Special Edition: Bystanders with Mary Beth McAndrews

We are all right, well I'll just kick it off then. So welcome to another special edition of the Feminine Critique. I'm Emily, I am Christine, and today we are joined by a special guest star. We have the director and producer of the new hit film Bystanders, Ms. Mary Beth McAndrews.

Welcome, Oh, thank you for having me. It's so excited to be here. We were just talking about how wonderful it is to escape from a very dark present that we're all living in with a wonderful story about rape revenge. So I guess that's how we all start. Yeah, I know you are obviously of the genre.

Yeah what uh so tell us what brings you to this particular corner of the movie world. So, I when I went to grad school in twenty eighteen, I wrote my master's thesis on women directed rape revenge films, specifically about Cora Lefarge's Revenge and how it redefines the idea of like a female gaze and like actually like tried to kind of rethorize how she actually weaponizes the camera to make a new kind of of like gaze. And I came to the idea after I saw Revenge for the first time, and I am a sexual assault survivor, and it was the first time I had really watched a rape revenge movie that felt like actually Catharsis for me, and I kind of just got really fascinated with that world and realizing that the canon is very tiny, but it is a very fastnating cannon.

And for the longest time, it's. Just been like a really fascinating topic for me to write about and research and I just got and then. I now made my own one, which is like super weird to think about in a way. I'm just like because one of my one of my really good friends and one of my classmates from my master's came up to me and said, hey, remember when, like you just wrote about this for your thesis. And you just made a fucking movie about it.

And then I was like, I know, what the hell, And it was just it's super. Cool think making a movie like you have like a cast and a lot of fake blood and stunts and woods and lighting, Like that's a big fucking deal. Yeah, it's wild. It's fucking weird. I I actually had a follow up question, I will show my ignorance just a bit, but like, how many other women and directed rape revenge movies are there?

And where are they? So there's not Oh, I'm playing on my letterbox list because I made a letterbox list. So there's not a. Lot, unfortunately, but there are. It's a growing cannon, especially with Blake Twice that came out last year.

So crowd this movie, which if you haven't seen and you feel as if you are able to watch it is incredible and one of the also the few rape prevenged films told from the perspective of a black woman. A lot of films are very white in their perspective, so this is like one of the only other ones. I just watched that on a plane of all places. Oh yeah, I wondered how my seat melts felt. But you know who, that's wow?

That is That is quite a movie. It felt like making a statement. Yeah, I feel like I have been able. To daring choice. Where is it?

Though? Where did I put it? There's there's none that like spring to mind. I'm sure no, No, So there's so there's revenge. Obviously, there's revenge.

There's MFA, which is all Elite's film, which is incredible. If you have not seen it, it is what promising young women wishes it was. That a shade I do not like. Promising Young Woman, which is another one, which is the one everyone knows. Holiday, which is another underrated one that's Danish.

That's by the director of who is by the writer of Border, which is a really good movie if you haven't seen it. The Nightingale by Jennifer Can. Yeah, that fucking sucks to watch, but. Like it's amazing accurate. Violation, which is an incredible movie, one of my favorites from twenty twenty.

It's so good. But another I mean, these are all really hard to watch. I'm not even gonna keep saying if they all stuck to watch. Rose Plays Julie is another rape. It's so good, fucking good, it's so fuchucking good, and it's also really hard to watch in tragic but beautiful.

And then there's also one called Traps, which is from a Checko Czech, a Czech director named Vira Chilatov, and it's about a veterinarian who castrates men because after they rape her. So that's like a really as an earlier example of one, but a lot of them are all like within the last ten or so years. Bas and Wah is another one that's a wild one about women who have been raped who decide to go on like a crazy killing sex free and it's all shot on videos, so it looks like you're just watching porn, but like murder porn. And it's by these two double French women who wrote a novel and then turned like the Oh. It's just reads really good if you want something like fucking.

Weird and growth and like super like horny but also like really angry. It's like two thousand, so it's like early New French extremity, fairal angry horny women, which is like La Chef's kiss to me personally, But that's the canon. It's pretty small, but there's some really cool shit in it though, and I probably am missing some, like I'm not, I'm not. I like to think I'm kind of an expert, but like I am not perfect, so I do not know every single thing. So if anyone has any other ones I've missed, let me know, please.

Well, I think I think my question was loaded, and you kind of answered it in another way too. There's not there's not the female directed equivalent of I spit on your grave. There's nothing from you know, from that era. Yeah, that kind of no, that more like you know, thriller, a cruel picture when some of the more classic cinema nerds would say, like rape revenge, that's what they think of. They think of like thriller and stuff, and it exactly.

It bums me out that a lot of people seem to not be able to update that there are also additional stories and other ways that we can view this, because if I didn't rent it on VHS at my local video store, then I mean, it's not even a movie. Come on, it's it's just because coming up, I know, coming up. Emily and I touched on this with Jamie briefly, Like Emily and I were both into rape revenge films. I think that's like when you're a young cinophile, it's something that maybe you hit on on the stop. And it was always like it offered a bit of catharsis, and the stories were always interesting and it was nice to have a woman a woman at the head of it, but it was always really unsatisfying.

