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INTERVIEW: Keegan Connor Tracy on the Horrors of ‘Z’

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Keegan Connor Tracy

Keegan Connor Tracy found something irresistible in Z, a horror film co-written by Brandon Christensen (Still/Born) and Colin Minihan (Grave Encounters) with Christensen also directing, and she sat down this week to discuss the film with iHorror in advance of its release on DVD on September 1, 2020.

She was at home when she got the call from her agent about the film telling her there was no money involved, but she needed to read the script.

“Sometimes when I get things something will pique my interest and other things won’t that might appeal to something else,” she explained. “I have to see something in it, you know, if I was going to be away from my kids for a month and do it for no money. I saw some place that I could go as an actor that was really going to challenge me. I saw a psychological journey that this woman was going to go on and I wanted to challenge myself. So, I was in.”

That psychological journey was a natural fit for the actress who has a degree in psychology, and as she dug into the script, she had to set aside the more fantastical aspects of the film and look at the character she was playing and ground the role in something from the real world.

Z tells the story of a woman and her husband whose lives are turned upside down when their son’s imaginary friend is suddenly terrifyingly real. More than that, there is a real metaphor here not only for mental illness but also in generational, hereditary mental illness and how it affects entire families.

“While I’m the first person to call up magic in everything I write and the work that I’ve done as an actor, I have to have a basis for why she was doing the things that she did,” Tracy pointed out. “For me, I came up with schizophrenia based on the research that I’ve done. It is sometimes hereditary so it made a lot of sense to me. Sometimes I would say to Brandon, ‘Okay, wait, is Z real or not? Okay, it doesn’t matter.’ Even if he’s not real but she thinks he’s real, it might as well be real and how do I ground that?”

The realness of her performance in the film and the grounding she brings to it makes the scares all the more intense as Z becomes more and more a menace in the family’s lives, and Tracy said she had a wonderful time observing audiences watch the film and react to those elements when it was making its way through various festivals last year.

It was one of the first times she had experienced the festival circuit, and certainly the first time she had attended horror genre festivals despite her appearance in numerous genre films.

“Sitting in the audience and watching them experience that build up of tension and then the jump scare where they would laugh and scream,” she said. “The way that people would laugh afterward. I realized that’s what they were after, right? They want that release after. Kind of like when you get off the roller coaster and you’re like laughing and in a great mood even though you wanted to pee your pants while you were on it. It’s that part that makes you say, that was great.”

There are plenty of screams to be found in Z. The film has been available on Shudder previously but non-subscribers will have their chance to bring the terror home September 1, 2020 when the film hits VOD and physical media.

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Another Creepy Spider Movie Hits Shudder This Month

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Good spider films are a theme this year. First, we had Sting and then there was Infested. The former is still in theaters and the latter is coming to Shudder starting April 26.

Infested has been getting some good reviews. People are saying that it’s not only a great creature feature but also a social commentary on racism in France.

According to IMDb: Writer/director Sébastien Vanicek was looking for ideas around the discrimination faced by black and Arab-looking people in France, and that led him to spiders, which are rarely welcome in homes; whenever they’re spotted, they’re swatted. As everyone in the story (people and spiders) is treated like vermin by society, the title came to him naturally.

Shudder has become the gold standard for streaming horror content. Since 2016, the service has been offering fans an expansive library of genre movies. in 2017, they began to stream exclusive content.

Since then Shudder has become a powerhouse in the film festival circuit, buying distribution rights to movies, or just producing some of their own. Just like Netflix, they give a film a short theatrical run before adding it to their library exclusively for subscribers.

Late Night With the Devil is a great example. It was released theatrically on March 22 and will begin streaming on the platform starting April 19.

While not getting the same buzz as Late Night, Infested is a festival favorite and many have said if you suffer from arachnophobia, you might want to take heed before watching it.

Infested

According to the synopsis, our main character, Kalib is turning 30 and dealing with some family issues. “He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.”

The film will be available to watch on Shudder starting April 26.

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Part Concert, Part Horror Movie M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Trap’ Trailer Released

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In true Shyamalan form, he sets his film Trap inside a social situation where we aren’t sure what is going on. Hopefully, there is a twist at the end. Furthermore, we hope it’s better than the one in his divisive 2021 movie Old.

The trailer seemingly gives away a lot, but, as in the past, you can’t rely on his trailers because they are often red herrings and you are being gaslit to think a certain way. For instance, his movie Knock at the Cabin was completely different than what the trailer implied and if you hadn’t read the book on which the film is based it was still like going in blind.

The plot for Trap is being dubbed an “experience” and we aren’t quite sure what that means. If we were to guess based on the trailer, it’s a concert movie wrapped around a horror mystery. There are original songs performed by Saleka, who plays Lady Raven, a kind of Taylor Swift/Lady Gaga hybrid. They have even set up a Lady Raven website to further the illusion.

Here is the fresh trailer:

According to the synopsis, a father takes his daughter to one of Lady Raven’s jam-packed concerts, “where they realize they’re at the center of a dark and sinister event.”

Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Trap stars Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan, Hayley Mills and Allison Pill. The film is produced by Ashwin Rajan, Marc Bienstock and M. Night Shyamalan. The executive producer is Steven Schneider.

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Woman Brings Corpse Into Bank To Sign Loan Papers

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Warning: This is a disturbing story.

You have to be pretty desperate for money to do what this Brazilian woman did at the bank to get a loan. She wheeled in a fresh corpse to endorse the contract and she seemingly thought the bank employees wouldn’t notice. They did.

This weird and disturbing story comes via ScreenGeek an entertainment digital publication. They write that a woman identified as Erika de Souza Vieira Nunes pushed a man she identified as her uncle into the bank pleading with him to sign loan papers for $3,400. 

If you’re squeamish or easily triggered, be aware that the video captured of the situation is disturbing. 

Latin America’s largest commercial network, TV Globo, reported on the crime, and according to ScreenGeek this is what Nunes says in Portuguese during the attempted transaction. 

“Uncle, are you paying attention? You must sign [the loan contract]. If you don’t sign, there’s no way, as I cannot sign on your behalf!”

She then adds: “Sign so you can spare me further headaches; I can’t bear it any longer.” 

At first we thought this might be a hoax, but according to Brazilian police, the uncle, 68-year-old Paulo Roberto Braga had passed away earlier that day.

 “She attempted to feign his signature for the loan. He entered the bank already deceased,” Police Chief Fábio Luiz said in an interview with TV Globo. “Our priority is to continue investigating to identify other family members and gather more information regarding this loan.”

If convicted Nunes could be facing jail time on charges of fraud, embezzlement, and desecration of a corpse.

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