00:01 - Speaker 1 (Host)
Quiet on the set. All together ready set and action. 

00:10 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
Welcome to Media Monuments presented by Women in Film Video in Washington DC. Media Monuments features conversations with industry professionals speaking on a range of topics of interest to screen-based media makers. 

00:28 - Tyler McIntyre (Guest)
Hi everyone. Thank you for joining us on Media Monuments podcast. This episode is a pretty fun one for me, tara. We'll get to why Basically ever wonder what the holiday classic it's. A wonderful life would look like with a masked serial killer on the loose in Bedford Falls with only one plucky young final girl in the James Stewart role as the only one who can put an end to all of the bloodshed. That's the premise of the new horror comedy, with equal parts Hart and Bloody Mayhem. It's a wonderful knife. Today we are joined by the film's director, tyler McIntyre. Did I say it right, tyler McIntyre? 

01:14 - Speaker 1 (Host)
Yeah, that's correct. 

01:15 - Tyler McIntyre (Guest)
So thank you so much for coming on. One of the reasons why it's pretty special last season there's three co-hosts and Sandra is one of the co-hosts and she does not like horror films and I don't like holiday films. We had learned we did a special on horror films and holiday films and we both complained on each other's episode. I'm like I can't stand holiday movies if I see one more stupid hot chocolate and she's like I don't like being scared. So when we found out about this movie, they're like Tara, you're doing it. I'm like glad to. So I wanted to say like this has been a really fun twist on things. How did you guys decide on that and were there any problems with, like copyright issues or anything like that? 

02:09 - Speaker 1 (Host)
No really, I mean, it's just inspired by, you know, the sort of high concept of it's a wonderful life and obviously the title is a bit of a pun. But it's not like a beat for beat remake at all and I think that's fairly apparent if you kind of watch the movie. The structure is completely different, the characters are completely different. All it is doing is just kind of riffing on that and, to be fair, it's a wonderful life is a riff on a Christmas Carol. So, Ben, we tried to essentially be as beholden as it's a wonderful life is to the Christmas Carol, as we are to that film. But really we just wanted to make kind of a roller coaster slasher with a lot of holiday flavor. 

02:56 - Tyler McIntyre (Guest)
Well, some of the death scenes were kind of fun. The producer, brandon, and I watched it Thank you so much for an early release and he was like I could never look at a candy cane decoration the same way again. How did you guys approach practical effects with large amounts of either blood and gore, especially when it's snowy too, so white. 

03:20 - Speaker 1 (Host)
Yeah, yeah, I mean I've definitely worked with a lot of practical effects before and some digital effects. You know I've made a couple of horror films so far and you know it's always a very fun part of the process, kind of figuring out exactly how you're going to pull off those gags. Mostly it's about trying to get the right confluence of logistics and price points and, like you know the locations and things like that and making sure that you have these kind of creative kills, because a lot of the horror fans kind of look for that sort of thing and sometimes you're not able to. You know you have to rethink things kind of. You know, later in the process or kind of last minute sometimes Some of them, like the Candy Cane Death you mentioned, like was a very early one that we knew we could sort of place anywhere and that's that was such a flexible kind of fun idea and very holiday focused and you know you haven't really seen it before. 

04:07
So it was kind of like a good thing where some of them are more like nods to other types of kills we've seen and then we're why do our version of them with a holiday spin and things like that. So you know, and that's a fun part of the process and some of that's on the page with Michael and some of that's, you know, something we figure out between myself and the DP and the production designer, like as we're getting closer to production. 

04:26 - Tyler McIntyre (Guest)
And one thing that's like pretty. I feel like there's a lot of pressure in doing a horror film with a how the killer looks like right. So we have. There's the iconic jumpsuit for Michael Myers, or the green and red sweater for Freddie Krueger, so forth, so forth. How did you guys approach the killer's look for your film? Because it is quite unique. 