And I think there's something about bystanders, particularly because it is has such a feminine perspective that all the things that aren't there in those older examples are present in this Was that like a conscious choice for you or did it just was it beautiful happenstance that when women get to tell these stories they're better. Both I think, yeah, fuck. Yeah, I mean because I mean, like Jamie and I talked about it a lot, Like I know, because like a lot of like you and like I had to give Jamie a lot of credit with the script obviously, like a lot of stuff was there on the page, and I think we were on the same page upon intended about like what we wanted to do and really like this ethos of violence against boys, no violence against women, Like it's like really what was like very like boiled down to ethos of what we came into this in as like we want to show as much violence against men as possible and have it be about the tortured male body and not about the female bodies.

So like some reviews have been like what happened to her friends? Why didn't we see? And I understand that question for sure, but like we didn't want to show their murders because we always make a spectacle out of the death of women, so we want to make a spectacle out of the death of men. I mean, like not to get like teer all of it, but like fucking terrifier. Uh sorry, it's been on my mind a lot, but it's like, you know, we want to say it's not political, but these movies completely revel in the destruction of the female body and the men get our super quick death and it's and that's just one movie.

I mean, like it's the it's the most relevant example right now, but most movies do that. And so we Jamie and I really did come into this saying like no fuck that we are going against the grain about what you what we expect and what upeks that would expect, and we're doing We're gonna make people mad, but like we don't care because we're sick of seeing it just be about killing women and like making women pieces of tortured meat that we can like laugh at and watch. And yeah, so that was very conscious going in. And then I think just because we were at the helmet just got even more so just by nature of us being angry and being like leading the charge on it. So yeah, yeah, I know that was something we said, Uh with Jamie was how how quickly I think both Christina and I in watching it felt like oh, we're safe.

This is gonna be okay. That pretty quickly you realize like, oh, like bad things are you know, we might our our leads, our our protagonists might be in danger, but they're gonna you know, spoiler alert, they're gonna make it. We're not gonna leave here unsatisfied. And I guess how much of that because I imagine that's like, it's gotta be a challenging thing when you're when you're uh directing some some pretty rough stuff and you need to put danger there, but you also know that you're approaching it from a different point of view? Was there you know, were there times where it was like, oh, we're is this a little bit too too dark?

Are we are we getting to the point of it being about the rape? Or are we like is it a was it always in the mind? Or were there times when you found yourself like thinking, oh, no, am I making a spit on your grave? Like I guess how as somebody who's watched so many of these movies, how do you like, are you constantly thinking what to do what not to do based on the things that you know you grew up with and wanted to do differently? So that's a great question, because I was worried that that was going to be the case.

But I think I was so confident going in, like I've watched all of these fucking movies and I've written thousands of words about them, and like I know what I want, and I know what Jamie wants, and I know that we align a lot on like what we wanted, because like I read the script in twenty eighteen and had kind of been following it for a while. So this something been a script that I've always been like really obsessed with and and wanting to have. It happen somehow. And so I think because. We both were just so sure of what we wanted to do when we didn't and what we didn't want to do didn't want to do, it never felt that way, like there was never ever ever a consideration about having the sexual assault happened on camera.

It was always going to not be there. And if anything, like the script got crueler when we got on, said to the boys, like we added a lot of extra things that were even meaner than in the script, so like we actually turned it up even more once we got on. We got to push it harder because our production designer Ben Miller was incredible and he was just like, yeah. No, let's do more. And I was like, oh okay, And so we got to kind of make some of the kills more violent than we expected.

I loved. So we actually we made it worse, but like it had been way you know what I mean, Like we got to turn it up. We got to be because Jamie had to turn some of it down because of. This of the budget. Sure, just like there were more frat boys previously, Like not a lot changed, but it was just like the scope if it had to shrink a little.

Sure, but we got to get. More playful with the kills and they got to make them longer like multi step rather, you know, because we hardly had a couple boys, so they got to torture them more nice. Yeah, I imagine on you know, you're dealing with a limited budget, limited time, and you're dealing with a lot of blood. That that is something you probably have to think about really actively of how many takes do you get in any of those violent scenes? One?

Now, yeah, wow, every Yeah. It was so I think like. The most proud I am was of that gunshot scene because we had one, We had one shot what we had one shot at it because we only had like one setup. I wish I could explain it better, but it's like, we only had one setup to make the gunshot happen. So if we didn't get it on the first try, we were kind of fucked right.

So we prepped. We were like, all right, we're all set, We're ready to go. Everyone's in place. We had the timing whatever, and oh my god, it happened without it was perfect, and we were behind the monitor and we had to like bite our lips because we were cheering like we wanted to start. We were gonna ruin the fucking take.

