Special Edition: Bystanders with Jamie Alvey

Weird we Metia. Welcome to a special edition of The Feminine Critique. I am Emily, and with me as always is Christine. I am here. Yes, she is here in person, not really in person, but I can actually see her face, which normally I can't.

And it is a. Beautiful, uh just just sculpture of a powerful woman. And she's wearing glasses as am I as is a special guest star because today I meant it. I didn't. Sometimes I say special addition and it's just like I don't know, yah doing the podcast, Uh me forgetting what number podcast it was, So it's like I don't know, I don't have to number it at this time.

We're just gonna call it Special Edition number three. But this is a cutting edge. We are on the verge of a new lease movie, which if you remember last episode, Christina and I were talking about how we're watching more new stuff and we're just not watching new stuff. We are actively engaging with the creators of new stuff. We are here today to talk about the new horror film Bystanders, just released on vod this past week.

That's how hip and quick we are. And we are talking with the writer and star, the one and only Jamie Alvi. Welcome, Jamie, thank you, thank you for having me, or Alba. If you fancy your fancy then. Like it's Albay and I'm like, oh, one could.

Be your actor name and one could be your writer name. If you feel like you need to have different identities, like I. Do different headshots. That's my writer head shot. Yeah, definitely.

It is a perfectly healthy way to live, to keep separatingself into multiple parts, as The Substance taught. Us, So no problem, m yep, yep yep. So bystanders, we we want to give a quick overview of this movie because we want everybody to watch it, but we want to talk in depth with Jamie about it. But there is a really like great twist early on that we have to talk about, but we don't want to give it away if you haven't seen it, so people go rent it. It is on video on demand, is that right?

Okay, So you. Just PLoP down a couple of bucks you watch a very funny, very cool horror film. Uh, horror horror comedy. A lot of people have been calling it horror comedy, but I've kind of been like, it's kind of like the Substance, Like the parts of it that are very funny, but then there's parts of it that you're just sitting there like, oh, I feel really. Bad right now.

So I was like, maybe in the sense of the substance where I was like, it's funny, but it's so serious at the same time, like I knew that it was going to have to have it like a nice injection of dark humor. So well, oh, go ahead, Jamie. Sorry. No, I was like, some people are like, oh, I didn't expect it to be that funny, and I was like, no, that's how I cope. Well, it definitely is.

And I wanted to, you know, before we give our overview, I wanted to ask if you classify this as a rape revenge movie, if you because the word rape is a little bit loaded when we Emily and I kind of we came up in the blogger days when you were there was a lot of us really digging into that subgenre. But I feel like in decades. Since Old Lady, we don't really we don't say rape. It's not a thing that we talk about. We've changed the phrasing, and I don't want to accidentally classify it as something maybe that you don't feel comfortable with it being classified as well.

I have always classified it as a rape revenge film because I feel like thematically Bystanders is a natural progression of what the rape revenge genre would come to look like. And I think that the landscape of it in the recent years has really kind of reclaimed that because it has been such a negative term. But I think it's trending more positive. The more that we get stories that are focused on women, are focused on survivors, are made by survivors, We're getting more. Of that reclamation.

So I am comfortable if you call it a rape revenge film, because that's what it is. And yeah, yeah, And another thing I wanted to get out of the way right up front, because I've had people ask me because I've been a champion for this movie, I won't. Hi that I read the script. I was very excited that it was going to be a movie that I could watch. I have been talking about it and people have said, I don't like, that's going to make me uncomfortable.

That's not what I want to see. I don't want to be triggered. I don't want to be upset, and that's completely valid because I talk on the show all the time about not watching stuff that will make me upset. This, in my opinion, goes out of its way to not be triggering and to be instead cathartic. Yes, and I want to say that as my personal opinion on it, but also Jamie, if you wanted to say anything on that, see that's.

Where I land on it as well, because I Marybeth and I never had any interest showing any of the actual assault. I didn't when I wrote the script, and Marybeth just reinforced that going forward. We both were very. Much on the same page when it comes to we don't want to show it. I more so focus on.

The language of rape culture within it, because which in itself is triggering. Like there was always going to be something in it that was triggering, which is why I honestly people are like, I have to get the spoons to watch this, and I'm like, okay, you do that. You take care of yourself first, because I'm gonna be here, the movie's gonna be here. It's no problem. I'm but yeah, I never wanted to show.

I wanted to focus on revenge more than I do. I feel like there's always this unevenness to ripe revenge films, because what we're really here for is the revenge. Yeah, we're here for Catharsis, but I'm not, like, you don't really see that. And then some of. It can become so gross and gratuitous to the point that this is like like very much meant to tittilate a certain yeah, instead of actually make any like worthwhile voluntary.

And I think we're seeing again, we're seeing a push away from that, or if they do depict assault, it is done in a way that is so different than it always has been. It seems like it's it's very interesting to see how this. Has, you know, even like in the past ten years, has really you know, changed, there's a lot of Honestly, I think Bystanders in a way is a synthesis of. The past and the present and what could be the future of the yeah. Yeah.

