Buffy the Vampire Slayer alum Juliet Landau has found A Place Among the Dead. In her directorial debut on a feature film, she reinvents herself as a character named Jules, who sets out to document the case of a serial killer who behaves very much like a vampire. However, she finds herself becoming obsessed as she dives deeper and deeper into the killer's world, which blurs the line between fact and fiction. Despite warnings from her well-meaning subjects, she soon ends up in the eye of the killer's storm -- and by then, it may be too late.
Speaking to CBR, Landau explained how she drew on her own experiences for A Place Among the Dead and why vampires were the perfect vehicle for her cautionary tale about narcissism. She broke down how COVID impacted the film's release, which led to special screenings that allowed her to connect with viewers like never before. She also discussed finding the line between Jules the filmmaker and Jules the character, how she recruited A-list talent like Gary Oldman and Ron Perlman, why her interview subjects are comparable to a Greek chorus, what she hopes viewers take away from the film and more.
CBR: How has COVID impacted A Place Among the Dead's release and how you look back on the film?
Juliet Landau: Well, thankfully, my husband and I have been safe and well. You know, it's been such scary times, for people all across the world. Work-wise, it's been interesting, in that we had to restructure the initial release plan. But it has been amazing, because in addition to the traditional distribution and press, we've done some revolutionary things.
One of the reasons we wanted to partner with Modern Films is because they do these interactive screening events, and we made A Place Among the Dead to have a discussion, to open up a dialogue. So we knew that they were going to be the perfect partners for us. For our worldwide virtual interactive premiere, Dev [Weekes] and I got the idea to go to New York Comic Con, and also MAC cosmetics sponsored the event.
The thing with New York Comic Con is that I have done many panels at Comic Cons before, which generate greater ticket sales, but this made the film available right there on a hub where everyone from all over the world could stream the movie at once, watch it together, followed by a Q&A and interactive Zoom to talk about it right then. It's a brand new way to reach the audience.
With the closure of cinemas everywhere, as well as the general direction movies were going in before COVID, this will be some aspect of the future. If the water cooler/cinema experience, which has been sorely lacking culturally, where everything has been so spread out and dispersed, people watch things on streamers, and then at different times, and there is not a way to come together and discuss. So it's actually been incredible, because it puts the audience and the fans at the forefront.
So we've been continuing and doing these interactive screening events, and every single one that we've had, the Zoom session with the audience has lasted for nearly four hours. It's been so profound and beautiful. It's one of the reasons we decided -- Modern decided, and then we all as a team decided -- to postpone the next window is because of what's happening in these in these screenings.
It's been wild to watch the film landscape change right in front of us!
It is, but what's exciting is that so, for instance, on Saturday, we had people from Chile, from Argentina, from Belgium, France, all across the UK, Ireland, all across the US, India, gathering together, talking about the movie and then, in addition, sharing intensely personal stories from their own lives. The movie is all about the repercussions of growing up under the sway of narcissism and evil and we're living in a time where there's an escalation in narcissism, in cruelty, in evil actions, and people are wanting to talk about it.
One of the things that's been so compelling in talking to people from all over the world is whether they have had this kind of experience, with an ex-boyfriend, a girlfriend, an ex-wife, a husband, a friend, a family member, a boss, a co-worker, or our world leaders. This is something that's so prevalent, and everybody ends up saying, "It's like we're all discussing the same person, because the traits and the behavior is textbook."
A Place Among the Dead interrogates culture's fascination with vampires, but what keeps drawing you, personally, towards them?
Well, I chose to use the vampire genre for a number of reasons. First of all, to make an entertaining movie. You type in the word vampire and do a Google search and there are 278 million results. Also, I wanted to lull the audience into a sense of safety by using a familiar trope, if you will, to then subvert those expectations and look at something that is very unsafe and explores radical ideas.
I also wanted to tie in my history, my connection with Buffy and Angel and all of our other actors' histories: Gary Oldman, Ron Perlman, Robert Patrick, Lance Henriksen, Joss Whedon, bestselling authors Charlaine Harris and Anne Rice have ties to vampire material they've created in within that sandbox. Last of all, I really felt that the vampire is the perfect metaphor for the ultimate narcissist.
How much of your own story did you insert in this film? How did you find the balance between Jules the filmmaker and Jules the character?
