Brian Duffield recently released his directorial debut with Spontaneous, a movie about kids randomly exploding and how those teenagers deal with the sci-fi horror they face during their time in high school. Although it was the first film he directed, Brian also contributed to some popular horror films over the years.
Duffield wrote the scripts for films such as The Babysitter and Underwater, which starred Kristen Stewart (Twilight), Jessica Henwick (Iron Fist), and T.J. Miller (Deadpool), and featured horrifying eldrich-like creatures at the bottom of the ocean.
We had the opportunity to speak exclusively with Brian, and made sure to ask how his experience with those popular films inspired Spontaneous and how his script-writing helped him land the opportunity to helm his recent movie.
To hear our conversation with Brian Duffield, click the podcast player below. Otherwise, scroll down for this portion of the transcript!
1m 25s Literary Joe: Is this your directorial debut as far as feature films go? I know you've written for many interesting sub-genre horror movies like The Babysitter and Underwater. I'm curious, what's different about your approach since this is the first one that you are directing?
1m 48s Brian Duffield: Yeah. That's a good question. I think, in Underwater, the budget of that one was so high that I knew I wasn't a contender, if I wanted to make money from it, I guess. And this one, it was the right budget point where I felt I had earned my stripes and been on enough productions that I can be faithfully entrusted with a couple of million dollars. It was also the kind of thing where I felt so specifically for me as soon as I got the book. And it felt like if someone was going to screw it up, it might as well start being my fault. I was ready. After having had a couple of producer credits so that I could finally step in and felt like I had earned the right to, you know, blow up a bunch of kids.
3m 3s Literary Joe: Spoiler alert: I think it's about the one hour mark where things start to go crazy. How did you pace that out when you were writing? How did you construct the plot of this film?
3m 25s Brian Duffield: It was spending enough time with those characters. It's 10 seconds into the movie where you know what the film is doing and what it's about. I wouldn't say I like long movies. I wanted to enjoy that first. And I know that's like a weird term for me.
I think 40 kids exploded, but you know, really getting to know Catherine's character and getting to know Charlie and Hailey's characters and envisioning this world where everything could be great and fun. With Katherine's character, she has a fascinating journey where she starts the movie off happy and confident. Then, all these things that have nothing to do with her happen to her, and that kicks the s**t out of her a little bit.
Her journey is figuring out how to pick herself up. It's that learning of how to deal with things that aren't in your control, which has become very apt in 2020. It was making sure that we were not montage-ing over some of the heavier things in that third act, but that we were also keeping it so that you could feel the heaviness that characters were dealing with and trying to figure out.
I wanted to respect that. And when that happens in the book. That was when I was like, "Oh, this is mine." The first scene in the book is the same as the first scene in the movie, such a grabber. And then Aaron, the author, showed what his hand was. I was like, "Oh, this is a lot more than just like - it's not the quirky kids exploding movie."
There are really heavy things going on under the hood of the car. It's making sure I didn't outstay my welcome, but I also wasn't glossing over something as life-changing as the stuff in the third act. So that was the most challenging part, but it was also the stuff that I enjoyed doing the most.
6m 5s Literary Joe: I definitely saw some parallels between Spontaneous and The Babysitter. I really liked the way you directed... I don't know if you would call them the montage scenes?
It reminded me of how similarly the perspective of Cole was shot, when he had anxiety attacks in The Babysitter. Did you pull any inspiration from the other movies that you worked to direct this?
6m 45s Brian Duffield: Politely? I will say no. I think it was the kind of thing Katherine meets Charlie's character really fast in the movie. And because we are a little rocket ship in terms of everything we have to do to make that relationship work as quickly as possible, it felt like him directly addressing both her and us. It was almost like, cinematically, the quickest way to understand that this was the nicest boy that ever lived kind of thing.
7m 45s Literary Joe: How did you approach that from a writing standpoint? When you're building that scene and have this character flipping back and forth from a third perspective to a first perspective, how did you map that out?
8m 0s Brian Duffield: It's because Katherine breaks the fourth wall a couple of times, and I wanted people not to worry that she would explode in their faces the whole movie. By breaking the fourth wall with her and having the voiceover, she interacts with the voiceover. And so that felt to me like subconsciously you're going along with it. If Katherine is by herself, she's not just going to explode in my face for no reason. That's how that originated.
And we even took out a couple of parts because people, they liked not knowing. They liked subconsciously knowing she was going to be okay. But there's a couple of points where it was her in the movie's future, and they didn't like the back and forth because they felt like they want to be nervous for her. Then with Charlie, knowing some of the stuff in the third act and knowing how I wanted to shoot that.
It was creating bookends to them where, when they first meet, and she's high, you know, it is this really intense, personal experience. Cause I wanted the drugs to be fun. Cause I feel like most movies go full requiem with drugs, and I wanted to do this special, especially in knowing where the third act was going, like this special moment where she was high, but this guy was great.
And we had this very special moment while she was high and trying to distract herself from the impending doom of the world. And became like, as an audience, we can trust that this boy was genuine in a way that we instantly were like, "Oh, I understand why she can fall for him so fast and so quickly." Because they meet early in the movie, it was two to three days later, they're dating and are very serious. It was one of those things where wanting to kind of gloss over how fast that relationship takes off a little bit.
Alternatively, have you not think about it because you get to know Charlie so well, so quickly because he narrates his feelings, both to Katherine and the audience. And I think also casting Charlie who radiates goodness and decency is such an easy cheat for me as a director where you just put the camera on him. You're like - my wife adores Charlie, and she's always like, "I wish he was the boy I liked it when I was in high school instead of the bad boys. Charlie is where it's at."
*This interview is edited for clarity and audio is hosted by cosplay actress Darth Lexii.*
Get ready for the most outrageous coming-of-age love story about growing up…and blowing up! When students in their high school begin inexplicably exploding (literally…), seniors Mara (Katherine Langford) and Dylan (Charlie Plummer) struggle to survive in a world where each moment may be their last. As unexpected romance blossoms between them, Mara and Dylan discover that they can finally start living for today when tomorrow is no longer promised!
Spontaneous is now in theaters and will get a home release tomorrow!