Interview With Spider One And Krsy Fox For ‘Allegoria’

Back in 1999/2000 when I was in college at the University of Cincinnati, I was obsessed with the music group, Powerman 5000. My roommate and I would travel between Cincinnati and Columbus attending their shows. Back then, it was super easy—and totally free—to stand outside the backdoor of the venue and wait for the bands to come out for a meet and greet. We saw a lot of PM5000 at that time.

Fast forward to now. Powerman 5000 is still touring, and frontman Spider One has just released his directorial debut, a feature-length film called Allegoria, and I am here for it. Allegoria is an anthology about “a group of artists’ lives become unwittingly entangled as their obsessions and insecurities manifest monsters, demons, and death” with an outstanding cast including Krsy Fox, Scout Taylor-Compton, Adam Busch, Bryce Johnson, with a slew of others. To celebrate the film’s release on Shudder and VOD, I talked with Spider One and Krsy Fox via Zoom, and we chatted about the film, why they love horror, what’s up next, and more!

PopHorror: I really loved Allegoria. I was super impressed.

Spider One: Thank you!

Krsy Fox: Thank you!

PopHorror: Spider, I spent a lot of 1999 and 2000 going to watch you perform and listening to you so this is a real treat, so thank you.

Spider One: Oh cool! Where are you from? Where did you see us play?

PopHorror: Cincinnati and Columbus.

Spider One: Okay, nice! That’s amazing.

PopHorror: Spider, this is your first feature, so congratulations. What inspired the film, and how did the project come about?

Spider One: Thank you! It was inspired by my own experience of trying to live a creative life and all the issues and demons that come with that. You realize that your art controls you, and you don’t control your art. In other words, there have been many instances where I wake up at three in the morning and need to write down a song lyric, or I have an idea for a story arc. You just feel like I need to paint today, and I don’t know why.

It’s funny because it’s very in line with the horror aesthetic, almost like you’re possessed, and I think that’s what we tried to convey in this movie. That you really are possessed by your art. It’s a possession story, and I dove deeper into that concept. I started to really flesh out the endless parallels between horror and art. When we talk about artists, we describe them as being tortured and as suffering, and these are all horror movie descriptive terms. So it wasn’t a far leap for me to put those two worlds together. It was an untapped world I hadn’t seen a lot in horror movies. I thought it would be a cool place to explore.

PopHorror: Krsy, you not only starred in the film, but you also produced it and worked on the music, which was just outstanding. That was the first thing that stood out to me. The end credits alone are super amazing. What intrigued you about the project, and how did you become a part of it?

Krsy Fox: Thank you! Spider and I started a production company some time ago now. At the beginning of the pandemic, we both had wanted to jump into making features and narrative content. When we realized that Covid wasn’t going to go away, we were like, “Let’s just make something.” That’s kind of when Allegoria started to come to life. We had worked on a couple of my features before that that Spider had produced. When he came to me with this idea, I loved it. It’s very relatable to an artist but also to the average human being with the anxieties and the torture of just life and relationships. When he told me the idea, I was super excited just to be a part of it.

I love the character of Brody that Spider wrote. I just connected to her and thought it was a special role for a woman to get to play. You don’t see that a lot. And then when it came to the actual post of the film—I edited the film as well—when we could cut the scenes, quite often we’d do the edit and then put in the dialogue.

The cool thing about this film is a lot of it is tone and frequency. When we do use a lot of sound, there’s a lot of intent behind it, like when I start changing “that scene,” there was a lot of layers to it. Spider and I tend start with a really solid base, something very simple, and just add to it. It was a really creative sound process, especially in this film, because we tried to keep it really minimalistic so that those big moments pay off and startle you, like the opening credits and the end credits and the moment with Marcus in the bathroom. We try to really reserve those for specific moments to make you really feel something and make you almost feel sick when you’re watching it.

PopHorror: Spider, was there anything in the script that you were adamant about keeping in the script, no matter what?

Spider One: Certainly, the most important thing was the end of the film, where Brody and Hope have their awkward stand-off conversation in the bedroom doorway. Generally, I like to stick to the script as much as possible, but when you have a talented cast like this, you’re okay with them going off script a little bit.

I remember when we were going over it, and I just wanted it to be exactly word for word. I didn’t want anything changed. Not even a pronoun, or an “and” or “when.” Not to say that the movie was going to live or die on that scene, but I knew that if that scene failed, it wouldn’t be the movie it is. I think that scene succeeded beyond anything I expected. I was really happy with that. But that in particular, I think, was the key scene for me.

