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Two Heads Are Better Than One: iHorror Interviews ‘Kin’ Directors Jonathan and Josh Baker

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Jonathan and Josh Baker, the co-directors of Kin, aren’t just brothers.  They’re identical twins.

Kin, which is the brothers’ feature directing debut, is based on the brothers’ short film Bag Man (watch film here), which is about an African-American boy from Harlem who possesses a mysterious weapon that has the power to vaporize anything it targets.

When Bag Man premiered at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival in 2015, the brothers soon found themselves being courted by various Hollywood studios.  The filming of Kin began in Toronto in October of 2016, approximately one month after Lionsgate bought the film rights to Kin at the Toronto Film Festival for $30 million.

In Kin, an African-American teenage boy named Elijah (Myles Truitt) takes possession of a mysterious weapon of unknown origin and finds himself being hunted by otherworldly soldiers and a ruthless criminal.  In this interview, the Baker Brothers discuss the journey they’ve taken with the project, from short film to feature, and the virtues of co-directing.

DG: Although co-directed feature films are still rare, there have been more co-directed feature film that have been released in the past decade than in the previous century.  What are you feelings about the co-directing method of filmmaking?

Jonathan: Making a film is very stressful, and I think that a filmmaking duo increases efficiency.  We’ve been working together for approximately fifteen years, and while we don’t always bring the exact same ideas and vision to a project, we respect each other’s opinions, and we’re always unified in front of the cast and crew.  When it comes to the filmmaking process, I think that two heads are definitely better than one.  I think that you’re going to see it happen more and more in the future because I think it’s the best way to make a film.

DG: Kin is based on your 2014 short film Bag Man.  When you made the short film, did you visualize that you would eventually turn the concept into a feature film?

Jonathan: We never intended Bag Man to be a feature film.  It was a contained project, and we had no intention, initially, of turning it into a feature film.  It wasn’t until we had the great reaction at the Southwest festival that we started giving serious thought to how we would turn the short film into a feature.

Josh: When we made Bag Man, we had been working in advertising, shooting commercials, for approximately twelve years, and we were looking for a narrative refresher.  Although we enjoyed making commercials, it’s hard to tell a story within the commercial format, so Bag Man seemed like a smart thing to do.  With Bag Man, we wanted to show science fiction in a different way and combine science fiction with drama and other elements.

DG: How would you describe the process of turning the fifteen-minute Bag Man into the feature-length Kin?

Josh: In Bag Man, there’s a duffle bag, a boy, a gun inside the bag, and there’s gangsters, and that’s pretty much it.  With Kin, we wanted the film to have a mashed-up feel and tone to it, and we focused primarily on drama and the relationships between the characters. None of the influences we brought to Kin were related to science fiction.  When we met with [screenwriter] Daniel Casey, we told him that we didn’t want to see any science fiction that he’d written.  We only wanted to see character and drama.  Daniel is a native of Detroit, which led us to move the setting from Harlem to Detroit.

DG: How would you describe Elijah, the film’s teenage protagonist, played by Myles Truitt?

Jonathan: Elijah is a street smart kid who is far wiser than his age.  Elijah has been adopted into a middle-class Polish-American family, and they live in Detroit, in Poletown, where there’s a lot of crime and gang life.  As an African-American boy living in a Caucasian household, Elijah has never truly felt accepted, although he’s very close to his adopted brother, Jimmy, who has just gotten out of prison.  Jimmy is a cool guy who has a lot of charisma but has chosen a bad path in his life.  Although Elijah and Jimmy are very different people, innocence versus corruption, they love each other very much.  After Elijah finds the weapon, they’re forced to go on the run.

DG: How would you describe Elijah’s relationship with the mysterious weapon that appears in the film?

Josh: Elijah has a kind of Sword in the Stone existence in the film, in terms of his relationship with the weapon and the journey Elijah takes throughout the film.  He finds the weapon early in the film, about twelve minutes in, and the weapon acts as a symbol throughout the rest of the film.  The weapon is like a ray-gun, and it’s similar to the weapon in the short film, which vaporized everyone it shot at.  The gun has a flat end, and it can shift itself into a box, so we’re not always sure what end we’re looking at.  Elijah has a love-hate relationship with the weapon throughout the film.