04:51 - Speaker 1 (Host)
Yeah, thank you. Yeah, yeah, I mean it's been something that we were, you know, toying around with. In the scripties referred to as kind of all white and an angel costume, and so you know we knew that that involved a cloak, but we weren't exactly, you know, sharon, and they also described kind of the ornate kind of knife or dagger that he has. And so we knew we had kind of like a jumping off point about it and just based on the action and like who ended up kind of having to sort of justify being in the suits, we knew he was going to be kind of more of a lean and fast kind of killer, a little bit more like a ghost face versus like a bigger killer like a Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers kind of thing, like you know the big lumbering behind. And so we knew we wanted a bit of a unique silhouette. 

05:30
But it became pretty apparent that we didn't want wings. They were kind of impractical. They were a bit like a cape or something. I mean it looked to like, you know, a spirit, halloween costume, fairy kind of thing, where it was just weird, you know, running through, you know it would have been weird. And so we knew that we wanted to have sort of sharper shoulder blades to kind of give that impression. 

05:47
But then we looked at a lot of like tree toppers, like angel tree toppers, and they all a lot of those ones, especially the vintage ones, have kind of these sort of blank, kind of porcelain expressions, and so that was kind of a jumping off point for us and we started we wanted essentially his face to have this like blank white, you know kind of be featureless, with no eyes and have all the texture of like a frosted light bulb so you could see like the crisp lights reflected in it and it would be kind of creepy. But it also had these you know set of challenges, like we'd have to hide him in snow and against white surfaces you know, instead of like in shadow, which a lot of you know darker our killers are kind of darker costumes and you know which was fun to kind of figure out. 

06:29 - Tyler McIntyre (Guest)
Yeah, you guys did a really good job. I was when I was watching it in the previews I was like, oh, that's a nice, pretty look for a killer. And then when I watched him, like yeah, I was thinking in my head I'm like if I had to be killed by someone, this was like a nice thing to look at right before. And then I'm watching him like, no, never mind, it's too hard. 

06:48 - Speaker 1 (Host)
Yeah, yeah, I mean, you know he ended up kind of having a bit of a graceful kind of quality to him that I think Cody, who was a stunt person who wore the costume most of the time, had to. He also had to sort of learn to operate, you know, somewhat because the mask was extremely hard to see out of and so we had these different stages of it that were more or less easy to see out of. But generally speaking, it's really hard to make a shiny white surface that you can see through. You know, it's like a one way glass. It doesn't really work very well and so, depending on the lighting conditions, like he couldn't see much at all. So he often learned things kind of blind and then would sort of rehearse them and it gave it this very kind of sort of graceful quality at certain moments. That just kind of interesting. 

07:32 - Tyler McIntyre (Guest)
Yeah, it was really cool, A nice touch, because I think what you guys did Pretty good job is for such a beloved film. It's a wonderful life not to make it Too gory or too. Something more respectful, like even the killer, the way it's dressed or the set design and it's like Aurora Borealis and all that stuff was kind of nice and I'm be like, see, it's not insulting or anything like that, because was that a lot of pressure? You're like, oh, we're gonna piss off a lot of people. 

08:03 - Speaker 1 (Host)
Yeah, I mean it was definitely a beloved kind of classic and we're definitely kind of Doing a bit of a riff on it. It's sort of Fundamental enough to the lexicon where, where people are not in that, that we're kind of interstitial space where they're they're so they don't want to see anything like like the thing they love, like I think it's been sort of a grain and culture long enough. I mean, the movie's almost 80 years old, you know. So it's, you know it's pretty far back in in in the public consciousness. That you know. 

08:28
But it is, you know, something that people are very aware of and and we aren't the first people to kind of riff on on that sort of, you know, magical like wish that we see your life differently. Like you know, people are very aware of that trope and so we just wanted to make sure that we were having the right type of fun with it in Like a horror rapper. But for me, like the challenge was more trying to bring that warm fuzzy feeling and that kind of uplifting sort of ending to something that is, I mean, no spoilers, but To a slasher movie, which often don't have that. So you know, it's a relatively well-meaning movie, you know, in when you compare it to other things in its subgenre, and I think that's why people kind of have been sort of responding Well to it is because it has the sort of warmth to it. 

