Interview With The Directing Team RKSS Of SUMMER OF 84

Summer of 84′ manages to combine the thrills of youth and coming to age in the 80’s, while also diving into some very dark territory with the main premise: a group of kids investigate a local man under their suspicion that he’s the serial killer targeting children. There are clear inspirations worked into the film, encompassing our favorites from the 80’s era, while also adding some unique styles of its own.

A group of teenagers, Davey (Graham Verchere), Tommy (Judah Lewis), Dale ‘Woody’ (Caleb Emery) and Curtis ‘Farraday’ (Cory Gruter-Andrew) believe their local neighbor, a police offer played by Rich Sommer, is the serial killer on the loose. They decide to take matters into their own hands and do some investigating. Of course, things don’t turn out as expected.

The film has a troubling tone at times, and while these teens make jokes and are girl-crazy (specifically Davey for neighbor Nikki- Tiera Skovbye) there’s also a genuine sense of dread. There are some lulls in the middle of the movie, but in its last act Summer of 84’ ensures you’ll remember it.

As a directing trio the team: François Simard, Anouk Whissell and Yoann-Karl Whissell, also known as RKSS, creates a tense, comical, but also disturbing portrayal with Summer of ’84, their second feature film. Both of their films, including their first (Turbo Kid) played at Sundance.

I was able to sit down with the three directors to pick their brains on their favorite 80’s films, and the process of casting and creating the film!

Kristy Strouse for Film Inquiry: I really enjoyed Summer of 84, and I appreciate you speaking with me.

Yoann-Karl Whissell: Thank you for liking it!

I loved the appreciation of nostalgia. I think you captured the essence of coming of age well, and also you recognized the sort of… transition, when you reach a certain age and grow out of that safety you know as a kid (especially by the end of the film).

François Simard: Thank you so much! It was so easy to jump right into the script because we were those kids. We were horny like that, we were stealing alcohol from our parents, and we were swearing way too much [laughs]. So, it was easy to see ourselves and all of our friends in it.

How did the project get started?

Yoann-Karl Whissell: We met Matt, one of the writers, when we were doing meetings in LA, and he pitched it to us, and was very passionate about it. It sounded like something that we would have done, so we started developing the idea with him. Eventually we met with Gunpowder and Sky that decided to jump in on the project, and that was it! We got the green light and moved forward.

Anouk Whissell: It actually started in 2015, so it’s already been like three years. Yeah, Matt’s passion was contagious. It was a very personal project for him, a passion project. And he thought we were the best people to do it. I think what appealed to us, is like what he said (François) we started to recognize our friends and ourselves in the characters in the story. But also, the dark turn that the ending gets, this was something that we thought made the film different than others. It made it stand out.

François Simard: I think the fact that the story takes this huge risk was one of the main reasons we said yes. Because like Anouk said it made it stand out from all the other ones and made it memorable. If you just see it, this movie will stay with you for a long time. And that’s what we like about it. I would add that this was in 2015, so it was before all the nostalgia craze and at some point, we were wondering if this movie would still be made, but it was the complete opposite. Everyone knew that there was a huge public for this stuff and we got the green light very fast.

Yoann-Karl Whissell: Afterwards yeah

So, it helped then? The popularity of recent ones like Stranger Things and IT?

François Simard: Yes, totally. But, if this project had been pitched to us post Stranger Things I don’t know that we would have had the same answer.

Understandable. I do want to point that I did love the route that the film went with the end of the movie. It was quite surprising, but in a good way. It took a dark turn, and it set it apart from other films. That was actually one of the aspects that I liked the most [laughs] maybe that makes me a weirdo.

Yoann-Karl Whissell: No, no, it makes you amazing! [Laughs].

François Simard: But we’re the same! We run a risk with the ending, but everyone loved this project because of that risk. You won’t see this in a blockbuster. The fact that it’s a small indie movie we can take that risk and have something different.

Definitely! And it pays off. I haven’t often seen three directors. Can you tell us a bit about how you distribute work? What the dynamic is like?

Yoann-Karl Whissell: A lot of crying and fighting. No, I’m joking! [Laughs]

François Simard: It’s the worst!

Yoann-Karl Whissell: It is actually the best. We’ve been working, the three of us together, for 15 years. We’re having so much fun doing it as friends. The only moments that we’ll really “split” is on set (though we still talk about everything) and I will talk to the actors, François will the head of the camera, and Anouk will talk with all the heads of the departments. But the three of us come together and discuss everything. It’s so important to us, and we come on set so prepared that we have one vision. We share a brain, we have that weird hive mind where we telekinetically talk to one another. I mean, I guess that it comes from the fact that we are always together, like everyday.

François Simard: Just to be more specific – we only split on set just to avoid confusion. If somebody has a question and doesn’t know who to ask, we’ll lose time. And time is money, so it is mostly because of that.

Right, like a division of labor.

Anouk Whissell: I’d also like to say that if ever someone comes to ask each of us the same question, you will get the same answer. Rich Sommer actually tested us, just for fun, and he admitted it to us at the end of the shoot. He went up to each one of us with the same question, and he said it was a tricky question, and we did answer the same thing. He was impressed. [Laughs]

Yoann-Karl Whissell: Thank god we passed that test!

