Session 9 director Brad Anderson discusses his new creature feature Worldbreaker and finding hope in a post-apocalyptic world
- Brian Fanelli
- 6 hours ago
- 5 min read
Director Brad Anderson is no stranger to the horror genre. Some of his early films include Session 9 from 2001 and 2004’s thriller The Machinist, starring Christian Bale. He also directed a Masters of Horror episode entitled “Sounds Like.” Anderson has a long filmography, and he’s dabbled in several different genres, even romantic comedies. His latest movie, Worldbreaker, is an action-packed creature feature starring Milla Jovovich and Luke Evans as parents to the young Willa, played by Billie Boullet.
The movie is set in a dystopian world ravaged by climate change, war, and gnarly creatures named breakers that hunt and kill humans. Prior to the film’s January 30 theatrical release, we spoke with Anderson about his relationship to the horror genre, working with Jovovich, and the film’s handling of storytelling and myth.
This interview was edited slightly for clarity.
The Horror Lounge: You have a long filmography. What made you want to return to the horror genre for Worldbreaker?
Brad Anderson: I genre hop, I guess, maybe that’s the way to put it in terms of the kinds of movies I’ve done. My first few films were romantic comedies. They weren’t anything in the horror department. Then, I did Session 9, which was me wanting to embrace my darker angels and darker side. From that point on, I’ve been drawn to darker stories, but darker stories that have some kind of heart to them. In Worldbreaker, it has the genre tropes, like the monster moments, the thrills, scares, and moments of dread and suspense, but it also has at its heart, this relationship between a father and daughter and this idea of a parent trying to keep his child safe in a world that’s falling apart. As a father myself and parent, that appeals to me more and more. It’s not just thrills for the sake of thrills. You want to hope and care for these characters.
That’s what resonated with me in Josh’s [Rollins] script. I was moved when I read it. It was creepy and I loved the monster element. I hadn’t really done a creature feature, per say, so doing something like that was fun, but the thing that really made it stick for me was the relationship between the dad and Willa. I just liked that and the combination of genre, drama, and emotion. They all have to mesh together, and it did.
It’s also a world that’s not quite our own. It’s some kind of quasi-near future, or maybe alternative reality world. The warriors use swords and use armor, but they have guns. It’s a strange mix that I thought was interesting. It’s a little original in that respect, and I was intrigued. It’s not like The Last of Us, but somewhere in a different world.
My next movie could be something totally different. I like to keep myself engaged and not always feel like I’m doing the same thing, even if it’s the same genre.
The Horror Lounge: At the beginning of the movie, we get some background information about how the world ended up in its current situation. Climate change and war are mentioned. I thought that aspect of the movie felt relevant for the present moment. When you filmed this, did you find that aspect at all relevant?
Brad Anderson: I like the mythology of the story and how the world breaks. In the beginning, we’re told that the world broke throughout the course of history, for various reasons. Sometimes, it’s a climatic catastrophe or a human-related catastrophe. I like that idea that’s at the core of it. It does feel relevant. The reason these post-apocalyptic stories are so popular among audiences is because people like to dwell on it. They have a weird, morbid curiosity. How will it all end? Some of that was woven into the story to give a bit of context, and it does feel topical. I think that was on purpose, to a degree.
The idea that some creature would be unleashed because of our stupidity as a species or our short-sightedness is interesting, too. It’s like payback in a way. Josh teed all of that up in the script.
It’s also a story about storytelling. The movie opens with the dad telling his daughter about how the world broke and how we have to find our heroes in order to save the world. Then, Willa ends up telling stories to another character about how to find your heroes. It’s almost about the power of storytelling being able to give us hope, strength, and faith in ourselves and the future. It’s a story in a story in a way.
The Horror Lounge: The setting is another aspect of this film that really stood out to me. What was it like shooting in Ireland?
Brad Anderson: We shot it in Belfast and in Northern Ireland, north of Belfast, along the coast. It’s super dramatic. It’s beautiful beyond belief. You can’t really go wrong. You can just put a camera on a tripod and it’s amazing. We wanted those big epic landscapes. We also wanted landscapes that weren’t lush but were a little dark and spare. They’re on an island in our story as a way to survive. It’s still a place that’s not Eden. It’s not this lush garden. It’s still a struggle to survive. Northern Ireland has a lot of that. It’s barren. It matched the world we tried to create for those sequences.
This is why the whole AI thing worries me and the idea of not going on location anymore. Whenever you’re on a location, it informs the actors and informs the scenes. You react to real things. It injects the scenes with the world around it. For that reason, shooting there was ideal. It gave our actors something to play off of, the dramatic, dark, epic landscapes.
The Horror Lounge: We’re used to seeing Milla Jovovich in an action role from the Resident Evil movies. What was it like working with her on set? She’s quite fierce in this.
Brad Anderson: She was great. We sort of tried to co-opt a bit of her Resident Evil vibe, but also show her as a mother, a mother who will fight for her family, who’s fierce and strong. Milla herself is a mother, and I think maybe that’s part of what drew her to this, the idea of being a heroine, but also being part of this family and the mother to this child that she’ll do anything to protect. It’s not just about saving the world, but it’s about saving her daughter. I think she personally responded to this. She brings the realism of being a warrior, but she also brought the poignancy of being a mother.
The Horror Lounge: Can you talk about the creature designs? Were you able to use practical effects much?
Brad Anderson: The breakers, which are the bigger, scarier monsters that emerge from below, those are mostly CGI. We had a practical model but used digital wizardry for those. The hybrids, which are a cross between a human and breaker, those were practical. Those were people in suits. We tried to find something that would be a realistic, evolutionary design. What would it be like if human DNA mixed with the DNA of this weird, subterrain, arachnid-like thing? That was one of the fun things about making the movie, brainstorming all of this stuff. We wanted to make it look plausible. The attempt was to try to make it seem like it had a basis in scientific, biological reality, as much as possible.
Worldbreaker releases in theaters on January 30.