We started screaming, but like I almost started crying because I was like, if this doesn't work, fuck, And I was like, what if it does work, it's gonna look really cool. It looks really cool. I'm so proud of it. And I was like, oh, that's your favorite and I'm like, you don't understand. Also fucked up the pictures say that, oh you really tried to clean the blood off of it.

We didn't think the blood was gonna spray so hard. Oop worth it though a good lesson in knowing it's much harder to get away with murder than you think. Yeah, oh believe me, getting fake blood out is a pan mass but but yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry, I went on a tangent. I just.

This is my favorite. It makes my heart so happy. I think. And we talked about a lot more in the plot stuff of this movie, So if you haven't don't know that, go watch this movie first or listen to our interview with Jamie to get more plot stuff. But something that you mentioned Mary Beth is kind of like how unpleasant a lot of other movies in the genre are to watch, Just like, even when they're the best movie you've ever seen, it's just a lot emotionally.

Now I've seen, I've been lucky enough to see Bystanders twice now, and it is very fun and it is better upon rewatch, and it doesn't make you feel awful after. So was the tone always that like lighter tone? Was that always at front of mind? Or do you think that just kind of happened because you were dedicated to not showing the assaults and not showing the you know, is it a chicken or the egg situation? Yes, so.

I think it like there was dark humor on the page. And I also think like especially Garrett Murphy, who played Gray, he brought a more comedic tone to it because a lot of a lot of lines were not a lot, but like there's a lot of moments that were ad lived or like, so a lot of the comedy is coming from him playing with a character and making him a little bit sillier and kind of adding a little bit of a like a leading into some of the dirt. Home movie that was on the page. And I really liked that he was doing that, so I kind of had him lean into it, and then everyone else kind of followed his lead, like not as much because I again, like Claire is so obviously like a little bit more sociopathic than him, which is like why I like it and like why it kind of works because he's a little bit like a cute golden Retriever and she's a little bit scary and I love him.

Yeah, And so it was, and I didn't expect it because I did kind of go into it being like, all right, there'll be some funny moments. But then I really liked the way the tone started shifting that I didn't expect, and then it really started coming together in the edit. We were like puzzling stuff because we would do like we didn't do. A lot of takes because we only had twelve days to shoot this movie, so we did not have a lot of time, so we couldn't like spend a lot of time on doing a bunch of different stuff. But we would do a couple takes like with the normal lines, and then I'd let them play for a take or too as well, if if we had time.

And so that was when in the edit we were trying to figure out that balance of like what's too funny and like what is and it was it was hard because at first it was too funny and I was like because the our editor, I was just like, oh, we went too far, Like we went too far in one direction, like this is kind of campy in a way that like kind of sucks, like it's not, it's like it's too much. So it was just it was a balancing act that was much harder than I thought it was gonna be and that and that's like, but I'm also really proud of the final product. Like, yeah, I know means, I know Means isn't a perfect film, but we made it for fifty thousand dollars in a dream, So like, I'm proud of whatever. I'm proud of what we did, and.

Yeah, it was really should be. Emily, And I watch a lot of lower budget movies. It's what you want out of a lower budget movie, like everything you want out of a lower budget movie. And so I don't know, I know that there's always going to be people with dissenting opinions and stuff, but like, obviously you should be very proud. It's fantastic.

It achieves what you said now talking to you about it, it obviously achieves what you said achieve. And I'm so intrigued by this, by the idea of kind of finding the tone in the edit, because I can't imagine that, like on the other side of that for the actors to not necessarily like know which which way things are going. And I think that's also interesting. I know Christine kept talking about how much Christine's favorite I think were the Boys, which I have a hard time saying, but I agree because they're so funny and you you want to see terrible things happen to them. But also like it's not this, they're just they're such idiots that it, you know, makes it enjoyable in that way, So was it the same in that filming or was there also like how how much did you play in either the filming or the edit to kind of figure out exactly where that level was for these you know, the villains, the monsters who have done terrible things but who are also idiots.

Yeah, that was also any they leaned. So hold on, let me set the stage here. Because we all of the crack boys stayed in the same cabin together, so like we made it was like a so we were joking. It was like a social experiment that we were just making them frat voice together, like they all stayed together. And they they actually just like sang together all just.

Like came up with the vibe. And I was like, okay, I like the vibe. And I also think because I said, I want you guys to just be like douchebags, like I want I want to see what you think of when you think douchebag, and they just went for it, and I kind of it's just like, yep, that's perfect. That is absolutely perfect. And so like, while I played in the edit some it was also a lot of me saying good vibe, keep that vibe and just like kind of doing vibe checks and saying.

Like, yeah, keep doing that or maybe turn it down a little bit. And so. Yeah, that was. Fun though, watching them like figure that out as the dynamic, it was very fun. Good lord, and they were just like all they're only twenty one.

