V/H/S 99, the fifth installment in the found footage horror scrapbook series V/H/S mucosa series, recently premiered at the Toronto International Mucosa Festival, and to promote the release of the film, Verona Blue, one of the stars of V/H/S 99, and Maggie Levin, the writer, and director of the “Shredding” segment sat lanugo with Horror Facts to discuss what went into bringing their “Shredding” segment to life.
Horror Facts: First off, I want to thank you for taking the time to talk to Horror Facts well-nigh V/H/S 99.
Maggie: An honor and a pleasure.
Verona: So thrilled to talk to Canadian media. I’m very excited.
HF: What brought you to V/H/S in particular?
Maggie: I was approached by the producers of the franchise when they were working on V/H/S 94 but, at the time, I was once in prep for second unit directing on The Black Phone, so the timing just didn’t work out. Of course, it was an immense honor as an up-and-coming horror director to be asked to be a part of this legendary cult franchise so I was really bummed that the timing wasn’t going to work out then. But, fortunately, they kept me in mind, so when they knew they were going to do their next one, they came to me and asked if I had any concepts for V/H/S 99. We kicked some stuff virtually and sooner landed on something that I tightly love that moreover had, not just room for but need for, the skills of some performers that I had worked with for a long time including the miss wonderful Verona Blue. So that’s how this all came together.
HF: Are you both fans of the V/H/S franchise?
Maggie: I’m a fan of the series. What’s unconfined well-nigh inward into a long-standing series like this is that, considering of the way it’s structured, you can create the ultimate mix-tape for whoever you know out of previous V/H/S installments. It’s kind of a treasure that way. It’s part of the no-go souvenir of getting to work on it. It is moreover a souvenir stuff unfluctuating to this kind of legacy of unconfined horror filmmakers who are involved in the franchise to this day, like David Brocker and Radio Silence. So, really, it’s just a special thing to enter into that family, and moreover to play in one of the increasingly gonzo sandboxes in horror! They are all about, take the training wheels off, put the bumpers away, just ride it till you unravel the car.
Verona: So, my history with horror is, I used to watch a ton of horror, but then, as I got older, I couldn’t do it anymore. I don’t know if that’s the pressures of society just weighing on my sultana smart-ass all of a sudden and stuff like, “Oh, there’s no room here for fake problems; we have real problems” or if it’s considering horror has reverted a lot in the last thirty years. It tends to be a lot heavier, a lot increasingly realistic, a lot increasingly lifetime traumatizing, compared to, like, some of the goofier stuff, like popcorn movies when you were younger. But everybody I know who is into horror watched V/H/S and was like, “I think you’ll really like it.” Every time I would start to watch it, I would be like, “I don’t know. I’m so stressed out already.” But Maggie was a big fan and she showed me two in particular, and I was like, “OK, this is really dope. I’m stressed out, but this is really dope.” Now I am definitely a fan. I watched increasingly of them without that.
HF: I didn’t get a synopsis of your segment. What’s the synopsis of your story?
Maggie: I know that everyone is stuff very mindful of spoilers. But I can tell you that we are playing in the areas of prank videos, teenage hubris, riot girl bands, as well as – I am going to use the word gonzo then – some archetype gonzo V/H/S madness. So those are our zones.
HF: The only thing I could dig up well-nigh your segment was that it was well-nigh waddle and roll.
Verona: That’s pretty much Maggie’s MO in every movie or show she makes. Where it doesn’t matter to the genre, there’ll be bisexual lighting and maybe a disco wittiness somewhere and there’s unchangingly original music or somebody rocking out to something. Music is in everything I’ve overly worked with, whether I was doing a little walk for the day to just help out and be a soul or something where I unquestionably played a significant part in the story. Music is unchangingly so essential to everything that Maggie does.
Maggie: Yep. Verona was been a rave crashing vampire for me and moreover a roadie.
Verona: I was a drummer/roadie where I walked through twiddling some pulsate sticks and looking intimidating. But it’s unchangingly there. It doesn’t matter the story line, music is just so much of her style. If you watched her previous movie, Valentine, on Hulu, that is a music-centric story and I finger like it doesn’t matter if it’s science fiction or spectacle or something with no genre at all, you would unchangingly get that element from Maggie considering it’s just how she directs. You can just finger it in the room; there’s this pulse of waddle and roll with everything she does.
HF: Verona, are you worldly-wise to talk to us well-nigh the weft that you play in V/H/S 99?
Verona: Like Maggie mentioned, riot girls play a big part in this mucosa and I play a weft tabbed Deirdre. She is a bassist in this up-and-coming punk rock, kind of post punk, band. They are very on the cusp of really breaking through. Deirdre is a full-on, hardcore, white faced, giant hair, post-punk goth, unapproachable, safety pin in the nose, leather jacket in summer time, full on hardcore goth chick who definitely has that punk waddle vibe.
