Black As Night director Maritte Lee Go explores the horrors of motherhood in the new “Tales From the Void” episode “Carry,” which premiered yesterday on SCREAMBOX.
The original series delivers six chilling tales adapted from the extremely popular r/No Sleep (18M subs) stories from series creator Francesco Loschiavo.
Two episodes premiere exclusively on SCREAMBOX every Sunday, through October 27. The episodes will also be available to buy or rent via electronic sell-through platforms the following Tuesday.
“Carry” adapts the r/NoSleep story “Pro-Life” by Grayson Grume, a story that struck a personal and timely chord for Maritte Lee Go. “‘Carry’ is about a young woman who gets married,” the filmmaker tells us. “She comes from a very, very religious family, with a religious new husband, and she becomes pregnant. The baby is diagnosed with anencephaly, which is a condition where the brain is exposed, and the skull is not present. So, she has to make a decision whether to keep it, and there is a huge danger to her own health and the baby’s health. That kind of battle. It’s this really, very personal story that comes as nightmares and terrors of what this baby could be and what it could be doing to her. It’s an extremely personal story and difficult story to tell, but it is very rewarding.“
It’s a story that hits close to home for many mothers, but it goes beyond pregnancy for Lee Go. She explains, “This particular story is extremely personal to me. I come from a very religious home as well and have gone through so many similar situations as many of my female friends have as well. It is a huge conversation. I think that the writer, Tricia Lee, did an amazing job of packing a very powerful story in such a short amount of time without sacrificing the emotional evolution that this character goes through. It was a huge challenge.”
Because “Carry“ deals with pregnancy and the anxieties of giving birth, it does pull from obvious cinematic influences. Lee Go walks us through her inspirations for her episode and how she brought them into a modern setting.
“We took a lot of inspiration from Rosemary’s Baby,“ she starts. “Obviously, that was a long time ago, decades ago. Another inspiration was ‘Servant,’ which plays on Apple, which is another baby horror and definitely speaks to the modern issues we’re dealing with today, with a throwback of Hitchcock themes. We did the same, tonally, taking from Watcher, making it feel like, yes, there is a portion of this old world that exists in our current world, especially in America right now, where all of these issues that I thought that we had solved that we are like women’s rights, body autonomy… and now everything’s being walked back.
“And so, something that we really loved pulling from is taking this couple who feels like they’re from the old school, they’re wearing traditional clothing, they’re getting married in a church, but then around them, we’ve got a society of people who have cell phones and brighter, bolder colors. Taking these Hitchcock types of visual cues but then placing them in this modern world and dealing with modern issues is something I really wanted to display because those are old-world issues. Let’s move on, guys.“
The filmmaker emphatically credits her lead actors for their performances dealing with the heavy subject matter and emotionally taxing roles.
Lee Go explains, “We cast Andi Hubick, who is an incredible actor. At first, I was like, ‘Wow, this audition is one of the most powerful auditions I have ever seen. Period. The most powerful.‘ We saw over 600 actors for this part, for the part of Katie. Their performance was so astonishing that I was bawling, and so were the producers. ‘This is Katie. This is Katie. I don’t care what happens. We have to have them as Katie.’ Then I thought, ‘I don’t know if they’re going to be able to pull it off every time,‘ because sometimes you can deliver a great audition but can’t consistently do it. But on the callbacks, they pulled it off again and even more on set. Andi was incredible. I mean, every scene is so emotional. They go through a huge emotional roller coaster. They’re a star, honestly. I cannot repeat that enough. I’m so excited for their career.”
Equally impressive is Hubick’s scene partner, who plays Katie’s religious husband. And it certainly sounds like he may be more of a terrifying threat than Katie’s pregnancy.
Lee Go previews, “We also cast Andrew Chown, who is terrifying. He’s amazing, and he has such an emotional breadth to go from this sweet, charming guy to this horrific husband. Just seeing the real Andrew Chown versus the actor, Norman, was incredible. Because he’d be delivering this terrifying line and then be like, ‘Is that okay?’ I’m like, ‘Are you kidding me? You’re so scary. Yes, that’s more than okay. Oh, my God.’ And their chemistry together is holy crap.
“So I’m really, really excited for people to see them together. It is out-of-this-world acting. Honestly, I just wish this was a feature. But I’m very impressed, and I think the whole crew could feel it. It just inspired everyone to work even harder and smarter together. So I’m very excited.”
“Tales from the Void: Carry” is now streaming on SCREAMBOX.
The post “Tales from the Void” – Director Maritte Lee Go Discusses the Pregnancy Terror of “Carry” [Interview] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.