Or twenty two and like hadn't been in a movie before, and I was just like, I'm so sorry. Yeah, it's the dream role for like, what's your first what happens to you in your first film? Oh, I got shot, my arm gets broken? Yeah, run over, I got my head, best ye in the rock, Like that's live in the dream, right. It's true they do get horrifically murdered, So you know, wait to start off your career for sure.

Really literally, I. Think another I think character that I think is a really really great performance and is very interesting to watch throughout the course of it is Abby and seeing kind of how I guess that is a very particular kind of trope that like, this is usually the character we're following in rape Revenge, right, we're following the victim, We're following her get the revenge, and you know, she has a really interesting arc in that there's you know, there's kind of these basically, we have characters in this movie that we don't normally have in rape Revenge, right, which is the bystanders, who in this case actually do something and are very influential. And so just wondering how you approached directing that role, how how kind of that collaboration worked.

Yeah, So actually to in the edit, I brought her more to the forefront two because I think there's a lot of folks on the bystanders, because they are like. The ones doing a lot of violence, and like you want to know about them. But I also think because Abby is the survivor, it's like, is the the survivor, is another survivor, Like obviously Claire is a survivor as well, but in this situation, like as you said, Abby's in that typical like role of the of the person getting revenge. Yeah, And so. I wanted to kind of bring her more to the forefront just because I think also in filming and thinking about my own relationship to the subject matter, like Abby feels like me as a kid, I didn't have the exact same thing happened to me, but similar situation, and so a lot of this movie felt like I was making it for myself.

As a kid, and like I was a teenager and for Abby. And so I really loved her character. And working with Brandy bot Kin, who played Abby, was like really awesome because because she really like really loved the character and really took it really seriously and and I know how hard it was for her to get into that headspace, and I just like really respected her ability to play that character with such like respect and empathy. So yeah, Abby's my favorite character, not like no offense to anyone else. It's just like I think it's an unfortunate like identification as my as my as like myself as a teenager that like Abby has.

A very special place in my heart, and I think. It comes out. I mean, I think that character stands out in a way that she wouldn't always in some of these films. Yeah, you can tell that she is a deeply loved character, both by you and Jamie who originally conceptualized her, just the way that the Claire character mothers her. It's it's evident, just it's in the bones of the movie.

And it's another way that you feel safe as a viewer is that you you can tell that this character is so loved that you know it's nothing gonna happen to. Her well, and like, I love that Claire and Gray never push her to the side too much either. It's not like because I feel like so often in the like the Avenging Angel like subgenre of like like promising young woman does this of like I'm going to save the day because I know how. To do it. I'm sorry, that's like a terrible to put it, but like I'm gonna save the day and like fuck the survivor.

It's all of me, and I think and I know that this was Jamie's goal obviously in the script because it was on the page of like because I think me and her grease hanging I was young woman, but like. In that wanting to make sure that Abby is never left behind. Yeah, her name was originally Chloe, but then Chloe and Cody and Claire was just like too much. And really we were like we were saying it over and over again. We were like, oh shit, that's like that's confusing.

But there was a lot of love from both of us into conceptualizing her character and making sure she doesn't become that like perfect victim character either and having her be that like we have to keep her pure, but still had this discussion going on about like not. Wanting to further trauma. Yeah and yeah, so it yeah, and it. Feels very rounded in that way because other movies I think would have had her either you know, curl up into a ball or end up like at the end with I don't know bull like the bullet vest sash over her ready to go. And instead it's like, no, this shit happened, and you made decisions and things also happened, and it's not over yet and I felt that and when it ended.

And it's also just like I think it's another testament to the writing and just like, are like wanting to keep this both the fantasy but also sort of grounded at the same time, you know what I mean. Like it's obviously a fantasy, like a like a cathartic more fantasy. Side, but we're not taking it. It's not like I love revenge, but it's not going as far as that as it comes. It's just like hyper like type a real fantasy, but more of a like it feels like it could happen, but probably.

Not right but all but there is nothing taking you out. There's at no point where you're watching saying, wait a minute, could you really set a fire like that with those tools? Like, no, it it is within the realm of possibility, which makes it feel even more satisfying. Because yeah, it was great. We showed this in New York City when Luigi Manchioni was still.

On the loose. Oh wow, and people some of. The audiences like, how do you feel about that? I'm like, I hadn't even fucking thought. About it, but that's cool as hell.

Like vigilante is like on the loose, and I was just like the vigilante justice sometimes. I mean, no, vigilante justice is terrible. Don't take matters into your own hand. Let me see if I. Exactly.

I mean, no, don't do. For the filming, was it I know it was twelve days, so it was probably pretty tight. Was it done in sequence or how kind of linear and not linear? Was it? Oh?

We tried to, but it just didn't work out that I Imaginely we did a lot of it. We tried to as much as we could, but yeah, it's just we did a lot of nights. It was like, because how much was outside, we tried to do as much daya night as we could in the house. When we had cabin stuff, but we had a lot of outside and we could not do outside without it being dark, So it was that it was a sleepy time. That was the I had never watched the sunrise so many days in a row.

