PopHorror Let's Get Scared
This year’s Fantasia International Film Festival has put out some top-notch films once again. I love covering this festival because these filmmakers work so hard to create quality art for us and Fantasia is the best place to showcase it. I was lucky enough to screen the horror short Faces, written and directed by Blake Simon, and it blew my motherfucking mind. I don’t usually go for shorts because they always leave me wanting more, and Faces is no exception to that. But this one is different in many other ways. It’s so damn good and will soon be made into a feature-length film. When it comes out, we’re all in for a treat.
A mysterious entity’s search for identity turns deadly when a group of college students unknowingly get too close.
For the short’s world premiere at the festival, I chatted with Blake about the inspiration behind the film, the mesmerizing bathroom scene, the phenomenal cast, and more!
**Since our chat, Faces has won the Gold Audience Award for Best International Short!**
PopHorror: I love Faces. I am so impressed.
Blake Simon: Oh my god! Thank you so much!
PopHorror: I’m super excited to talk to you about it today.
Blake Simon: That really means a lot, seriously. As you’re probably aware, it’s our world premiere this evening so only a handful of people – a small number of people – have seen it, and I haven’t seen it with an audience yet. Especially hearing that from someone that I don’t know who didn’t work on the film, that means a lot.
PopHorror: That really segues into my first question. Faces is having its world premiere at Fantasia. How does that feel?
Blake Simon: It feels amazing! I think in the genre community or genre festival circuit, Fantasia is truly an unparalleled pillar of the community and it’s something that I’ve looked on for a while. I’ve played many genre festivals with other films and there’s amazing festivals that I could speak very highly of that I would go back to, but Fantasia represents a higher standard. I think having that laurel on a film of my own has been a dream for a little bit. I couldn’t think of a better place to world premiere it. Everyone at the festival, Mitch Davis, they’ve been so supportive that it feels like such a huge honor.
PopHorror: I agree. Fantasia is the only film festival that I cover every year. It is my favorite because I feel like they set themselves apart from other fests. What inspired the story and how did the project come about?
Blake Simon: The project came about actually… I’d spent a number of years not making shorts but working on other people’s projects and it had been like five years or so since I’d directed anything. I made this other horror short called Red Velvet, and that film was my first film in a number of years. I think when you go – any artistic person of any kind, not just filmmakers – when you go a while without making something, you feel some kind of insecurity and just do I still have it? So when I made Red Velvet, it turned out well and it was a new crew. Some crewmembers I had worked with before, but it was half and half new people, and it just felt right. Half the battle with making a film is the momentum and getting your people together. When that turned out well and I felt like, okay I’ve answered this question and I can still do this, I don’t want to wait another five years until my next thing. I want to keep this momentum going, so I wrote Faces while we were finishing that previous film and basically called up the producers of the short and said, “Get everyone back!” And so it was a very quick turnaround. I wrote it in October of one year and we filmed it three or four months later in February at the start of the following year. But in terms of how Faces in particular, like the inspiration where that came about, I think it was partly just living in a post-pandemic society where people had spent so much time in isolation. I wrote it in a time where we were all just kind of socializing again. There was this very interesting thing I was witnessing amongst some of my very close friends that are dear to me, and even other people, just from a distance, which was this idea that people were sort of like trying to reinvent themselves in some way, whether it was very small – I’m buying a new article of clothing that doesn’t fit anything you’ve seen me in before – or larger, a tattoo or what have you or shaving my head or whatever. I think we live in a society that’s so pro self-exploration and self-discovery, which is amazing and what we should be. But the thing that I think doesn’t get talked about that I was witnessing was until you get where you’re going, until you get to that place where you feel like yourself and you’ve accepted and found that, which is such a beautiful thing we’re so supportive of, there’s a lot of hard trials and a lot of testing things out that don’t work. It was really interesting to me because I think it’s something that we all go through. Some of us in very big ways and some of us in very small ways, but I think we all go through it but I don’t think it’s something we all talk about much. I was witnessing it and it’s this very interesting thing that I’d see people do something or change something about themselves that publicly everyone’s applauding or encouraging because that’s what we do, but it was so clear that it was not fulfilling or satisfying for them. So it was this weird thing of faux support and it just felt like, oh, I’m supposed to encourage this but I’m actually worried that there’s something deeper going on here that we’re not talking about. That became the catalyst of the film, which was the dark side of the journey of identity and self-acceptance and until you get where you’re going, I think there’s a lot of scary moments that we weren’t talking about. Faces kind of represents the embodiment of that.
PopHorror: I think the pandemic and people spending so much time in isolation really let people realize who they are or realize that maybe they weren’t who they thought they were. It let them start that process of finding a different identity because they realized spending all that time by themselves that maybe they just weren’t who they thought they were.
Blake Simon: One hundred percent.
PopHorror: I was deeply impressed with the performances by Cailyn Rice and Ethan Daniel Corbett as Judy and Brad. Can you tell us though, about filming that bathroom scene?
Blake Simon: Sure! Just to speak about them both for a moment. They’re incredible and I think every film really lives or dies on your cast, especially a film that’s so performance heavy as Faces it’s especially true. I feel indebted to them. The bathroom scene was very funny. When Cailyn auditioned for the film, of course that was not one of the scenes we were using as sides but I always like to talk to the actors before we even decide who’s going to be in the movie. Just a little bit about who they are and their background. After she did her audition we were talking to Cailyn and we learned that her background is that she was a dancer before she went into acting. We had asked her what kind of dance, if there was a focus, and – pretty much a direct quote – her answer was, “Witchy shit.” We all cracked up! At this point she’d already given an amazing performance but then she said that, and I was just like, yeah, I can work with that. I feel like even outside the bathroom scene there’s so much physicality of the character or characters and I was just like, she’s a great actor and that’s gold. But the bathroom scene, I mean it’s all her. A lot of people watch that scene and they think it’s a ton of visual effects. It’s not. There are some, very minor. I would say it’s 80-85% all Cailyn.
