By WILLIAM J. WRIGHT
The words “remake,” “reimagining,” and “reboot” are anathema to horror fans – all too often with good reason. For every transcendent reimagining like John Carpenter’s The Thing, there are dozens of reviled misfires like 2010’s A Nightmare on Elm Street, head-scratchingly unnecessary retreads such as 2005’s House of Wax and ill-advised monuments to hubris like Gus Van Sant’s 1998 redux of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. Over the past few decades, genre remakes have seemingly become a dreaded inevitability. They’re quick cash on return with a proven moneymaker, and all it takes is one good opening weekend to turn a profit. However, for devoted horrorphiles, remakes have become the cinematic equivalent of the drum solo and the sneeze. You know they’re coming and there’s not a damn thing you can do about them.
With big-budget studio fare, cynical cash grabs are a given. But what would possess a visionary indie filmmaker to revisit their own material, especially when their original film was as well-received by both fans and critics as the 2014 horror sleeper Last Shift? That’s the pressing question most fans and the fan media have for the film’s director, Anthony DiBlasi, who has reimagined Last Shift as MALUM.
Boston native DiBlasi began his career in the genre as an intern for legendary horror author and filmmaker Clive Barker. He quickly established himself as a full-fledged creative partner with the Hellraiser creator, going on to serve as executive producer on the Barker adaptations The Midnight Meat Train and Book of Blood. In 2009, DiBlasi took the director’s chair with his adaptation of Clive Barker’s story Dread. DiBlasi has since established himself as a voice, if not a name, in indie horror.
With MALUM, DiBlasi meticulously stitches new flesh on the skeleton of Last Shift, expanding its themes and amping up the scares of the original with a darker atmosphere and more intense setpieces. Recently, DiBlasi and returning supporting cast member Natalie Victoria sat down with RUE MORGUE to talk about MALUM and why it’s a reimagining horror fans will love.
Thanks for speaking with RUE MORGUE. Let’s get this out of the way up front because, obviously, this is the question everyone is asking. Why revisit this material, especially since Last Shift was so well-received?
Anthony DiBlasi: You know, I think Last Shift was definitely well received. I think today, it’s even a movie, you can say, “Hey, have you ever seen Last Shift?” And a lot of people aren’t going to know what you’re talking about. It was a movie that definitely kind of got a cult following, but it never kind of transitioned to mainstream audiences. And that was a big pull for this movie when the Welcome Villain guys approached me. I was introduced to [producer] Luke LaBeau through a mutual friend. And he said, “What do you think about diving back into the Last Shift world?”
Scott [Poiler], my writing partner and the producer on the first one, and this one as well, and I had talked about maybe doing a sequel or prequel. We kind of never agreed on what that would be. So we just never sat down and wrote anything. So on this one, we decided to make a movie for people who haven’t seen the first one and take the things that we liked in the first movie and kind of put them in this with a spin to it for a bigger budget to hit a wider audience. We were able to do a lot of things we couldn’t do on the first movie because of our budget size – and really delve into the creature effects and stuff we couldn’t do on Last Shift.
Is “remake” the right word for MALUM? Or do you prefer “reboot” or “reimagining”?
AD: “Reimagining” was the word Welcome Villain used. And it really was more of a reimagining for us. I never felt like I was making the same movie again when we wrote the script and shot it.
Did you have any reservations about revisiting the material? Most creative people like to put their past in the past and move on to new things. Were there any specific things that you thought you could do better or with a little more creativity or insight this time around?
AD: Yeah, I think there were certainly some reservations … We agreed to do it, and then we knew they were going to make the movie. and we kind of sat down to start writing the treatment. Those earlier treatment drafts were a little tough. It was like, “Okay, so how do we get out of this mindset of the first movie? What are we carrying over?” Once we were through a couple of drafts of that treatment, then I started to get excited about it. I started to think we can take it in this direction, and we can really explore the cult, which I couldn’t do on the first movie.
Reinventing the mythology was a big driving force for me. In the first movie, we use this demonic character called Paimon, who’s the king of hell and kind of fits into the mythology. Then, a couple of years later, Hereditary came out and used the same character … I didn’t want to do that [again]. I didn’t want to make it Satanic, or let’s say, generically Satanic. I wanted to stay away from phrases and terms that people had heard before and go more into a Lovecraftian direction where we just made up our own mythology. And that’s what we did. So that was exciting … It definitely feels like more of an ancient mythology that almost predates our culture and what we know, which is cool. We’ve seen a lot of responses from fans, and they’re like, “Where did this come from?”
The mythos was one of the most interesting things about the movie for me as well. The cult is also really compelling. The Manson Family has been mentioned a few times, especially regarding Last Shift. Were there other real-life influences?
AD: [The cult] in the first movie was very Manson-inspired, I was always like, “Well, the Mansons are scary, but it’d be scarier if they were ghosts.” So that kind of went into the first one and inherently comes over into this one. It was a little more challenging because cults that are infamous tend not to be around very long. They’re infamous because something happened, and they burn out rather quickly. So with this [cult], I was like, “Okay, well, these guys have been around for like, 30 years now. So they would have to be something different.” And that was the challenge of molding it.
