PopHorror Let's Get Scared
A man comes up to you, a stranger, and says that in his research he’s discovered a cure for cancer. He offers to help you. Would you do it?
A quantum physicist develops a machine that creates a tunnel to a subatomic universe. In his quest to prove the machine’s efficacy, he inadvertently discovers a radical treatment for cancer.
My answer is hell yes. Could I die? Possibly, but the cancer would probably kill me too.
This is the premise of the new film The A-Frame, written and directed by Calvin Lee Reeder (The Field Guide to Evil) and starring Johnny Whitworth (Empire Records; Valentine). To celebrate the release of the film, I chatted with Calvin and Johnny about the heavy subject matter of The A-Frame, the horror genre, horror movies, and more!
PopHorror: I loved The A-Frame so I’m super excited to talk to you guys about it today. It was so unique, and I went into it totally blind. I had no idea what it was about, and I thought it was awesome. My first question is for you, Calvin. What sparked the idea for The A-Frame and how did the project come about?
Calvin Lee Reeder: I really just wanted to do an homage to the 80s science fiction and body horror. Obviously Cronenberg is a huge influence here but so is the Stuart Gordon work – a movie like Altered States – so we really just wanted to tip our hats to those things and make it really obvious but also have something new to say in doing so. I really have appreciated some project I’d seen recently that kind of stood on the shoulders of the previous giants but had something new to say, so that was what I wanted to do, and I’ve always just wanted to make a film focused on a guy with a machine he can’t control.
PopHorror: Body horror is my jam and I’m a big Cronenberg fan so love hearing that he is an inspiration.
Calvin Lee Reeder: Oh yeah!
PopHorror: And Johnny, what intrigued you about the script and made you want to be a part of the project?
Johnny Whitworth: Calvin! And the script. I read the script and then I connected that to after meeting him and watching his work, it seemed pretty funny in my kind of humor kind of way. And it proved to be so.
PopHorror: It’s always nice when there’s a comedic element when something is so… Like the subject matter outside of the science fiction part of this movie is very heavy and one that tends to hit people really hard, so to have a comedic element is always appreciated and welcomed in something like this.
Johnny Whitworth: Yeah, and especially in this day and age.
PopHorror: Calvin, was there anything that you were adamant about keeping in the film, no matter what?
Calvin Lee Reeder: There was no fighting about me withholding anything, so I didn’t actually have to do that. Everybody was very supportive of it from the very start. That’s one way of saying it, but I think another way of saying it is when I was creating it and I was trying to keep myself in check, one of the things was I wanted to show a lot of sympathy towards the audience, who may have experienced cancer or been close to somebody who’s done that. That didn’t come from the producers or anything, that came from me trying to make sure I was sensitive to that throughout. We will let the audience decide if we did a good job with that or not, but that was definitely something that we approached in mind with because everybody watching this film will have been touched by cancer in one way or another, so it’s okay to make some kind of jokes but we certainly don’t want people walking away feeling worse if they have that one their mind.
Johnny Whitworth: I didn’t see anything that was making fun of cancer. Not that kind of inappropriate; it’s a more sophomoric kind of inappropriate, which makes it funny but not against cancer.
PopHorror: I would agree.
Johnny Whitworth: It’s his writing. It’s subtle.
PopHorror: I wasn’t offended by anything. I really like it when horror has a heart, when there’s a little more and there’s a bit of depth to it. There’s sympathy there, there’s empathy. There wasn’t anything where I was like, wow, they went there with that. When horror has a heart like it, it makes horror fans like me realize that we don’t like all terrible things. We like it to be softened sometimes.
Calvin Lee Reeder: Thank you.
PopHorror: Johnny, was there anything that you were adamant about bringing to your character?
Johnny Whitworth: I liked the subtle comedy. That’s what I wanted to bring to it because it’s such a dark thing and the idea of trying to rationalize and humanize Sam in a manner that I could commit to what I was doing for righteous means. It could be justifiable in a certain realm, but those people are kind of considered evil at times.
Calvin Lee Reeder: He’s very funny naturally, as well, so it’s probably hard for that to come across. Johnny’s a joker so he brought out the jokes, even sometimes found them when they were missing. He was like, “How about this? This is actually funny.” He found that kind of stuff.
PopHorror: I like what you said about reminding us that he’s human because a character like that, who is coming from a good place maybe deep down in his heart, there’s really a sinister side to him and he knows that it’s not going to work, so maybe he has to make light of that so that he doesn’t feel so bad about it. Just my thoughts.
Johnny Whitworth: Interesting!
PopHorror: Neither of you are strangers to the horror genre. What brings you back to horror?
Calvin Lee Reeder: Well, shoot. For me, this started as a science fiction contribution, and it turned into something that can be classified as both science fiction and horror. I’ve always felt really comfortable in this area. I always felt that horror was just drama with genre on top of it and drama to me houses comedy. If you write the characters clearly and the audience knows what they want, then I feel like you can sucker punch them whichever way you wish as far as festivals and stuff go. Just an easier path for me to go in the genre lane. I don’t really want to compete in the drama lane.
Johnny Whitworth: I’ve done a few. I didn’t necessarily consider this a horror. I like to attack a character in a manner where I’m trying to make him as convincing and believable as possible, and the idea behind that is finding my truth that I can relate to in some way. Not that I can relate necessarily truth that matches their intention, but a truth within myself that could be perceived by the viewer with that intention that I might have but they have to do that work. Unless someone is chasing me with a hockey mask or a Freddy glove or something, I don’t think of horror. I think of just a piece of like, hey man, this is a cool experiment, let’s see if I get to play a mad scientist!
PopHorror: I have just one last question for you both. What is your favorite scary movie?
Johnny Whitworth: The Shining, and Rosemary’s Baby.
Calvin Lee Reeder: I’m going to go with Bridges of Madison County and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
Thank you so much to Calvin and Johnny for taking the time to chat with us. The A-Frame will be released on digital on August 5, 2025.
