IN CONVERSATION WITH ERIK BLOOMQUIST
Director, writer and actor Erik Bloomquist returns to FrightFest for the third time with his new movie SELF-HELP. Co-written with his brother Carson, the film tells the story of Olivia (Landry Bender), a young woman visiting a self-actualisation community that seems to be more of a cult. Discovering her mother (Amy Hargreaves) is in love with the leader of the community (played by Jake Weber) Olivia realises something more sinister is afoot. Erik chatted with GORE IN THE STORE about the film’s inspirations, genre hopping and his fondness for FrightFest.
GORE IN THE STORE - What was the spark or the idea that made you come up with SELF-HELP?
ERIK BLOOMQUIST - So we had done two ensemble, bigger horror movies that had a little bit more of a homage within them, and we love that kind of big, sweeping ensemble movie, but we wanted to explore something slightly different with this one. My first feature also dealt with relationship dynamics and loneliness and weird family things, so being able to do that in a more overt genre setting was cool to us, and using a lot of things that are ripped from the headlines. So something with a slightly smaller cast, but that didn't really lose scope. Like, the world still feels as big, it's just more hyper focused on this core relationship of this girl and her mom. So we wanted to do that and have it be a little bit more bleak, but not necessarily like a “grief movie.” You know what I mean? We don't want to be the feel bad movie of the year, but something that feels just a little bit more like askew the whole time, a little like something is in the air and ultimately exploring what it is, what does it mean to be yourself.
You've worked in quite a lot of genres in your career. Going from TV movies to Christmas movies, and then to horror. And even in horror, you've gone from supernatural to slasher to psychological. Is this a conscious decision on your part?
EB - Yeah, I think they're all like spokes on the same wheel. I think the through line is that there is a degree of genuine sentiment and love, and then really on the other side of it, like sardonic, cynical and mean sometimes. I think they both can be fun and both can be scary, both can be sad, so we just kind of play with the ratios of that depending on what we're doing, whatever genre that is. But ultimately, we just like doing stuff by and large that is the kind of movie that you would rent at a video store on on a Saturday night, or just has this interesting tonality to it that just piques your curiosity. It's the kind of movie that we would hopefully want to watch when we were kids or teenagers. But I like oscillating between everything. I love the horror genre. It’s always been such a great love of mine. So, yeah, I think that oscillating helps because by understanding different genres it's just different ways of characters telling the truth, like, the characters don't necessarily know that they're in a horror movie versus a Christmas movie versus a whatever movie. It's just what way does the conflict manifest? What way do the needs of the characters manifest, and what does that lead to? And then the other production elements just complement that.
Do you have any major influences in this particular genre?
EB - We watched a fair amount of cult documentaries before we did this, not necessarily to rip from, but just to get in the headspace of some of these characters. Rewatched some classic cult horror movies, both new and old and again, not to grab stuff from or pay homage to, but more to just kind of bathe in that sensory wash of things. The Halloween component was interesting, that was more of a production design thing. How do we integrate that in a way that it’s not overtly a Halloween film, but that you feel it at the margins all the time, because I think that that's really in support of the tone and the themes of the movie.
Across all the genres you've worked in, have you learned any skills or tricks from other genres that you've been able to apply to this genre, or vice versa?
EB - I always think that no matter what genre you're in, the extent that a character needs something, whatever their need is, whatever their want or need is, the more dramatic the payoff will be. Whether that's a comedy that can become a big joke because they tried and failed, or a drama, where it can become the thing that makes you cry, or a horror movie about the thing that makes them vulnerable and gets them into the scare. I think just really creating an empathetic and translatable needs and wants that we all share we share feelings of. I think ultimately that is what leads to the pay-off for no matter what genre you're in.
Without going into spoilers, I was wondering how you came up with the character of Olivia and the inciting incident that sets her up at the beginning. How did you come up with that idea?
EB - I think the mother, daughter dynamic is very interesting, and how that can get strained, how there can be competition. What you are looking for at a certain time, and what can you be to somebody? So, that went into the start of that relationship. In terms of the exciting inciting incident, it takes place at a child's birthday party, like an old school pizza parlor arcade, and there's something so dreamy about that. Just inherently, where we wanted to establish, that something feels off, and you can't quite figure out what. BREAKING BAD does this so masterfully where you’re watching these scenes and wide shots, and there's no reason for it to be anything but good and happy, but you know something is going to go wrong. You just sense it. We were trying to conjure that here, we were trying to conjure that everything's normal, but you just sense something is off and wrong. So the dreaminess of the space let us do that, and a little bit of the time capsule element of the space, and the way we filmed the actors and obscured the actors fed into that, so that it really feels like a memory, oscillating between subjectivity and objectivity without even finding out when the switch is happening.
