PopHorror Let's Get Scared
One thing that I really liked about the new film by Stewart Thorndike, Bad Things, is the strong LGBTQ+ characters. It’s refreshing to see new and upcoming talent as the lead in a movie, and Bad Things has four of them – Gayle Rankin (GLOW) as Ruthie, Hari Nef (Barbie 2023) as Cal, Annabelle Dexter-Jones (Succession – TV series) as Fran, and Rad Pereira (Betty – TV series) as Maddie.
Heavily influenced by The Shining, Bad Things is described as:
A group of friends go to a hotel for a weekend getaway and soon discover that women do bad things here.
I am a huge fan of locked-room thrillers, or locked-room mysteries and while Bad Things isn’t 100% either of these things, it is still pretty fun for me. To celebrate the world premiere of the film at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival, I chatted with Stewart via Zoom about the inspiration behind the film, the casting process, finding the perfect filming location, and more!
PopHorror: I watched Bad Things last night and I really enjoyed it so I’m super excited to speak with you.
Stewart Thorndike: You liked it! You’re one of the first people to watch it so I’m excited to hear what you think.
PopHorror: Congratulations on Shudder acquiring this ahead of its premiere. How does that feel?
Stewart Thorndike: Wonderful! It’s what everybody wants and Shudder is like a dream home for the project so it’s exciting. It’s really exciting.
PopHorror: I bet. It’s going to have a good home there.
Stewart Thorndike: Yeah!
PopHorror: I read online that you wanted to make a film with female Travis Bickle and Jack Torrence-type of characters, and that you wanted women doing bad things but not having bad things happen to them. I read a quote where you said that being polite and subtle is forced on women, and I completely agree. I love seeing strong female characters, and I love seeing them kick ass and kill people. How did this project come about and how did you come up with the story?
Stewart Thorndike: I want all of the same things, obviously. It always starts from some place personal for me and there are certain themes that I am just compelled to probe again and again, this mother/daughter dynamic. I’m very fascinated with that. I’ve always been interested in… It’s not that I’m interested… I grew up with women, I write about women. I came up with the story because something like this kind of happened where I had do a long car ride with somebody and then they unexpectedly brought someone else who was both grieving the loss of their parent from the day before, and there was this weird like jealousy triangle happening in the car. It was just this very strange situation where I had to be kind of trapped in this car with someone who was going through grief and was jealous of me. But there was no reason to be jealous because I was not interested in this dude. Or she wasn’t jealous of me, she was just wondering if I was a threat. And I had to have a picnic, and she was grieving. It was just the worst.
PopHorror: That sounds awful.
Stewart Thorndike: Oh I know! I know. I think I wanted to capture that, but then I also wanted… There’s something larger than life about a mother, and that can be romantic. So I wanted this hot, sexy feeling, which is not necessarily what you usually think of with a mother character. I have a daughter now and she is five. When she’s very little you’re really bonded and then you realize that they’re starting to pull away, and that’s part of your job to teach them how to not need you anymore, and there’s heartache in that. It’s kind of like the reverse of that, I guess. All those kind of odd areas that a mother and child can have that we don’t necessarily see in film very often. It’s potent, and it can be toxic, and it can be intoxifying, and so it’s kind of all those things. And I think that’s where I was swirling around. And then I’m just an angry person, I guess.
PopHorror: Me too.
Stewart Thorndike: I’m sick of not being angry. Thank you! I like that you’re another angry woman.
PopHorror: I really like that because I did not have a close relationship with my mother growing up, so I tend to cling to those stories where I find they have a dynamic that I never had.
Stewart Thorndike: Ooh, you do?
PopHorror: I do. Seeing something like that is fascinating to me because it’s way different than what I have, so I appreciate you bringing that in because I love seeing how other people interact with their mothers.
Stewart Thorndike: Yeah, I’m with you, except I think I’m similar to you but had the opposite where I wanted to see what I had reflected more in the world. But I still have a fascination with like, “What did your mom make you when you were growing up for lunch?” “Can I see a picture of your mom’s kitchen?” I’m obsessed. It’s weird.
PopHorror: Can you tell me about your casting process? How important was it for you to cast trans and nonbinary actors?
