A man in the midst of trying to rebuild his family finds himself in a nightmarish fight for survival inSuccubus. The horror movie hails from writer/director R.J. Daniel Hanna, best known for previously helming the Adina Porter and Uzo Aduba-starringMiss Virginia, as well as the Matthew Modine-starring sports dramaHard Milesand working as an editor on a variety of other titles, including the 2020 horror-thrillerWhat Lies Below, led byThe Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Powerstar Ema Horvath.
Succubuscenters on Chris, a seemingly mild-mannered father currently working through a trial separation from his wife as he tries to salvage their marriage. From the advice of Eddie, his jock-like best friend, Chris creates a profile on a dating website and matches with a woman named Adra, who claims to be in trouble while also serving as an ear for him to vent about his troubles. As their connection grows, though, Chris is contacted by Dr. Orion Zephyr, an astrophysicist who warns of Adra being dangerous, and races to get to Chris before it’s too late.
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Brendan Bradley and Rachel Cook lead theSuccubuscast as Chris and Adra, alongsideLove & Death’s Olivia Grace Applegate as Chris' wife Sharon,What/If’s Derek Smith as Eddie andHellboy’s Ron Perlmanas Zephyr. Featuring a unique blend of screenlife storytelling in the vein ofUnfriendedwith haunting imagery and strong performances, the movie marks another exciting win for the indie horror genre.
In honor of the movie’s release,Screen Rantinterviewed Brendan Bradley and Rachel Cook to discussSuccubus, the dark evolution of their characters, getting to work with Ron Perlman in the film, the unique challenge of filming via cell phones and computer cameras and building a trust with each other and the rest of the crew for the film’s more intimate sequences.
Cook Was Curious To “Play In My Darkness”
Screen Rant: I watchedSuccubusearlier today, and it was quite the blast from start to finish. It was really innovative and had so many twists and turns. Rachel, I’d like to start with you, and then Brendan, what was it about R.J.’s script and your characters that really sparked your interest to be a part of it?
Rachel Cook: Yeah, I think I was really at a time in my life where I was curious to kind of play in my darkness, and the script definitely was going to give me the opportunity to do that. Then also, everyone’s so amazing that was working on it. I really wanted to be a part of it.
Brendan Bradley: I was actually the lead in Daniel’s thesis at USC, and we’ve stayed in touch over the years. He wrote the film, or the first draft of the film, during the pandemic, and was trying to figure out whether that diagetic in-world cameras of phones and laptops and baby monitors would even work. So, he invited me over to the house, and he would rewrite a scene, and we’d workshop it like a play. He’d shoot some stuff, cut it together, see what works, see what didn’t. Invite me back a couple weeks later, and I kind of slowly stepped into the realm and the character of Chris over Daniel’s writing process, really.
Cook’s Background In Social Media & Modeling Benefitted The Movie’s Unique Filming
Bradley Found It To Be A “Return, Almost, To Classical Cinema”
I love the way the movie really does play with i- universe cameras, as well as an actual floating camera, it really melds together very well. Since so much of this film is both of you sitting in front of either a computer screen or an iPhone screen and having to act, what is that like, trying to really embody your character at that moment as they’re having a conversation via the screen?
Rachel Cook: Yeah, I think for me, I primarily have a social media and modeling background, so I’m really used to filming myself, vlogging, or whatever it might be, so I think that that made it a little bit easier for me. There is obviously the added components of memorizing my lines and being in front of a bunch of other people, all of those things were added challenges. But yeah, I think it was such a cool way to tell this particular story, and it looks so cool on screen.
Brendan Bradley: Yeah, for me, it’s really that physicality and that return, almost, to classical cinema, where it’s really filming theater. It’s these long, single takes. The first 20 pages of the script is just me with a phone and a laptop and the baby monitor, choreographed through the entire house, kind of like I’m going through a haunted house as a play in one go. We did that two times so that the light would actually change behind me in real time throughout Chris' journey.
And then, similarly, once we got done puppeting these phone cameras, Rachel and I were actually holding the Alexa at certain moments during our intimacy scenes to, again, put that screen in between us. And the idea of kind of performing that red void scene in one go, 16 pages like a one-act play, and then picking it off from different areas, really let me live and immerse myself in the world of Chris, and made the cinematography and the lens of Chris not just the lens of the character, but I was actually physically motivating the lens of the storytelling.
“…it did evolve so much.”
Rachel, I’d love to turn to you next. So, Adra’s voice is such a very key component of her character, as she starts to regain her power, it becomes louder, it becomes more confident. I’d love to hear what it was like finding her voice from beginning to end throughout this production.
