Interview With Filmmaker Devin Montgomery For ‘Monsters Within’

Two things stood out to me about Devin Montgomery’s Monsters Within. One, he wrote, directed, produced, edited, AND starred in the film. Two, his sister, Daniella Montgomery, is also in the film and a huge part of the story. Wow! Talk about ambitious and able to pull it all off.

Life brings Luke Wolf, a war veteran, back to his hometown where his sister is, who has Down Syndrome. Things are different, or maybe it’s just that now he’s different. After years of running from his problems, Luke must face his monsters.

Read on to learn about the movie, working with his sister, how the late Samuel French became a part of the film, horror movies, and more!

PopHorror: You wrote, directed, edited, and starred in the film. You did everything! And produced it!

Devin Montgomery: Right!

PopHorror: What sparked the idea for the story and did you write it with you in mind to star in it from the beginning.

Devin Montgomery: Yes, because during 2020 when everything hit pause and there was just a big lull in everything and there was a lot of uncertainty, I was just sitting around. Being an actor is my main focus, my main passion, and I was just sitting around and waiting for someone to give me this opportunity to do what I want to do and what I love, so I just had this idea of why don’t I start making my own stuff? And that just ballooned into the story part of Monsters Within where really at the core of it, it’s about a brother and a sister. In the movie the Elle character, that’s my sister in real life. During 2020, I just kept having this vision of this story of a soldier. I kept seeing that in my head but then also a brother/sister story where one has special needs because that’s something that’s really important to me and something that I’ve always wanted to explore and show in film. But then with the nature of the way 2020 was going, it kept popping in my head like, how far would you go to protect those you care about, or what would you do to really protect those people? That’s where it initially started, so we made the short film version of it in 2020. The feature film is really different than the short film. The short film, at the heart of it, is just about me and my sister. When I took that on to the film festival circuit, I saw people’s reactions to it and a lot of people would come and talk to me afterwards. It was just really interesting. There were things that they found just in that 10 minutes that they connected to that maybe I hadn’t even fully thought about and so that’s why something clicked and I was like, I think we have something here, people seem to be reacting to this, let me flesh this out and make this into a feature film. Now how do you do that because I’ve never done that before. Just a lot of research and watching a lot of YouTube interviews of actors that… That’s my main focus, is acting. I just watched a lot of actors that had also directed something and especially if they were actor/director. I guess to answer that question, that’s how it started and, in some ways, yeah, I guess I always did see myself in it just because the story was very personal and I wanted that challenge of not only acting but also directing for the first time a feature film.

PopHorror: I’ve heard that a lot about the pandemic when everything shut down. Actors and filmmakers making their own project of what they want to do and want to see because there wasn’t really anything happening, so I love that this came out of that. I’m glad that you brought up your sister, Daniella. If you could please tell us about her and what it’s like to work together.

Devin Montgomery: Her and I have always been close. I come from a military background, so I’ve lived on countless bases, in countless states, even lived in Germany for a little bit. No matter where we went, obviously it was always me and my sister. I remember the first time we actually went to the first school together at the same time. We were in elementary and I realized how protective, even at a young age, I am of her. That’s something that I’ve always carried on throughout growing up. She’s the sweetest person you’ll ever meet. She just doesn’t think a bad thought about anybody. She’s very caring, she’s very loving. She’s a really good example and somebody that I look up to. She inspires me every single day and that’s why I wanted to capture that essence in our film, but unfortunately during 2020… It’s a new kind of thing going on with the Down syndrome community. It’s called regression and they’re thinking because of the way 2020… I mean, it was a shock to everybody. She wants to hug everybody, talk to everybody, so obviously during 2020, there’s a big push of can’t do that and you have to wear a mask and all that. For a lot of the special needs community, they couldn’t really process what was going on in that aspect, like why all of a sudden they were being told they couldn’t go hug a stranger because that’s something she loved to do. So she started going through regression. The original idea for our feature film, her and I were going to have a much bigger part in it and I don’t want to give any spoilers away for the movie, but just because of what she’s going through, I kind of had to make a decision, how can I still keep her in this because she kind of did almost a 180 where she just stopped talking and she stopped really just being outgoing. In some ways, the new story that I came up with for Monsters Within made that even more cathartic and personal in some ways. That was a really interesting thing that I originally hadn’t planned on, but what I’ve learned as an actor is always to be ready for the unexpected and when you’re a filmmaker on the independent scene, that’s the biggest thing. Just be as prepared as you can be but if things just go in a completely different direction, go with it and see what happens because I do think that the story that we have now has affected people way more than possibly what the original story was so I’m a big believer that everything happens for a reason.

