2021's Untitled Horror Movie is as much a meta horror-comedy about demons and acting as it is a true-to-life snapshot of artistic uncertainty amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Shot entirely on the cast's phones, the independent iHorror film centers on six fictional castmates who learn of their show's impending cancellation and decide to make a horror movie together. While bickering about the best way to create a horror movie over Zoom, the cast inadvertently summons a demonic entity into their lives that's beyond their control and out for blood.
Directed by Nick Simon and co-written by Simon and Luke Baines (who also portrays Declan in the film), Untitled Horror Movie is a self-aware horror-comedy that aims to entertain horror fans and shed light on the financial risk that comes with committing to acting full-time. In an interview with CBR, Katherine McNamara delved into her role as the shallow, but genuinely sweet Chrissy, the challenges of performing stunts at home and the overall joy of being able to be so involved with a film's production process from start to finish.
CBR: First thing, this is such a fun movie! I was curious how you got involved in the project. You and Luke Baines both worked together on Shadowhunters, so did this project stem from your acting relationship and Baines' pitch to you?
I actually originally met Luke because of Nick Simon, who is the director and co-writer on this film. I was supposed to do the film that Luke did with Nick, The Girl in the Photographs, years ago. We all met through that audition process and I was unable to do it because of the schedule, but I've wanted to work with Nick since then because I just think he's brilliant. And we have so much fun together. And same with Luke, you know, that's the beauty of when you work together so closely with someone for so long and are friends with someone for so long -- working with them just becomes an absolute joy, and especially for someone as wonderful as Luke Baines. I mean, how can you not love him?
So they called me about a month or two into the pandemic and said, "Hey, we have this idea. We wrote this script, we think we can shoot it on Zoom and you're gonna do it. Okay?" And I'm like, "Sure why not?" You know, we were at all at a point where we were so starved for any kind of not only social interaction but just something that felt creatively productive. And I thought, "You know, this script is actually really fun. And let's go for it. Let's experiment. Let's see what we can do!" That's what we do as artists, we take our given circumstances and our obstacles and we overcome them and make something that will hopefully entertain people.
This film was made virtually in the pandemic, which is incredible, but also meant actors wore many hats -- doing lighting, makeup, wardrobe -- so for you, what was the most challenging or surprising part about that?
There were a few things. First of all, set decking my house was a whole other -- because I went, "Okay, I'm not just gonna use my house. I want to make it Chrissy's house." So what can I do with what I already have in my house to change it up a little bit? It ended up being really fun. It was a mini-redecorating project.
Bless our Director of Photography, Kevin Duggin. I've always had such respect for directors of photography, the way that they use light to paint in real space. It blows my mind. That's always felt like magic to me. And then suddenly, I'm responsible for placing the lights myself and thank goodness Kevin was so patient with all of us in setting up our cameras and our lights and going, "Okay, but this over here and put a paper towel over it and take this one over here and [place] this lamp upside down on the floor and cover it with a T-shirt." Just all these little things that he walked us through that made it seem relatively simple and gave us at least a little bit of a modicum of understanding of what that might be. I'm now a monster when it comes to self-tapes and like set up lights and you know have fun with it when I feel inspired.
But honestly, I think the most nerve-wracking part for me, was wrapping at three in the morning and then someone going, "Hey, can you transfer that footage onto a hard drive and then upload it and then make sure you don't lose it or mess it up?" And I'm going, "We've all just spent all day doing this. I'm dead tired. If I mess this up, what are we gonna do?" Thankfully, it all went swimmingly. Again, because of Kevin's patience and instructions and the kindness of his heart.
In Untitled Horror Movie, you play Chrissy, who is so much fun, and in my opinion, she's the best character -- because you get to be both outlandish and fun and new age-y, but your character also sees the most scares in the movie? How did you balance the humor of this film with the "I am terrified" aspect?
For me, the throughline with Chrissy was always commitment. Whatever she's doing, whether it's her job, or her friends or her belief system, she commits. She is 100% invested in everything she does. And that's sort of also what I love about her. You know, she's very well-intentioned but very underinformed. As she goes through this story, she really gets the brunt of the emotional roller coaster. But that made it a lot of fun for me, just getting to, you know, throw myself around my house and having to knock on my neighbor's door and go, "Hey, I'm going to be screaming, 'Let me out, let me out. I can't get out!' And rattling my doors. And banging on the walls, all night. So don't worry about it, it's fine. Don't call the cops."