Rachel Cook: Yeah, that was an interesting process, because it did evolve so much. And I think it evolved as she’s gaining strength, but also as she’s deciding how she wants to attempt to manipulate Chris. So, sometimes, she’s a little bit more sweet and innocent, and obviously, other times, as he’s kind of getting away from her, she’s pissed off, and she might become a little bit more sassy. So, there’s a lot of ways that I got to play with the voice, and also a lot of breathing. We did a lot of breathing in the ADR, which I think really added to the whole creepiness of it. So yeah, it was really fun.
I’d also love to hear what it was like physically. Obviously, you’re trying to seduce him, but what was it like via your face, as well as via your body, really trying to harness those emotions as you’re trying to really sell this story to Chris?
Rachel Cook: Yeah, it’s kind of the same thing, there was an evolution in how I was choosing to use and move my body and show it on the camera. She’s very shy and like, “Come save me and help me.” She’s kind of in this shell at first, and by the end, she’s full-power mode, owning her s–t, and, yeah, that changes a lot throughout the performance.
Chris & Adra’s First Scene Was “The Real Key” For Bradley To Find His Character
“He’s ultimately a character that just has immense loneliness and immense shame…”
Brendan, I’ll turn back to you next. You talked a little bit about embodying Chris, and I think one of the most powerful aspects of his character is his trying to repair his relationship with his wife. What was it like not only getting to that part of his heart, but also working with Olivia to really nail that dynamic, again, via the screen?
Brendan Bradley: Absolutely, I think the real key into Chris' character is that first scene with Adra where they FaceTime for the very first time, and he just wants someone to talk to. He’s ultimately a character that just has immense loneliness and immense shame, and I think that that gets sprinkled across. What’s heartbreaking is there’s so many opportunities for Chris to connect with the people who are already in his life — his mom, his friend and Sharon, his wife. And I think what was beautiful and somewhat method is that, because we shot the thing in 15 days‚ hyper-fast, intense filming, we were doing these long takes.
I’m so ingrained in Chris of trying to map out, “Where am I setting down phones? What are the lines? What are these long sections?” In some ways, having Olivia and Derek as my wife and my best friend on set with me, as a performer, kind of broke me out of like, “Hey, let’s go get dinner. Hey, we’re in Montana. We should see pretty things.” In some ways, building and feeding into those relationships and those proper human connections. I think, ultimately, the whole storytelling, both in the storytelling itself of the film, but also the narrative, is this disjointedness and that choice between the digital self and the physical self.
Cook Was All In On The Succubus Prosthetics (Even If They Disturbed Her)
“It took a good six hours of prosthetics…”
So, in talking about her full-power mode, I won’t go too far into spoilers, but we do get to see her Succubus form. I’d love to hear, was that actually you in all of that makeup and prosthetics, and if so, what was it like getting to have that put all on you and then see that in the mirror?
Rachel Cook: Yeah, it was me. It took a good six hours of prosthetics and everything. It took a while, but it was done so well that I looked in the mirror and was actually a little freaked out. [Chuckles] I thought maybe I was a little bit evil, until I looked in the mirror, and I was like, “No, this doesn’t really feel like me at all.” But yeah, it was really fun. And also, I was definitely ready to get it off by the end of the day.
Did you find that that sort of helped fuel your performance of her being in full-power mode? Or did you already feel that, through the evolution of the shoot, you were ready, and you felt that within her?
Rachel Cook: Yeah, I think that it was a cool way to get to embody it. But, I also felt like, just in human form, there’s a lot more that I can do to almost evoke that kind of evilness, just getting to use my own physical appearance to do that. When you’re a demon, that kind of is what it is, that is the evilness.
Chris' Stoic Scenes Were Bradley’s “Easiest Days” (Especially When Perlman Was There)
“…was certainly an acting challenge all on its own.”
Brendan, I’ll turn back to you. Chris also has some interesting moments in that you have to just sit there stoically for long stretches of time. And that sounds easy, but I’m sure it’s not from an acting perspective, especially as you have to let tears roll down during some heartbreaking scenes. What is that like for you, on the performance side, having to capture these very different layers and actions while being so stoic?
Brendan Bradley: In some ways, because filming was so intense on the other side, those were my easiest days where I was like, “Oh, I just sit in the chair and I zone out. Great.” But then, of course, Ron’s in those scenes with me, and I won’t give any spoilers, but he is doing quite a few things to me, and so having him rough me up a little bit while I have to maintain a comatose stare was certainly an acting challenge all on its own.