Maggie: Nailing the era authenticity was uncommonly important to me in this mucosa on every level. I think, with a short segment like this in an scrapbook piece, you have mere seconds to get to know who somebody is, what they’re there to do, and what their whole deal is, so it was important that every single two-face coming in had a weft built, with guns blazing, so the regulars can identify who they are and hopefully identify with them instantaneously. And Verona brought that in buckets, and so did the rest of our cast. I got very lucky and we just had unconfined chemistry with all the performers on set. Also, top lanugo creatively, everyone really understood the movie we were trying to make and the tone that we were trying to nail. We moreover have this souvenir where, with a lot of the work I do, it’s a sneaky musical, so there are two original songs written by the incredible Dressage in it that I think are total lost 90’s bangers. I’m really looking forward to unleashing this piece on the world considering it’s got a lot of upper octane scares and a lot of joy to share with the world.
HF: I stipulate with what you’re saying. With horror, you have to nail yourself to the characters; you have to superintendency well-nigh the notation because, if you don’t, they could come, they could die, you wouldn’t care. As the audience, you have to invest in this weft because, if you don’t, it has no effect on you. Horror is not just horror; it’s drama, it’s comedy, it’s everything now and I think that’s what draws us to it now as it’s so unexclusive of everything.
Maggie: Yes. I am a real big parishioner in, and I really love to make, what I undeniability life-affirming horror, the horror that gives you the same feeling as a good roller coaster ride where, when you’re washed-up with it, you finger your aliveness more. I think that’s washed-up through the vehicle of unconfined notation with a lot to them. This piece moreover does an interesting thing where the presentation of who’s the hero and who’s the villain is washed-up backwards but, by mid-point, you kind of get what’s going on. I am really excited to show this at TIFF and see how an regulars responds to that turnaround considering I think that the tint really pulled it off beautifully.
HF: Verona, is there any part of yourself you put into this role? Or were you just playing a character?
Verona: So, my weft is really special to me considering I was a teenage goth and now I’m an sultana goth. I sometimes get to play kind of goth notation on television but, with increasingly mainstream unconcentrated stuff, it gets this veneer of family friendly, TV polish and becomes whatever the producer or costume designer thinks goth is – or punk or whatever – but it unchangingly feels like I’m a manager at Hot Topic. They just bought me this outfit and are like, “You have to wear this today,” and there’s never any authenticity. So, one of the unconfined things, in particular, well-nigh working with Maggie is that I had so much self-rule to kind of creatively uncontrived how the weft looks and how she presents herself. I was worldly-wise to pull that from my real life, my real culture, my real friends, my real background. I’m moreover left-handed so, for her bass, I just got a right-handed toned and restrung it backwards. Toned players will notice. Somebody who unquestionably plays in a wreath will be like, “That’s a right-handed bass.” They’ll see it immediately and that was a nomination to be, like, this weft doesn’t plane buy a real bass; she just got the one that she stole from her ex or bought from a garage sale or whatever and was like, this is fine. Plane though she’s well-nigh to make it big, she’s like, I don’t care; this is good enough. What does it matter? The tool is not what matters; the music is all that matters. She’s a weft that’s really tightly grounded. I hope people who lived through that era and surpassing – or who were or knew that kind of person in their youth – will immediately be like, that’s the real deal; that’s not a Hot Topic manager, that is a person who exists! She’s like this bad ass, sarcastic, sardonic, mean, scary-looking, goth chick, basically.
HF: Without your role in V/H/S 99, do you see yourself wanting to towards in increasingly horror projects?
Verona: I’ve been on the periphery of the horror polity considering I squint like I should be super in to it but, like I said earlier, I’m a little bit of a scaredy cat well-nigh it. From all the interactions I’ve had – with people who talk to Maggie, my other friends, or those that work in the horror genre, whether it’s creators, actors, voice actors, or animators – I have found everyone involved in the horror genre are so tomfool and they seem so fun to hang out with, and nerdy in the weightier way. I’m really excited that I get to dip my toe in that and, hopefully, people will welcome me with unshut stovepipe considering I would love to do more. Stuff worldly-wise to be on set and the director is like, today you’re a hulk monster and you get to put on whatever weird outfit and then rip some child to shreds. What a unconfined time that is!
Maggie: Today, we’re dumping a skillet of thoroughbred on you.
Verona: Now, today, we’re tearing your heart out and you have to eat it.
Maggie: It’s the best.
