Brittany Allen & Colin Minihan Discuss Their Awesome Thriller WHAT KEEPS YOU ALIVE

I spoke to Colin Minihan and Brittany Allen about their collaboration on their new film What Keeps You Alive. Minihan came up with the idea while reading about a few men that murdered their wives and got away with it (a few times). But there are so many unique and exciting twists in this film, you’ll never leave the edge of your seat – unless you happen to fall right off with excitement. With Minihan writing and directing and Allen acting and scoring, they make one hell of a team.

Samantha Celentano for Film Inquiry: Thanks for talking with me, first I wanna say I totally loved the movie. It was so fun to watch. I loved that I never quite knew where it was headed most of the time, even in that typical “cabin in the woods” setting. So Colin, I wanted to know if there was anything that inspired this story in particular?

Colin Minihan: Narratively, the film was inspired by some articles I read about husbands that had killed their wives and had gotten away with it but got busted on, like, the third try. But also I’ve always been fascinated by psychopaths and sort of their lack of emotion.

I loved that it was a gay couple rather than a straight couple, you know, not just a man killing his wife or a woman killing her husband. And another thing about that was that the character of Jackie was so inhuman that it made me wonder if she was even gay at all, or if she just thinks that women are easier prey for her… is there anything to that or do you think she actually prefers women?

Colin Minihan: You know, that’s really interesting. I told this story a fair bit of times about the way that it came about… and I’m very happy it became a same-sex couple. Initially, I wrote the part for a guy. It was supposed to be a man trying to kill his wife, but the actor that was supposed to play him ended up being unavailable and then I started revisiting the script and that’s when I decided to change the character to a woman –

Brittany Allen: And we were all so happy about that.

Colin Minihan: Yeah, for sure. But that’s – no one has ever asked that, that maybe she’s pretending. I don’t know, I mean, I guess that’s open for interpretation. But, there was a time during developing the script where Jules finds the lockets, and she actually looks through them all and there were a few lockets with Jackie and a few different men.

That’s exactly what I was going to ask –

Colin Minihan: We decided not to show it – mostly for pacing.

Right. Because I was going to ask if there were any men in there because, like I said, I felt like the character didn’t really feel anything, so for her to kill only women… I don’t know, I think she’s just crazy.

Colin Minihan: Totally, I love that, yeah maybe Jackie had a few men in her day.

So, Brittany, were you always going to play Jules?

Brittany Allen: Yes, Colin wrote it with me in mind to play Jules and a friend of ours to play Jule’s husband at the time. When Colin decided to change direction and make it to a same-sex couple, he also adjusted the character playing the opposite. When Jules was supposed to be married to a man, she was originally this meek and mild-mannered wife who found her voice and strength later in the script, but as Colin developed the story and it turned into a same-sex marriage and then Hannah’s [Hannah Emily Anderson plays Jackie] character developed, Jules actually became a character who starts off strong – and possibly the more dominant one – which was really fun for me to play.

And you also scored the movie, right? I actually noticed the score and how much I liked it before I even knew that it was you!

Brittany Allen: Yeah it was, it was the first movie I’ve scored. Colin has been a major supporter of my work in music over the years. While we were shooting the film we were playing with the idea that I might try to score, but I didn’t know if I could do it.

Once Colin edited the film, I tried scoring a couple of scenes, and it just came together and I fell into it naturally and it was so fulfilling. It was a whole other form of creating that I’m so grateful for and I look forward to continuing to do more. It was the most work I’ve ever done on a film and it was awesome to develop this creative relationship with Colin, too.

That’s so cool, and you did an amazing job! So, do you and Colin have any other projects coming up?

Colin Minihan: Brittany has to hear my word vomit every day, but there’s one idea that I have that I haven’t started writing or developing yet. But I wanna develop this idea.. Brittany has said her biggest fear is losing her mind and I thought about writing about that and blending it with how your own family can make you crazy. I’ve been around a lot of families… and I think a lot of people can relate to that theme.

I need to tell you… that’s actually my biggest fear, too. I mean what’s scarier than not being able to think for yourself! But I hope that you write that movie because I will definitely watch it and be terrified.

Colin Minihan: I hope I do too!

Film Inquiry thanks Colin Minihan and Brittany Allen for taking the time to speak with us.

What Keeps You Alive got a limited theatrical release in the US on August 24th, and is also available on VOD.