From legendary director Chuck Russell (A Nightmare on Elm Street 3, The Mask), Witchboard resurrects the '80s horror classic with a chilling new vision. In present-day New Orleans, a cursed artefact unleashes a vengeful witch, drawing a young couple into a deadly spiral of possession, temptation, and occult terror.
Madison Iseman leads a cast which includes Aaron Dominguez, Melanie Jarnson, Charlie Tahan, Antonia Desplat, and Jamie Campbell Bower, and we recently sat down with the Jumanji and Goosebumps star to discuss her role as Emily.
"I've always loved the genre. I've always been a huge horror fan, ever since I was young," she tells us in the video below. "Anytime horror comes across my desk, I'm always a bit excited. For me, though, the biggest pull is that I've always been the biggest Chuck Russell fan. Nightmare on Elm Street, Dream Warriors, The Blob...he's a legend. I was very excited."
There's a duality to Emily in Witchboard (we can't say any more for fear of giving too much away), and that was a big draw for Iseman when the project first came her way.
"It's everything she experiences from the beginning to the end, there's a lot to play [with]," the actor explained. "The whole thing got me very excited...she goes through a full spectrum of emotions. You see her grounded, light, and soft at the beginning, you see her get dragged to the depths, and then as a completely different person. I had a lot to play with."
One of the best things about Witchboard is that it's packed full of practical effects. There's a lot of blood, but Russell also shoots some wild scenes that are best described as "nightmare-inducing." After taking us through one of those (it involves hands rising out of a bed to pull at Emily), Iseman took us through one of her favourite sequences.
"You brought up Goosebumps, but that whole movie, we pretty much just acted to tennis balls because so much of it was CGI. That comes with its own challenges, but I would much rather get dirty and do the blood," she shared. "My favourite was the sequence where I'm in the bathtub, and I get pulled down."
"They built that rig, and a bathroom on top of a 15-foot tank. I was standing on a wooden beam, and our stunt performers, their hands would come up and grab my legs, and then when we did the drop, the beam would open and I would be sucked down into the tank. Most of what you're seeing, we pulled off in person," Iseman added.
As well as revealing what she loves about the horror genre (along with more fascinating behind-the-scenes insights that you can learn more about by watching the full interview), Iseman addressed the status of a third Jumanji movie.
Jumanji: The Next Level was released in 2019, and it was a box office hit, grossing over $800 million worldwide. However, work on a threequel has been progressing slowly, though it now sounds like something might be happening.
"My lips are sealed! I don't know, we'll have to wait and see, but there's been some rumblings," Iseman teased. "That'll all I can say right now..."
Witchboard arrives in theaters on August 15.