
and the only sign was the word Croatoa was left carved in a tree.
So this sense-- So it became the sense of--
Is it like a banishment spell?
Like nobody really-- Nobody--
There was a big, like, lore and mystery.
I love the idea of just not explaining that detail,
- but like any diehard fans that know-- - Would know it.
- You know, will pick up on it. - It's not a misspelling of Croatia.
No, that's-- Yeah, it's like-- It is that--
Know what? I have to admit, that's why the exorcism fails.
Because like, "Aw, bitch, you were supposed to write Croatia.
- That's where we're sending Abalam!" - Exactly.
I love this circle of salt around the--
I don't know. It's one of those exorcism things
where it's just, like, the protection circle.
It always makes me think of Modern Problems with Chevy Chase.
They had a big exorcism scene with a circle of salt.
And this is great, where you really see Ashley's, again,
her stomach and body starting to contort.
She's a great emotional actress, but obviously, physically,
what she does is really fantastic. It's very creepy.
I mean, it's funny. I heard the stories about
when you guys, you know, cast her on the first movie.
How the bending stuff was not written in the movie, and you just--
It was-- That was her fully committing to it,
and you guys were like, "Oh, my God," like--
Yeah, that was her bringing it up, going, "Hey, I can do this.
Would this be helpful?" And suddenly it's the signature move.
- Yeah, I know. - It's one of those things.
But that's what's great, when you have actors that bring--
You know, like the gold tooth, that bring something to the role
and bring something to the character. You know, they all have ideas.
But this was great. I loved this whole sequence, the way you designed it.
The hoodie. Putting her in the hoodie, I thought, was really, really cool.
That mask, it's fantastic.
- Be calm! - John!
And this was a tricky scene. This took a lot of time to get this scene right.
Yeah, this was-- I mean, there was something like--
I think it was like a hundred different angles to capture all of it.
Between you start figuring all the multiple versions,
there's like six, seven people ultimately in the scene.
I hate it when-- You're like, "I'll have all these people."
Then, "Why do I have all these people? I have to cover them."
One thing if you have, like, seven people running through the woods.
You can dance around it because there's action,
but when you've got like, you know, six different versions of the characters
stuck in a room together,
it gets really tricky to cover and to build that action and--
And again, obviously, you know, it's like-- You know, it's one thing--
And to make a sense of tension because we are a low-budget movie.
Oh, it's so creepy, her stomach muscles, the way you did that.
It's so real enough that you believe it could be Ashley actually doing that.
I mean, part of it. It's just that little extra, you know--
it's like subtle CGI, I think is--
- That extra ripple. - Yeah.
Yeah, the subtle stuff often works better than the big stuff.
Talk about what Ashley went through during this scene.
God, I mean, you know, poor girl, I mean, she was just like...
I mean, having, like, you know, that--
At some point having that IV, it obviously wasn't in her arm,
but just like constantly, I-- All that thrashing, I know, like--
I think from her arms and legs actually being restrained,
there was, like, a lot of chafing,
- and, you know, her poor voice. - She's not gonna hold back.
So there was definitely times where I had to be like:
"Okay, you know, I mean, the focus is on this. Don't, you know--"
If it was on some of the other actors, “Don't go for it as hard."
I just-- You know, I gotta make-- You know, this was a marathon.
This scene was like a ten-, 11-page scene.
So it was like, "I need you to still be able to do this tomorrow
when we finish the scene." It was like any time that, like, you know--
Save it for the take. It's really, really hard because actors wanna do that,
and they go crazy off camera and they blow out their voice.
It's really tough for them to pace themselves.
Especially when doing coverage on different close-ups.
So it's like if she's blowing her load, you know...
And then when it comes up to her close-up, she's spent.
Like, that would be a tragedy.
Louis is really great in this scene.
Just really, really creepy and sad when he's just calmly explaining
that they're just sedating her and just gonna kill her.
It's just a great, you know-- He's just being authentic, you know?
It was interesting when we talked about how to play this scene,
you know, like, you know, do you--? How do you play it being a demon?
So, you know, I said, you know, “Just, basically, just play it as the dad."