And I think for anybody who sits down and starts this movie, because I think in the beginning it is a bit like I know, if if I had this on in the background and my husband walked by in the background, he gave me a look of like, oh, you're watching one of those because the language in the beginning is very as you're saying triggering, it is it's sexual assault language, because that is we not that we need that, but this is what's happened. This is where we're starting. And it's one of those movies that I I would want to say to anybody who starts it and thinks, oh, just hang on, hang on five minutes, stay with it, because it then goes in a very different direction and you round a corner in this movie where I realize, oh, I feel I feel safe here.

I don't fully know what I'm getting cause it's gonna give me a lot of surprise, as I can tell that, but I know as soon as I kind of you kind of like cross a line maybe about I don't know, twenty five minutes in where I realize, oh, it's it's kind of like when you sit down to watch like a Wallace and Grammett movie and you know, it's like, oh, think you're gonna be like, ultimately, I'm gonna come out if you're okay. And I think that's really important to know for anybody who starts it and thinks that maybe they don't want to stay. And the amount of people that have had that similar reaction, like talking about how they feel safe. How it's made. Them feel safe has really it's meant a lot to me, and I've like seen people it's like, especially talking about Claire, people are like her character.

Just made me feel safe. Yeah, and like that really, Like I I've been so emotional over the past few days, like actually like crying because of some of the just the sweet stuff and that I'm like, it really means a lot to me because a lot of times horror movies were the only thing that made me feel safe growing up. In the fact that I can give that experience to another person has really been like the dream, Like that has been my life's skull. I think from the time I was a thirteen year old and like I've done it. Well, it's like this is like the second one that I've just started, like just crying.

We're all here for it. Good because I was like, it's emotional content and it comes from a really personal place. People are gonna people are gonna cry sometimes. Yeah. Well, Christine, I am gonna give you the honor and to everybody out there again, please rent this movie.

We're gonna go a little more into the plot of it and so we can talk more. You tell Christine is our you know, the the best synopsizer that I know. So Christine, why don't you tell us a little bit about what Bystanders is about. I was just gonna read the IMDb synopsis, but now I feel like I have to really touch my legs on this. So Bystanders is I'm very excited about it, so I might go along.

Is about a very sweet little girl who's played by a wonderful actress named Brandy Botkin. She's not little girl to me. She is because I'm an old woman. As I said, she's like a teenager and she's very innocent, sweet. She gets kind of talked to going to this party that's in a cabin in the woods, which is something that I want to talk about as we've extensively covered, bad things happen, and two unsuspecting bystanders, if you will come to her rescue.

They are named Gray and Claire, and Claire is played. By Jamie Uh. And then uh, lots of fun stuff happens. So yeah, we're we're gonna, uh, we're gonna talk about all the little twisties and and stuff. And I will say I had read the script previously, so I knew all that stuff.

It didn't affect my watching of it at all. Just so you know, Jamie, it doesn't hinge on the twists. It's like, it's still like that for me. Even I was like, oh damn, I like this outside of knowing the twist and write because. Like, it still plays yep, it still plays great.

It doesn't. It doesn't matter if you know. And I think I told you already Jamie. I've now watched it twice because I wanted to re up on it better the second time. Hell yeah, that's what I like to hear because every time I sit down to write something, that's one thing I actually think about.

I'm like, is this gonna be better on a rewatch for people? Are they going to get more out of it? Because I was like, I think rewatchability is something that you you need to think about. Because I'll say this not French, because I almost tell you. Yeah.

I was watching The Piano Teacher last night for the first time, and I was like, oh, this is one of those movies that's like you watch it once and then never again. I'm like, where are we going with the not that makes perfect? I've never thought of it, But you're right, that's the bescribing. I appreciate that about the French, that that they go there because they're like, hmm, it's like, you may never. Want to watch this movie again.

And I'm like, you know what, I'm I watched The Vanishing the week before too. There's something wrong. That very European era this. Yeah, I was like, that's the same category. But no, bystanders, it does.

It does work well. I've had people, multiple people say, oh my god, it plays better a second time. That's what you want with horror too. I think you know, we're all probably video store generation of oh they're out of the new we I'll just watch this one again. And it feels like this is something like that.

So, Jamie, when you were writing the screenplay, did you always see yourself playing Claire. I it was one of those things where a lot of Claire's character was born from the fact that I had acted since. I was nine years old. You know, actually probably shocking to some people who are like, oh, this bitch can't act, but you know. I digress online reviews.

Yeah, I've been acting from now. Most of it's actually been so sweet about the performance and I have I have loved it, but like the ones that tickles me because I've been acting since I was nine and a lot of my angst as an actress is in Claire because I am always very type cast in theater because they want me to either be a sweet hicck or some. Sweet little angenou. I was in several musical reviews during college. They cast me as Marion from The Music Man.

That should tell you, and I'm. No, that's not that's not what I want. I mean, at that era of musicals there, that's kind of the only part you're usually going to find anyway. Yeah, so funny because I was like I wanted like the one I picked. The piece I picked for myself was Audrey from Little Shop, which is you know.

World rounded, more layered. Yeah. Like, I was just so frustrated, and my uh acting coach, acting teacher, who I love so dearly, was like, this is gonna be your entire life because you have the sweet little baby face and those round little cheeks, Like that is going to be your life. And she was pissed off about it herself. She said, you are going to have to work over time to set yourself apart from all of these people and everything around you.