And then, in terms of the mythology, it wasn’t a lot of research. But it took a long time to crack. We were several drafts in, and it was kind of that last draft. The whole time, I didn’t feel like we had nailed this cult yet. And I had a dream about this character that’s in the movie called the Temple Baron. I didn’t have a dream about his look, but I had a dream. And it was whispering in my ear when I was asleep. It said, “We are the temple barons. Listen to our plans.” And I woke up, and I was like, “Man, what is that?” I wrote it down. It wasn’t anything that existed, so when we sat down to do this, I was like, “You know what? That character feels like it should be in this movie.” That was kind of the starting point of where the terminology came from. The Low God just popped into my head.
Natalie, you were in both films. When you found out that Anthony was going to do this, did you think it was a crazy idea that would never work or were you enthusiastic about getting to revisit the material?
Natalie Victoria: I think, honestly, I was like, “What? Why? Why? Why would you want to do it again?” Because, as you said earlier, for me, you give everything to a project, and then you kind of move on from that and create something new. So that was my first reaction which was a lot of fans’ reaction. too. Why would you reimagine this? But then, [Anthony] explained to me what the goals were – to reach a much wider audience, and, hopefully, a mainstream audience this time around. Then, I found out I would be doing this challenge, too. And I was like, “Oh, no!” It was fun finding that out, and then having to try to reimagine a role.
In the event that Last Shift fans come to see MALUM – and we knew that they would – we wanted to give them something new. So in a lot of ways, [my character] Marigold is kind of like the Easter egg that appears in both. But she’s kind of the multiverse walker, too, because it’s a completely different movie. So reimagining her, physically, emotionally, and even the tonality of her voice compared to the first film, were all things that I was looking to do and play with as much as possible and rise to the challenge of the role as it was written because it was written so well.
Jessica Sula, who plays Officer Jessica Loren, is incredible in the film. Because of recent events, many creatives have reevaluated how they choose to depict law enforcement. Was casting a woman of color in the role a way of getting an audience that potentially might find a cop character unsympathetic on Jess’ side? Is there a subtext here?
AD: Not intentionally … Because we were doing a police thing, I was like, “Well, we should address the state of affairs.” You know, you can’t just ignore it, but we’re also making a horror film. And when we cast Jess, it was not intentional. She was just the best actress for it. We had a really great meeting. She was the only actress of color that we approached … But when she was cast, I felt like, let’s address this. And it was all in the script before she was cast.
It was interesting during the first movie because I really got to know their training because we had police on that film, training the actors, and we had great police on this film, as well, training the actors and training Jess. So anything that would address [those issues] had to be narrative driven. It had to be about the character.
Jessica Loren becomes a police officer, not because she wants to be a police officer. She just wants to know what happened to her father. So she is immediately this outlier. She’s getting all this hate from her colleagues, not only because of her father but because she’s a woman and a rookie. Anytime it’s addressed, about the cops and their brutality, it’s all meant to tear her down, emotionally. Whatever the last thing she wants to hear is, that’s what they’re gonna say to her. So it was really all about that. I know that Jessica Sula did not want to get into any of that political stuff at all. She was just like, “I don’t see it, you know, it’s not part of the character.” So it was all character-based. And that’s as it should be. I think if you lay that stuff in on top for no good reason, it will fall flat. It has to feel authentic in the storytelling.
Without giving away too much, what are some of the differences in the film that you could mention, perhaps to entice skeptical Last Shift fans into seeing MALUM?
NV: Well, MALUM is a cautionary tale about cults. And it’s definitely a movie you want to see in the theater, with the sound all the way up, with a huge group of people. You will not be disappointed. It’s a movie that will surprise you and leave you on the edge of your seat. It’s a horror film, but also a psychological thriller, so that makes it very unique. And so yeah, The biggest differences are everything’s reimagined. You know, everything’s bigger, and more expanded upon – the story, the cast, the characters, the locations.
The film itself has a very eerie feel to it. So it’s definitely a different film. I think the best feedback that we’ve gotten from people is that if you love Last Shift, you’re going to walk into MALUM and go, “This is similar but different because the two films are very different. So if you haven’t seen Last Shift, you can see MALUM, and you’ll be good to go. You don’t need to see Last Shift at all. But there’s something for everybody. And just great characters. Jessica Sula kills it. I think she’s just gonna blow fans away. She’s the new scream queen! She just does a great job. And then, there’s such an amazing ensemble cast around her, too. There are lots of surprises, a lot of things you think that you know are going to happen. Maybe they don’t. Maybe they do.
AD: It’s just meant to be a scary movie. I think the first one and this one, to me, they’re totally different movies. Fans of the first one will find comfort in the scenes that they really enjoy. They may see a couple of those in this one. But really, it’s about kind of turning off your brain for 90 minutes and just going on a thrill ride and seeing awesome practical effects. It’s kind of a throwback to the movies we loved in the ’80s. That’s really what it’s meant to be.
