PopHorror Let's Get Scared
I love movies set at Halloween. What I love even more are movies set at Halloween in a small town. That small town setting gives it a little something extra, don’t you think? That’s why I loved the new film from Jeff Wadlow, The Curse of Bridge Hollow.
Per Imdb, “A teenage girl, who accidentally releases an ancient and mischievous spirit on Halloween which causes decorations to come alive and wreak havoc, must team up with the last person she’d want to in order to save their town – her father.”
Say no more! The Curse of Bridge Hollow not only takes place on Halloween in a small town, but it also has an amazing cast – Marlon Wayans, Kelly Rowland, Priah Ferguson, Nia Vardalos, Rob Riggle, Lauren Lapkus, Dave Sheridan… The list goes on. The film had me googling if the Stingy Jack legend was real, and it is! It’s rumored that the jack-o’-lantern is named after Stingy Jack, which makes this film even more enjoyable. To celebrate the release of the film on Netflix, I chatted with director Jeff Wadlow about why he wanted to be a part of the project, his favorite scene to shoot, why he loves horror, and more!
PopHorror: I watched The Curse of Bridge Hollow, and I loved it. It was the perfect film to start off the Halloween season for me. It made me want to go trick-or-treating and decorate for Halloween. I loved the setting so much that I can’t say enough good things about it.
Jeff Wadlow: Oh my God. You’re making my heart swell. I’m so happy to hear that.
PopHorror: What intrigued you about the script and made you want to be a part of the project?
Jeff Wadlow: I’m a writer/director so I write a lot of my own stuff, or I co-write it. Usually when I’m sent scripts, they’ve got big problems and they want me to fix them or try to fix them I should say. And I didn’t feel that way when they sent me this script. The script is great. The premise was really well articulated, the characters were strong. There was an interesting journey for them to go on, and there was an exciting world to play in. I immediately said, “Yes, I want to do this!” I pitched for it. They heard takes from a lot of different directors, and I just really leaned into this Amblin tone. I really wanted to make a movie that felt like a movie you would have seen in the 80s or 90s. Still have a modern sensibility, still have a modern pacing, take advantage of modern visual effects, but create this sort of nostalgic vibe. And Marlon (Wayans), and Rick (Alvarez), and Nathan (Talbert Reimann) the producers, and my executives at Netflix got excited about that and very quickly I was in prep.
PopHorror: I am a sucker for small town settings. I think that was one of my favorite parts of it.
Jeff Wadlow: They just feel so relatable. You also get the sense you can create a very contained world where something magical could happen. If you set a movie in a major city, you’re like, “Why isn’t this one the news? Why isn’t the world being changed by these events?” But there’s something about a small town where you feel like it could almost happen and go unnoticed, if there’s just a little bit of plausible deniability at the end of the film. There’s this one line that the mayor says at the end, she does a slow clap, and she goes, “Well done Oak Town, well done. We’ll see ya next year.” At one point someone had suggested we cut that, and I was like, “Nope! You need that line. That’s the line that resets the whole thing where you can believe that maybe this did happen in a tiny town somewhere.”
PopHorror: I totally agree! I’m happy that line was kept in. This film is a lot of fun to watch. It’s hilarious. What was your favorite scene to shoot?
Jeff Wadlow: Well, they were all difficult to shoot. Let me be clear. All of the stuff in the town scare was pretty exciting, bringing all those monsters together and having a big chunk of our cast in one place. It was also daunting. That was a lot of outdoor, night photography in a real town square. It was very challenging. I did like the maze stuff. That was fun to shoot. I modeled the maze, and I would put things in different places, and I would figure out where people would go. Trying to do that overhead shot was very challenging. The clowns were always fun to work with. They were so real and present. Those are real masks with animatronics in them. Ultimately, we augmented them a little bit with CG but there’s nothing left to the imagination with those clowns, they were freaky looking. The whole movie was just a blast to make.
PopHorror: This is a pretty family friendly film. It’s more horror adjacent. You’re no stranger to horror. I have to say that Cry Wolf and Truth or Dare are two of my most fun watches. What is it that draws you to horror?
Jeff Wadlow: Well, I honestly think that I like different genres. I like comedy. I like action. I like being scared. And I think horror allows you to dip into all those different genres. You can have comedy in horror, but you can’t really have horror in comedy.
PopHorror: I agree!
Jeff Wadlow: You can have action in a horror movie, but you don’t really have horror elements in an action movie. So it’s probably the easiest sell when it comes to a genre mash-up. I’ve never really thought about it that hard before. I think that’s really why.
PopHorror: I completely agree. Nobody really wants to see horror in their comedy, but we love comedy in our horror. What is up next for you?
Jeff Wadlow: There are two modes that Hollywood directors have – completely focused on one project that you’re making, and then you go back to spinning plates and you’ve got to have three, four, five things that could happen at any point, whether you’re developing them, writing them, casting them. Basically, until you’re on set yelling, “Action!”, they’re not real. I have some friends who are directors that have been on set yelling, “Action!” and have the movie fall apart. So hoping that never happens to me. Right now, I’m in that mode where I’m working on a bunch of different things.
PopHorror: I’m excited to see what you have coming up.
Jeff Wadlow: Thank you!
PopHorror: I have just one last question for you today. What is your favorite scary movie?
Jeff Wadlow: Such a hard question to answer and it probably changes week to week. Can I give you three?
PopHorror: Yeah, of course!
Jeff Wadlow: Jaws, Seven, and Aliens.
Thank you so much to Jeff for taking the time to chat with us. The Curse of Bridge Hollow will be available exclusively on Netflix starting October 14, 2022.