Wow, Yeah, it was awesome though I loved it. It was great. Do you come from a filmmaking background, did you? Or was because I know you were writing feces about rape revenge? So how much of the technical know how where where did that come from?

How much of that was learning on the go or or all of it? Yay, okay, I actually give myself some more crowd of here. Most of it, most of it. I previously, before I was a full time horror entertainment journalist or whatever you'd like to call me, I worked in social media and digital media for television and like in national geographics, so I did a lot of digital producing. So like I produced like social media shoots that are like a like a camera at a tripod and like me with a tiny little mic.

So it's like, yes, I have experience, like I know of the words that I know it on a smaller scale, so like I knew what to expect slightly, But it was most of it was learning on the fly. That's incredible and terrifying. Yeah, I was really lucky to have a really awesome crew, and I was very honest and I was like, look, I don't know shit about shit, and I just if you think I'm doing something stupid, you glad to tell me, and that is okay. And you can also send another link if we want to get keep talking. If you want to just email another link, like we can do that.

But I was just very honest about being new and wanting people to just tell me when I was doing something wrong because that was the only way I was going to learn. And I think that really helped on set everyone was like oh okay, and not because I think some people have expectations of like new directors trying to like have an ego and be like I know what I'm doing. But I was like, guys, I nope, and this isn't going to get done if I pretend like I know what I'm do living so like, and so that was just like, I don't I think ego, Like I've produced some stuff and like ego really literally ruins everything. So that was like the biggest thing I knew coming in was like try not to have an ego as much as possible, and like realize that everyone wants to get the movie made.

So well, it's great that you had a team that it sounds like you were comfortable with and they were comfortable with you. We were a tiny team and we had to address each other, and I was just like annoyingly honest with everyone, which I think was helpful. I think I don't know, maybe ask them I'm biased, and I'm like. We did it. It was great.

Was there ever something that you were like, hey, let's do it this way or let's do this and it turned out that's something that just can't be done that was new to you that you've discovered. No, but not not really. But I will say they I was told that we couldn't do a real fire, I would have to do CGI fire, and I said, fuck that, I refuse to do CGI fire. Our budget is so low, there's no way it will be GOODGI. Yeah, we got to figure out oh trick and they were like, I don't know, And then we figured out a goddamn.

Trick and it looks awesome. We just took a pan and put lighter fluid in it and lit it on fire and just had like it on a stump in front of Bob plays Cody yep, sorry, and then the camera and. It looks like he's on fire because we couldn't actually do it because we didn't have enough money for the safety stuff for it, and we weren't gonna try to fake that, like in any way of setting him on fire at all, because. I don't want to kill anybody, but a good. Instinct and I think so to your ingenuity and your credit that is I have a note that is my favorite scene.

Visually, that's my favorite scene. It's so dynamic and the lighting is just it really hits. And that's when you're like, oh, yeah, I know what kind of movie I'm watching. And it wouldn't have looked like that if you hadn't stuck to your fire goals. I think just they were like okay, and then I was like yes, So that's like one of those.

That was the one instance where I was like, no, I think I do know, I do know here this, I do know so, but I mean a lot of it was just like me saying, hey, can we do this kind of shot and my DP being like it's gonna look like shit, and I'm like, all right, cool, if it's gonna look like shit and you know that, then that's perfect. So it was a lot of stuff like small things like that. There's also a couple of things we wanted to do, like stunt wise, that just weren't feasible with the resources we had. Like we wanted to the scene where we hang the guy like by his wrists and do all this stuff. We wanted to hang them by his ankles.

But it's really there's a lot of rigging inside, right. We did not have the resources for rigging. And also it's really dangerous to hang upside down for more than like a very short amount of time, and we just didn't have the resourcing for it. And so there was still a lot of those things of like having to shift some of the kills about, like for safety issues and things like that. But I'm so I'm really proud of how we adapted so quickly to all of it.

I will say, so yeah, and I so, speaking of all the hats that you've worn, do you did you enjoy directing? Like was it? If? Yeah? Do you do you feel like you would like to do it again?

Are there any projects that you can you talk to us. About Yes, I love directing. I I absolutely loved it, and I would love to direct again. I don't have any immediate plans to yet, but I am I have many ideas that I'm like looking at working on, and yeah, I would. Love to direct another film.

Though I had a blast, it was incredible. What surprised you most about the directing process? Hmm? I feel like it's hard to pick one. I think what surprised me most was realizing how important it is to balance mental health on set.

I made like an Instagram post about this because it was something I hadn't like fully thought about in terms of filming some of the harder scenes, Like I knew they were gonna be hard, but I hadn't really like fully conceptualized what that was going to be like to work with actors on that and what it would be like for them. And I think I'm overall proud of how it was handled. And I think it was just surprising for me to like really think about that, and you know, I have my experience with it and it's hard for me. But then also realizing like putting ourselves in that headspace is really really difficult, and for both the female characters and the male characters. I mean, these guys are putting themselves in these horrific positions and these perfect mindsets when like they're just like like young guys that are cool, like cool dudes from what I could tell, And you know, it was a lot of making sure that that was addressed and balanced as much as possible.