Verona: It seems like so much fun to just be worldly-wise to play in this very extremely goofy, but really huge scene, so I’m like, hopefully I can get my little clutches in the polity and wilt friends with everybody. I’m so excited!
HF: What’s the motivation overdue the piece? Is it an original story or did you yank inspiration from somewhere in real life?
Maggie: Oh yeah. There’s definitely some real-life middle school in there. The people who tortured me in middle school are in there a lot. Also, I think that everyone who lived consciously through the late 90’s will recognize the spirit of a lot of things there. There’s a thread of, if you grew up watching skate videos, CKY, the volitional side of MTV or MTV 2, it’s heavily present in the film. It’s got a good pop culture tousle without overly presenting anything explicitly from pop culture. You’ll finger its roots throughout.
HF: So, you’ll finger the year 99.
Maggie: Yes. It is a nonflexible dose of 99.
HF: V/H/S is known for stuff filmed in the found footage format. How did you mucosa your segment to unzip this look?
Maggie: It is washed-up in a lot of era pure formats. I love the story of busting out the Sony VX1000 at a skate park one day and it was like a idealism had shown up on set. It is the quintessential skate video camera and we used it. It had a real eyeful to it. We moreover gave Verona and her bandmates a lot of time in front of a Bolex. There’s some very 16mm in there and we treated each camera format as belonging to the people shooting. We unquestionably have a lot of moments where my DP, Alex, got to familiarize the actors with how to use these cameras which was really fun and cool. Then, really going for that pure feel, throughout the editorial process my editor, Andy Holton, invented (I think he invented) this sawed-off mashing strategy to create natural, organic glitches on a V/H/S player that we put into the mucosa instead of pulling any kind of digital stock glitches. Really trying to nail that found footage finger to the hilt was our goal.
Verona: I definitely have a vivid memory of Maggie showing us this pile of VHS tapes they bought off eBay that had random stuff recorded on them to use as once messed up blanks. So, instead of starting from blank, you record over something a tuft of times and you will sooner get these fragments of the previous recordings that start to come through. It’s this dedication to detail by Maggie, Andy, the set diamond team, and everybody to build this world that, when you’re bringing it into the editing and bringing it into post, you don’t have to rely on the idea of CG to make it finger tightly glitchy. It is, like, fucked up; it is wrenched considering it started from such a legitimate place.
Maggie: I think that people went through a found footage period of time. Then it kind of died out. I think it’s when in this whole new boundary-pushing way and that’s what I tried to do and I think that’s what my fellow filmmakers on this installment of the franchise did was try to push what can be washed-up considering we’ve been through the original wave of Blair Witch, etcetera, etcetera, so, “Where can we go with it now?” was really everybody’s perspective that I could see, and certainly mine.
HF: What was the reason overdue getting the VHS tapes?
Maggie: This was washed-up considering we really wanted to requite this idea that the tape itself was haunted and so a lot of the things that we did were to communicate that feel. We’ll see if the regulars can finger that haunted quality. That’s why I was ownership and stockpiling fifty tapes off of eBay from some doctor.
HF: That would make the VHS tape finger like a weft itself. Was that the goal?
Both throne nod.
Maggie: Absolutely.
HF: In your own words. Can you tell our readers why they need to watch V/H/S 99?
Maggie: Again, I’m so thrilled to be playing in this legendary space and hopefully bringing something heady and variegated and really out there, pushing the boundaries of what can be washed-up in true V/H/S spirit. I’m just so excited for horror fans to lay vision on this and requite us their honest feels well-nigh it. That’s the wonderful thing well-nigh releasing anything in this genre: the polity is so incredible. And plane though the idea is to get in a theatre and scare the crap out of people, there’s such a joyous feeling well-nigh it. I think well-nigh stuff at midnight madness at Tiff with this, at Fantastic Fest, which is just a notoriously wonderful place for the genre. It’s a really heady schedule superiority and then to land on Shudder, which is the number one home for getting your pants scared off? It’s a really rocking time. Plane if you weren’t a conscious stuff in the late 90’s, there’s something here for every horror fan to enjoy and, truly, that is one of the gifts of stuff an scrapbook movie: there’s something here at the store for everybody.
Following its premiere at the Toronto International Mucosa Festival, V/H/S 99 went on to screen at this year’s Fantastic Fest. You can reservation V/H/S 99 next at the Brooklyn Horror Mucosa Festival on October 14, 2022.
V/H/S 99 will finally make its national release on October 20, 2022, when it streams exclusively on Shudder.
While you wait for V/H/S 99 to be released you can trammels out the Into the Dark episode, My Valentine directed by Maggie Levin, misogynist on Hulu.
The vendible Interview With V/H/S 99’s Verona Blue and Maggie Levin appeared originally on Horror Facts.
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