SHOCK talks to one of the director’s behind horror anthology SOUTHBOUND.
Get ready for a road trip to hell.
The horror anthology, SOUTHBOUND opens today (read our review here) and it tells five tales of terror that occur over a long, creepy stretch of highway. Each segment serves as a stand-alone narrative, but there’s a connective thread that ties them all together. The movie’s directors include filmmaking collective Radio Silence (DEVIL’S DUE), David Bruckner (THE SIGNAL), Roxanne Benjamin (V/H/S) and Patrick Horvath (THE PACT II).
Director Matt Bettinellu-Olpin, one fourth of Radio Silence, spoke to SHOCK about the resurgence of horror anthologies, his approach to gore, dying on screen and what subgenre he’d like to tackle next.
SHOCK: There seems to be a resurgence of horror anthologies. Why does this format work so well for the genre?
BETTINELLI-OLPIN: For us, the reason it works is you get to experiment. With V/H/S and then again with SOUTHBOUND, we were able to be like, “How freed up are we by making something that is 20 to 30 minutes tops?” We can try things that might not work in a feature. We worked so closely with people we had previously collaborated with. We were working together on story and what not. The more that happens in an anthology like TRICK ‘R TREAT did, which obviously was just one guy, but what he did was tell these multiple stories this felt like a group version of that. We started working on story together very early on in the process. Those things are what makes it exciting for me.
The reason it works so well is because there’s always that classic aspect of, “If you don’t like something, you don’t have to sit through an hour and a half of it.” In its most basic level, you can come in and get what you like and get a whole bunch of cool stuff.” At the end of the day, it’s a whole bunch of fun little stories.
SHOCK: How did Radio Silence become involved in SOUTHBOUND?
BETTINELLI-OLPIN: Brad Miska, Mr. Bloody Disgusting, and us are really good friends so we talk all the time. We’ve always been, “We have to find something to do together. We have to find something to do.” We worked on a few things together that never went anywhere. Brad called me in the summer of 2014. He was basically like, “Hey, I have a pitch. I want to do an anthology called Subgenre.” His pitch was the stories could be very specific subgenre. You’d have a slasher, then a home invasion thrown in and it would be playing that way so you could create an ongoing series of these subgenre movies.
Then, he was like, “Can you develop something from that and bring it to me and I’ll bring it to the financier. Let’s not do it for a lot of money, so we’re more likely to get it.” We went back to him and were like, “What if we did one where there was no wrap around?” That was his big thing. “We have to crack the wrap around. We have to figure out what is the Crypt Keeper or the story you keep going back to.” Our pitch was, “Well, what if there isn’t one and we are just in real-time and each person tells their segment?” We went back to Brad with our pitch for what became SOUTHBOUND. He was like, “Cool, let’s do it.” Within two weeks, we got David Bruckner and Roxanne Benjamin to direct other segments they are both in. Roxanne was going to help produce it. By October, we were all in a room going, “Here’s the big pitch. Three middle segments. Radio Silence is going to do the two end segments, the book ends as we call them. Let’s start working out what this thing is.” That’s what we did for a few months. But, a fun fact about the subgenre thing is if you really pay attention to the way the movie ends up, you’ll see segments that are very specifically subgenre, even though that went away over time.
SHOCK: What about the long, deserted highway proved to be a good backdrop for this film?
BETTINELLI-OLPIN: That was something that really came to us as we were all sitting down with everybody. We kept going back to, “What is it that links these stories?” We had a thematic link fairly clearly. “This is about regret, remorse and dealing with that.” But, I actually remember David saying, “We need something where we can definitely say, ‘It’s not just horror stories. It’s road-side horror stories.'” And we all love road trip movies. I feel it’s one of the great subgenres when done well. We went on a location scout to this place, Lone Pine. At first, we weren’t sure if it was all going to happen in the same town. Then, it was like, “Well, we’re going to do ours at a diner. You are going to do yours at a rest stop. You are going to do yours in the middle of nowhere.” We realized we were all dancing around the obvious. “This is a road.” It became so much clearer conceptually that these are all stops on the same highway.
SHOCK: What are the concepts behind your two particular segments?
BETTINELLI-OLPIN: The opening segment, The Way Out, is two guys on the run from these creatures, but you don’t really know what they are and you are not really sure what these guys are running from. There’s a divide between the two guys. You’re not sure why, but they aren’t just running from these monsters. One guy is clearly a lot more afraid of these things than the other guy. Then, we answer why that is happening. It’s basically a monster in the desert chase.
The Way In, the closing piece, is a family spending their last weekend together before their daughter goes away to college. Then, there’s a home invasion and things don’t go well.
SHOCK: SOUTHBOUND received an R rating. How did you approach the gore and scares?
BETTINELLI-OLPIN: Each segment dealt with it differently. It was up to whoever’s segment it was to how they wanted to deal with the gore. For us, we always like keeping our gore and violence real and not gratuitous. We’d rather show it off camera if possible. We’re not super into gore-gore, but we love dealing with the repercussions of violence. That’s something we find extremely fascinating. For us, it’s more about the effects of it on the character. That’s a big theme in our two segments. We definitely have some gore, but our mantra is to keep it real. It’s never for shock value.
SHOCK: Radio Silence directed 20th Century Fox’s DEVIL’S DUE. Do you feel smaller budgeted projects such as SOUTHBOUND nurtures more creativity?
BETTINELLI-OLPIN: Oh, no question. That’s one of my favorite things. “We have no budget, so let’s figure out how to do it.” That’s something we actually got into at Fox. We would always pitch the most creative way to solve a problem. “This is the way we do it. It’s nice and small.” Then they would be like, “We could actually do the big version.” “Okay, but we don’t need to.” We preferred our way of doing things. I agree 100 percent. Budgets are not your enemy.
To go full circle, one of the fun things about doing this is you can get these filmmakers together, all of whom we love and respect and think they do cool shit. And, we can all do a movie together, even if it is super-low budgeted because it’s not a year and a half of your life.
SHOCK: You cast yourself in this movie. What about the role of Jack spoke to you?
BETTINELLI-OLPIN: It comes back to budget. We know that when Chad Villella and I are in a movie, we can shoot crazy quick because we know every aspect of what we are doing. It might be minuscule, but you save a ton of time by just being, “Cool, we’re good. Let’s do it.” It’s fun, too. We haven’t acted in anything in a while. “Let’s go back and get bloody and have some fun.” At the end of the day, it’s simple for us production-wise and fun on a personal level.
SHOCK: As an actor, what did this part allow you to experience that was new?
BETTINELLI-OLPIN: I got to write myself a cool death scene. Then, when we were figuring out what that would be, working with Justin who does the VFX, it was like, “How can we sell this monster kill?” Also, being a bad a guy was fun. A lot of stuff we’ve done in the past, I’m not the bad guy.
SHOCK: As you mentioned, this film was originally titled “Subgenre”. Which subgenre would you like to explore next?
BETTINELLI-OLPIN: It’s funny. The two I would have normally answered were road trip and home invasion. They may be the most overdone, but, also the ones that when done right are my favorite. I love them so much. I think a nice psychological thrilled is where we are heading. We keep talking about a lot of movies we grew up with don’t exist anymore. It doesn’t necessarily have to be paranormal, but watching someone go crazy obviously, The Shining is the best version is something we’ve always been enthralled with. How do you tell that story in a personal way that matters?