You know, the words that are coming out of the mouth--
Your mouth are actually, you know, the demon but, like, you know,
but the same way that, you know, that the demon
is ultimately imploring her to take its hand,
you know, just have the dad be-- As if he was talking to his daughter
to just, you know-- To save her as well.
So I think that just adds, again, that same sense of authenticity.
Yeah. No, it's really great as he wasn't begging and, "Please, stop."
But he just says it very, very sadly, very matter-of-factly.
This is one of my favorite moments of Ashley's,
sort of slowly coming to the realization
that these people are just-- They've straight--
They're just gonna kill her. There's no other way around this.
The funny thing is too, these guys, the Order of the Right Hand,
it's like, they're actually the good guys, because if there is a third movie,
and you now have the Antichrist let loose on Earth,
as much as it pains them to do this, they would actually be saving the world.
Yeah. They're clearly doing the right thing.
I like how you started using slow motion here.
This is a nice stylistic shift that you saved for this.
I mean, you used it a little bit when she's walking around Mardi Gras,
but I thought the use of slow motion, which often can get really cheesy,
- oh, it was great. - Well, I think it's just a little bit subtle.
It's not like-- You know, it's probably like 30 frames
or something like-- As opposed to going like crazy, crazy slo-mo,
like 120 or something.
- Yeah, it's like phantom slow motion. - Yeah.
I like this, that they're all outside, the way you show the feet,
that they can't get to her, that she kind of has to make the choice to save her.
And this is where I started feeling bad for Ashley, like, she's just a poor girl.
Physically, her neck veins bulging, and her eyes, I mean...
It was brutal. I mean, shooting it, just seeing her,
it kind of felt a little bit like making snuff film in a sense
because you're just watching-- Like, you're just watching her go
and it's just-- She commits-- She commits so much to it
that it's just-- I feel like-- Like, you know, someone like:
"God, what am I making this poor girl go through?"
Yeah. No, I sometimes feel that and then I see the footage
and I really don't feel bad anymore.
I love her, the way she's reaching out to herself.
I thought this was really nice, the way you did this whole sequence, Ed.
Really, the way you and Damien--
Talk about working with Damien Chazelle.
We haven't talked about Damien as well.
Oh, it was interesting. Yeah, co-writing the script.
I mean, you know, I got presented with an initial draft
and there was a really cool movie. And, you know, at the same time,
it was, like, always that question of, like, how do I put my sort of spin on it.
Like, what--? And the crazy thing about this movie was just
the sheer speed that it got made in. You know what I mean?
I came on board, you know, I think in, like, November.
You know, we were prepping in February.
So I mean, you know, with Damien, it was just like, you know--
At some point, he'd sort of, like, thrown the javelin
and given me this great material and then it was just like:
"What do I wanna say with the movie
and how do I add sort of some of the themes and ideas
that I wanna see explored in a horror movie?"
Yeah. This sequence, I love the way you did it.
You know what's funny? I saw somebody tweet like:
"They threw a dummy out the window." But, like, that's actually a dude.
And that guy was crazy. Like, that guy--
- That guy going out, that was real. - That's a real guy.
- He didn't land on the ground? - Actually he did. He's dead.
- He was, like, he wanted to just-- - That was him. One take.
No, but he-- So, I mean-- He went through the window and landed on a...
- I don't know, an actor or a pad or-- - A pad. Yeah.
And a sound blanket.
But then he wanted to do a bit,
so then to actually get the landing, he was up on a ladder
and then we just did a freefall onto the ground with no padding.
And you think, that's fine.
Just imagine standing straight upright and falling down on your ribs.
He kept being like-- I find this interesting thing with stuntmen
where they like, you know, a bit of a dick-swinging contest
- between like the stuntmen and-- - A bit?
And so they-- "No, no, man, Go up higher, do it off 6 feet."
And I'm trying to talk them down. I'm like:
"Guy, you're gonna break your ribs. Like, and--"
- It's crazy. - "You're gonna jump 6 feet
with no padding onto your rib bones and snap them,
and, fine, then it'll be great that I'll see your rib poking out your neck.
Which will be cool for the shot maybe.
But, like, what if I need a second take?"
