‘Crust’: Interview With Sean Whalen And Rebekah Kennedy

Ever wonder what happens to your socks? One minute you have a pair and the next, there’s only one. Where did it go? It’s very possible that it’s under the bed or your dog ate it. But have you ever thought that maybe it’s found a second life as part of a murderous monster of lonely socks?

Crust, written and directed by and starring Sean Whalen (The People Under the Stairs), is about one such monster. Crust may be cute, and he maybe only be trying to help, but in the end, he’s going to try to murder you.

A depressed has-been child actor and owner of a dingy laundromat, becomes powerfully vengeful when his collection of lone socks transforms into a protective, cute, murderous monster named Crust.

To celebrate the film, I chatted with Sean and star Rebekah Kennedy (Two Witches) about the film, horror movies, and more!

PopHorror: I really enjoyed Crust so I’m super excited to talk to you about it today.

Sean Whalen: Oh, no way! Thank you!

Rebekah Kennedy: Thank you so much!

PopHorror: So my first question is for you, Sean. What sparked the idea for the film, and how did the project come about? 

Sean Whalen: It came about because I had a meeting with some producers who were lamenting how expensive horror is, and I just said, “You guys are overthinking it. Just do a sock monster in a laundromat, one location.” And I thought like a guy in a big suit of socks or whatever, and they were like, “Hm, okay.” Never really thought about it. Ten years later, I went through a very tough depression after I got a divorce, and when I was finished, or kind of came out of it like four or five months later, I was really angry. I was like, I wish I had a pet that could take care of all my problems. And that idea of the old idea and the new idea kind of merged together. Then I did an independent movie called Ugly Sweater Party – Aaron Mento, Charles Chudabala – that they were shooting stuff in their house, but making it look really fun and cool. And I thought, oh, I should do this. It just felt like the right time because I had all this weird emotion after being depressed and it just kind of flew out of me with my friend, Jim (co-writer Wald). 

PopHorror: I think that’s funny that they were talking about how expensive horror is when I’ve seen some amazing super micro-budget horror.

Sean Whalen: Yes!

PopHorror: So many low budget independent films out there that are just fantastic that you don’t really need a lot to make a horror film.

Sean Whalen: No, I disagreed with their thinking because they’re thinking tons of gore and tons of special effects. And I go, “That’s one type of genre. That’s one subset of horror. There’s many that are very scary without all that stuff. “

PopHorror: Yeah, absolutely. And Rebekah, how did you become involved with the project? 

Rebekah Kennedy: So I knew Sean… We were acquaintances for a long time. We had the same management. We were in a film together, but we didn’t have any scenes. And it was kind of one of those friendships where it’s like, I go to his birthday parties, he goes to my birthday parties, that kind of thing. We weren’t like super close friends or anything. But I think we connected and clicked because we both are people that play a lot younger than we are. We look a lot younger and we kind of played very specific type roles. And I was originally, back in what, 2016? We did the table read initially, and Sean had asked me if I would play a smaller part in the film, and I was just thrilled to be a part of it in any capacity because I thought the script was so great. Then the night before, he called me and said, “You know, our actress who was going to play Nila can’t make it, can you read for that part tomorrow, just to read it?” And I was like, “Absolutely happy to do that.” Of course, I fell in love with the part, but I was like, ok, I know it’s maybe not mine so do my best and we’ll see what happens. And for whatever reason, there was just this kind of chemistry that was built kind of on the spot. I don’t know. We just kind of understood where each other were coming from. And then fast forward quite a few years and December of 2022, Sean called me up and was like, “We’re making the movie. Do you want to play Nila?” I was thrilled because I loved the script. I loved the part. I’ve never gotten to play a romantic lead and never a part like this. I thought, she’s so witty and unique and fun and has such a big heart and some crazy past stuff that we won’t give away. So, yeah, I was just thrilled to be a part of it. 

PopHorror: I love it when horror has a heart, and I do feel that the characters in this one really added something to not making it more like a traditional horror. Like this is definitely a horror that has heart. And I always like to see that because I think that that’s a misconception that people have about horror films, that it’s all just about murder and blood and gore. And while that’s fun, there’s a lot of horror that has heart and I like that.