So honestly, Claire comes from my. Just absolute upset over that too. Because I wanted a character that leaned into that type and then completely subverted it in the meanest way possible. Because I was like, this is the kind of role I would want for myself, right, and I figured since it was going to be Andy, that I would probably wind up playing Claire. I'm also one of those people that does not well.

I didn't want to put anybody else into that position because I'm literally like somebody, Like several people on that set were like, we couldn't have found somebody that would have just thrown themselves into that in the way that Jamie did. Like I'm crawling across the woods. I'm You're covered in blood, some most it not yours. Yeah, Everybody's like, oh my god, Like that must have been so sticky, and I'm like so sticky and like Kentucky humid. I'm running around in the middle of the woods in that bridesmaid's dress and like, yeah, I was like, I kind of I always I've said it before and I'll say it again, always said I would have played Claire Gray both just to get somebody else from.

Having to do all that. But let me say you do. This is what the thing, And I know I had emailed about it, but as soon as this happened in the movie, this was like I was like at the gym watching it and this was my like fist pumping in the air because it's the thing I look. For in every horror or action movie, and. It's the thing that I always know, Oh, a man is making this because uh, he thinks women look better this way.

But their end, or if you have a stunt person, it's much easier if their hair is in their face when they are running away from somebody after them or they're chasing somebody. And as any woman knows or anybody who's ever had long hair nose, it is much easier to escape evil rapists or chase after and hunt down evil rapists if you have a fucking scrunchy and you have a moment where your character asks for a scrunchy and gives one to Abby, and I say, as a woman with hair. Thank you. Well, you are welcome, because I still have Claire's scrunchy and Brandy has Abby's. And then I gave the third in that set to Mary Beth, so she has the third one, which is I think is very cute, like we all have that and yeah, like it was I was, I just kind of I love that moment myself because you actually see me and Garrett kind of ad lib a little bit because I go, I don't fucking know.

So she's so done in that moment, like she's like. Oh, where is it. It's very it is like she's like I need this. Right now. And then she's like, here, you take one too.

You're gonna need. Take pants as you're in the woods. You want to wear pants right now? Oh yeah, because I was like, uh uh uh Claire Claire, and Claire's got sneakers on at that point, because I was like, she's coming from a reception. She's not gonna have her ceremony.

She's on, and like she's gotta dress tied up as it is like she's been she's been celebrating. Like it's I feel like it's a pretty accurate depiction of femininity right there. It's like actually, like she's not like running away in like five inch hells or something, don't you know. Yeah, it would have been very difficult in the woods to do such a thing, So I think that might be. A good lead into do a little bit of the spoileryness of it.

So Claire is not your average lady you would find in the woods, and her significant other, Gray isn't either, And you mentioned Garrett Garrett place Gray, So talk about the twist explicitly if you don't mind. And maybe I'm curious a little bit. More about like where that original idea came from, this like couple as opposed to just maybe you Claire. You know, see, a lot of it is rooted in the fact that I was like, man also have a place in fighting against rape culture. Man are also harmed by the patriarchy.

And then you have Gray, who is clearly harmed by the patriarchy. As you will find out, his father was awful. He was bullied relentlessly, he was in gv HE and he doesn't seem like that at all when you see him on the surface. I think they call him Nathan Hawk. Motherfucker right.

Up. Day one. I look at that monitor and I fucked up, y'all. I messed up bad there. I look at that monitor and I'm like, fus, he look like Ethan Hawk a little.

Bit, and it stuck. It's perfect. And even my dad came. To that conclusion because I sent. Like a picture of the monitor.

I'm like, oh, gregs dad, and he's like, why you look like Ethan Hawk though. But it's perfect because that's the type you think you're getting. You think you're getting this, like, you know, kind of I don't know, like clearly we were when we meet Claire and Gray, like we think like, oh, they're you know, intelligent, they're probably really liberal, they're you know, they seem to have like he's wearing glasses, Like there's something about them that seems like, oh, they're like the nerdy kind of people i'd be friends with. And so when you discover that they are, but that they're also awesome vigilante, cause it's pretty dale cool. It's like they're they're killing they're killing people because it's like you you see both sides of them are clear and gray.

Yeah. And I find that some people have a. Hard time like reconciling, like people that have just such disparate facets. And I'm like, no, no, this is nuance here. And it's just it's so funny to me because I just I just like the idea of a couple doing it together.

They have a trauma that stems from the same place, which is, you know, the white cis male patriarchal bullshit and them forming like this bond and taking out people like that. Like I just loved that because I'm like, you don't really see men take an active role in rape revenge unless it is a some weird man pain thing. The you know, the dead wife saying. Yeah and the flower dressed and he has the memory of her. Yes, yeah, it's all pretty, so he's cozy and then.

Or he's related to her, sure in some way, like with Last House it's it's her dad. It works on the same but I was like, I really wanted something that drove home that you should care about people outside of yourself. You should be worried about this period because again, this is something that affects us all. And that's kind of where Claire and Gray really come from for me, is that it's that united front of a man and a woman and some people, oh my god, the reviews, they're like, this is man hating. It's like all men are all men.