And I think that was like the biggest surprise for me, like really learning about how important it was for me at least to like address that and make sure it was taken care of on set as much as we could. Well, And I know, I'm sure some of your actors might have known each other. It sounds like the you know, the boys were living together, so they were kind of developing relationship that way. It how much when you know you're doing scenes with you know, mix and match different characters did you have on especially in a short shoo where it was probably more challenging, But actors who had like very different processes or you know, kind of get into character differently or come at it differently. How do you kind of manage and navigate that as the director?

Yeah, so I think. It was easier for the boys to get any character because they could just be like kind of rowdy. But like for especially Brandy who played abby like she wanted she needed time alone, so like we had a system. I would give her headphones and like let her kind of go off and get into the headspace because when people were joking around for her, it just like made it really difficult and she didn't find and so that was that was easy, And I think it was kind of like just asking her, all right, cool, what do you need? How can we do it?

And what's like a simple way and then and we would have like a system of like a nodding system when she was ready, And just figuring that out was actually pretty easy because everyone was pretty open about like what they needed and I was like. All right, cool, like that's super easy. I get it. And yeah, we had and we ended up adopting that system for a lot of other people when they needed to get into more emotional headspaces, and that was that was kind of nice because we had a like a shorthand for when people needed a second to like get into the mind and then letting us know when they were totally ready, and so that was that was kind of I was glad to have that system develop on. But yeah, it sounds something that's very important that I imagine a lot of directors don't always think about or might you know, kind of keep pushing away to just keep mo ainger get what they need.

Yeah, well, I mean especially on a short a shoot of that line. I mean, imagine if you had more time, the care and attention to everything that you could give, hopefully somebody gives you resources. Nerve, Well, wouldn't that be nice? I want you get into the universe. I know.

I would love that. If anyone wants to give me resources to make a weird found footage movie, I would love that so much. Uh yeah, thank you, please do it. What would your dream found footage? It's like super fun, that's been sad, but it would be like, well, I guess that's not the dream one.

That's like the one I really want to make because not necessarily the dream location. Okay, the dream location. Right now, I have this other idea that's like kind of like chopping ball. But have you ever have you ever watched the show BattleBots? Of course I have, but I think I understand the concept.

Yeah, it's it's pretty there. So it's like people make little robot things and then make them fight, right. Yeah, exactly perfect. So I've been watching a lot of BattleBots with my husband as kind of our like turn off our brain time because everything's on fire, and like, let's just watch robots fight each other, like nerd nerds fight each other with robots. So my I want to make a found footage movie and a BattleBots arena like After Hours where the robots come to life and the production crew filming battle Bots has to survive the night in a battlebot arena with seventient robots.

Love it. If if you ever need anybody to just slap a script together for you on that one, you have my ema. I know, I feel like you would totally the end of it. I know, I like just thought about it. I was like, wait, honestly, like this could work, Like, I bet you, I bet you.

Those guys like especially like all those nerds who just like and you. Listen to this, you you fucking steal my idea. I'm gonna make a battle bo I'm gonna make about a lot and bring you over with it. But I just think it'd be so rad. The guys would probably be into it.

I just I don't know, it just seems so fun because I loved Bystanders and I'm so glad I made it, but it fucked up my mental health. So I need to make something fun next, just to like, for my own mental like, for my own existence. I need to make something I think more fun to make sure I can at least get out of the headspace, because I really like to make art about my trauma, and it's a really good thing to do, but it's really really hard on you, more than I could have expected ever, So I'm gonna have to make something fun in the internal I think. But that's great because the world needs fun stuff too. How often we Emily and I talk about this a lot.

Clicking through what am I gonna watch? When I'm I gonna watch Oat Bummer too difficult. I don't want to cry. I don't want to be sad. I don't have to confront more horrors of the world I didn't know about, like Jesus christ.

And Christine is one of those people who gets really sensitive to robots, like we're I'm going to the reverse, I'm the one where I can I can fall in love with the robot, but also like to me, there is something about robot violence where it's like, no, that's the whole point is that I'm not hurting a human being. I met at these dark instincts, but I'm not taking them out on a person or a living thing. And I know for Christine it's like the reverse. It's like, no, that shows how evil you are that you're gonna do this bath things to a robot. So Christine's gonna go in a direction with you where the robots are gonna win right and take out the evil people and.

You know spoiler alert in the end of this movie that we haven't seen. But I just like robots. Sometimes they're sweet little guys. Sometimes they're evil, but sometimes they're. Sweet little It just depends they can be.