Yeah. No, that guy did a really nice stunt.
I gotta say right here, this was a bit that I did as a joke that--
You know, originally, she just stroked Gwen's hair.
And then just-- You know, we already gotten the shot so Ashley and I joked:
"Okay, this time, go and actually lick her face."
And Gwen had no idea it was coming.
It's like she lets it happen, lets it happen.
And obviously, just after that moment ends,
she burst out laughing.
But once we actually got into the editing room, I was like:
"That's actually creepy. That's actually, like, weird and bolder
than just gently stroking her hair."
No, it's authentically creepy and really weird.
And it's almost like Abalam is thanking her for her help.
- Yeah. - It's like, "Thanks for your help.
I'm done with you now. I'm going to flambé you."
- Well, and I love that-- - You're useless.
For me, it slightly evoked the...
Like that shot of the close-up of the tiger pulling on the meat,
him with his big tongue.
This was great. Ashley, I think, is fantastic.
That's where you really see her range. You've never seen that from her.
And what I love is that, that's just again, an example of less is more.
Her reaction there, it's all in that smile.
Yeah. And everything and little bit of subtle blood
and all this kind of stuff. The split. This was fun.
Now, talk about your decision to show--
To show this stuff off camera.
Because I do think it can certainly be more powerful to show stuff.
Yeah, it's a tricky balance. And for me, you know--
And I know it's a really delicate balance on a horror movie
because, you know, there's certain expectations.
But for me, I guess it was trying to find that sense of,
you know, letting people in, that the imagination can be scarier.
It's creating a world where what you're imagining
can be creepier or scarier than what we can actually see,
or is what we can actually show in a PG-13 movie.
- Right. - But...
And I guess-- It's funny, like-- And I'll be the first to admit,
sometimes I might go too far, of the idea of like, I wanna--
If I'm trying to be restrained, like, “Okay, I wanna show restraint here."
But sometimes, I mean, that's just frankly,
you know, me being a bit of a coward about trying something.
- So it's like-- I definitely feel like-- - The boots are back, I love that.
Yeah. And I like that, eventually-- And certainly like the end sequence,
it was like, "Okay, we actually, you know, show something."
Yeah. She's fully realized here.
Now, this shot here, we can talk about the visual effects.
This was while I was working on Green Inferno.
First, they were amazing visual effects done by the whole team in Mr. X.
This was one of the things where we just couldn't--
It was like the last minute, we had to rush and get it done.
And the team at Sunburst Digital with Aaron Burns, Rodrigo Begote,
I think, did a really, really great job here--
And in, like, no time. It was like--
This was like-- We were just down to the wire
and, like, you know, I remember, like, e-mailing you and being like:
"Man, I just-- I don't know what to do."
And then like, you know, it was like 48 hours later, I get handed, like,
you know, the Hail Mary pass that--
- You know, it was like-- - I love the fire trucks.
- Just everything. - Yeah.
And it was great to finally see the crowd reacting to it,
like, cheering and going, "Oh, now, this is what we want. Okay, great."
And I think it really-- Which is what you wanted,
which is, like, all hell is breaking loose.
Now she's out. She's fully at her power,
fly on the eye and, you know, Abalam.
And for me, I really wanted to have sort of a rock 'n'--
I mean, I love this band, Flash Lightnin'.
Talk about these guys. This was great.
Because originally the song that I had cut into the end
was "Back in the Saddle Again," which--
The main thing I wanted from that was, like, a classic rock 'n' roll,
upbeat energy that would get you pumped to see. I wanted--
- Mayhem. - Yeah, exactly.
"Okay, I'm stoked to see the next movie. Where is this gonna go?"
We should mention Patty Long. Patty Long line-produced both movies.
She's been such a committed--
Been amazing. Movies wouldn't have gotten done without her.
And she's such a fun character.
- Like, I love her. - Yeah. Talk about Michael's music.
- Talk about the score a little bit. - Yeah, he did a great job.
And especially, you know, it's-- Sometimes it's so crazy.
We had so much time seemingly editing at one point.
The movie gets bought, it has a release date,
and you have to finish yesterday.