DG: What was your inspiration in terms of conceptualizing the weapon and its origin?

Jonathan: The weapon in the film is a mystery in terms of what it is and where it came from—just like the box on Lost.  Is it alien?  Is it from the future?  It functions like a ray-gun, with its vaporizing effect, and the challenge for us was to do something interesting with the weapon in the film.  We didn’t want it to look like a ray-gun from the 1950s.  The weapon is to this film what the ring is to The Lord of the Rings.  It symbolizes everything that happens in the film.

DG: How would you describe Taylor, the character played by James Franco?

Josh: Taylor is a mash-up villain in the vein of the villains in films like No Country for Old Men and Out of the Furnace.  He’s a lowlife, a smalltime gangster whom Jimmy owes money to because of a prison debt.  It was one of those things where Jimmy had to pay protection money to survive in prison, thousands of dollars, and that didn’t stop when he got out, and now Taylor’s after him.  I would describe Taylor as resembling Reverend Harry Powell in the film The Night of the Hunter.  James was great.  He loves playing different characters, and he enjoyed mashing up his look in this film.  He has a mullet and stringy hair.

DG: What was the biggest challenge you faced in making the film?

Jonathan: The biggest challenge we faced in the making of this film was filming in Toronto when it was close to winter.  We filmed in Toronto from October to December in 2016, and we did a lot of filming at night, often at three and four in the morning, and it was grueling.  It was so dark sometimes that we couldn’t see anything, and we had to do that because so much of the film takes place at night.

DG: Why do you think audiences should be excited to see this film?

Josh: When we did the short film, we wanted to play with the audience’s expectations, make them believe that they were going to see one thing, see one kind of story, and then show them something else that completely surprises them.  Kin is in the science fiction zone, but it doesn’t contain the familiar elements that exist in so many blockbuster science fiction films.  It’s a drama and a gangster film and a science fiction film.  It’s more than one thing.

Kin opens in theaters on August 31.  Watch the theatrical trailer here.

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New Poster Reveal For Nicolas Cage’s Survival Creature Feature ‘Arcadian’ [Trailer]

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Nicolas Cage Arcadian

In the latest cinematic venture featuring Nicolas Cage, Arcadian emerges as a compelling creature feature, teeming with suspense, horror, and emotional depth. RLJE Films has recently released a series of new images and a captivating poster, offering audiences a glimpse into the eerie and thrilling world of “Arcadian”. Scheduled to hit theaters on April 12, 2024, the film will later be available on Shudder and AMC+, ensuring a wide audience can experience its gripping narrative.

Arcadian Movie Trailer

The Motion Picture Association (MPA) has given this film an “R” rating for its “bloody images,” hinting at the visceral and intense experience awaiting viewers. The film draws inspiration from acclaimed horror benchmarks like “A Quiet Place,” weaving a post-apocalyptic tale of a father and his two sons navigating a desolate world. Following a catastrophic event that depopulates the planet, the family faces the dual challenge of surviving their dystopian environment and eluding mysterious nocturnal creatures.

Joining Nicolas Cage in this harrowing journey are Jaeden Martell, known for his role in “IT” (2017), Maxwell Jenkins from “Lost in Space,” and Sadie Soverall, featured in “Fate: The Winx Saga.” Directed by Ben Brewer (“The Trust”) and penned by Mike Nilon (“Braven”), “Arcadian” promises a unique blend of poignant storytelling and electrifying survival horror.

Maxwell Jenkins, Nicolas Cage, and Jaeden Martell 

Critics have already begun to praise “Arcadian” for its imaginative monster designs and exhilarating action sequences, with one review from Bloody Disgusting highlighting the film’s balance between emotional coming-of-age elements and heart-pounding horror. Despite sharing thematic elements with similar genre films, “Arcadian” sets itself apart through its creative approach and action-driven plot, promising a cinematic experience filled with mystery, suspense, and relentless thrills.

