What if antiheroes Clarence Worley and Alabama Whitman from Tony Scott’s classic True Romance stumbled across Mickey and Mallory Knox from Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers?
How’d that work out?
That’s the starting point writing/directing team Dan Berk and Robert Olsen used to begin the terrific new dark (like really dark) horror comedy, Villains, which opens tomorrow in theaters.
Produced by Alter, Gunpowder & Sky’s horror brand, the premise is this – Mickey (played by IT’s Bill Skarsgård) and Jules (Maika Monroe from It Follows) are a clumsy and comical Bonnie and Clyde on the run, headed southbound for a fresh start in Florida.
When their car dies after a gas station robbery, they break into a nearby house looking for a new ride. What they find instead is a dark secret, and a “sweet-as-pie” pair of homeowners who will do anything to keep that secret from getting out.
We don’t want to spoil what the secret is, but let’s just say the house is owned by a sadistic couple (played by Fargo’s Jeffrey Donovan and Kyra Sedgewick) who are straight out of let’s say, Leave it to Cleaver.
Watch the trailer below:
And here is clip:
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I had a chance to sit and talk with the extremely friendly and (superbly twisted) Dan Berk and Robert Olsen, or as Kyra Sedgewick refers to them as, “BobbyDan” about their nasty single location film they first dreamt up in 2015 after their debut feature Body screened at the Slamdance Film Festival in snowy Park City, Utah.
Love this film, guys. Can you tell me a little bit about the inspiration and motivation? We knew after Body that we wanted to do a single-location production. Something that stretched the dollar and where we could leave our equipment up over night. We also are huge fans of Natural Born Killers and True Romance and always wondered what would happen if those two couples met up. We were drawn to these lovers-on-the-run situations, where the characters’ transgressions are almost overshadowed by their love for one another.
So you start writing Villains in 2015. Right. What really sparked the process was as we were working on the script, this story came out about a guy in the midwest who had kept a woman in his suburban basement for years. We started wondering, ‘What type of people could do that and just go on living their lives? That’s when George and Gloria came to life and we ended up with our premise: What if an antagonist couple met bizarro versions of themselves?
I feel like what both characters share is an incredible love for each other. Absolutely. The love each couple has for each other keeps the film grounded and relatable. However, the love the two couples have is different. For Mickey and Jules, love is empowering. They support one another. For George and Gloria it’s more toxic. Their co-dependence turns into a liability.
After watching the film, I feel like there is a message about female empowerment. Weirdly, without giving it away, I felt bad for Gloria. We didn’t realize when we were writing it [the script], but as we began to pit Jules against Gloria, we realized that Gloria, like many women from a different decade, defined herself through her husband. Jules represents the more progressive woman. It was a nice way to separate the two characters.
You write together and direct together. Take me through your directing process. We lean on each other, viewing each one as an asset. And there’s a lot of trust. We tell everyone during pre-production, ‘If you ever get confused, come and talk to either one of us because you should be able to ask Bobby a question when I’m on the other side of the set and whatever he tells you, I would support that answer.’
We also try not to micromanage the other and convey one voice and opinion to the crew. A crew can pick up if you’re not on the same page. What’s different between Body and Villains is also we have begun to trust the incredible, experienced crew around us. We’ve learned to trust them.
And what about your writing process? Many writers worry about teaming up with the right person. Again comes down to trust. The relationship works because we’re best friends and have very similar creative minds. We’ll talk about the story and themes together. Then we’ll go off and write. I’ll write the first act and send it to Robert. Then he’ll rewrite the first act and start the second. We go back and forth.
Was there ever a moment you walked away from the script? No. We actually finished the first draft fairly fast, which was actually a fourth or fifth draft. The script got a positive response when from [producers] Trevor White, Tim White and Allan Mandelbaum of Star Thrower Entertainment.
Villains also made it onto The Black List in 2016. Not too soon after Then [Canadian production and finance company] BRON Studios agreed to fund the film, and its vice president of development, Garrick Dion (Whiplash, The Front Runner), signed on as a fourth producer.
Villains stars Bill Skarsgård, Maika Monroe, Blake Baumgartner, with Jeffrey Donovan, and Kyra Sedgwick. If you have the opportunity, please check out this twisted, scary and funny film which opens nationwide tomorrow September 20. Click here for showtimes and tickets.
Contact Colin Costello at colin@reelchicago.com.