But that guy just worked so diligently to, you know--
Again, we wanted to find a score that felt, you know, obviously scary
but that still felt, you know, just like organic and authentic.
And I kept feeling like, I didn't want synth.
Somehow the-- Talking about, again, this was the style of the film,
that there was that old-school kind of-- You know, like, the old phones
and the old, you know, radios and TVs, that the score shouldn't feel synthy.
Like, it should feel much more like organic instruments,
which obviously can be tricky to do on a tight budget,
you know, where we couldn't do... We couldn't hire an orchestra.
So it's all just, you know-- Michael trying to come up
with ways to make organic instruments
sound creepy and authentic and interesting.
Do you wanna talk about Joel, your first assistant director?
Funny, Joel has given me-- Gotten me onto smoking cigars.
So if I ever get lung cancer,
this is my official blaming of Joel for that.
But great guy. And it's funny, like--
- And he did the first movie too, right? - Yeah.
I mean, such a fun, like, you know-- I don't know. Like, I don't know.
Again, this was one of those things, working with good people.
- Yeah. - And it's just not about bullshit.
It's about people who just really believe in the movie
and make the movie, but without being egotistical
and can just be good people to hang out with, that's--
I think so much, you look at why, you know, directors work
with some of the same people over and over again.
When you find people that deliver the goods and are good human beings,
- it's, like, you hang onto that. - I know. It's very rare.
It's hard to find people that can stay cool in a very tense situation.
- Yeah, because it gets tense. - It gets very tense, very fast.
A lot of money, get everything right, all the pressure's on you.
It's hard not to-- It's hard to contain that.
And when you have people that are really,
you know, that are really good and have good creative solutions,
it's really terrific, especially with an AD like Joel.
The thing is, always, you know, he's trying to, like--
You know, what I-- I think it's very easy sometimes to be an AD
who just says no, you know?
And Joel was always-- He was trying to find--
Was always being supportive of helping me get what I wanted.
And trying to come up with creative solutions of how to do it,
as opposed to being like, "No, you gotta move on."
You know, that's easy to say, but it's--
At the end of the day, nobody's gonna be watching the movie
and being like, "I'm sure glad they came in on time every day."
It's like, you know-- But it's finding that balance. And what I could say to Joel:
"Man, I'm sorry, we just don't have the scene yet.
I need to go into OT right now."
Like, that's--
You know-- There were several instances where we didn't have--
We just hadn't found it yet or we were running behind.
But at the end of the day, we still came in,
pretty substantially under budget...
No, you guys did great. It was-- It was pretty incredible
that you guys were able to really come in
on that kind of a budget and that type of schedule,
without going over and without sacrificing anything.
So, Ed, any last thoughts on Last Exorcism II? What's next?
Anything else you wanna plug or talk about?
Man, I have no idea. Like, it's such a--
You know, for me, it's been such an interesting experience too.
You know, this movie happened so quickly for me.
Like, in terms of coming on board and then it actually being made.
Something so amazing about that.
Now so many things you feel like they're about to happen
but until they-- Until I'm actually--
Until you're shooting, you don't believe it.
- Exactly. - Completely-- Believe me,
I completely get that.
I feel like I met Joel when I was on a TV show.
Like, when I first moved to Los Angeles, like, I knew him.
I'm trying to look him up now but I can't remember which one it was.
I gotta give a shout out to the band that's playing, Timber Timbre.
I love this song, "Demon Host."
Well, also, very special thanks to CBS Films for picking up the movie.
You know, it was not-- Did not start at CBS Films.
No. And, yeah, and putting it out on 2,700 screens.
When they came in, they like--
They're like, "We've got an opening. Let's release it, put it out there."
And, you know, our little sequel here on 2,700 screens.
They did an amazing job, the commercials, the marketing.
- They really did. - Everybody.
And thanks to you guys. Talk to us. I'm on Twitter, @eliroth.
And I'm @3ldfilms, which I need to change because none of you will--
- The number three, ID. - ID.
Just look on mine to see, like, who I'm following.
But you can definitely tweet us when you saw it.
And if you didn't like it, then keep your mouth shut.
- Thanks. - All right, thanks.