It says all men are bad, and I'm like. There's literally a man in the movie that isn't what I. Was like, Oh, you're really telling on yourself grat like, oh shit, Gray doesn't count as a man, like, oh damn. But I love the characters of the boys, which is a different question. But it's really strange that that they're obstensibly barely in it.

They're barely in it, but and Gray's in. It like like the entire fucking time. So to just like just like it really does kind of show biases going in expectation kind of stuff. So I think I think people will look at reviews and get what they need to get out of it, because that is a strange one that. It is, because I honestly think the part of it is that they think they don't identify with Gray, they're identifying with the boys, So I think they're hyper fixating on the boys and they're just kind of ignoring Gray because that's the that's the little prick they would have made fun of.

Well, that's that's their analog, right, So like my analog sucks and this this piece of media doesn't like my analog, Well I do. Maybe you should find a different analog. Yeah, Because and that's another reason why I wrote Gray, because I was like, there are obviously men that aren't like that, and Gray is the more like traumatized sensitive, like I actively had to work to break this cycle kind of guy. And there are so many guys. That are out there that are actually doing the work, and they actually actively are for you know, dismantling this entire system that harms us all and importantly not they're not.

They're not sitting around bragging about it on the internet to I'm gonna say that because you would. You would not catch Gray McClellan dead on the damn internet. Betas was the father of a daughter exactly. Yeah, yeah, he would not. Yeah, well that's that's a big one for me, Like you wouldn't can You would not catch him on the internet doing that shit.

He would just be doing it. I tell you. It reminds me something I thought about a lot watching it. Was the anecdote I had always heard and I don't know how how true it was, but the director of I Spin on Your Grave had we said that the reason like his inspiration for making that movie was that he was driving one day, like one night, and that he like a woman basically ran to his car and she had just been assaulted and he lets her in the car and first thing he did was he took her to a police station. And when he did that, that it was the seventies or the sixties, and the cops talked to a rape victim the way they did then and probably some still do, and that it was he realized, what, like he made a mistake in doing that when he should have either taken her to a hospital or turned around and like gone, you know, the way I spent on your grave, I think was his way of like saying, what I wish I could have done for this woman was have her go and you know, uh, cut off all their cocks and all that, And I wonder if any of that That's kind of what I felt.

As soon as we realize who Claire and Gray are, it's like, oh, these are the people that when you pull over in this scenario, like if only we could have more of these people. So how do we get more of these people? Like that's exactly because I all it texts in any situation is somebody to step in and be like, hey, this isn't right. Yeah, you just and like it doesn't have to be loud, it doesn't have to be as violent and as vicious as Claire and Gray are. But that's the thing.

I wanted to get a point across, and by god, if I had to get it across with blood. And fire and yeah fire, I was gonna do it. And thank God for Mary Beth just being right in there with me, like, yeah, we're gonna, we're gonna do it, and we're gonna piss off a bunch of people, but they can die about it. And we we we went in there and we did it. Because that's the thing.

I think we are in another time period where subtlety does nothing for us in art, and I think it takes a lot more guts and a lot more talent to be that unsubtled because like I've joked that I was gonna wear red when they re open like the House American and Activities Committee, and I'm ostensibly called up there for so yeah, I've been like you just sometimes you just you gotta be what you gotta be, sometimes way too on the nose. But people are still gonna miss it. Apparently there are no good men in this movie. What hello, He's right there, Like I was like, you can't a whole point, James, that's the whole point. But there is a good man in it.

It's literally the answer to not all men. It's like, you're right, not all men, this one right here. And they're literally saying that they didn't get it. It's why. And they're in love and they clearly have just a great life together and a great sex life together, and they're gonna, you know, they have a future.

And what was the real like the relationship with with with Garrett Murphy, who's great, he's really great? Is Gray? How did you guys build that? How did you develop it? All of that?

He is? He is? He honest againness, I come from a background, obviously, I come from a background of trauma. I like, I don't know if. I've actually actively admitted to this, but I have been assaulted while acting before during rehearsals and stuff.

And I come from a very hurt, very like terrified place. So I was so nervous to me him, I was so nervous. I was terrified that it was, you know, gonna even like as like, is this gonna work? What is gonna happened? But there was like a really little serendipitous moment at the beginning of it when he had no like he's believe it or not, very new and I say this to his actually credit, he's very new.

He came with notes and it was the cutest thing. I'm like, I have not made character notes forever, and I just was so charmed by that. But what that little moment that let me know it was gonna all be okay was he picked up on a part of Grey's character that was not in the script explicitly, and it was that Gray pretty much Gray's self esteem issues when it comes to Claire. He thinks he's probably all sensibly bad for her and that he doesn't really deserve her. And I'm like, what the hell, what the hell, get out of my mind?

And to make it even funnier, he hadn't read that whole screenplay. He just picked that up. So like it really started off like really tentative because I was I was scared to death because and that's not on him right there, that's literally me bringing my past to the situation. But and of. Course I'm over there Gray, a lot of him is based on me, So I'm making the dumbest jokes to try to lighten the mood and everything, and like we fell into like this groove together that really worked to the point that.