So Marybeth, have you been I know Bystanders had some festival success and was running round. What has the you know, reaction on the other side Now that you you know, the twelve days of filming, I'm sure there was a lot of time out of that planning, twelve days of shooting, many months of editing, then putting it out to the world first and festival, and now that it's you know, wide VOD release, what have you processed. Learned, what have you tuned out? What is the because it's has to be a very obviously it's a movie that is going to make a lot of very terrible people very angry. The Internet is you know, a very varied place filled with with ebbs and flows, so hopefully more of the good.

But what are some of the things that you kind of saw happening in watching other people watch the movie that was both you know, ideally the good stuff. But so our festival run is pretty positive. And I've had to delete letterboxed off my phone because I can't stop checking it and it's gotten kind of nasty. So I just but. Festival reactions were really good because I think again, festivals are people know what they're getting, so they're you know, they're ready for U D a y indie something that's not perfect, but like they get the vibes, and so a lot of our reviews were very positive, and surprisingly, the gender line.

Was very interesting in terms of who resonated with it and who didn't. I can't even guess. Yeah, that's been interesting. I told my producer that this was gonna be like that, and he was like, we'll see, and then he saw I was like, oh, you're right, and like, I know, yeah, bink. So all the reviews from actual critics on websites have been very positive, like mostly very positive.

And those are the ones that I have learned that I should pay attention to because those are written by people who understand movies and they're not just going to be like this is a piece of shit and so all and like, all critiques are very valid, but the letterbox reviews well, like critiques in the in the in the reviews, like the reviews written by like journalists, people who know what they kind of yeah exactly, like an understand like it's more than just you're getting distracted by a woman whatever. And but but for the negative reviews, a lot of people have watched it, so they're still giving money in our pockets, so like thank you, and that I'm trying to look at it is like, well you spent the money on it, so like thanks anyway.

And also, no one has sent me any hate mail, so I think that as a very nice sign that even if people are being shitty, they're not shitty enough to find me. And that's all that matters. Because I was like, like, I hope not and no one has, so you know, I'll take that as a win. Have you had like have you know, I imagine some people probably have like a very different, like a very positive, strong emotion watching it. Has that come to you too?

Yes, And that's what I love. Like a lot of people have watched it and been like and got it. And that's what. Like it is resonating with the right people, is like how I've been describing it, Like it's resonating with the people that I wanted to resonate with. And then that is like mostly.

Femmes and people identify as women and people who and survivors, you know. Uh. And I've gotten some really great notes. I've had two young girls tell me they want to make movies now because of me. That made me a most grow up whoa.

It's made me cry several times because that's like the most inspirational shit. I'm like, who what I I to the youth? It's really cool and yeah, it's awesome. Like it's just like ridiculus. And so that's what I try to remember.

This is my first movie. It was making fifty thousand dollars, and like. It's resonating with people more than a lot of movies like with big or budget do so you don't know what. Like I feel good about that, and also's probably changed more lives than promising young women. So but uh, that was just for you guys.

But like, I don't know, more feral bitches out in the woods. You know what I mean. Like, I just feel like this is the perfect movie for now, and like gab bias, but also like we the Substance was just nominated for all these Academy Awards and like, yeah, it might be because it done anymore, but like, let's keep letting weird bitches. Make weird movies, yes, and. Like poor blood everywhere, and not make the typical like nice woman movie you're used to.

Like I'm so proud of this because this is not like the typical like woman horror. And like I don't mean it's a bad thing, but like this is much bloodier than a lot of movies like that women are allowed to make. And I feel really proud that we got to do that. I like being a nasty little bit. It's a weird thing to say that nasty.

Little bit just behind the camera, and ye, the guy. Got we gotta do it. God, I want to, I'll tell you off. But there's another I really want to make this super nasty movie and I want to make it so bad. Yeah, I think it's super nasty movie.

So I I kind of know Marybeth a little bit offline. She has been my editor at Dredd Central. I kind of know what kind of movies Marybeth likes. So that's one of the reasons why I want her to make more, because like the found footage thing, how how nasty and gross she she likes it. Sometimes it's just like, this is the type.

Of person that I need helming projects. Someone try someone. I posted about this on b lis Guy. Someone said that y Standers was like hostile, like the useless torture porn like Hostele, and I was like, while I don't like Eli Roth, I will take the compliment about making this useless torture porn because that's perfect. And also you must not watch a lot of torture porn because this was not even remotely as violent.

So much person's definition of torture porn is also the only movie they have ever seen. There. I loved it. I was I was like, well cool, I wish it was that level, But thank you so much for the comparison. I'll take it.

I'll take it, but I don't know what movies you're watching, but oh. God, I I really can't imagine being on the other side of that, on the on the internet, just the stupidity that must come your way. Uh, you gotta laugh. You just like kind of learn to have a sense of humor about it. And then you also realize you have to stop yourself from looking at it all the time, or you will drive yourself insane, which I have told so many friends, and I wish I'd followed my own advice, but I followed my own advice quickly.

