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Interview: Betty Buckley talks M. Night Shyamalan’s “Split”

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Betty Buckley will do anything to work with M. Night Shyamalan“I love working with the best people, and Night is a master filmmaker,” says the actress, who is best known for her performance as gym teacher Miss Collins in the classic 1976 horror film Carrie. “He’s a uniquely gifted filmmaker, and I love watching him work.”

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Buckley proved her dedication when she was cast in Shyamalan’s 2008 film The Happening. “I’d been up for roles in two or three of Night’s previous films, and I really wanted to work with him,” says Buckley. “I got to know Douglas Aibel, Night’s longtime casting director, and he sent me sides, scenes from the script, and he wanted me to record the audition and then download it to a Mac system, so they could look at my audition within twenty-four hours and make a decision.

“I was at my ranch in Texas, and I went to this camera store in Fort Worth and bought an expensive camera for the audition,” Buckley continues. “The guy at the store told me we could use it to download the audition. We did the audition in my kitchen, at my ranch, with my assistant holding the camera. I was outside with my horses when Cathy, my assistant, called me and said she couldn’t download it.

“We took the camera back to the store and asked them to download it. They couldn’t do it. I said to Cathy, ‘Okay, let’s pack up the camera and take it to the nearest Federal Express location.’ I sent the camera to Douglas, who called me the next day and said he’d only been joking. He thought it was so funny that I would do something like that, and when I met with Night, he also thought it was hilarious that I mailed the camera to them. I asked them to return the camera, which they did, and I had a great time working with Night and Mark Wahlberg on that film.”

In Shyamalan’s latest film, Split, Buckley plays Dr. Fletcher, a psychologist who specializes in split personality disorders. Fletcher’s most challenging patient is Kevin, played by James McAvoy, a man whose fractured psyche holds more than twenty different personalities. “I try to help Kevin manage his various personalities and integrate them into one being,” says Buckley. “I try to help Kevin figure out who he really is.”

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Buckley did intense research for her role in the $5 million film, which was produced by low budget horror specialist Jason Blum. “I met with a psychologist and did research about this, because I wanted to get everything right,” says Buckley. “I wanted to research the complexity of multiple personalities. Fletcher believes that severe DID [Dissociative Identity Disorder] patients like Kevin have the ability to change their body chemistry through their thoughts. She’s written papers on this, which her colleagues have dismissed. Fletcher knows that Kevin is in trouble in the film, but she has a willful apprehension about Kevin, in terms of how dangerous he really is. She doesn’t see the Def-Con stage that he’s really in.”

Although Split was filmed in Shyamalan’s native Pennsylvania in the fall of 2015, the end of filming wasn’t the end for Buckley. “Night has been continually tinkering with the film since we finished filming,” says Buckley. “Throughout 2016, I’d be traveling, I’d be in New York, and Night would call me and tell me he wanted me to record some new dialogue. He’s a perfectionist, which I really admire.”

Between the big budget The Happening and the contained Split, Buckley doesn’t believe that Shyamalan has changed as a filmmaker. “I think he’s as good as he’s ever been,” says Buckley. “We shot The Happening in Philadelphia, mostly at a studio, and it was the same with Split. When I arrived, we had a script reading, one week of rehearsals, and I met James, who was very humble and down to earth, which is refreshing to see from such a big star.

“I think Night has thrived with these low budget films because he hasn’t changed his approach to filmmaking,” continues Buckley. “He keeps most of the same crew with him, so there’s a lot of consistency. I loved his last film, The Visit, which I thought was a master example of filmmaking. I saw The Visit in a theater, and I was amazed by how he was able to maintain suspense and tension while interjecting humor. I think The Visit is one of the great scary movies of recent years.”

Buckley has similar expectations for Split. “I think James is absolutely amazing in the film, in terms of all the different personalities he portrays in the film,” says Buckley. “We have several therapy scenes in the film, and those were some of the most exciting, intense scenes I’ve ever been part of in a film.”

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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.

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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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