Just watching it on screen. As a viewer, I'm like, I don't know how the hell we did that, but we were always just so aware of one another and where the other person is, and it just fell into like almost this seamless sort of it's a dance really, like we talked about, like especially when they're killing Jacob, Like we kind of fell into this really seamless sort of bond that it kind of took me by surprise, and I it looks even better on screen than I ever imagined that it could be. And I just it was weird for me to trust a guy like that in a way in that way, because I knew I was gonna have to like completely open my entire soul up to him in so many ways, and it was it was scary because I was like, oh no, And that was kind of like what it was with the other guys too, because like you're just right up in there, you're like in some of the like most scary actual intent stuff that actually happens to people.

And to actually feel that cared for and. That safe was everything to me on that with them, and uh, it just it worked so well and I couldn't be happier with how Claar and Gray turned out on screen because I knew that that, like a big part of the film was riding on that. So I was stressed to death. Yeah, and you have to believe that relationship because it's not just you know, a couple and they're in love and oh she's pregnant and this it's no. This is a couple who have put.

Their lives in danger, clearly more than once, and for other people, and they do it together with this kind of inherent trust that, oh, she's gonna be okay. She's in the woods somewhere, he's you know, surrounded by five guys. He'll be okay, She'll be okay. That there is and when the two of them are together in a physical movement, whether it's with each other or with these other characters, it's that very like you know, if you're with your partner for a while, you have your own physical language that nobody else understands, and it feels perfectly. I never would have guessed that you didn't know each other before filming.

Right, because I even watched I'm like, yeah, that was the first time we met. Was on like we did talk like a tiny bit before, but I was so nervous and so awkward. I was like, oh fuck, I don't want to freak this guy out. Was not with my own trauma, like because like the I withheld a lot of like personal stuff from him just to not freak him out so we could actually be comfortable with one another, and like we. Just kind of fell into it.

He really bonded with Calli, who plays Brie, who is like my kid's sister, and like it was to the point that I trust I trusted him with her because there was there was a part like when the girls are tied up, uh I had to do something uh like right after that, and it was Garrett who was actually taking care of Calli that he was literally she was freaking. She was kind of freaked out, like she was safe, she knew that, but again, like it's so intense, but he he calmed her down and took care of her. And the fact that I felt like I could not only trust him with me, I could trust him with Calli. And I think that says that says a lot about him as a person. I think because I.

Like, I watched Callie like a hawk anytime we're around anybody, like, because that's just how it's always been She's seven years younger than I am. Like, that's been like my job from the time she was born. And the fact that I could trust him with her meant a lot to me. And I literally pulled in aside and I was like, thank you, that's my baby, Garrett, and he was like, oh, some problem. I'm like, that's my baby.

My name, that's my baby. And there was another time and I had like actually forgot this until somebody reminded me of this the other day was actually Emily Fabriziou, and then I was like, oh shit, yeah, that did happen. Because when everybody else was away after we shot that scene, I was on the porch, covered up in a throw. It was hot outside. My nerves were so bad.

I was freezing, and I'm like, Garrett, if I don't talk to you, I'm like trying not. To freak out right now. And he's like, no, you're you're good, You're good, and I'm sitting there and I'm like, I have my eyes closed and I'm like trying not to freak out again. We were all safe. I'm just like okay, coping with like just the weird body reactions sometimes like several, like several of us were had to Like Marybeth was like, I have to.

Be alone, yeah, and when you have me come out and sit on that porch and I was like, I can't be alone. Like everybody was having like a different and I liked that we had the space to do that, like we all had the space to do what we absolutely had to do and like do that hard stuff in that space and not feel judged and like, could you know, take time for ourselves or otherwise. And I'm sitting out there and he goes, Jamie, you need to breathe. You are not breathing like you are not You are sitting there not breathing like I'm like actively worried. And I was like, oh my.

God, I can't believe I had forgotten about that. And Emily was like, how did you forget about that? And I was like because I remember telling her because I was like, oh, it's it's nice to have somebody to be like, you need to breathe. Somebody that's not Emily or CALLI, because it was like because usually it's like you need to breathe, Jamie, you need to calm down. He's like, no, no, you need to call him down, but not like in a patronizing way, but like no.

You're not breathing, Jamie, Like we can't finish keep if I die. It's It's something I always find interesting when I think about films, and I've never worked on a film, but realizing that when I read interviews with different people talking about it, of what an what an odd kind of what's the word, like little microcap cosm or biosphere that you create where it must be And I imagine this was not that long a shoe just due to budget, but that for whatever, a couple of weeks, you are in this very high intensity, very probably very busy. You're doing night shoots. You're you know, you're running around, you're changing clothes constantly, you're covered in blood. It's cold, it's hot, it's this is that, and you're doing these incredibly big scenes with perfect strangers that you're developing a relationship with, but like that's a different relationship with the character and than it is with the person while you're at craft service just and then it's then it's over right, And how does that?

