[Tribeca] GIRLS NIGHT IN - Interview with Director Alison Roberto and Producer Landon LaRue

Producer Landon LaRue and Director Alison Roberto’s GIRLS NIGHT IN was created based on the Bechdel test. The test examines works of fiction to see whether there are interactions between female characters that don’t involve discussing a man. Which of course begs the question, where is the most ridiculous place these two women could be fighting over a dude. Well, what if he was there to kill them? This genre-bending horror-comedy short has combined satire and horror perfectly which is not an easy task. GIRLS NIGHT IN was screened in the official selection at the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival.

Alison Roberto is an award-winning Directed/Creative Director who specialises in original short-form content Her recent work includes Netflix’s GLOW and THE CHILLING ADVENTURES OF SABRINA. Ali’s work can be defined by her inherent love of comedy, empowering women in front of and behind the lens, creating fantastical worlds bridging reality and hyper-realism, stylised art direction, saturated colour, sophisticated set builds and VFX which can be seen across her work for Netflix, MTV, Disney, Pixar, NBC, Hulu and many more.

This satirical horror short was written by Landon LaRue who received a Golden Clio for her work in 2017 on Darren Aronofsky’s MOTHER, her win led to her being recruited at Annapurna Pictures where she led campaigns for SORRY TO BOTHER YOU, IF THE SISTERS BROTHERS, and VICE. 

Lucy: So, GIRLS NIGHT IN was a self-funded passion project for the both of you, congratulations on all its success so far! How did the project first come about?

Allie: I was actually offered a fully-funded feature and Landon and I had been working on a series together that we had been writing for a little while now. I was excited to be offered a fully-funded feature of course, it’s a huge deal! But the script was problematic, for me it wasn’t clear about where it stood with women's rights issues and I wasn’t on board with it. So I brought it to Landon but we both felt it was too problematic, we didn't feel good about it as our first feature. We wanted to do a project we could stand by, be proud of and talk about, especially with everything going on in the world right now, we don’t want to stand on the fence about these issues.

So I had asked Landon if she had any other projects, it was covid I wanted to create something. She said well I do have this script I’ve been playing around with, I read it and was like “oh my god it’s brilliant!”,

Landon: So I had written it a couple years ago, I was on a bunch of dating apps as one does especially in LA. As the conversation goes you eventually get to “hey you wanna meet in person?” I would just be like, you’ve gotta promise not to be a serial killer!

Being a fan of true crime and horror, it’s where my mind goes first “meet in person?! You're gonna kill me!”. It’s funny we would just be like you know what dating is so hard now, not a red flag anymore!

Lucy: So relatable! You mentioned there Allie about working together before so what was your working relationship like before starting GIRLS NIGHT IN?

Landon: We were introduced by a mutual friend and we were working on a television series. It's so funny in the cross-section of our interests such a niche area like metal, punk rock and 90s and early 2000s nostalgia. It just kind of melded into this series, we were having meetings and then covid hit and boom everything’s on pause. That’s when we were like what else can we do.?

*Cue Lucy having a throwback emo nostalgia session with Allie and Landon for about 10 minutes

Lucy: Now GIRLS NIGHT IN is obviously absolutely hilarious and really finds a great balance between horror, comedy and really funny Gen Z scripting whilst also giving us a real throwback feel to the slashers of the past few decades like Scream and Halloween, was there any specific film or franchise that inspired you both?

Landon: We are huge Wes Craven fans so you know the Scream franchise definitely played a huge part in it. In writing it I also pulled elements from Halloween and in our casting, we pulled from Jennifer's Body. In terms of tone and the scripting that's where I drew inspiration from but I know Allie drew inspiration from others for the aesthetic. I love her explanation for the colouring of it.

Allie: I pull a lot of inspiration from early 90’s music videos because that’s where a lot of my references for lighting and tone and look come from and I do a lot of music videos and short-form content and I really wanted for our short to have all of that high production lighting and that saturated colour and really bring that world into my narrative work. As far as how the camera moved we borrowed a lot from Scream, early Halloween movies I loved so much, Jennifer's Body was a huge inspiration for us. The characters have a lot of Drew Barrymore and Megan Fox in them for sure.

Some of the camera work, those slow push-ins and compositions where something could be in the background, but maybe it’s not, but maybe it is! We did a lot of that early on in the film because we wanted to pull people into a false sense of security of “oh I know what this is, it's a slasher, a thriller you know I got this''. Even down to what the characters were wearing and their attitudes, we hit you in the middle with that comedic twist to make it even more surprising because we set up such a classic way of going about it in the beginning.

Landon: We also drew a lot of inspiration from It Follows for the slow push-ins, tracking and wide shots.

Allie: The music too.

Lucy: I was gonna mention the score too because it was brilliant!

