“It’s okay to be this mean.”
For at least five minutes, Julianna Guill owned Friday the 13th, Platinum Dunes’ reboot which opened earlier this year. And for those five minutes, you know which one they are, every man and adolescent boy (who snuck in to see it, of course) wondered: Where the hell did this gal come from?
South Carolina if you want to get down to it. Following a few stints on television (CSI, My Alibi, Guill took to the big screen in Fired Up! and Friday the 13th, in which she was killed at the hands of Jason Voorhees. She returns to television with My Super Psycho Sweet 16, an ’80s slasher pic from director Jacob Gentry (interview).
“Friday the 13th and My Super Psycho Sweet 16 are very different films,” Guill says, “so I feel lucky to have participated in two horror films that are so different. I think Friday the 13th is this iconic straight-up horror film, really a classic. My Super Psycho Sweet 16, while a horror film, incorporates a lot of comedy. It’s satirical horror and I do love watching the special effects. My favorite scenes were the chase scenes because I had not gotten to do those before. There’s such an adrenaline rush in that.”
Why all of the running? Guill plays Madison Penrose, a spoiled teenager who demands her wealthy parents revive an old Rollerdome for her sweet 16 birthday party. Said hipster hangout was closed long ago when the owner, Charlie Rodder, went apeshit on two kids and killed them. His daughter (Lauren McKnight), still haunted by the events, is one of Penrose’s classmates. And when the party gets into full swing, the body count begins to rise.
“I remember flipping through the channels and coming across those Sweet 16 reality shows [on MTV] and instantly getting pulled into it because they’re so addictive for whatever reason. I didn’t watch any in prep for this role, but I do remember them really well,” Guill says, explaining what helped her slip into Madison’s flawless skin. “No one specifically informed my role, it was just about remembering high school and things that happened to me then, things that happened to other people then. I just tried to get in touch with my 16-year-old self. Not that hard, not that far away…it was pretty easy. Madison is a misunderstood but really evil girl, which is great to play because you really get to let yourself go. It’s okay to be this mean.â
Guill’s a fan of the genre and isn’t afraid to admit that the costume Charlie Rodder does his killing business in is a tad tacky, but when he makes his big return, she says it’s definitely something to be afraid of. “I thought it was so great, they did such a good job of making a really scary character out of a really silly costume,” she laughs. “I think he does look silly in the beginning, it’s a new costume that he wears as the ‘Lord of the Rink’ to present these birthday cakes. It’s a comical thing, he looks like the Burger King mascot, but his costume becomes shredded and broken down. It becomes something really scary. I definitely don’t think he looked scary in any way when he’s chopping people’s heads off.”
The killing floor itself, the roller rink, was not an actual “roller dome” but a converted Shriner’s Hall in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s here the television will witness Rodder behead and skewer his victims. Gentry put together a bloody cut of his film, Guill says she was “so pleasantly surprised [by the cut], the kills were awesome.! I’m not sure if that’s the cut that’s going to air, but I hope so!”
My Super Psycho Sweet 16 airs on Friday, October 23. Check your local listings for time.
Source: Ryan Rotten, Managing Editor
