Making his directorial full-length feature debut, Justin P. Lange‘s The Dark brings to life the the horrific and haunting story of Mina, a rage monster who claims the lives of those individuals that cross her path. This was one of my favorite films throughout this year’s entire Tribeca Film Festival and I am so glad that I had the opportunity to see this amazing film.
I had the pleasure of interviewing both director Justin P. Lange and lead actress Nadia Alexander in New York City at the Roxy Hotel while promoting The Dark at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.
Stephanie Archer of Film Inquiry: So I just caught the screening today, that was amazing!
Nadia Alexander: Oh I’m so glad that you liked it and you didn’t hate it.
I have not stopped thinking about it.
Nadia Alexander: [laughter] “So the movie was crap. So can you talk a little about that?'”
Nadia Alexander and Justin P. Lange: “So why did you make a bad movie?”. [laughter]
No, it was really, really good. I’m a huge horror fan, both horrors and thrillers. It was phenomenal, really well balanced with the horror, story and complexity. I do really want to know, I’m sure you have been asked a million times, but where did you get the inspiration for it?
Nadia Alexander: Only like three maybe. [laughter]
Justin P. Lange: It was a process. So I was studying at Columbia University at the graduate film program, and I had a professor there in my last directing class who kinda gave me a nudge in the horror direction. I was late to the party, but it just became the thing I needed, it’s like a light bulb went off and I kinda feel in love with it. But being late to the party, it also gave me the ability to kinda approach it in a more personal kind of “I’m going to make my sorta horror film”, you know, without a lifetime of influences.
Few of the films that were kinda like my gateways into horror were Let the Right One In, Pan’s Labyrinth and The Devil’s Backbone. It was these types of films that kinda, because I was such a wuse growing up with horror films, they kinda gave me that permission to start exploring this space. The nagging question I had, the thing that kinda propelled me in the beginning was I was curious what a film like this would be if the monster, if the Jason Vooorhees or whatever, was our protagonist, was the character that we were feeling with throughout the journey in a subjective way.
And so that was the challenge I wanted to take on and and give it a shot. And so it start from there and the next step was finding the monster that I could get behind and want to be with for an hour and a half. I felt in order to write it, in order for you the audience to allow that and to take that journey, I had to be sympathetic from the beginning and feel with her. First I found Mina and it all justly kind of blossomed from there.
That’s awesome. And you said to find your monster, with all the great cinematic monsters that there are being portrayed today, what made you choose a zombie?
Justin P. Lange: I think for me I didn’t choose zombie per se, like it was more of a character question. I chose Mina and I choose kind of, I needed to kind of experience, the writing process in approaching Mina, I needed to feel the righteous rage that she felt in order to go on this journey with her. And in a lot of my films I deal with abuse and the cycles of abuse and so that was something I could really get angry about and be with her on.
And then when it came to the zombie thing, I wasn’t really thinking in the terms of the genre and kinda rules it was more like for her the experience she had and the tragic experience she has had, she is more of like a rage monster, you know? Like that’s what propels her, that’s what won’t let her go quietly is this righteous anger that she literally can’t shake free of, like she is not allowed to go quietly, because she is so compelled to, she is almost owned by her rage. So I don’t know if it falls in to the typical zombie tropes.
I like the new version zombie. I like the planning, the boobytrapping.
Justin P. Lange and Nadia Alexander: [laughter]
So this started off as a short film, did you always want or have the intention of turning it into a full length feature?
Justin P. Lange: Actually, yes. So I mean, it started as a feature. I had an idea for the feature and I knew I wanted to do the feature, but like I said I was kind of late to the horror and I knew this was going to be really challenging and different so I actually used my thesis film at Columbia kind of backwards in a way, a lot of people try to make that be the successful thing, and I was like “I know I want to make this feature but I am not sure I can do it” so I am just going to make this short as a sketch, like a playground, to see if all these different ideas I have can work and some of the things I wanted to explore I couldn’t because of resources and time and things like that but I did the best I could to kind of play with things like tone and the quiet and some of the things you find in the feature with the short.
But it wasn’t kind of a traditional short feature process. But the short ended up actually having a life of its own and going to festivals and stuff, so what it did do was it gave me the confidence to kind of say “alright, this is possible, I had an handle this, I can do this” and it maybe gave confidence to the producers and everyone to say “okay he can do this”. [laughter]
And what was it about the script that had you want to commit to the role of Mina?
Nadia Alexander: Pretty much like the second I read the character break down. I was sick on a bus coming back from Virginia when I got the audition and I was like [gasp] as soon as I read the character description just because I as an actor I very much gravitate towards really complex, interesting, sort of anti-hero woman just because there are very few teen girl options in that, there’s lots of 50-year-old white men options for anti heroes, but very few for teen girls.
And I think that I read, just in knowing who Mina was, just in those eight lines I felt such a connection and such a love for that kind of character, something that I really never seen before and when I read the script I was like “I’ve never seen anything like this and I have to do this”. And then I found Justin’s laptop and I stole lots of incriminating photos and then I held it as blackmail and and that’s why I’m here! Blackmail works kids! [laughter]
Don’t let it go yet!
Nadia Alexander and Justin P. Lange: [laughter]
Okay, so, Wilson the bear.
Nadia Alexander: WILSON!
I saw your Instagram post so I was watching today for Wilson to see why you would need to apologize to a bear on Instagram. For me it was such a symbol of humanity that she is holding to and her innocence as a child. Out of all the child objects that you would select, why did you pick a teddy bear?
Justin P. Lange: I think mostly just because I had this teddy bear [laughter], it didn’t look like Wilson and it had a little less blood on it, just like forever I had this little yellow bear. And it was the first gift when I was born that my siblings gave me, and I held onto it for a really long time. My family moved around a lot, it was always just kind of with me. So I think that was kind of the inspiration for the bear.
And just having the bear, I needed to throw a few, like you said, a few symbols in there to make sure we never forget the innocence and the tragedy of Mina, because if I was going to go monster she had to really be a monster – couldn’t be like she is kind of a monster, she looks like it but she is kinda sweet. Like no, she does the stuff that she does, but there are also these reminders of what’s the genesis and what’s behind that to kind of keep us on the tightrope of never going to far one way or the other.
Nadia Alexander: The teddy bear did not have a name to begin with, it was just the teddy bear and then I was like this is straight up just castaway. I named the bear Wilson.
So you named the bear Wilson. [laughter]
Nadia Alexander: I was like this is Wilson, it has to be. There was no name for it, and I was like it’s Wilson. So pretty much every time that scene where Wilson meets an unfriendly demise, I pretty much every time we cut I would just go “WILSON! I’M SORRY WILSON.” I loved Wilson. Wilson is the real star of The Dark.
Justin P. Lange: I still have him…
Nadia Alexander: You still have Wilson? All bloodied up and headless?
Justin P. Lange: No I have, we had several Wilsons. [laughter]
Nadia Alexander: [laughter] The pre-decapitated. Oh Wilson.
Film Inquiry thanks Justin P. Lange and Nadia Alexander for speaking with us!
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