Allie: Davey Oberlin has a band called All The Damn Vampires, he used to be the keyboardist for Korn for a long time, but his new band is 80’s synth and I've always loved the soundtrack for It Follows, so we gave him this film and said “do what you will” and he wrote a brilliant score for this film.

Alec Rubay who does sound design for all Spiderman movies did all our sound design just because he loved this movie so much, he didn’t know us. Those are just two examples of many people who helped us out because as you said this was self-funded and we were crazy enough to self-fund a short instead of doing a full feature movie!

I feel like it really showed us this whole process. The whole journey this film has taken has really shown me you know if you do something you really believe in, even if you pay for it yourself it can be amazing. You know we ended up at Tribeca, our little self-funded film was in the midst of all these powerhouses. It’s powerful to just follow your intuition, your gut and beliefs because you just never know where it might lead you.

Lucy: Another question I had for you both was GIRL NIGHT IN is a satirical take on the Bechdel Test and I feel like when people finally clock that they never unsee it. But how do you feel horror falls victim to the Bechdel Test in comparison to other genres especially when we have tropes like the final girl?

Landon: It was really interesting cause in film school they were like “oh horror usually passes the Bechdel Test” because of the final girl or people usually don’t discuss men when they are fighting for their lives!  

What I love about horror is that the split of dialogue between men and women is 50/50, that’s on average. Whereas in other films it's 80/20 or 70/30. It’s odd when women have equal or more speaking roles to men in most films. It was one of those things that really drew me to the genre and I really do like the idea of horror because the protagonist is always a character that has an inner wound, a trauma or a weakness or meekness and they have to overcome that internal struggle to come out on top. I feel like women and those who identify as women are people who come from a disenfranchised community and to overcome that is what I love about the final girl. She’s that disenfranchised community, overcoming that evil and I just thought it would be really funny if a horror film actually did not pass the Bechdel Test and you know really highlight that so you can really go to any genre, spot it and be more conscious of it.

Allie: I also think horror lends itself to just being ridiculous, it can be fantastical which is what I love about it. I could bring that pink and blue light and oversaturate it just because. There was a lot we could push, how we shoot things, light things, what we want to exist or believe in, horror allows you to really push the limits of that. To take something like that and add this extra layer of satire with the Bechdel Test, it was a perfect marriage because it’s just so extreme in every way, all together it just worked really well.

Jess and Sklyar did a fantastic job, it was Skylar’s first speaking role in a film they both killed it, literally!.

Lucy: They really did! I couldn’t agree with your sentiments more. I think we can all agree Horror has gone through a real renaissance and revival over the past few years, where would you like to see the genre go next?

Landon: We love a historical drama, we love biopics, everyone’s awarding for depictions for people who have existed before, I would love for the genre to be recognised. I think A24 is kinda doing it, more the artistic side but yeah, to be taken more seriously and to get award recognition for sure.

Allie: Yeah I thought that was great Landon, absolutely. Being able to take actors and their acting more seriously, not just thinking in our minds it's this throw-away gene, taking the acting, cinematography you know, really seriously. Being able to have those bigger production companies and film houses. 

To be able to go to a bigger place, because we’re working on the feature right now, Landon has created a great concept, so to be able to have the opportunity to be taken seriously, have the bigger budgets because you know most horror is typically done cheaply and quickly. Let's treat it like an actual film and take the time to make it great.

Lucy: On the note about the feature of GIRLS NIGHT IN is there anything you can share about that?

Landon: I’m actually taking Becca and Delaney back to high school and it’s because you know high school as an institution is horrifying in itself! It also lends itself to a world that's already built so I can focus more on the characters rather than having to build out a whole new world. Jeremy makes a physical appearance too, I think that’s what I can share right now.

Lucy: Finally, a basic question but one I always love to ask! What is your favourite horror movie?

Allie: Oh gosh that’s so hard! Silence of the Lambs was one of my favourites growing up, I wrote a book report about it in seventh grade, horror showed me really early on women could be such badasses. To be honest, the first one that had a real impact on me and one I always go back to is the original Halloween. It's my most favourite and anytime I see anyone in that mask it absolutely terrifies me and Jamie Lee Curtis is obviously just iconic.

Landon: I’m gonna give the classic filmmaker answer that’s a non-answer. A Clockwork Orange had a huge impact on me and the way I structure story and what I think is terrifying, I can’t do anything with eyeballs because of that movie. The one I can play on repeat in the background and always enjoy is Scream but then if you're like “what have you dressed up as for Halloween the most?” I would say Midsommar. I do dress up as the May Queen a lot. The one I loved recently as of last night is this movie called Down, what I loved is it’s got these two actors, one location and the location is an elevator, I really enjoyed it.

One more guilty pleasure horror is Freaky, I loved that movie so much I think it's hilarious and lends to my Gen Z inner child, that’s my non answer!