Arcadian Official Movie Poster

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‘Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 3’ Is a Go with Enhanced Budget and New Characters

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Winnie the Pooh 3

Wow, they’re churning things out fast! The upcoming sequel “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 3” is officially moving forward, promising an expanded narrative with a larger budget and the introduction of beloved characters from A.A. Milne’s original tales. As confirmed by Variety, the third installment in the horror franchise will welcome Rabbit, the heffalumps, and the woozles into its dark and twisted narrative.

This sequel is a part of an ambitious cinematic universe that reimagines children’s stories as horror tales. Alongside “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey” and its first sequel, the universe includes films such as “Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare”, “Bambi: The Reckoning,” and “Pinocchio Unstrung”. These movies are set to converge in the crossover event “Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble,” slated for a 2025 release.

Winnie the Pooh Poohniverse

The creation of these films was made possible when A.A. Milne’s 1926 children’s book “Winnie-the-Pooh” entered the public domain last year, allowing filmmakers to explore these cherished characters in unprecedented ways. Director Rhys Frake-Waterfield and producer Scott Jeffrey Chambers, of Jagged Edge Productions, have led the charge in this innovative endeavor.

The inclusion of Rabbit, heffalumps, and woozles in the upcoming sequel introduces a new layer to the franchise. In Milne’s original stories, heffalumps are imagined creatures resembling elephants, while woozles are known for their weasel-like characteristics and a penchant for stealing honey. Their roles in the narrative remain to be seen, but their addition promises to enrich the horror universe with deeper connections to the source material.

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How to Watch ‘Late Night with the Devil’ from Home: Dates and Platforms

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Late Night With The Devil

For fans eager to dive into one of this year’s most talked-about horror films from the comfort of their own home, “Late Night with the Devil” will be available for streaming exclusively on Shudder starting April 19, 2024. This announcement has been highly anticipated following the film’s successful theatrical release by IFC Films, which saw it earning rave reviews and a record-breaking opening weekend for the distributor.

“Late Night with the Devil” emerges as a standout horror film, captivating audiences and critics alike, with Stephen King himself offering high praise for the 1977-set film. Starring David Dastmalchian, the movie unfolds on Halloween night during a live late-night talk show broadcast that disastrously unleashes evil across the nation. This found footage-style film not only delivers scares but also authentically captures the aesthetic of the 1970s, drawing viewers into its nightmarish scenario.

David Dastmalchian in Late Night with the Devil

The film’s initial box office success, opening to $2.8 million in 1,034 theaters, underscores its wide appeal and marks the highest opening weekend for an IFC Films release. Critically acclaimed, “Late Night with the Devil” boasts a 96% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 135 reviews, with the consensus praising it for rejuvenating the possession horror genre and showcasing David Dastmalchian’s exceptional performance.

Rotten Tomatoes score as of 3/28/2024

Simon Rother of iHorror.com encapsulates the film’s allure, emphasizing its immersive quality that transports viewers back to the 1970s, making them feel as if they are part of the eerie “Night Owls” Halloween broadcast. Rother lauds the film for its meticulously crafted script and the emotional and shocking journey it takes viewers on, stating, “This whole experience will have viewers of the Cairnes brothers’ film glued to their screen… The script, from beginning to end, is neatly sewn together with an ending that’ll have jaws on the floor.” You can read the full review here.

Rother further encourages audiences to watch the film, highlighting its multifaceted appeal: “Whenever it is made available to you, you must attempt to view the Cairnes Brothers’ latest project as it will make you laugh, it will creep you out, it will amaze you, and it might even strike an emotional cord.”

Set to stream on Shudder on April 19, 2024, “Late Night with the Devil” offers a compelling blend of horror, history, and heart. This film is not just a must-watch for horror aficionados but for anyone looking to be thoroughly entertained and moved by a cinematic experience that redefines the boundaries of its genre.

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