Sean Whalen: Well, I came from The People Under the Stairs and that had a lot of heart. 

PopHorror: Yeah, it does, actually.

Sean Whalen: It really was ahead of its time. So many people, so many younger people saw it when they were seven, eight, nine, eleven. I would never show my kid that early just because if they were like me, I was terrified of everything. But what they loved about that was that there was a kid, and Jordan Peele talks about that, too. It’s literally he was a kid watching a kid who looked like him save the day. A young black kid saves the day, and he said it was one of his inspirations for Get Out because he had never seen… And that’s Wes Craven ahead of his time.

PopHorror: Yeah, I love that. Why did you decide to shoot this in black and white? 

Sean Whalen: It was a suggestion from a friend of mine. For some reason, it was one of those things that… You know how they tell you like a tune or something that you say, well, creatively, if you put it in your brain and you can’t let it go, then pay attention to that. So I think that’s what I did. I mean, I thought about it, and I just couldn’t let it go. I just said at that point, it’s in black and white. And then editing it like a year later or six, eight months later, I finally figured out why I wouldn’t let it go, and that’s because my favorite movie in the world is Casablanca and film noir, like Double Indemnity, and Sunset Boulevard. My favorite Tim Burton movie is Ed Wood, which is most people’s not favorite one. Young Frankenstein is a huge influence on me. But mostly, I think what I realized after that was Twilight Zone, because Crust is kind of like a… It could be a Twilight Zone. So that was all grounded in reality, crazy circumstances.

PopHorror: Rebekah, was there anything that you were adamant about bringing to your character? 

Rebekah Kennedy: That’s a great question. I don’t know if there was anything I was… I mean, Sean’s great because he is specific in what he wants in the writing and the characters, but he’s also open to your ideas and your interpretations. And he’s not, has to go this way or that way. We worked for three months before the film started in an acting class. Greg Binkley, who’s an amazing actor, worked with us on scenes, so we kind of had a lot of it, so to speak, worked out before we got to set in terms of like, we knew kind of what we were doing, and then we could really play. I know I wanted her style to be unique. I feel like Nila’s a lot cooler than I am, so I wanted her to have some fun outfits and a jacket that was cool. A lot of that, we were able to have the fans design the shirts and the patches and the buttons on the jacket, which was awesome. So, it was mostly things like that. There wasn’t anything that I had to fight Sean on.

Sean Whalen: No!

Rebekah Kennedy: It was pretty smooth.

Sean Whalen: The only thing she fought me on was, there were scenes that were edited in a way that it looked like she popped out of nowhere. One of her pet peeves is, “I need to know where I’m coming from.”

Rebekah Kennedy: Yeah! There’s a scene at the beginning when I leave the office after the first time I’ve been in there, and originally, when I saw a rough cut, it was like, all of a sudden, I was just in Les’s (Charles Chudabala) face. And I was like, wait, I need to see me leave that moment. As an actor, I need that look closed and they listened. 

Sean Whalen: And to her credit, every scene works a little better because you know where she’s coming from. Even on our date, we had her walking around the corner. When she comes up to me and insists on me giving her my phone number, we tied that in. And I thought, this is not a big deal. But when I saw it, I went, I get it. So that’s why I forced her to direct her first film the summer after because she was such a good director. She said she hadn’t, so I said, “This is ridiculous. I’m going to write you a short and you’re going to direct it.” She did. 

PopHorror: Oh, that’s exciting. This question is for both of you. Why do you feel people resonate with the horror genre? 