Speaking of throwing yourself all around, during the pandemic, you couldn't have any stunt doubles to do any of these physical takes. There was even a joke about this in the film as well. So I was curious, as an actor, have you done any of your own stunts before? And, if so, what was it like to do this one in your house?
I was fortunate enough to have worked on Shadowhunters, and Arrow, Maze Runner and all of these things. Our Shadowhunter stunt coordinators spent so much time training me. I would be with them three to five days a week. And because they were kind enough to see that I was motivated and wanting to learn, they taught me. And I learned so much and did actually the majority of my own fighting on the series, aside from the things that, you know, are deemed too dangerous for actors to do. And in that case, I had an incredible stunt double who made me look great and we sort of built that movement style together.
That's what's so great about the Shadowhunters family is that we were able to call upon some folks that we'd worked within the stunt department to go, "Okay, these are the resources we have. This is what we wanted to achieve. How do we do it?" And they sent us a video tutorial of how to do these stunts in your house and how to make these things [and] what they would do if they were in our shoes. And so in the same way that you would go to a stunt rehearsal, we sort of had a virtual stunt rehearsal. And we're able to kind of learn how to do it. Now granted, there was a moment when I'm throwing myself across my house headfirst that I go, "I'm alone in my house. It's a pandemic. I am on Zoom with these people. If I get hurt or break my neck or any things... It's not like being on set where you have a medic right there who's gonna help you..." But, again, commitment. That's where Chrissy and I connect in a lot of ways.
The script, in general, is making a lot of fun about Hollywood, in a lighthearted way, about the in's and out's of being an actor and being on contract and on shows that might or might not get canceled. So, I was curious if any parts of this were really cathartic to act out? To be able to, you know, kind of poke fun at?
Well, I think for a lot of us, it was very fun to create a sort of satirical comedy version of that waiting game that we all play. We've all been in those situations where you're waiting for your college acceptance letter or for the results of a job interview or to see if your television series is picked up for another season, there's that waiting game of going, "I have all of this energy that needs to go somewhere. What do I do with it? And how do I cope with the unknown?" And I think that coping with the unknown is a lot of what people have been dealing with for the past year and this past kind of period of time that we've been going through.
So, you know, hopefully -- we didn't mention the pandemic at all in the film itself, because we felt like there was enough of that on people's minds -- but, what we did sort of address that relates to it is that feeling of, "I don't know what life is going to bring for me in the next several months. I don't know what life is going to be after this decision is made, or after all these things come to fruition? How do I cope with that?" The different ways that all of the characters cope with the unknown are very interesting.
There's one question I wanted to ask for our readers who love your character Mia Smoak and I feel like they would slay me if I didn't ask, is there any chance that Mia might appear in the Arrowverse sometime soon?
I mean, you know, there's a lot of things happening in the Arrowverse right now -- on all sorts of timelines. And if there's one thing we know about the Arrowverse, if you're not dead on the slab, there's always a chance that they can bring you back. I always say, "I love Mia so much." She's very near and dear to my heart. And I'm so grateful for every bit of storyline and every bit of character development that, you know, they so generously gave to me in my time there. And, absolutely, if they need somebody to run around in a green hood and shoot some arrows, I am your girl. I am there. I'd jump at the chance to go back.
Are there any horror roles that you're looking out for, or keeping your eye on, or any kind of properties in the horror realm that you'd love a stab at?
I mean, I love horror movies and thrillers and I kind of grew up on them. It's something that I truly love. I will say, I got to do The Stand miniseries earlier this year. And it's a huge Stephen King property. I love Stephen King. I love the way he creates characters and the worlds that he creates and how he always has some sort of allegory going on. I find it fascinating. So, anything of that nature I would absolutely love. You know, I'm always down to run around from some demon or other nefarious source or be one. Who knows?
Directed by Nick Simon and co-written by Simon and Luke Baines, Untitled Horror Movie stars Darren Barnet, Baines, Tim Granaderos, Claire Holt, Katherine McNamara, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Kal Penn, Aisha Tyler, Kevin Daniels, Lesly Kahn and Sohm Kapila. The film debuts directly to fans on June 12 via untitledhorror.com. The film will be available on VOD June 15.