You know, how do those relationships stay with you or do you put kind of put them in a pocket and close them and move on, and just what is that process? Like emotionally, I'm glad you asked that, because I'm I come from a theater background, so you see the same people all the time, we're just playing different roles and stuff. So this was kind of new to me, and I was just kind of like honestly, like after we wrapped, I was like struck with like the worst like fear of like losing everybody because I had gotten so close to them and I had just allowed them to like act like take take space in my heart and that's all of them. Like I talked to Brandy like almost every day after we like for a month after we like wrapped and everything, and like I would check in on people and like try to keep that open like sometimes sometimes people are busy and stuff happens and that that's okay, But it's it's really, it really is difficult because you just kind of have that fear of like, oh, no, I'm losing something that that has been one of the best experiences.

Of my life. How am I gonna how am I ever gonna recapture that again? And like it's it's weird because it's like, you know, you'll you'll have not seen each other and forever and not have spoken to each other for forever, but you say like two words to one another, and then it's just it's the same as it always has been, and. It's it's it's it's unique. It's unique because again, I come from that theater background where we're always like, we were always hanging out, we were always aggravating one another, we were always right there.

So it was kind of different for me to compartmentalize that. And of course I'm so overeager, like I just I love people. For somebody, for somebody that wrote by. Sanders to be like I love people, you would think I didn't like people at all, and it's like, no, I love I love people. And like, just to go from that to back to my like no normal like existence where I'm just talking to like mostly like eighteen nineteen year olds about writing.

It was a It was a learning curve because there was at one point, I swear to God, we were sitting on that porch because that you know, you see it in the movie The Porch and I love that porch, sitting on that porch, and Garrett and I were like, should we quit our jobs? We just quit our jobs. And then CALLI is sitting there, the only one that is being an adult in that moment, going out, No, no, you should not quit your jobs. What is wrong with you? With both of you.

But it was it was really weird though, to say the least, because like I'm going through like the five stages of your every other hour. After I wrap, I cried a little bit, and like it's it's intense. It is intense, but like, honestly, I'm thankful for the experience. I'm thankful for the actors, and I'm thankful for you know the fact that like some of them do check up on. Me and are like, hey you good, Jamie, And I'm like, maybe not, but I will be.

Like I was talking to Dayton, who plays Brad, earlier this morning about some of the reviews because he plays he went on to play my husband and something. I wanted to. Bring that up because you were talking about like working with people again and again. So Deaton is probably my favorite actor that I have seen in a thing with you at this point, I am such a fan shout out to Daton because I the project you're talking about is a short film which has been getting a lot of accolades, and I've seen it and it's very good. And Dalton plays a bigger role than that, and he's fantastic.

So there's a lot of talent in this movie in my opinion, like a lot of young talent, a lot of raw talent, and it's really exciting. Yeah, and the boys, I know, Christine made that point that obviously you can go a lot of different ways with with that casting and that characterization and such, but they are because I think again, so quickly in the film, you understand, oh, they're not gonna amount. To much that we're allowed to laugh at them. And it is. It's cathartic but also really funny.

And those those all those young boys who are all young enough probably to be my child. They're all great, they're very funny, but they're not playing it for comedy, which is very smart. It's punching up too, because oh yeah, because that's the thing I was. I literally said this once. I was like, you can make a right joke at the expense of the ripest, yeah, because way too many people like That's what kills me is people are like everything is always at the expense of the victim.

And I'm like hell now not here, yeah, not here, not in my world. It's like I'm making fun of these guys, which is the saic. Yeah, well, and that's you said before you made kind of a comment of oh, if somebody saw this movie, they would not think that they would think the writer hates people or you know, it's as anthropic movie. And I am with you that no, it is not that this movie is seeing the good in people right as soon as you and I mean it does it. Even with the girls in the beginning that they're friends that you know when one of them has to say goodbye to the other, there is love there.

You actually you absolutely believe that these are two nice young women who should have a longer life and have a longer friendship and they're not going to but that there's nothing that they're doing that is causing that. But then they stumble on or Abby rather one stumbles on like the perfect group of people you would want in this scenario, who don't hate people, they hate these little shits. But they see Abby and they say, no, you're you're with us. Now, we're protecting you, but we're also not going to you know, we're not recruiting you and I wonder. I thought that was really interesting the way that relationship to Abby kind of works, And I wonder if you could talk a little bit about that, and was there a different way that was going or was it always meant to be that way?

Absolutely, it was always supposed to be that there. We're obviously not trying to recruit you, Abby, because they make it very clear that this is their their lifestyle. It's not like I think Claire and Gray make a lot of mistakes. Actually yeah, but it's a situation that nobody would want to ever be in. And like, I.

Feel like a lot of it speaks to like the actual terror of parenthood, Like she becomes like their surrogate child for the night, and. You can have the best intentions and still mess up. And uh. I always said if I made a sequel that they would be a deeper exploration of that facet because I find it so just ridiculously interesting that they wanted to protect Abby from becoming them, because that's always I think a parent's worst fear is your child becoming you. In a sense, if you are trying to break cycles and trying not to, you know, try not to put your own trauma and stuff on a child.

Yeah, and they they're trying to keep her, they're trying to keep her hands clean, they're trying to preserve her as much as they possibly can, and in the end they can. And I think that that. Is probably like one of the more mark like purposefully murky aspects of the script, and that is intentional because I just think that that is such an interesting just dynamic to be in because you kind of see Abby get a taste for it, and you kind of see her get a taste for it, and you're just like, oh, we could have baby serial killer on our hands. I think that that's interesting though, and it's a really good point, the like, this is my child, We're going to try to break these these cycles this but like the reality of it is that life is still happening to that person and you can't necessarily extricate them from the truths of life.

