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Vote up the most interesting A24 horror movie facts.
Film studio A24 has been on a roll with its horror movies over the past few years, with many of them earning awards and easily making their way onto horror fans' rosters of cult favorites. But, as is so often the case, creating a mind-bending horror movie is not always a predictable or comfortable process. Even with the power of CGI, many films employ practical effects to achieve that extra oomph.
In this list, we’ll reveal the intriguing things we learned about the A24 movies that made us lock our doors, watch some cute cat videos to relax, and sleep with a few lights on.
The 2019 film The Lighthouse is an incredibly claustrophobic tale of two enigmatic men taking care of a lighthouse on a small island in the 1890s. Shot exclusively in black and white and with an uncommon aspect ratio, everything about the film is just a little off. Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe) is an intense and superstitious character, while Ephraim Winslow (Robert Pattinson) appears to slowly lose his mind as Wake works him to the bone.
In one notable scene, after Winslow makes the mistake of insulting Wake’s cooking, Dafoe gives an absolutely riveting performance. He puts the “sea curse” on Winslow, shouting out what sounds like the sermon of an unhinged zealot, and Dafoe does not hold back.
According to director Robert Eggers, the sea curse was filmed in a single take, and Dafoe didn’t blink for over two minutes. This certainly adds to the madness we see beginning to reveal itself in Wake’s behavior.
Green Room is designed to make the audience uncomfortable, as are many horror movies, but this film has some extra tricks up its sleeve. It’s a story about a struggling band getting a gig at a neo-Nazi skinhead bar, and while that situation already sounds awkward and unpleasant, it very quickly becomes violent, disturbing, and shocking.
Seeing Sir Patrick Stewart as Darcy Banker, the bar owner and skinhead leader, speaks volumes about his range as an actor - but why would this knighted, Shakespearean-trained legend even play such a loaded role in this gruesome film? According to Stewart, because the script got to him.
It reportedly made him very nervous and even paranoid as he sat in his old, isolated Oxfordshire home. Only 30 pages in, he closed the script to check all the doors and windows in his home, ensuring they were locked, along with activating the perimeter lights on his property, something he seldom did. He turned on the house’s alarm, too. Stewart had this to say about his experience reading the script:
You turn a page, not knowing what’s going to happen on that new page. And suddenly, you’re in a world of unspeakable violence and pain and of terror. And I’ve never read a script that had such a profound effect on me.
Everyone's heard tales of talent being extremely difficult to work with on set, but the infamous billy goat, Charlie, who portrayed Black Phillip in The Witch, really threw his weight around on set - literally. Fittingly enough, the goat hired to portray the embodiment of wickedness was apparently just as evil when the cameras turned off.
Charlie was reportedly so violent on set, he nearly killed Ralph Ineson, who plays the family's patriarch, William. In fact, multiple incidents involving the animal resulted in at least three hospital visits and a painful tendon injury after Charlie rammed Ineson in the ribs. The entire experience was so awful, Ineson now reportedly hates goats, although he's glad Charlie helped the film grow in popularity.
Saint Maud is a surprising addition to the religious horror genre. While many of these films set their sights on the devil or other demons, Saint Maud is a departure from the expected. Telling the story of recently converted hospice nurse Maud, this film explores just how far a devout person will go to save another’s soul.
Maud does some pretty shocking and horrific things throughout the movie, but in the scene where she speaks directly to God, the actor herself provides the surprises. Tasked with the daunting job of casting a voice for God, the filmmakers decided to have Maud’s actor, Morfydd Clark, speak Welsh, then pitch her voice down to create an unearthly effect.
It’s a clever tactic, as it sticks with the movie's theme of Maud talking to herself.
Some horror movies truly do test the strength of your stomach. That much can certainly be said of The Killing of a Sacred Deer, a psychological horror film about cardiovascular surgeon Dr. Steven Murphy, played by Colin Farrell. Revenge serves as a prominent theme in the film, and it leads to shocking twists and turns that leave your mind reeling.
The opening scene is undoubtedly a memorable entrance, as we see the main character performing open-heart surgery. Those aren’t just prosthetics and models, however - the crew filmed a real quadruple-bypass surgery, and Farrell was there to witness it. While his character likely wouldn’t bat an eye, Farrell described the experience as “very intense” and “upsetting,” even recalling the smell of burning flesh. Even though the experience was extreme, Farrell said it also highlighted for him the fragility and complexity of the human body.
Lamb (2021) takes its audience to an isolated farm in Iceland, where a sheep gives birth to a very unusual lamb. For lead actor Noomi Rapace, the film's setting was welcome, as she lived in a small Icelandic village for a portion of her childhood. Having also grown up on a farm, the role of the farmer Maria was a comfortable fit for her.
Maria and her husband, Ingvar (Hilmir Snær Guðnason), are still grieving the loss of their child when this strange lamb comes into their lives, and they begin to raise it as their own. Fittingly enough, actual lambs did come into the lives of the cast and crew, as Repace reportedly delivered real baby lambs on set. While she said the process was quite intense, it also felt weirdly natural for her considering the amount of time she spent around animals growing up.
