Sundance Film Festival 2023: ONYX THE FORTUITOUS AND THE TALISMAN OF SOULS Interviews

The campy fun horror-comedy Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls follows Onyx (Andrew Bowser) after he wins a contest that gets him a coveted spot alongside his hero in a demonic seance. It’s a film that doesn’t take itself too seriously with just the right amount of humor and horror-infused effects. Taken from his popular character online, Onyx, Andrew Bowser brings it to a feature-length story with ample doses of hilarity, awkwardness, and 80s movie adoration.

I was able to speak with writer, director, and actor Andrew Bowser, as well as stars Barbara Crampton and Rivkah Reyes, about the making of the film, their own horror inspirations, and much more!

This interview has been edited for clarity. 

This is Kristy Strouse with Film Inquiry: Thank you again for taking the time! This was the first film I saw at the festival, and I had a great time with it! So, what made you decide to make this into a feature film and also submit it to Sundance?

Andrew Bowser: Well, we submitted to Sundance because I’m delusional and because it just felt like it was the right time to move the character off of the Internet into a larger narrative context – because I love the character. I love performing him and he’s a really dear part of myself and my psyche. But as a filmmaker, you know, I’ve been directing and producing for as many years as I’ve been performing, and I just was moving away from short-form content just as far as my interests go. I think any artist is always looking to challenge themselves. And I just felt like it was time to retire onyx, we’re trying to push him to the next level.

And so we started with a Kickstarter, and that secured a portion of our budget. And I thought if this Kickstarter works, and that’s a sign that you know, the audience might want to go to the next level, my fans might want to go to the next level. And, you know, thank God, it worked. And then I realized after writing the script that I am actually Onyx (because I’ve been performing it for so long) which helped me get in touch with my voice as a writer, even more than a lot of the things I’ve written. So it was cool that when I merged them, it actually felt like it was just time for me personally to investigate a longer form.

So you feel like the character kind of grew as you started working on it?

Andrew Bowser: Yeah, I just felt like he had kind of outgrown the confines of the meme trade culture. And if it was gonna continue to stay interesting to me that I needed to blow it up a little bit, and we submitted to Sundance just because I thought, you know, they have the Midnight section. Maybe they will consider us even though it’s a pretty wacky zany film! There’s also a lot I think going on in there, that’s fun. And I do think it’s a really competently made film because of all of the technicians and artists that came on board creature design and my DP, all these talented actors that came aboard. So I thought maybe maybe maybe we had a shot at that festival.

And you did! So, speaking of the wonderful cast. [Gestures to Rivkah and Barbara] How did you each get involved? What was your kind of first thoughts when you read the script, ad were you also familiar with his character? 

Rivkah Reyes: Okay, well, I have definitely seen a lot of Onyx videos. And then Andrew Bowser emailed and I was just like, “Who’s this?” and then he was like, “check out these videos of me playing my character.” I literally thought that this was a real living breathing person roaming around Detroit. But low and behold, you tricked me! [Laughs] But then he sent me the script for the film and said we’re doing a live Zoom reading of the script and we’d love to have you play Mack for the reading and like, okay, yeah, and you know, a couple of pages in I see Nonbinary, so I’m like, “How do I stay attached to this forever?” And so after that meeting, I was very persistent. What’s happening with Onyx, you know, and I’m hearing the Kickstarter, I want to do this. Whether I’m in it or not, I was kind of like, attached to it. I’m very attached to Mack because they’re so similar to me. But I’m just so grateful that the Kickstarter worked.

Barbara Crampton: I knew Andrew for the last number of years. I had done his podcast, Bizarre States and we met through our mutual friend, Brea Grant. And then after that, Andrew kept asking me to do some short videos that he was doing and I always really loved working with him. Then he did another short called House Mother, and she was the head of a sorority way back in the old days and she’s come back into today’s world and she’s a demon and so I got to have crazy demon makeup. And you know, after that I was a fan for life. And so Andrew said, “Would you like to play my mother?” And I was like, of course, I’m sure it was because I was a fan of it as a friend and so it just seemed to become natural.

And who doesn’t love crazy demon makeup!

I love there is such a community within the horror world. I also loved the designs and the creatures! I was laughing quite frequently when a ghoul would pop into the background. Can you tell me a little bit about that process and in designing?

Andrew Bowser: Well, it really came down to linking up with Adam Dougherty. The shop is called KreatureKid. I’ve been a fan of his just from seeing his work and organizations over the years. I’ve even bought toys from him. And he’s always had this kind of cartoonish slant in his personal work, and then I would see the work that he would do as an artist at existing creature shops. And they were beautifully made, but they didn’t have the DNA from Adam, because they all had to be a little more standardized. So I reached out to him and asked him to just design the creature. The concept art for one, because I thought it’d be the only puppet in the film. I thought the rest would be makeup and even you know, creature suits, etc. And Adam read the script and said, “Well, what if they were all puppets?” And then I thought, well, that actually makes more sense in this world. And also from a production standpoint, we’re not taking each actor when they get turned into a ghoul and sending them up to the makeup chair for three and a half hours while we tried to figure something else to shoot. They’re just stepping down to the puppeteer stepping in. So it was a creative decision and certainly a practical one, but it was mostly because of the work of Adam and his distinct style that he’s dialed in over the years.

I always love hearing about something that comes out organically through the experience. I feel like it matches the film. So yeah, tell me about the locale. How did you find it? 

