Parasomnia director James Ross II and star Jasmine Mathews uncover the nightmares of the film
The Horror Lounge sat down with filmmaker James Ross II and actress Jasmine Mathews about the latest Shudder original film, Parasomnia, and chat about the inspirations for the film as well as some of the obstacles they overcame in making the film.
This interview was edited slightly for clarity.
The Horror Lounge: Thank you for having me here to talk about Parasomnia. My first question is for James. I'm super intrigued by the film's cinematography, the different kind of styles of shooting to distinct various scenes. You have the analog style handheld nightmare sequences and even the antagonist has multiple lenses to it. I'm very curious what was the inspiration behind these choices for the cinematography.
James: So, I worked with Christopher Lee Fatt, a very talented cinematographer that I went to film school with, who shot Don't Blink, my short before this. We loved the idea, specifically for the night terror sequences, of making you feel like you're in kind of a survival horror video game like Outlast, and so really creating that language and making the audience stressed out as they feel this character being chased around this labyrinth in this night terror nightmare world.
And then the Seer vision, I was inspired a lot by the sort of Jaws effect where it's like you can't show the monster too much, but you can kind of show the monster is there. It's in the corner, and the character doesn't see it. And the whole time you're just like, "turn around, turn around. It's right there." And so we wanted to create something that felt unique, that felt singular to that specific entity, particularly with the amount of eyes on its head and the multiple lenses sort of representing each one of those eyes, and so it was a feeling that I wanted to create and that I gave to my collaborators, and they were so talented and so imaginative that we came out with the language that felt very similar to the movie and the characters, and just made it feel that much scarier and cooler and more surreal.
The Horror Lounge: Absolutely, I really felt what you said about that Jaws effect, where you don't show the monster too much. I think that restraint definitely heightened the tension whenever it was on screen. I thought that was super cool. For Jasmine, what was your process for getting into this character? Because your performance in this was it was amazing.
Jasmine: Thank you very much, I appreciate that. Process wise, it was really different than anything that I've ever done. First, this is my first horror film, and second, I only had like three days to prepare. So thankfully, James, the genius that he is, knew this character through and through, and gave me like a mini character bible about like this is what happens in this scene, and this is what happens. So that was very helpful, and I think on a just a simple base layer of being human, I saw Riley as someone who was consistently trying to hold herself together and believed that control equated healing. So as long as she could contain her life in a manner that felt safe, right? Having this type of routine, having a certain relationship with sleep, then that means that her life is okay. The people around her are okay, and understanding that on a just base level allowed me to kind of simply ease into the character and go moment by moment on this journey with her.
The Horror Lounge: Definitely, and it's funny you mentioned this is your first role in horror because one of my other questions was, what's something that you think Riley has in common with some of the other characters that you have played previously?
Jasmine: Oh, that's a great question. I would say naturally, I'm prone to playing characters who showcase a lot of strength, and I think Riley definitely has that. You know, she is an active protagonist. A lot of times when we watch these horror films, we're like, "girl, don't go in there." She's going in there. But she has a reason to go in there, right? It's all about protecting the people that she loves. So she is a natural protector and rescuer, and she's not waiting to be saved. I think that's something that I always look for in characters that I play.
The Horror Lounge: And James, this is your directorial debut. Congratulations, that's super cool. Is there anything specific you learned from taking this leap from shorts to feature, or any unexpected obstacles you overcame that you'd like to share.
James: Oh man, that can be captured in a lot of different ways. I think the biggest thing for me is really just like taking care of my body, and I didn't realize how hard it was going to be physically on your myself because we shot this in 18 days, three six-day weeks, so we just went the whole week and then had one day off and then we're back at it and that day off wasn't even a day off because we were prepping the next week… I'm just like, "oh my gosh!" Like I really feel like shit. Like, this was a lot that I had to get through, and it's like you feel it a little bit in the beginning, but you're just so in the world, and you're just you're pushing yourself and pushing it, and just, diving so deeply into the story and just kind of burying your head into this world that you kind of forget that you also exist. And so next time, I'm gonna try to have a little work life balance and remember that I'm a human, and you put your best work when you are you know fully taken care of. You know, hydrated and filled with nutrients, and not pushing yourself to the brink of disaster to try to get this done.
The Horror Lounge: Was there any sort of key inspirations in making this film? Because especially with the horror genre, nightmares have always been kind of a key story element from Nightmare on Elm Street and such. So, what were some key inspirations in making Parasomnia?
James: Definitely Nightmare on Elm Street, because I think that that started to open up my mind. It was one of those things where like I was curious about sleep because it's one of those things that's so it's mundane because we have to do it and we do it every day. And so when I was exploring what I was so curious about with that, I think Nightmare on Elm Street kind of proved that you know this is a goldmine that can be tapped into. There's so much that you can do with this that really connects with people. And so for me, it was about "how can I really sell the vulnerability of sleep and make it scary?"I make it so that when you wake up, you're seeing you know the worst possible thing you could see… you know with night terrors usually when you wake up you forget about having them. What could you possibly experience that would make your brain want to immediately dump it as soon as you're done?
And so it was it was exploring that and kind of going down that rabbit hole and finding the character of Riley and really understanding how to tie those two environments together, the dream world and the waking world, and tying that to her story and seeing what kind of hell I could put her through and how she'd be able to come out the other side.
The Horror Lounge: For Jasmine, what were some key inspirations in bringing that performance? Any particular films you watched ahead of time? I know you said you only had three days to prepare, but was there anything you brought from something else?
Jasmine: Honestly, I really just pulled from my experiences with women in my life who have had to be strong because of what they've gone through, and for me, there's a difference between being strong because you have to be and being strong because you've never felt safe enough to release. I've had experiences with women like that, and just being a woman, myself, and having gone through certain things, that's something that I really was inspired by. What does it look like when a woman is trying to hold herself together and can't fall apart and doesn't feel safe enough to fall apart?
Other than that, I'm a huge horror fan, so you know I think James very brilliantly understands the genre of horror and really is able to talk about grief in a way that extends itself to the genre of horror without having to explain it. So I kind of just went on the journey, man. So obviously, every single every horror that I've watched, it's in my mind like, "oh, this reminds me of this," and "this reminds me of tha.", But truly, I just released and was just like, "I don't have time to even pull from anything. So let's just go on the journey."
The Horror Lounge: I really love what you said about you know having to hold yourself together and going through all that, because you know the story is very much about generational trauma, and that ending really does feel like a release. Speaking of what James said about dreams and nightmares, given this film is about you know nightmares and night terrors, I'm curious. Do either of you have a particularly memorable nightmare that you could share?
James: Yeah, I mean, my nightmares come from me thinking that I'm like actually living life, and then I'm like fucking my life up, and then I wake up and I'm okay… Like after we wrapped shooting, I would have nightmares that I was still on set, but like everything was going wrong, and the movie was destroyed, and I was gonna die. So, I think it's just you know the irony of a movie about nightmares, giving me nightmares about making a movie about nightmares is something I found quite fascinating.
Jasmine: I think for me, one of my more memorable nightmares, I'm a firm believer that when we dream, we're slipping into our unconscious state in this life and entering into another like alternate life of ours. So, one of the things that I can remember, one of the most memorable ones, I went up on an extraterrestrial ship, and they were experimenting on me, and it was very terrifying because they were not benevolent ETs. So I remember waking up and being in this body and was checking for a micro trip of some sort, but it was fine.
The Horror Lounge: I love that. Those were both great answers! Thank you guys so much again for chatting with me, and looking forward for more people to watch Parasomnia.
Parasomnia is currently streaming on Shudder. You can read our review of it here.
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