Rebekah Kennedy: I feel like because it explores things that other genres, yes, do explore, but in a unique way. It’s like we can have a woman and her son running from a monster, but secretly down deep, it’s about depression or anxiety, like our film, which deals with depression and anxiety, but with a sock monster. I feel like we can explore trauma and things that are going on that people can relate to, but in ways that people that may not watch it, otherwise would. And even if they don’t realize what’s happening, maybe it’s not right in your face. You connect in a way, and you don’t really know why. It’s like The Sixth Sense, for instance, one of my favorite horror films. And yes, no one’s going to watch it and go, well, I know what seeing dead people is like, because obviously, but people watch it and they know what feeling alone is like, and they know what feeling isolated and like no one understands you. That they can connect to. So, I feel like there’s just stuff that you… And then you’re watching people go through it, right? And you’re cheering and you’re, and you want certain people to live and other people to die. It’s a roller coaster and a ride that is just so much fun. 

Sean Whalen: I would say for me, a lot of the time it’s overcoming an obstacle, you know, just like in life. You come against some sort of obstacle that is something where you have to test the best of yourself. I remember that in particularly when someone said, who would you rather emulate in any of your movies? And I was like, Ooh, I play a lot of weirdos and things like that, and so I literally went back to Roach because he didn’t know he was doing anything heroic. He just had fun messing with them and he had fun taking care of Alice, and he was just enjoying that. I don’t think he was thinking this is the right thing to do. He was just inherently a good person and ultimately, a martyr. That was my first movie. I think what Rebekah said is also true, piggybacking again, coming from The People Under the Stairs – socially and societally – Wes was way ahead of his time in terms of those kinds of statements. Night of the Living Dead, you know, a huge social one. Invasion of the Body Snatchers was about the Cold War. And I think that’s what Rebekah was saying – agreeing with her, what she said – is that it also lets us explore themes without being heavy handed. Someone making a heavy handed message movie could put that message in an entertaining way in horror. On a simpler note, I just think we like to feel alive and feeling jumping and scaring in the theater, and we’re all screaming together, or even alone in your thing, hugging your sister, brother, parent, friend. Getting through this stuff. There’s a fun exhilaration to it.

PopHorror: Yeah. It allows us to experience things that thrill us and that scare us in a safe environment that’s not real. It lets us get out those anxieties and stuff, and that’s where I think horror has a heart again. 

Sean Whalen: Yeah!

PopHorror: I have just one last question for you both today. What is your favorite scary movie? 

Sean Whalen: Now here’s the question – horror movie for fun or one that actually scared me, scared me? 

PopHorror: Your favorite horror movie, the one that you always return to, the one that’s like home to you. 

Sean Whalen: Sleepaway Camp. But not because it scared me, because it’s so amazing. It just has so many layers as you watch it, because it’s kind of an airtight script. I just find the humor in that like, everyone’s got a harsh Brooklyn accent. Everyone hates everyone at the camp. And that’s what I find so funny, is that it’s a summer camp, which is literally one of the greatest ways to spend a summer, and the staff hates the owner, the owner hates the staff and the kids, the kids hate each other, the kids hate the counselors, the counselors hate the kids. That setup is so silly and fun. I love stuff like that. In terms of scary, it was always The Exorcist and then Hereditary came and kind of took that off for me, disturbingly so. But the one I’ve returned to the most is absolutely Sleepaway Camp.

Rebekah Kennedy: I’ve already revealed mine, but it’s hard to say a favorite, right? Because it’s like, I don’t have kids yet, but I imagine it’s like, what’s your favorite child? There’re different ones for different things, but one of my favorites is definitely The Sixth Sense, like I mentioned before. It is one of the rare horror films where I cry. Every time I watch it, I still cry. Brilliant performances. I remember seeing that one in the theater and not really yet an actor, but feeling like, oh, that’s what you can do with a part in a film like that. Not that there weren’t great performances before. Of course, The Exorcist, Rosemary’s Baby, and so many other great performances, but it was that at that point. I was still young, so I hadn’t really absorbed that yet. But for me, as an actor, like, oh, wow, what you can do with a film in that genre. So, that would be one of my favorites. And it’s still so brilliantly done. One of his best, in my opinion. Hard to top that in terms of twist and just such a great movie.

Thank you so much to Sean and Rebekah for taking the time to chat with us. Crust is now available on VOD and is coming to Blu-ray on December 10.