Andrew Browser: They were researched by a crew member,  and he made a doc of mansions on the east coast and the west coast and in between. I am from the East Coast originally, I have family in Massachusetts, so I thought I’d love to get back there for this film. It feels like it’s a very lucky link. This location was at the top of my list. I was worried and didn’t want to call because this was my favorite and I didn’t want to start with disappointment. But then when I called them, they were more than open to the idea of us filming there. And it was at that location and the community right there in the Berkshires were integral to getting a film done as far as the spooky vibes there.

I’m from New England too! 

Barbara Crampton: Me too!

We know spooky vibes! Rivkah had mentioned it was haunted and that there were some occurrences there?

Rivkah Reyes: Yeah, yeah. I mean, I remember the first time I walked into the house I already felt like just a bit of charged energy and I was walking around and like placing little offerings for whoever was there in all the rooms. I just remember feeling like I should put something sweet in the room just to let them know that we’re not in there to invade their home or anything. So like getting little tangerines and clementines in corners and all the rooms that they were working in. I had this weird gut feeling, and I asked someone who knew about the house, “can I ask you a question about somebody that used to live here? Who is Caroline?” she was like, how do you know that? Apparently, Caroline was the youngest daughter with a family that was in the house and never got married and she was like a pretty grouchy ghost.

Oh wow, interesting!

Barbara Crampton: Were you kind of mystic or a psychic?

Rivkah Reyes: I am, I do have like medium tendencies. I have always had these tendencies ever since I was a little kid and, you know, I’d see people and be talking to them. And then my mom would be like, who are you talking to over there? It’s just my friendly indigenous trees. But sure enough, upon hearing the history of Ventfort Hall, and learning about some of the people that used to live there, it made sense. But it felt like intuition and like physical feelings. Some people have clairvoyance like they can see stuff or they can hear it. Mine kind of manifests in physical sensations like tickling of my elbow or like, I feel like more hand grabbing my shoulders. It just kind of dawned on me. I’m like, Oh, yes! And then it usually ends up being true. Very much like my character, it is very “Mack”.

Very interesting, thank you for that! And I did love the homages, specifically the Beetlejuice one at the end. Was that hard to get?

Andrew Bowser: You just have to secure the right licenses and we did for this usage. And the same for the Meatloaf song. We had some people like us up to the right contacts and music, publishing, and licensing to get those secured for us.

I loved that part! So, I think it is safe to say we are all fans of Horror here right? [Enthuiastic nods] I’d love to know each of your inspirations when it comes to the genre.

Andrew Bowser:  I’m just gonna say probably pretty obvious in my case to lean towards the films from the 80s, but I wear that on my sleeve. You know, Fright Night, Gremlins, and Night of the Creeps is a big one. Pumpkinhead is one, Reanimator, From Beyond. I have From Beyond on VHS and I often just have it on a loop in my garage where I work on a TV VCR because there are just so many consistently great visuals throughout, so I can be writing and I can look up and just see like a frame or two of From Beyond and it’ll give me the inspiration to keep writing. Some modern movies I really liked…Watcher. I really liked We’re All Going To the World’s Fair that really got me and those are some of the more recent ones.

Horror is in such a terrific place right now! I love that you watch it on VHS. 

Barbara Crampton: Yes! Jordan Peele or Ari Aster really brought it more into the forefront and just recently we’ve seen some great movies like Smile and Barbarian and Watcher again was like a really cool indie movie. And some of my past favorites are just – I just had filmed in a documentary yesterday that came to my house and we were talking about Gunnar Hansen in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Which you know, not comedy at all. I’ve been involved with a lot of horror comedy stuff, but that’s one of my favorite horror movies of all time, and will always be. Also, the classic Frankenstein horror movies, and I really love the Shining and Rosemary’s Baby. So I think my tastes are pretty, pretty vast, actually.

Yeah! It’s a genre that can be pretty eclectic and interesting. I love it so much.

Rivkah Reyes: And for me, I would say my new favorites are by Jordan Peele. And I think Jennifer’s Body really does it for me. I know it’s like a very polarizing movie, but it is my favorite. It was an awakening in many ways for me and I think that the writing style of that informs the way that I write my scripts as well and then I love Scream, the whole franchise. I am a big fan! And there was one more that I was thinking about that I can’t stop thinking about since I’ve seen it. Oh, I guess – are we considering The Menu to be horror?

I’ll accept it! [The other’s nod] And I would take a cheeseburger from Ralph Fiennes.

Rivkah Reyes:  Yes! I’ve been thinking about it ever since I saw it. I mean, I love anything that kind of satirizes class, and kind of pokes at that, like Triangle of Sadness is in the same category of the survivalist-like mode, rich people kind of failing to survive unexpected circumstances and I’m really into that kind of scary. And then for the other ones I will say I have two more: Carrie and Misery. When I was younger they were huge influences as an actor just like watching girls go wild and like get kind of, I don’t know… I like psycho women. It’s a favorite genre to watch. And it’s also my favorite to play.

This is all such a terrific variety. If our readers are failing in their horror watches, we’ll have quite the watch list. This has been fun! Congratulations on the movie. Enjoy your time in Park City. And I hope you guys have a great rest of your day!

All three: Thank you. Thank you for your time!

Film Inquiry would like to thank Rivkah Reyes, Andrew Bowser, and Barbara Crampton for taking the time to speak with us.