Buzzkill, the beautiful, drunk lovechild between Tubi, director Jem Garrard, and writer Suzanne Keilly, is as effervescent a slasher as they come. And it’s going to be huge. Within hours of posting the trailer online, Buzzkill racked up an impressive 1,000,000+ views. For all the Bubble Pop Electric horror fans out there, Buzzkill is the real deal, a significant turning point in late-stage slasher mayhem. Naturally, I had to sit down with the two minds behind Tubi’s latest original offering to see how this sloshy slasher came to be.

“So the executive at Tubi, Josh Van Houdt, came to me and said, ‘Drunk Final Girl, what’s that movie?’ And so I went and I thought about it, and at first I was thinking The Hangover. So I sort of pitched it to him as the horror comedy Hangover, but horror hangover. And then as I started to think about it… Drunk Final Girl is a great character,” writer Suzanne Keilly (Slumber Party Massacre) shared. She concedes, however, that “Drunk Final Girl” is a moment, but not a fully dimensional protagonist. “‘What kind of person is in that role and what kind of character that is?'” She asked herself. “And then I slowly started to put that together. I don’t know if you can see it behind me (in reference to a gorgeous poster), but Black Christmas was a big inspiration for me.“

So, drunk final girl (Siena Agudong as Nora, an absolute knockout in the role) came to be. “This was my love letter to Barb (Margot Kidder, the idea that the party girl has real value,” Keilly shares. Still, it’s a tricky tonal balance, managing a lead who’s not only drunk the entire film, but balancing the comedy and horror together, ensuring the two genres, as disparate as they might seem, augment the other rather than erode them. “As a director, I really handle them the same way,” Jem Garrard shares.

They add, “It’s so much about timing and framing and sound and the buildup to this reveal. For both of them, you’re sort of manipulating anticipation and waiting for that payoff. And so as a director, when I approach it, they’re very similar things. I think a scream and a laugh are related. They’re both these sort of involuntary reactions… I think horror and comedy are such a communal genre. They’re best watched with friends. And so when it’s both, when you have both, it’s just so fun to experience that with an audience. And so that’s what we went into Buzzkill trying to do.”

Both Garrard and Keilly credit Agudong for really making it work. “I think that’s a testament to Siena,” Keilly shares, ” who was very thoughtful about it.” Garrard adds, “She’s (Agudong) just an incredible actress, but it is really hard to act drunk. It really is without it falling into feeling gimmicky. And she just really nailed it. And I think because there’s so much heart and warmth to the character and you love her, and she really, really nailed all those nuances and those idiosyncrasies.”

And as to how Buzzkill subverts the slasher formula? “I think with slashers, it’s sort of like we’re not trying to reinvent the genre. And that’s the great thing with slashers and I think why audiences love them is because we know the rules. We know there’s a killer, we know there’s a body count, we know we’re going to get some blood and some kills. And the fun is that we know those rules,” Keilly shares. And she’d know, having scripted some of the most wicked slashers of our generation. And Garrard, for their part, had a solid, classic slasher bible to work with. “I sent to Siena who was new to the slasher genre. So I told her: Black Christmas, I told her to watch the Scream franchise, and then some sort of more modern day ones like Happy Death Day and Ready or Not.”

We wrap our chat with recommendations, a sort of shot/chaser approach. Once you’ve seen Buzzkill, how do you sober up? For Garrard, it’s Black Christmas. If you get it, you get it. Keilly’s unconventional pick also makes perfect sense: In a Violent Nature. Oh, and these two– whoever the powers that be are– would make an excellent duo to helm a Chopping Mall remake. I’m manifesting it now.

Buzzkill will give you the best buzz of the Halloween season. Watch it streaming on Terror on Tubi September 25.

Tags:Buzzkill Jem Garrard Suzanne Keilly tubi

Categorized:Interviews Sponsored