I quickly learned like. No, no, no, no, no, no, don't do that. Yeah, no on No one's dopsing you, no one's calling you names though, So it's just like. We're just gonna pretend that it doesn't exist. I mean, you don't need to fly close to that sun.

There was an era where And I think about that a lot. I think, I guess with the different like forms of art that are put in the world today that we're put in the world hundreds of years ago and so on, and the difference just being right now of you're doing the same things that people were doing sixty years ago, forty years ago, whatever. It was only now when the minute somebody watches your movie and has a feeling about it, they can tell you and you can hear that, and that is a wild thing to comprehend, I think, And I yeah, managing finding a way to understand that, the usefulness of that, but also just the sheer crap of that. And I would hope that I'm sure it it influences some of probably what you're going to do next and how you're going to do it, to have voices there, but also that those voices are kind of meaningless in the long term.

Yeah, because like at the end of the day, this is the cool thing. Was such a passion project, and it's like if you don't like it, that's fine. Like I didn't I didn't make it for you. Yeah, I think I didn't make it for some dude named Chad and like his mom's basement, you know what I mean, Like I love thank you, thanks for the ten bucks, but like I didn't make this for you. So if you think that this is shit, then like that's fine, that's okay.

Whatever. So you you really love Quentin Tarantino, like I know who I was never gonna win you. Yeah, yeah, that is probably The best way to identify that person is if they have left you a comment on letterbox to then look at their like top ten films, how many of the ten are Quentin Tarantino films? Then you know your answer right there. I love that, I get it, Quentin Tarantino whatever.

But also no that also no one really know. Yeah, yeah, like one but that one. That one time. Remember we all liked it. No, what you don't watch fell fiction every week?

Like you know, that's how Sunday Night every time? About that we liked it. Though we liked it, we don't like tell people we. Like not anymore. It's not twenty eleven, Mary Best.

Thank god, honestly, thank god, thank god. So you do not currently have something, You're you're waiting, You're you're looking, you're you're listening for a new script direct Yeah, I. Am try and set my hand at writing a script. But uh yeah, and also I'm I just turned in a book, so I've been doing a lot of like that writing too. So that has been like the forefront.

But now that things. Are calming down, whatever the fun that means, I'm hoping to like start shifting into thinking about script and the Battlebot script is just like very very enticing to me. So Christine and I might be email and I feel like I'm executive producing right now. I don't care who's involved. That's a fucking great idea.

And I don't know if you guys seen has seen Y two K, but they have like a cool nineties tech monster in that and I was like. Yeah, it was like not awesome. So I want to make a better version of monster horror and. Something fun the found footage. Noess is that the camera is in the battle bot, right.

No, it could be you can do it too, Yeah, like a couple. Of the battle All the BattleBots have built in cameras, right, they have to, but then somebody else might be like phone filming, but that you we can get different angles of different battle. Bots well, because like because BattleBots is filmed by the production crew, so it's going to be so easy because they already have the big camera, like they're already like there's reason for the cameras already there. But camera in the battlebot also makes sense just because it's you could do a dual perspectives. Also, if they truly are battle bought style, there could be that could be one of their gimmicks, like how hell Raiser guys each have a gimmick that Little robots gimmick can be that he can film many things to think about.

I like the idea that that robotsons a director robot where he's got like a little beret and he moves around in a director's chair. You know, you know, there's a lot of angles you could go on this thing. That is what we're saying now. I have upgraded myself to associate producer. Yes, absolutely, okay, absolutely, at least special things, at the very least.

I mean, that's just give me. I was gonna cater it. For you too, but hell yeah yeah, well. Where uh so again we've told everybody to watch by standards. I really hope they have by this point since we've given me things away.

Yes, and they can rent it on bo d as we know. Where can people follow your work? Follow the battle bots progression? So you can find me on I mean kind of on Twitter, not really anymore, but like I have an account there and Blue Sky at mb mc andrews, and I'm on Instagram still at MB dot McAndrews. Those are the I have a TikTok too that I barely use, but uh yeah, those are the best places to find out what I'm working on.

You can follow dread Central at dread Central everywhere if you want to. Read horror stuff, and uh yeah. Go watch my standards definitely and leave a good review on anything, because we are getting review bombed a little bit. So if you want to leave a. Nice, happy review to battle the in cells, that would be great.

Everybody, that is your good deed of the day. I will do it as well. I have not done that yet, and I definitely community care. Everyone's community care. And if you need to do a tiny active community care, leave me a good review on an app.

Exactly your good need of the day. I mean, this is the way we get more weird ship. This is the way we get more scrungies and here ties, and it's very important to me. So everybody, Yeah, not. To get on high horse about it, but you got to get out and support the indie ship if you want the indie people to ever get opportunities to make stuff that doesn't look India anymore.

Yep, you can you. So everyone who said I have a promise as a director but the budget sucked, cool over money, keep watching my ship. So I can make better ship. Thank you perfect give me money so I can make better ship. That's that's that's a tattoo.

We all need. Weird weird