09:07 - Tyler McIntyre (Guest)
Yeah, that's definitely true. One of my questions is that there were quite a few about five or so main characters that are queer. Can you talk about why you guys decided to use Like have so many LGBTQ plus characters in this film? 

09:25 - Speaker 1 (Host)
I just thought, you know, really out of the norm for Michael or myself. I mean, michael's a queer man and and you know, his previous film, the Roque Freaky, definitely had some characters who were kind of at the forefront. You know, a previous movie I made, tragedy girls, had, is, had a lot of kind of queer elements and and and definitely was something that that was Relatively intentionally queer coded, you know. And so we thought, like you know now that we kind of had those two movies like do we know well, within the, within their genres, this time around people were just a lot more like supportive of it. I mean, even going back a couple years, like it was a lot harder to get a Central character to have any sort of queer elements for fear of a lot of, you know, just general homophobia in the public and and and also like internationally it's it's it's tough to sell phones, but like times are changing and obviously for the better and so so like there was definitely that those sorts of elements you really want to do Well, liked kind of queer athletes and and like not really hang a lantern on it. You know, just kind of like not be about. You know him realizing his current, just just like. It was just something about. 

10:30
He was just a person living his life and and that was kind of, you know, a discussion for us early on, and so he was in the script pretty early and Gail like had, you know, had a sort of like cool and quality. 

10:44
And then that was something that happened in development even before I was on, but it was discussion between Adam Hendricks, our producer, and and and Michael that they were like well, let's just make the you know me and you know gay as well, and and so it. You know, like those two were kind of in the strip when I got on and then. But then through production, like we like Bernie and Winnie's relationship in the movie and this is a bit of a spoilery thing, like you know like had kind of these sort of shades of being, of Kind of implied queerness to it, but it was more just a like an intimate sort of friendship. And then through casting, jane went up and and just the cloud they had like a chemistry to it and and and the idea really came from like us all kind of I mean they definitely like approached us being like, hey, can we play? 

11:30
it's a bit more like a romance and then, and then it really just grew from there and it was more responding to, like, the type of chemistry we were seeing. And then, before you know it, like you know, we had a lot of, we had a lot more queer characters than that is the norm. But again, that's, you know, something that that our studio was supportive of. And then and it's great that we're in that time, you know and so we wanted to kind of seize the opportunity as a present itself. 

11:53 - Tyler McIntyre (Guest)
That way. It's a great point because while watching it, all these characters no one's playing like you tend to see, like a one queer character who's sort of like in the backdrop or a side character, something. It was very interesting. It didn't play with the tropes and it's like listen, these are all these characters and they help with either the murderer, the killer or the Hero, and it does it. Some happen to be gay, some happen not to be gay. That's the end of it. So it didn't play with those kind of. I just expected them to be straight, because in the history it has been that way. Or, oh, it's interesting that they made a gay. You guys just made it very like. That's how it is and it's nice that you shared the process of like. Okay, we decided on a couple of characters. It sounds like from the beginning like the brother being gay, but he's not. He's the high school, not Jock, but like he's the popular guy. 

12:52
And that's usually not what you see in films, that the gay guy is the popular guy. And then you saw chemistry between these, the actors and stuff and started kind of changing it and it just felt like a natural process. 

13:07 - Speaker 1 (Host)
I don't think we were like too preoccupied by trying to make the movie more queer than it kind of felt like it was, you know. But I mean it just really. I mean honestly like we just had a lot of queer and like non-binary people like working on the movie and the crew and stuff like that. It just it all kind of fell into place in a way that was natural from the top story we were talking about. 

13:25 - Tyler McIntyre (Guest)
I was just thinking like it felt natural, so I was just curious on how much was it really a conscious effort, and it sounds like it's a little bit of both, but it showed the naturalness of it that that's just how the characters are. 

