'It Comes at Night' filmmaker on how he tapped into 2017's political zeitgeist
How filmmaker created political zeitgeist
Native Texas filmmaker Trey Edward Schults scored a critical hit with his dark 2016 indie family drama “Krisha.” His second feature, the psychological thriller “It Comes at Night,” opens locally this weekend.
Schults conducted a Q&A after a showing of “It Comes at Night” last week at Chicago's River East 21 Theaters. I hit him with five questions during his visit.
Q. Your movie deals with an isolationist with a mistrust of strangers. How did you manage to capture the political zeitgeist of 2017?
A. When I started shooting the movie, things started to happen, like the recent election. You can't help but notice that stuff. I do think the film is timely with everything going on. And it's timely because of that word “fear.” The fear that's in our society right now and what it's doing to us. It's very scary in a lot of different ways.
Q. What led you to write specifically about a mysterious contagion that threatens humanity?
A. I actually wrote the first draft three years ago. The world was in a different place back then. What I was drawing on was people and fear and how that keeps messing us up. And it happens over and over again. I've been reading books on genocide and thinking about these cycles of violence, and what that can lead to. At its core, the movie concerns very personal stuff. It just happened to come out at this moment,
Q. You have virtually two leading men in the story, the dad, Paul, played by Joel Edgerton, and the son, Travis, played by Kelvin Harrison Jr. Was it hard to find the proper balance between the two?
A. I always fall back on the idea that this is Travis' story. But a large part of that involves the relationship he has with his father. I think that Joel Edgerton's character is a lot like my biological father was, and how my stepfather is. Travis is a lot of me. But this is Travis' journey, and that is what grounded me to the story and how I told it.
Q. You have cited “Night of the Living Dead” as an inspiration for “It Comes at Night.” Why that film?
A. George Romero made “Night of the Living Dead” as an independent movie on a very low budget. They were just trying to figure out how to make the movie. I wrote this (“It Comes at Night”) before I had the success with “Krisha.” So, part of what I did was to come up with a way I could realistically make a movie with a low budget.
Then, what I was fascinated by were the people, and restricting these people to that one location, this house, a microcosm of society. That was the stuff that excited me.
Q. How did growing up in Texas inform your world view?
A. It impacted me greatly. There is, I think, that classic mentality, like in the film, of “family first.” You can't fully trust anyone but family. It's certainly an interesting view of the world, and certainly not one that I have. But my stepdad has told me that all my life, and it's something I've wrestled with.
Free kids movies? Yes!
A Kids Free Summer Movie Series starts with “Storks” showing at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, June 13, through Thursday, June 15, at the Paragon Theater, 53 S. Evergreen Ave., Arlington Heights.
Paragon will show free movies (first come, first served) at 10 a.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays through Aug. 17. Other films scheduled include “ParaNorman,” “Boxtrolls,” “The Lego Movie,” “The Secret Life of Pets,” “Kubo,” “Sing,” “Curious George” and “The Pirates! Band of Misfits.” paragontheaters.com/promotions.
Dann & Raymond rock 'n' roll in Palatine
Join me and Buffalo Grove novelist/film historian Raymond Benson when Dann & Raymond's Movie Club presents “Love Us Tender: The Great Rock 'n' Roll Films” at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 14, at the Palatine Public Library, 700 N. North Court, Palatine. Free admission! Go to palatinelibrary.org or call (847) 358-5881.
• Dann Gire's column runs Friday in Time out!