Krsy Fox: Yeah, no pressure, right?

Spider One: Don’t fuck it up!

PopHorror: That scene does make you uncomfortable. She’s like, “Do you want to see it?” “No, I don’t. You’re standing really close, and I don’t want to see it.”

Spider One: And it felt like that when we shot it, because we didn’t rehearse that scene. We rehearsed everything else. There was something about that. We talked about tone and tempo, maybe referenced a few other examples of feeling from other movies that we might want to try to achieve, but I think there was something really important about keeping that moment in the moment and not having it feel rehearsed. So, if tears started to fall, they were real. Those reactions of Josephine [Chang] just squirming to get out of there were real. I think having not rehearsed that scene made it probably better than it would have been if we had rehearsed it.

PopHorror: That is impressive!

Krsy Fox: Thank you.

PopHorror: What is it that draws you to the horror genre?

Krsy Fox:  For me, it’s by far my favorite genre. It’s just something about horror films that can make you feel 100 different things at once, and I love being scared and being completely horrified by something and then wanting to watch it again right away. Films that I grew up, like Texas Chain Saw Massacre, or even The Craft and Scream, they really molded into who I am and made me comfortable with being me.

It sounds really weird, but I see a lot of myself in a lot of the characters in horror films, especially in films where there’s a lot of character development. I just love the roller coaster that horror can put you on. There’s no other genre that can put you through so many things. You could be crying, terrified, and not able to sleep, and it can stay with you for weeks. It’s just a really special thing.

Spider One: I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t into horror, science fiction, and comic books. I think I was born into it, in a weird way. I feel very fortunate growing up in the years that I did, because when I was a little kid, it seemed that everything, even Saturday morning stuff, was all based around monsters and music. I remember being a kid growing up outside of Boston. A local TV channel every Saturday had a show called Creature Double Feature and they would show Godzilla movies and Frankenstein. It was just always there and such an exciting outlet for a creative young kid. It was so cool.

I loved to draw, and I would always draw pictures of monsters. It was always part of my life. But then as I grew up, I started to really appreciate the deeper value of horror and science fiction. That these are movies that, when done right, can tackle social issues and political issues, but we mask them in these fantastical things. I always loved that way about it, too, that you can tell deeper stories through representation with monsters or robots or whatever it is. That part of it always appealed to me too.

PopHorror: I feel all of that 100%. What is up next for both of you?

Spider One: Well, we’ve wrapped a second feature already.

PopHorror: Oh, wow!

Spider One: Yeah, so we did that, and we’re editing that movie now. It’s called Bury the Bride. It’s another horror movie. Not an anthology but a full linear story. Very intense, very physical. It’s a different beast than Allegoria. If Allegoria makes you think, this one makes you want to run and hide. It’s pretty intense.

PopHorror: That’s super exciting. I can’t wait to see that.

Spider One: We’re almost done with post, so hopefully next year, we’ll be talking to you about that one, too. And Krsy stars in that one along with Scout Taylor-Compton and a bunch of other great actors. We’re so fortunate to be surrounded by so many talented actors. It really makes my job a lot easier as a director, too.

PopHorror: That is one thing that I did notice about this movie. It has a really great cast. Warren from Buffy!

Krsy Fox: I had no idea how many people would react to Adam [Busch]. It’s funny, from the Buffy thing. I’ve been caught in that, because he’s been in a few things of mine, and people are like, “Oh, my God!” Wow, Buffy fans are hardcore.

Spider One: For my first movie to have this kind of level of actors is sort of unheard of. It’s amazing. There isn’t a weak link in the cast. Everyone just killed it. Couldn’t be happier.

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

Krsy Fox: Favorite? I always say, because it’s true, it’s one I have to go back to every year, but it’s definitely still The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. It still haunts me. I still feel a swear when I watch that movie, to this day. You really feel like you’re in it. It’s almost like a documentary, but like the most horrific thing you could ever experience, and you feel like you’re going through it with them. 

Spider One: How do you pick one? It’s just so hard. It’s just so hard to pick one. One scary movie. You’re favorite movie.

Krsy Fox: Well, you know what it is.

Spider One: No, I don’t. I could say The Shining. Absolutely. Best horror movie ever. But then it’s like, wait. What about Jaws? But is Jaws a horror movie? Alien, maybe? I have so many. In terms of what I consider a horror movie, I’d probably go with The Shining.

Thank you so much, Spider One and Krsy, for taking the time to speak with us. You can catch Allegoria on Shudder and VOD now!