That’s funny that he did that! Speaking of Rich, he’s such a great villain! He manages a perfect balance of the neighborhood nice guy but he’s also creepy. What was it like directing him in that way?

Yoann-Karl Whissell: It was fun! Working with Rich, he’s amazing, and he brought a lot to the character himself. What’s great about this character is that it reflects on how serial killers are. They hide in plain sight, most of them. Like, John Wayne Gacy – most of his neighbors hired him for their children’s birthdays and he would dress as a clown. But he was packing his basement with teenage boys. So, there’s something scary about how they can seem absolutely normal, and then are just pure…

François Simard: Evil.

Yoann-Karl Whissell: Evil – yes, and pure darkness, and that is really, really scary.

François Simard: And that’s why we wanted the character of Mackey to be very likable, so it would cast doubt on the public. I think Rich was perfect for that role.

Anouk Whissell: Yeah, he was always right in there – that likability, but also a creepiness, and it was very good.

Absolutely, and the entire cast was great. The four teens had a really great, organic chemistry, that made them seem like real friends. Was that difficult to find when you were casting?

Yoann-Karl Whissell: It took a long casting process. We wanted to find the perfect Davey before casting the rest. Once we found Davey [Graham Verchere], then we built around him. It was a long process to find the perfect kids. It was worth it, because you can see it on screen. It was fun because we were able to build a chemistry on screen where they were friends and joking together, spending all that time together, and that made everything else easier. I was a big brother for a whole summer.

François Simard: We just told them, you have to become friends in real life! And they did!

Yoann-Karl Whissell: They went and did escape room together, and that could have backfired on us, but thank god they had a great time!

Well that’s awesome! I’m sure there are a lot of inspirations that you drew from, but what are some of your favorite 80’s films?

François Simard: That’s a tough question, there’s a lot!

Yoann-Karl Whissell: Yeah.

François Simard: For Summer of 84, The Burbs was a huge influence.

I can see that!

François Simard: We love The Goonies, we love Monster Squad, and Stand by Me.

Yoann-Karl Whissell: Stand by Me is such a classic.

François Simard: Fright Night.

Yoann-Karl Whissell: Yes! Fright Night is awesome!

François Simard: We would even add People Under The Stairs, but I don’t know if that’s the 80’s.

Yoann-Karl Whissell: It’s 90’s I think.

Anouk Whissell: I think it was late 80’s.

Whichever it is, People Under The Stairs is great! All terrific choices! And thank you for mentioning Monster Squad, I feel like that’s often forgotten!

Yoann-Karl Whissell: Yeah! There are so many good films.

François Simard: We’re also huge fans of John Carpenter. We need to mention him somewhere in the article!

Yoann-Karl Whissell: He is the master. Not only for his movies, but for his music. His music is like the score of Summer of 84 for sure.

He is, and the score is great too, it really adds something to it! The ending kind of leaves things with the possibility of a continuance. Is there any consideration for a sequel? Like maybe later in these character’s lives?

Yoann-Karl Whissell: To do a sequel would depend on how popular the film is, because we’re artists, but producers are about money. We used to think it would be a good thing to do a sequel, but at the same time I think it would rob the ending of how powerful it is.

True!

Yoann-Karl Whissell: I think the ending, and the fact that its opened-ended and up to interpretation, interpretation of what’s going to happen next, helps it. So, I don’t know if we would do a sequel, but it would have to bring something really interesting to it.

François Simard: Personally, I think we are good without the sequel, I think it’s perfect that way, but if a writer had a great idea and the story is good and we’re as passionate as we were on the first one then maybe – you never know!

Yoann-Karl Whissell: You would need to have an interesting edge. It would need to bring something very different to it. It would be easy going to do the slasher type film and I don’t think it would bring anything new.

No, that’s true. It’s kind of tricky! What is coming next for you? You’re making Turbo Kid 2 right?

Yoann-Karl Whissell: Yeah, we’re writing it right now, and we’re having a lot of fun, but we’re putting a lot of pressure on ourselves because we received so much love! SO MUCH LOVE! With tattoos, and fan art, and everything, that it needs to be perfect. It needs to be at the level of all the love that we received. So, we’re putting a lot of pressure on ourselves. It needs to be good.

François Simard: That’s why we don’t rush anything, we take our time, it needs to be the best story we can write. But, we can wait to revisit this universe, it’s our baby. The fact that we did we did this movie super serious and very different in tone is not a statement, we still love crazy over the top movies. So, we just want to explore and have fun.

Yoann-Karl Whissell: Yes, we want to keep exploring! We want to do sci-fi. We wanted to do a western at one point, we really love westerns. We also want to do a kung-fu flick because we grew up on kung-fu. Like Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Donnie Yen are some of our favorites. So, we want to keep exploring and we want to try different styles and different kinds of film.

François Simard: Again, we never know which movie will get the green light first. So we have some projects in development, that we can’t talk about right now, but we can tell you that we are attached to a comic book adaptation called the Z word, and it could possibly be our next feature as well. We never know! [Laughs]

We look forward to seeing all of those!

François Simard: We definitely will keep fighting!

We want to thank the RKSS team, François Simard, Anouk Whissell and Yoann-Karl Whissell for speaking with us.

Summer of 84 arrives in theaters August 10^th!