13:40 - Speaker 1 (Host)
Yeah, yeah, totally. I mean I always try to kind of listen to sort of what's happening, like as you're kind of making it, because like it doesn't make sense to sort of fight the you know like the natural things that are putting on set Like you don't want to rebel against the chemistry. It's hard to fit. You know the square pegs and the round holes, you know, like in any sort of performance, and so you really want to seize those opportunities because those are. That's where the good stuff is. 

14:03 - Tyler McIntyre (Guest)
Well, one of the other things that I noticed there's sort of a trend now of these fun, teen centric horror movies. In the last few years we have Talk To Me, happy Death Day, bodies, bodies, bodies, now this one, and it's reminiscent of some of the 90s teen slasher movie craze. Do you look to continue working in this genre and how do you approach creating these kinds of films for a Gen Z and younger millennial audience? 

14:36 - Speaker 1 (Host)
This is my third film and they've all been sort of younger skewing. 

14:40
You know, horror films I always try and approach it, you know, depending on the type of characters that are. 

14:45
I wasn't on one of the writers on this, so it's a bit of a different thing because I am able to sort of hire performers to collaborate with and sort of figure out how to make it authentic, whereas when I'm writing things I always try and figure out like well, you know, as a guy in his 30s, like it's a little bit harder to put myself in the mindset of, like, often like protagonists who are, you know, going through a different experience. 

15:06
And so I just want to make sure that I sort of have ways of sort of checking in with, you know, the authenticity of it, and often I do like table reads with kind of younger performers and get sort of feedback or talk to younger writers who are a bit closer to that sort of experience and, you know, make sure that we're not sort of overstepping. But a lot of things that I do are quite stylized and they're often grounded in some pretty heavy satire. It's more flexible, like. It's not like anyone's like oh man, you know it's a wonderful. You know knife was not the most authentic way, but I do want them to see some truth in it and you just have to be honest with that. 

15:41 - Tyler McIntyre (Guest)
The last question, because it actually ties in what we just talked about Congratulations on your recent box office success with your other film of Five Nights at Fridays. 

15:53 - Speaker 1 (Host)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, sorry yeah. 

15:55 - Tyler McIntyre (Guest)
Yes, and so it's my understanding. You share a screen story credit. 

16:00 - Speaker 1 (Host)
So myself, my writing partner, chris Lee Hill, we wrote a number of drafts of Five Nights at Fridays over the years and we're brought in and out a couple times to sort of work with Scott Coffin, who was the creator of the game to team at Blumhouse to try and figure out how to sort of figure out that narrative, because you know there's over a dozen games and there's hundreds of characters and like a lot of difference ways to sort of skin that cat, as it's a video game adaptation, and so we were able to bring a bit of a frame to it and kind of figure out the type of story that maybe need to be told and the pandemic. The timeline got a little strange and so we weren't able to. I was attached to directed at a certain point and then eventually it ended up. Emma, tommy and her team ended up being able to get across the finish line, I think, did a great job. I mean, people are really responding to it and it's, you know it's been, it's been awesome to see it sort of find its audience. 

16:56 - Tyler McIntyre (Guest)
It's a wonderful knife arrives in theaters starting November 10th, just in time to kick off the holiday season. Thank you, guys, so much, and happy holidays. 

17:08 - Speaker 1 (Host)
Happy holidays to you. 

17:11 - Tara Jabbari (Host)
Thank you for listening to Media and Monuments, a service of women in film and video. Please remember to review, rate and subscribe wherever you listen to this podcast. For more information about WIF, please visit our website at wwwwifasenfrancvasenfictororg. Media and Monuments is produced by Sandra Abrams, Candice Block, Brandon Ferry and Tara Jabari and edited by Emma Klein, with Audio Production and Mix by Steve Lack Audio. For more information about our podcast, visit mediaandmonumentscom. That's a wrap.