Yes, we all do play alter ego versions of ourselves. I chose to make the movie searingly personal in some parts to invite the viewer to do the same. There's the old adage -- the more personal, the more universal -- and I really wanted to make the movie visceral, emotional and experiential. I wanted to, as I said, make a compelling movie, but also give voice to what has affected many and open up a dialogue.
The movie is completely and entirely scripted. I wanted to blur the lines of fact and fiction -- let me say this: I wanted to blur the lines of reality, and in doing that, it's a meld of fact, fiction and the fantastical. Everything was pre-scripted; even faux interviews are scripted. But there are a lot of elements that are factual, woven throughout.
One of the things that's been interesting is how much repeat audience that we've had. We've had six special showings, as I was telling you, including the premiere, and we have a huge number of people that have come to all six. Then, last Saturday, we had another group that were coming for the second or third time, and then this Saturday coming up, we have a lot of those people coming back again, and then people coming again for their third, etc, etc.
Some of that is the movie is constructed a bit like a puzzle, and they like to pick out more and more of the factual elements and other Easter eggs. The other part is the way that the movie has been resonating and having people reflect on their own lives.
What made this particular film style the right vehicle for this film?
I think primarily, one of the things that I wanted to do was I alternate between the first person and a third person's perspective. For a lot of the movie, you are inside Jules' perspective because it was a way to, again, have the viewer not be a spectator, but roll up their sleeves and get right in there and to show what it feels like to be in the orbit of a malignant narcissist or someone who is evil.
We based the movie largely on a book written by psychologist M. Scott Peck, and he talks about when you're around people like this, that you often feel a sense of confusion and revulsion. So when Jules' character gets closer and closer to that particular character in the movie, very often, we implement blurs and statics and it was really to show how destabilizing -- how you start feeling like you're losing yourself bit by bit by bit in this kind of relationship.
How did you go about enlisting A Place Among the Undead's star-studded cast?
The very first person I reached out to was Anne [Rice]. I wrote her letter, and then we got on a phone call, and she immediately said yes. The second person was Gary Oldman. It was the same thing. It happened with everybody. I think that the cast really believed in the message of the movie and the vision that I had for it. It was one of those things that was serendipitous and felt almost like where the universe is telling you that this has to happen, and it needs to be made. I feel so fortunate to have been able to gather these brilliant artists together in this project.
I'm intrigued by your choice not to name any of the interview subjects, despite their fame. How did you arrive at this decision?
Well, because it's a narrative and the interviews are scripted to feel completely spontaneous. They are peppered through the movie and almost serve like a Greek chorus. They initially warn Jules against going on this journey and tell her that it's going to be dangerous and they discuss the nature of evil.
Later, as we go through the progression of the film and Jules is descending on this journey, you'll see that in the film that the interview sections have a certain kind of treatment on them, where they're like the other material that's in Jules' is mind and they start telling her to go toward evil, that that's the only way to combat it.
There's a change, in terms of that they become further voices in Jules' head, because that's one of the themes we open the movie with, with the some of the thoughts and the voices that run through her mind and run through many of our minds. So they become further voices.
What I was interested in looking at is how sometimes you're told one thing, but we all take things in with our own filter, and then hear what we want to hear. So they start telling her to go toward this, which I personally don't believe that's the best course of action, but she's interpreting what they said to serve what she's determined to do.
Can you tell me about how you enlisted artist Mark McHaley to work on this project?
I have always loved Mark's work. It's so beautiful and unique. So I approached Mark about doing the artwork that's contained within the movie, and then also all of the posters as well. It was such a beautifully collaborative experience, and I think for him, it was interesting getting in the mindset of creating the artwork within the film.
You're never quite sure that the character whose artwork it is if he's a vampire or a serial killer who's emulating a vampire. Regardless, the traits are the same and, creating them, there's a darkness that Mark forayed into in creating them. But it was such an extraordinary process, developing that with Mark based on our actors who are playing those roles, and then on our actors for the poster artwork as well.
How has A Place Among the Dead changed the way you look back on some of your previous roles, like Drusilla in Buffy the Vampire Slayer?