PopHorror: I love that. I read an article that was written about you and the movie, and I didn’t write down the name of the publication, but it was a really beautiful article talking about you and your sister and your relationship and how important it is, so that’s really cool.

Devin Montgomery: Thank you.

PopHorror: Even though maybe she wasn’t feeling it once you started making the movie, the fact that you still wanted to include her and do what you could to make her feel more comfortable, I think that’s really admirable.

Devin Montogmery: That was the Industry Times.

PopHorror: Yes! I want to go back to what you said about the unexpected and having to change direction because I also read that while making the film, you actually went and changed the ending and added a new character, and that was Samuel French. From what I read, that was pretty much on the fly and last minute. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Devin Montgomery: Yeah, like I said, we had this original plan for the movie. In some ways, I’m really glad we filmed the way we did because we were sort of filming it in order. While we were filming it, a lot of the times we’re filming on weekends, and during 2020, one of the things that I also did was teach myself how to edit. While we were filming, since I was the one editing, let’s just say I didn’t sleep a whole lot while we were filming. I would immediately start looking at the clips, piecing it together. I had enough time sometimes between certain scenes and stuff that I had a little rough cut of what was happening in the movie. Some things maybe weren’t in order or we hadn’t gotten to something, but I was able to see what we had. We got to a point where we were about halfway through and yeah, it was just really fascinating because it just seemed to be moving in a completely different direction than I had planned and I guess because of my acting background, I’m totally not afraid if somebody suggests something, let’s try it! But as a writer, it can be hard to do but I guess when you have the ability where it’s like you’re the one that’s in control, like just go with your gut. The lead actress, her name is Kendall Cavener. There’s this scene she and I have, this dialogue in the bar scene, and there’s this line that she says and just the way that she delivered it, it just felt like there was way more behind that line that she said. When we got to that halfway point, we had a little break that we were all going to have because at that time, the holidays were coming up. We knew we were going to have this break. During that break, I was like, okay, let me write something and see how this works. It just ballooned into this whole different story for the second half. I just really felt great about it and connected to what we were doing. I liked how it also changed direction for the tone of the movie and everything. I had booked a role as an actor in this horror feature film called Blood Dried Hands and Samuel French was on that movie. We didn’t cross paths as characters or anything in the movie, but there was one day when he was on set. I’m walking around and we just kind of like, did one of those [nods] and he added me on Instagram like a week or so later, and that was around the time where I was writing this new character. In my head, I was like, this guy definitely has to be the villain and just embody it almost just from his look. When Sam added me on Instagram, I went through and I was looking at his posts and he just had this look in one of his pictures and I was like, that’s the guy! We explored that. He was just coming off of Killers of the Flower Moon so he was in a really big groove and the way that he would throw himself into a character and I kind of look up to that. It’s definitely intense. It was intense working with him but that made it fun. So yeah, I just asked him and I luckily had the first half of the movie so I sent it to him. He just loved it. He really wanted to play a character like that so we were able to collaborate. While we were filming, he’s someone that would stay in that mindset and that character, so obviously our characters at the end of the movie have a big clash and we’re at odds. While we were filming, this was this intensity surrounding us that – I don’t want to say it’s combative – helped. As an actor, going back and forth from director/actor, it’s very difficult but with him being in that character, we were able to explore that. It helped things and we ended up becoming closer after we wrapped. It was really cool to work with him, and I’m sure that you saw he passed away earlier this year. It’s been really difficult to come to terms with. We’ve dedicated the movie to him. The film comes out October 3rd and it’s all dedicated to him. I talked to his brother earlier this week because we just had our trailer announcement on Dread Central, and his brother was just like… It’s been a tough year for them but they’re looking forward to seeing him when the movie comes out. It’s just been a really interesting mix of emotions.

PopHorror: I bet. I love that though. So the way that she delivered a line that you wrote made you see it in a new light and different way than you had intended it and that changed the whole trajectory of the movie?

Devin Montogomery: Yup!

PopHorror: That’s really cool! That’s so interesting that you were like, that’s not how I wrote it but I can see what we can do with this.

Devin Montogomery: I do remember thinking about it when we were actually filming, but it wasn’t until I was editing it. We had different angles but it was definitely on her closeup where I think it was just the look in her eye and just the way she delivered it. I was like, that’s really interesting.

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

Devin Montgomery: Ooh, that’s a tough one. I’m one of those people that it depends on my mood sometimes, where I’m like, okay this one’s my favorite, this one’s my favorite, but I guess if I have to pick one, probably the original Nightmare on Elm Street. That’s always stuck with me and funny enough, our next film is very much inspired by Nightmare on Elm Street.

Thank you so much to Devin for chatting with us. Monsters Within is available now on Digital!