Ron Perlman is also a legend in the industry. Was it hard for you, as maybe a fan of his, to also have to sit there and not directly act with him more as he’s giving this very — not menacing, but certainly not nice — powerful performance?
Brendan Bradley: It was a joy working in all of his scenes. I think that my favorite part of working with Ron is that I’m kind of in the background, hidden in the scene, or behind camera for all of his phone scenes with me. So, that was my real opportunity to get to actually perform opposite Ron. And everybody’s first day on set was actually using a phone or using a device, so Ron’s first day on set, he walked into the baby’s room with the crib and the baby monitor and looked around and went, “Where the F is the camera?”
Dan had to run in to go, “This is a real movie, there is a real camera, we’re doing this weird thing first.” So, watching Ron really adapt to the circumstances and bring his performance — again, no spoilers, but he opens the movie in such a strong, dynamic way that really shows his gravitas as a performer, and what makes Ron Ron.
Bradley & Cook Felt Very Safe On Set During The Movie’s Intimate Scenes
“…Daniel and everyone on set were constantly checking in with me…”
So, you both mentioned it a little earlier, and I’d love to hear from you both, there are quite a few intimate scenes, not only between each other, but also individually, whether it’s bathing in blood, as we see at one point, or actual intercourse. What was it like working with each other, as well as with the director, to really have that trust and feel that safety of allowing yourself to be this vulnerable during production?
Rachel Cook: Yeah, the bathing in blood scene, honestly, is one of my favorite. [Chuckles] It was very cold, but Daniel and everyone on set were constantly checking in with me and making sure that everything was good, and I felt very cared for in that sense. I felt like I could really just focus on the scene and getting done what we needed to get done. We were also, in those more intimate scenes, having a massive camera between us that was so much more just about directing my energy into the camera a lot of times. And yeah, Brendan is a great scene partner. I couldn’t have asked for anyone else, it was really nice.
Brendan Bradley: Definitely, intimacy is always like a dance or like fight choreography, it’s just so refined, but then, also, you add into that the clunkiness of having to motivate camera and be with the camera, and sometimes actually moving the camera. So, it really did become almost mechanical in so many ways. I really learned so much watching Rachel in her scenes, where she’s getting to motivate camera in her seduction to the phone, and to Chris online, and choosing that it’s not just a front-and-center delivery, it’s her then choosing what she reveals when.
I think so much about this film, in having Rachel in the prosthetics, and then Rachel doing her creature embodiment and her natural embodiment, you’re getting to choose to focus on what, and I think that’s what’s really beautiful about the movie overall, is that there’s this purposefulness to when we’re choosing to see what wins.
Cook & Bradley Are Thrilled To Bring A “Really Beautiful” Original Film To Audiences
“…of course, there’s potentially lessons to be taken from the film.”
I see I’m almost out of time, so before I let both of you go, I’d love to hear what is one of the big things you’re really excited for audiences to take away, be it the overall atmosphere, be it the performances, be it the blood that we see as the film goes on?
Rachel Cook: I think, just for me, watching it as a whole, it’s honestly just really beautiful, and it’s really fun I was just hooked the entire time. So I think, of course, there’s potentially lessons to be taken from the film. Be careful about our actions online. But I really just hope that people have a good time watching it and just appreciate what everyone did.
Brendan Bradley: For me, I think we hear the kind of commiserating these days of, “No one makes anything original anymore. Everything’s the same.” And I think this is such a unique way to tell a story, and everything that Daniel and Jimmy and the ensemble brought to this is such a weird, cool indie film, and there really is nothing else like it. So, I think, in many ways, just getting to plant that flag of trying something really funky and new.
AboutSuccubus
SUCCUBUS follows a young father going through a marital separation, joins a dating app, and matches with a beautiful but mysterious young woman…whose powers of seduction and manipulation entangle him in a mystery more horrifying than he could have ever imagined.
Coached by his over-sexed friend Eddie, Chris, a new father, joins the StarCrossed dating app “just to see what’s out there,” and eventually comes to the conclusion he should probably rekindle things with his estranged wife. But when he matches with Adra, a seductive young woman with a mysterious past, his curiosity gets the better of him, and he finds himself getting sucked into her world even as his own life falls apart. As Chris, Eddie, and Adra’s stalker, Dr. Zephyr circles her, Adra’s power grows, finally revealing her harrowing true nature.
Succubusis now available on digital platforms and DVD!
Succubus
Cast
A new father, overwhelmed by fatigue and a troubled marriage, uses a dating app to escape. After swiping right, he finds himself interacting with what appears to be an inhuman presence.