I don't know if it has changed the way, in terms of looking back on roles, but I know that it's been an all-encompassing workload in terms of when you're directing and acting, so you're behind the camera and in front of the camera and switching all the time between the subjective and objective. I do know that when I go back to working on sets -- I just shot a movie a few weeks ago, that was very COVID safe, called Penumbra with a director named Thomas Negovan, and it was produced by E. Elias Merhige, who directed Shadow of the Vampire and Suspect Zero with Sir Ben Kingsley. I just did that, and I've been recurring on TNT's Claws, and did an episode coming back recently as well. When I am acting again, without all of the other hats, it almost feels like I'm on vacation. Not that it's, you know, "so easy," one way or the other -- you work long hours -- but you have one task only and you're a component of the whole; you're not making every artistic decision that there is to make.
I realized as I was watching that most of the minor roles in the film were played by women. How did you arrive at this choice?
You know, it's really interesting... It happened serendipitously, in the fact that what we ended up doing is really casting -- and also in terms of all of our department heads and our composer, we have a largely female crew as well... It sort of ended up happening of its own accord. It wasn't a conscious decision to hire women, but what happened was the people that were most qualified -- we were excited about males -- it ended up working out that way.
For instance, Detective Sal was based on a man named Sal LaBarbera, who was second in command of South Central Homicide for 25 years and consulted on the movie. We based the character on him and it was originally scripted as a man. When Amy [Jennings] came in to read for another role, I started thinking she would make an amazing Detective Sal -- like, we should make it Sally! Why not make it Sally Erickson, and we had her read, and that was that. It was that kind of thing that kept happening.
Our composer, it's the first time that she has ever composed a film. She is brilliantly talented. We had some other composers who are very well known that wanted to do the movie. From the moment that Monica [Richards] came to see the film and started playing some of her music, we had been talking to her just about doing some of the practical stuff, like the golf club and the radio song that plays, and as she was playing her music for us, the opening of each song sounded like these epic soundtracks. She played me this one particular piece, which was very primal -- it was these vocals she had recorded in a cage -- and I turned her and said, "Would you want to score the movie?" She really understood the themes of the movie and all of that.
So, you know, it ended up being the most phenomenal partnership that came out of an intuition. So that happened time and time again with the film. One of the other interesting things with what you were talking about, in terms of actresses in it, is a lot of the actresses are also women over 40, which is a very underrepresented group in movies. So that's also something that I'm proud of.
What is one thing you think viewers should know about the movie before they sit down to watch it for the first time?
I think they should come with an open mind, know that it's about narcissism and the nature of evil, and then, as far as afterwards, I would love to hear what it provoked in them, what it made them think about in their own lives from viewing the movie.
Can you share a favorite memory from the film?
I think that the favorite memory is that, every time we have an interactive screening event, the entire audience stays on Zoom for close to four hours and the stories and the connection that has been happening is so profound. Many people start with, "I've never told anybody this, but --" or, you know, "I've been out of this relationship for three years. I didn't realize what was going on there, but seeing the movie, it made me realize who I was involved with, and why it's taken me this long to feel like myself again and get a sense of myself." Or when someone says, "I didn't come from this background -- I came from a very loving and stable background -- but I've never understood psychological abuse like I have from being inside this movie and it made me really look at my own parenting and what messages I'm giving my children."
Those kinds of things are so extraordinary and really why I wanted to be so personal in the movie, to ask the audience to do the same, and that's been happening. It's such a timely topic, sadly, in what's happening with the escalation of narcissism and cruelty and bad behavior, that it's important to have these kinds of discussions.
What do you hope viewers will take away from A Place Among the Dead?
I think that all movies that I love make me think about my own life and my own experience and things that I might want to change. I mean, the whole point of the movie is that, no matter what you come from, as adults, we have a choice. You know, my alter ego in the movie isn't making the best choices, but hopefully, I am now in my real life. But for a long time, I didn't. So I think that it's looking at how we can be our best selves and have our best lives.
Written and directed by Juliet Landau, A Place Among the Dead stars Landau, Gary Oldman, Robert Patrick, Ron Perlman, Lance Henrickson, Meadow Williams, Amy Jennings, Deverill Weekes and more. The film does not yet have a theatrical release date, but it is available through Laemmle Theatres' virtual platform in the US. Worldwide virtual screening events will also continue, with tickets available at Modern Films.