So which is which is interesting to think about and stuff too. I mean, Jamie, I don't know if you know this, but this is a very well written movie. I mean, you know you know that I think that. But I think when I first read it, I said, like I want to write about this movie, and it's because it's doing so many different things in a different way again, which is why it plays so well on rewatch, because it's it's averts expectations so much that you almost don't realize all of what it's doing at first. And I think that's really interesting.

And I would like to say I know that we kind. Of talked off off recording a little bit about like the person reception, like reviews and how the average person might be receiving it, but I wanted you to talk about maybe how critically it's been received and how on the festival circuit it's been received. All hell, Yeah, people have liked have liked this a lot, a lot more than I thought they would, because, like I always go into stuff trying to temper my expectations because I'll be honest, a lot of Gray's backstories mine, I was a perpetually bullied child. So I'm just over here just prepping for the worst, girding my little loins against all kinds of terror, because like I was, like, I know what evil people are capable of.

We are capable of great evil, but we are also capable of great love. And I think that it good to remember that. Because like when we won we were nominated in every category at Horror Hound in the fall. I'm gonna say that, I'm gonna brag on everybody in every category. And I was like, oh my god.

I was just like I literally was just I was walking around days for days. I did not expect my acting nomination. And it's probably because I am so critical of myself all the time, because that's the thing. I'm like, y'all can't say anything meaner about me than I've said about myself on a Tuesday at two o'clock, so you get what you get. But like I was like, holy shit, people really like this.

People like this more than I thought they would like this, And people were really getting it. Like I had people that were judges and organizers pulling me off to the side and we're like, you were fantast you're a fantastic writer, you're a fantastic actress, and it's like you did something amazing there, like people really understanding it. And I'm like, oh my god, Like this is like my wildest little girl dream ever. Like people really just like connecting with it and loving it, and like just that was just a wonderful taste of it. And we won seven of those.

I won for the writing. I am upset about the acting loss, but only because it was the only man in that category that won. I'll accept a loss to a woman. But I was like, I was like, no, I joke about that all the time when people are gonna come away from this like, oh no, she is a Missandrist in real life. But it's the only man.

I was like, it's the only man. I was like, the only man. Are you serious. I was like, dang, I was at least pulling for one of the other ladies, goshang it. But Garrett one for playing Gray, and I was like, hell yeah, which, honest to God, that's as good as me winning it because I created Gray, he took him and made him his own and like a part of me is Gray too, So I was like, that's just as good as winning it myself.

And I was like I couldn't have been more happy about that. And Mary Beth won for the directing, and Chance one for the cinematography, and Burry one for the editing, and like we won Judge's Choice and just best like best film overall, like. It was it was wild too. Just it was just like bystanders, bystanders, bystanders, bystanders. And I'm like, people are gonna be sick of me, sick of me because me looking at looking at Mary Beth.

I'm like, they're gonna be sick of me, sick of you, sick of all of us. They're gonna be I'm like, they're gonna be sick of hearing the name Gray. They're gonna go, what the hell kind of name is that? Like, uh, it's been wild And then we won Out of Nightmares again and then we went to New York and I had people pulling me off to the side and was like, people that are in the industry, like if you have a role for this kind of person which and they were like, please please. Call me, Please call me, please call me.

I want I want you to write something. I want to be in something you wrote. And I'm like, what awesome? Like it was beautiful. It was beautiful, and like being able to connect with people that really got it and like other filmmakers that are women, and you know, actually being able to connect with men that don't suck yea because Rye.

I was like, this is attracting the right kind of guys. Yeah too, And I was like, thankfully, thanks thank God, and like I just getting all of that, receiving all that love and like just people like literally coming up to me and holding my hands like they've known me forever. And I'm like, I love that, like just from watching that movie that they felt that comfortable with me. And that's been a lot. Of the just the critical a lot of the critical praise has focused on like the fact that like some of like with the women, I feel safe.

This is this is a safe space for me. And I'm like, what a wild thing to be said about a. Very violent rape revenge movie. But if I can do that, if I can facilitate that, that's actually how I facilitate a lot of my teaching in my day job is if I can make a safe place for the student to literally just feel like they can come here and put something down for a little bit, that's fine. Yeah, And I think that's such a big part.

I mean, where all the three of us are women who grew up loving horror and constant probably in our lives defending that or explaining that or justifying it. And it's hard sometimes when you know you turn and you pull movies that seem to be completely exploiting women to say no. This made me feel powerful, and this made me feel seen, and this gave me possibility. And even for the most part, so many of those films were still movies made by men with sometimes their heart's in the right place, but it's it and you said it. How it's been so refreshing this kind of past.

I don't know, ten fifteen years to see the I think women like us who grew up with these movies and kind of said, this is you know what I love love not seeing, but this want. I want these stories, but I want to tell them the right way, and I want to tell them my way. And I mean, congratulations that you did that and you got to do it, and it's out in the world now, and I'm I'm so glad I got to see it. And I certainly hope that if I ever am running down the street in the middle of the night, that yours is the car that pulls over for me. Girl.

