PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Well friends, it’s the summer so that means one thing – Fantasia! This year, the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal, Canada is celebrating its 29th edition and once again showcasing some truly talented genre filmmakers and providing eclectic and explosive viewing material for movie enthusiasts.
My next piece out of Fantasia this year is an interview with filmmaker Alex Phillips for his movie, the erotic thriller, Anything that Moves, and its star, Ginger Lynn.
An innocent Chicago food delivery boy, after having sex for money, finds himself involved in a series of murders that can be traced back to someone who was in his bed.
To celebrate Anything that Moves being at the fest, I chatted with Alex and Ginger about how the film came about, horror movies, and more!
PopHorror: I really enjoyed Anything that Moves so I’m so delighted to talk to you both about it today. Alex, we spoke back in 2022 when you were at Fantasia for All Jacked Up and Full of Worms and you told me about this film when talking about what you had coming up next and I’m so thrilled for you to now be back at Fantasia with this new film. I’m sure it’s exciting. What sparked the idea for Anything that Moves and how did the project come about?
Alex Phillips: Yeah, it is super exciting! It’s cool to have your intentions come to life. To be able to do this project is great. It all started at Fantasia, premiering All Jacked Up and Full of Worms, meeting Liane [Cunje], who works with Vinegar Syndrome, when she came on to produce. Pitching this film and talking about it around town here in Montreal and then being able to make it was just really great. I worked as a bike delivery courier when I was 22, 24. I delivered sandwiches, I don’t know if I should say where. A lot of my deliveries were really strange and a lot of the people I talked to were very specific and very excited to see me and wanted to have a relationship, and I would see them regularly. I had people I would see all the time. I wanted to expand on that and I did have some people who did actually kind of proposition me and I did go as far as this film, but I wanted to explore what it would have been like if that’s what I was up to while delivering sandwiches. I wanted to capture what relationships are like and a lot of life experiences and a lot of people that I’ve met and heighten them and place them in this world. Come with a storyline that connects it all together. That’s where it came from.
PopHorror: When you say that you were a delivery person, I hope there was no murder.
Alex Phillips: No, there was no murder. No murder at all.
Ginger Lynn: What about the other stuff?
Alex Phillips: Oh, the sex?
Ginger Lynn: You save that one.
PopHorror: Ginger, how did you become involved in the project?
Ginger Lynn: Was it you that called me?
Alex Phillips: Yeah! It was Liane and I; we called you.
Ginger Lynn: We were texting for a minute and then we spoke on the phone. When I read the script, I just loved how brave you were. How willing to explore things that a lot of people wouldn’t, that they’d say, “Oh, that belongs in this category.” You wrap so many things into this film, just everything. I absolutely loved it and just talking to Alex about it and then reading the script, I was in. I was in.
Alex Phillips: It was a no-brainer to work with Ginger. I was just totally shocked and honored to reach her. It was awesome to have her.
PopHorror: Alex, was there anything that you were adamant about leaving in the film, no matter what?
Alex Phillips: I have a really amazing team. Nobody was like, “You’ve got to cut this.” You can tell in the movie. We were working with Vinegar Syndrome. We were working with Eddie Linker from Missing Link. My previous work was All Jacked Up and Full of Worms, so I think they knew what they were getting into with me, and they let me do what I wanted to do. I was adamant about the whole script, and they were like, “Okay!”
PopHorror: So much penis. Ginger, was there anything you were adamant about bringing to your character?
Ginger Lynn: Honesty, warmth, and a neediness, a lack of love. I feel that Rachel really loves Liam. It’s not about the sex. She has very little contact with the world and there was nothing that I wasn’t willing to do for Alex, so there would be nothing that I can think of that would be changed.
PopHorror: My next question is for both of you. Neither of you are strangers to the horror genre. Why do you feel that some people resonate more with horror than others?
Alex Phillips: I see the horror genre as a metaphor and a tool in a way of imbuing a feeling onto people and I think some people are receptive to that, feeling that feeling, feeling shock and horror and awe. I think some people can laugh it off; some people like to be freaked out. It depends on how people have lived their lives and what their tastes are.
Ginger Lynn: The thing for me, I came from the adult industry 40 years ago, and I started doing comedy. Once I got into the horror genre and meeting the people that make it, I felt like I’d found my people. When I attend a horror convention, which I do quite a few of, I’m a little odd and I find that most people who enjoy horror films are a little bit odd too so I’m very comfortable in the horror genre. I absolutely love it and Alex taking this movie… I don’t even know which genre this is anymore because it has everything! You’ve got the horror, you’ve got the thriller, you’ve got the eroticism, you’ve got the love, you’ve got the sex workers. There’s just everything in this movie that makes it so enjoyable and watchable. I’m the person that I do horror films a lot, I will not watch one alone. I do it at home but not alone. I still, knowing what I know from being in them, get scared. I still love that rush, that intensity, that adrenaline high, and I think that Anything that Moves gives you all of that.
Alex Phillips: I think about the genre from the perspective of what it allows you to do storytelling-wise. You can use a lot of cool imagery and metaphor to get out and heighten your own experiences and have the audiences connect with them. It’s like a different mode, but you can use intense imagery and surrealism and all this stuff that’s kind of poetic but it situates it in genre so it makes it so people can connect with it, and that’s why I really like playing in genre and in horror.
PopHorror: I appreciate that. I have one last question for both of you. What is your favorite scary movie?
Ginger Lynn: Mine was the first one I ever saw, and I didn’t sleep for two weeks. It was The Exorcist. I was 13 and I remember thinking that I was going to get possessed. My bedroom was over a dirt cellar and I knew the devil was down there and I was going to lose it so I slept on the floor right outside my parents’ room for about two weeks. That’s how scared I was and I still get that feeling back when I watch it again, so I have to go old school.
Alex Phillips: I’ll go old school too. It’s hard to pick a favorite but I’m going to pick one I think fits with this. I’ll go with Cruising, Friedkin’s Cruising.
Thank you to Alex and Ginger for taking the time to chat with us. Anything that Moves had its world premiere at Fantasia International Film Festival on July 25, 2025.