PopHorror: That’s awesome!
Blake Simon: Watching footage was very scary so I was afraid for her. She’s doing things that a person shouldn’t be able to do and it’s like, “Are you comfortable?” And she’s like, “Yeah, let’s do it again!” Then she’s upside down and I’m like, “Okay, great, I wasn’t going to ask you to do that. But of course, it’s going in the movie!” Separate from what we were just talking about, the other thing I like about the bathroom scene is I don’t think the movie is necessarily typical horror. It’s not very particularly gory or jump scary. I think it’s unnerving or I hope, unsettling, but it felt good that we had at least one scene that I felt the audience could be afraid of.
PopHorror: It impresses me when people can do things with their body that you’re like, wow! Because I can’t do anything like that.
Blake Simon: Me neither!
PopHorror: How did you convey your vision to your cast and crew?
Blake Simon: That’s a great question. Through different ways. Of course, with cinematography, you sit down with DP and it’s like, let’s talk about all these older films I love. I mean, to talk about that for a second, I think a lot of horror filmmakers struggle with or just lean into modern day films. I think because technology is inherently unscary. Obviously, you can do things like that and lean into scary technology, as many old films have – Terminator, whatever – but modern day being just smartphones. I hate smartphones on screen. I’ve seen some amazing films that utilize that, but it’s hard for me to get really inspired so I tend to choose older films. I love Brian De Palma, kind of giallo, just really gritty and messy. Get us out of the clean, clinical, sterile feeling that a lot of the more modern things can tend toward. But in terms of narratively and the rest of the crew, in particular Ethan and Cailyn, one thing we did is we didn’t do a lot of rehearsal. Almost none. But one thing that was really important to me was making sure myself, Ethan, and Cailyn were all on the same page about this character. Obviously there’s a lot of overlap in their performances and so one thing I wanted was for the three of us to just talk about what this thing is and what they think it is, and what they could bring to it. It was crucial that that felt like a continuous character. I actually don’t typically have actors, when we’re filming, behind the monitor. I prefer not to. I don’t want them watching someone’s performance and getting in their own head and judging something. But with the vanity room scenes, we made a point of having both Ethan and Cailyn there to watch the other one so that they were feeding off of each other. There’s so much incredible footage that didn’t make it into the film but there were all these little things that one of them would do that the other felt really attached to or inspired by and they’d work it into their performance. There’s a couple of those in the film, like there’s one in Judy’s vanity room scene first, but there’s a brush going down the neck and just this idea of the makeup products being used incorrectly and that was something that Ethan watched and loved and then did on his own. I didn’t go, “Oh, do that!” He went to do his scene and so much of it is the three of us, but really the two of them just being on the same page and wanting to tell the same narrative, which is crucial. It was very important not to just pass the movie and say you’re playing a monster and be scary, but to find something truthful and the beating heart underneath it.
PopHorror: You mentioned older films. I read that you’re a huge Cronenberg fan.
Blake Simon: I am a huge Cronenberg fan.
PopHorror: As am I. I love hearing that he’s an inspiration. Also, you said that you have a lot of leftover footage. I also read that you are planning on expanding this into a feature length film. Is that true?
Blake Simon: It is true!
PopHorror: I am 100% here for that. I was hoping, and that was one of my questions and then I read another interview that you did, and they had asked you about it and I’m like, okay. Let’s talk.
Blake Simon: Yeah, I appreciate the support. It didn’t start that way. I’d written features, and I’d made many shorts, and they’ve always been separated. One thing I struggle with is the proof-of-concept idea. Only so many of them, and even the great ones, the idea that they’re just a scene or something taken from a larger narrative, I struggle to wrap my head around that and get really inspired about making a piece of a whole. So anything I’d made, and Faces is no different, I’ve wanted it to have a complete arc – a beginning, middle, and end – and feel like a fulfilling narrative, like a full journey. Faces just happened to be the first time I’ve made a short that when we finished it, it was so immensely clear that there was more story and world to be explored here and that I think I’d be doing it a disservice to not – as I look for what my first feature should be – look at the obvious elephant in front of me and go, I’m very proud of the film and there’s so much more to talk about and discover, and so I have to do it. So yes, I’m developing it right now.
PopHorror: That is amazing! And who knows, maybe soon we’ll be talking like this, talking about your first feature.
Blake Simon: I hope so!
PopHorror: I’m excited. I want to see it. I am ready for the feature!
Blake Simon: Me too! And I really appreciate that.
PopHorror: Just one last question for you today. What is your favorite scary movie?
Blake Simon: Oh, man. That’s an impossible question. I’ll have to give you a couple. Let’s start, because you brought up Cronenberg, Dead Ringers. I adore Dead Ringers. It blew my mind. It was one of those films where I was like, wow, I wish I made this. I think maybe you could see some similarities in Faces even. But the idea of multiple… Seeing the same person but not the same and different versions and exploring that has always been something that’s really interesting to me. Oh, my god. That’s slightly older. I love – something more modern – It Follows. One thing that I think we strived to do with Faces that I think that film does so well is being a film out of time. I know I talked earlier about wanting to avoid modern things in the storytelling, and It Follows is such a great… You have no idea when it takes place. I think we wanted to emulate that slightly with Faces. Faces is modern day, but it feels antiquated at times, I hope at least.
Thank you so much to Blake for taking the time to speak with us. Faces is currently in its festival run.