I'm all tell you. I've joked that. I was like, they better, they better not. I was like, they better they better not mess with me, because I was like, if you pull over of my car, I'm like it's done. I've done that.

It's like I actively whole life. I'm ready, I'm ready, and I'm gonna tell you I will always find a rock. I was a kid, and I was like, you know what. I'll find a big I actually picked out the rocks that's in the movie. That's my rock, that's my rocking being the production designer actually he said we were walking around the farm like mapping out stuff, and he goes, Jamie, find your rock.

Pick you out a rock, pick you out a nice rock. And I found that rock because I was like and we were like, oh, it's nice. You can get it, yeah, like edges to it, so there's you know, texture. Yeah, and you can really grip onto. I'm not worrying about like it flying out of your hands.

And he carved the foam rock after this rock, so it's we have the rock and the stunt rock. Wow. Yes, yes, And that was just a special moment. And I remember sending. My mom a text and I was like, it's my rock, Mama, it's my rock.

I was just like, oh my god. She was so she was so hyped too, because my mom is a huge horror fan. And I think it's funny that like somebody was like, I love this movie My only complaint is I wish it'd had more blood and gore. And I was like, yeah, that was my mom's complaint. To my mother, and then my father on the other end is like, I didn't think it would be this violence.

And I'm like, that's that's really funny coming from the man that I watched Last House on the Left with. I'm like, you did this, you may you and my act you and mom this is you are the way the reason I am that I am, sir, like y'all did this? Yep, beautiful. Uh So the movie is now rentable in bo D where else? What are you working on?

Now? What's next for you? Okay? Right now we're getting your husband was a good man? The short Uh that's got Dton in it as my husband.

So if you want to see Deeton and I get into a whole other weird dramatic situation agency very soon. And Chris Christine like sent me like the best message. When I finally sent her the screen like the screener, she was like, oh my god, Like when it was finished, she said, I've watched it twice. I'm making Zac watch it. Which and I was like, yes, I like it more than Bystanders.

I know it's completely different, but like I don't know man speak, it spoke to me in like this wild way nice. I love that. That's a lot of That's some people have been like reading my works post by Standers too, and like watching your husband was a good Man. They're like, god, I love by Sanders, but You're just like you get better every time, and I'm like, yes, that upward gross is something that I'm excited about for all of us that made that movie, Like. Like that's the thing.

Like I keep up with everybody's careers because I'm like, I want to see you, sorry, I want to see you grow, and like I'm glad that I could give you your springboard for at least some of that. And I just, oh my god, like we have your husband was a good man. We got our first festival acceptance. If you are in Cleveland, Ohio on March first, we are playing at the Short Suite Film Festival and we are on I Think Horror and Drama Number two is our program and it starts at seven forty five pm. Tickets for the program or fifteen dollars, and there are several other shorts in that program that sounds so cool, Like there were ones I was like, oh my god, I'm gonna have to find whoever made that and like like like, be my friend.

Make more movies with you. Yeah, because I'm like, heck yeah, Like when I see somebody it's like mad making other cool stuff. I'm like, yes, collaborations. Anthologies, come on, hell yeah you are women women handled anthologies. Please.

Yeah. We have like two other women in that same program, and I think a several more actually that have like some shorts that sound so damn cool and I'm like, yes, do it? And do people follow you on Blue Sky on other places I don't even know about anymore. You can find me on Instagram and on Blue Sky under Jamie Alvi. I'm pretty I'm the loud one that's making ton of the reactions to bystanders.

You'll know exactly. Who I am because I'm over there making like memes now and videos of like the eraser Head Baby superimposed over like the review bombs where it's laughing and going, hey, I'm like, that's exactly how I feel about it right now, because I'm just like, I like finding joy and chaos because I mean that's how I survived. And this I think we were saying off air, So I think it's it's good to leave people with as you go out and start to anybody that's listening, probably if they haven't watched it already, or probably looking at IMDb or other places for reviews, and just pay really close attention to who's who's doing the one star reviews, because it is as telling about who this movie is made for as it is of anything, and it's probably more entertaining to read that and realize who they are in this movie.

Will it's so funny, And like, what's funny is the guys that are like, hell, yeah, Gray, I love Gray, and they're like he's the best. Yeah first the. Ones who say there's no good men in this movie. So all right, well, thank you so much, Jamie, and everybody please find Jamie on Instagram and Blue Sky. We will put a bunch of this in the show notes and most importantly rent bystanders, and watch it and leave the good reviews in all the places that.

You need to. Yes, yes, please get yeah, Like, let's inject some positivity in. The midst of people just like completely just like. Going off at this point because we've got some that I was like oh my god, the Onion couldn't have written a better sat High. It's just like, it's bizarre.

But they probably would have used better punctuation than I'm guessing. Oh yeah, I'm gonna tell you yeah, because I was not the single out people, but there was one where I was like, oh my god, the AMA splices. This is like pretty tall viacons over here, So I would have definitely been punctuated correctly. Yeah, So to everybody out there, think carefully about how those commonplaces are and whether you trust that person's review. Yes, yes you won't.

We are in, We meet you