It seemed to be filmed from not just her point of view, but literally a child's point of view as well.
EB - A lot of the cartoons I watched growing up, most of the adults, you would just see their legs, or just from the torso down. And that was both fun and also kind of just weird, like being an eight year old and watching Cartoon Network, and you never see the parents' faces. There's just something eerie about that. Why is it just the height thing? Is it like things are blocked in your memory? Is there something almost weirdly taboo about like, just something is weird? So we pulled from that for sure, to kind of bring that feeling back.
You've worked with Amy Hargreaves more than once now, and now you're working with Jake Weber. Are you a bit of a HOMELAND fan then?
EB - It's so funny. Amy had brought up Jake. Amy was the first in on this one and she's a friend now, and we like doing different things and finding different roles and things like that together. And so in casting this, Jake entered the conversation, and she had worked with him on both 13 REASONS WHY and HOMELAND, so it ended up working out when they had a nice little reunion on set. He’s unable to but he really, really, really wanted to come to FrightFest, because we're playing in a movie theater that he saw movies in when he was a little kid.
Curtis's self help group is very well realized. I was wondering, is this from personal experience or from research that you did yourself?
EB - Fortunately, not personal experience, although in the entertainment world there can be pockets of it that feel a little bit like this. Sometimes a lot of it is bits of that, but also, just stuff ripped from the headlines, or just seeing the way people communicate, even in forums like Reddit or message board threads or comment threads. Just the level of group think or the need to be validated. The pursuit of some kind of community, the kind of bleak sadness and desperation of that, and the way that the internet can kind of amplify that,under this masquerade of bringing people together, but actually doing the opposite. Then the location spoke a lot to that, too. Just feeling those things, then seeing where we were shooting, it kind of informed what we did and how we did it.
What, or who were the inspirations for Curtis?
EB - He needed to have a huge presence, but we really wanted it to feel almost like you couldn't call him out on it without looking rude yourself. There's a scene early on where he's alone with Olivia, and there's this almost warm, paternal, genuine conversation that they have. It's laced with a little bit of something weird under it, but this idea that, like, He's beyond reproach in some ways. Not because he's God, because he's definitively saying throughout the movie, “I am not God, I am not the Messiah. You are.” He is getting his status by acting like he doesn't have any. He has, I think, a believable faux humility while still maintaining that gravitas. And I think Jake totally, totally brings that.
And in talking about your location, how much time did you have to film there?
EB - We shot very quickly. We shot only over a couple of weeks. So we were very efficient with how we were doing it. I'm very upfront about that with actors, many of whom have worked with me before, and others where there's this real degree of trust and communication between us, so that people can feel free to try things, but also trust when everybody has what they need. And shooting for the edit helps too. Carson and I edited this, so we know when we have it for the most part, but that can be really energizing too.
What is your actual favorite genre to work in?
I love horror. We bounce around, but I think everything I do, no matter what, has a genre bent to it, just something that is off or askew. Like SHE CAME FROM THE WOODS is a coming of age movie, until it's a coming of age horror movie. FOUNDERS DAY is in some ways WAITING FOR GUFFMAN meets a classic 90s slasher. SELF-HELP is a horror movie, but also a psychological thriller meets really, really black comedy. I think that with a lot of this stuff, the origins of conflict and comedy can be the same sometimes, and to me, that can also create tension. Like, I don't know if I'm about to laugh or scream, so I just love creating things that people will lean into and spark some kind of tension and release cycle inside of them.
Can you say anything about what genre you're planning to work in next?
EB - Oh, horror. Yeah, there's more coming. We'll have more to say soon.
Will you be coming back to FrightFest with that as well?
EB - I certainly hope so. I love FrightFest. It's our third year, and I'm just so grateful to be part of the community and to contribute to the community. And yeah, it's gonna be great to see some familiar faces this year. We were there, 2022, 2023 and now back this year. So it's become a home away from home for us. So I am very hopeful and excited to continue that pilgrimage for as long as we can.
Iain MacLeod