Stewart Thorndike: It’s my honor to cast them. I’m primarily looking for talent and that was so apparent with these actors and it’s not hard for me to embrace people who might have a marginalized experience or not be a straight white woman. That’s just not hard for me to do because they’re interesting. It just makes your movie better so is it important? It’s definitely wonderful. So yeah, I would say it is important. I’m very proud of my cast but really, it’s talent. I’m looking at talent and a certain quality that people have. I think what’s interesting is women, who we think is allowed to be in a film and what that looks like when it’s a woman. When you let straight white men control that, they start to strip down what those roles can be and look like into almost just these tropes. So then when you get other people into mix making stories, we just want so much more and different qualities and different ranges. It’s like letting people come out of the box, really. I’m hungry for that.
PopHorror: The talent was fantastic. You’re right, they are super talented. What I liked about the cast is that this was really the first thing I’ve seen them in, which I love seeing new talent come in. And I liked the fact that being trans for some of them wasn’t part of their character. It didn’t matter, because it’s not a trope. It wasn’t pointed out and that I really loved.
Stewart Thorndike: I know exactly what you’re saying and I really appreciate that because that’s exactly how I cast. I’m not looking at these little pieces of a person because it’s so much bigger than that. It’s like a quality, like are they bringing this quality. I don’t care what else is there.
PopHorror: Like you didn’t cast them because of this, it just happened to be this way.
Stewart Thorndike: Nobody is defined by one thing and it’s ridiculous.
PopHorror: I think that’s growth. I like seeing that.
Stewart Thorndike: Oh, that’s beautiful. I like that.
PopHorror: Let’s talk about the setting. It looked like a real hotel. Was it abandoned, or did you just go in on a weekend? Tell me about the hotel.
Stewart Thorndike: The hotel is so amazing! I had been looking for a hotel forever, and most hotels now, they either look like they’re part of a chain or they are like a little rosy bed and breakfast or something. It was very hard to find something. I didn’t expect to find this in my wildest dreams. I basically was like taping notes on hotel doors for years, and during Covid there were more of them. This one, I just taped a note on the door, and probably a couple of months later someone called and said, “Did you put a note on this door looking for a hotel?” Then I did a visit and I was like oh yeah, it has to be here. That circular room and the vulva pink and mauve. It was just perfect. It was like a presence. It was like I was casting.
PopHorror: I liked the outside of it because it didn’t have that standard hotel look. It definitely did not look like a chain. That was really cool.
Stewart Thorndike: Yeah, you could kind of believe that someone could own and I did a lot of research on family owned businesses and stuff. It looks like the jewels are on the inside. It’s almost creepier that it’s so nondescript and that there’s a Starbucks next door. That makes me feel really haunted inside.
PopHorror: What do you hope people walk away with after watching your film?
Stewart Thorndike: That’s a good question. Well, I hope they feel this kind of… I hope I’ve proved something. When you make a movie I feel like you’re proving a perspective. I feel like just to get everybody to take a little step to the left and get something into their bloodstream that feels a little different, is what I would hope. And open up their perspectives a little, and be scared of me.
PopHorror: I think you’ll succeed. What is up next for you?
Stewart Thorndike: I’m doing a slasher film with older women.
PopHorror: I love that.
Stewart Thorndike: It’s called Frigid. It’s inspired by Anita Hill – a story like that – or Dr. Blasey Ford. It’s a woman who wasn’t as brave as they were and what it looks like if you don’t come forward and you kind of have your whole reality in question, even to the point where you are questioning your own reality. It’s really about a woman who is retraumatized years later and she has… The film argues that women are conditioned to doubt their own reality.
PopHorror: You have me intrigued.
Stewart Thorndike: Oh good!
PopHorror: Just one last question for you today. What is your favorite scary movie?
Stewart Thorndike: I can’t help it. I love the classics. I love Get Out, I love Rosemary’s Baby, I love The Shining. Eyes Without a Face freaks me out. I’m very afraid of Klute. I like it when I’m scared and emotional, kind of melancholy dread. That’s my jam.
Thank you so much to Stewart for taking the time speak with us. Bad Things had its world premiere on June 9, 2023 at the Tribeca Film Festival, and will start streaming on Shudder beginning August 18, 2023.
