This week on Certified Forgotten the Matts are joined by filmmaker Brad McHargue of Denver’s Suburban Ghost. McHargue first appeared on the podcast in 2019 for a discussion around the atmospheric haunting film, The Last Will & Testament of Rosalind Leigh. For his second appearance, McHargue brings another film that is heavy on tone in Trevor Juras’s The Interior.
Here’s the plot synopsis, courtesy of The Interior’s website:
After receiving a distressing medical diagnosis, a listless young man flees the crushing tedium of Toronto city life, trading it all for untamed wilderness and solitude. He retreats further and further into the woods only to gradually find himself the target of increasingly inexplicable and disturbing manifestations, which point to a frightening truth: he is not alone. Some one or some thing is pursuing him into The Interior.
What follows is a wide-ranging conversation about independent filmmaking, the important of sound in horror films, and why microbudget horror films will always get a fair shake from the Certified Forgotten crew. For those looking to skip ahead to specific points in the conversation, here’s a quick breakdown of the episode, including our conversations about Giving Up the Ghost, McHargue’s award-winning short feature with partner Becky Sayers.
4:30 — Giving up the Ghost Backstory
14:00 — The hardest review to write: forgettable movies
16:00 — Marketing yourself as an indie filmmaker
22:20 — Submitting your short to a fest
39:15 — Movie talk
48:20 — Talking about our urban legends, Donato ghost story
52:30 — Next level cinematography in The Interior
59:25 — Soundscapes from Hell, and how a soundtrack drives tone
1:03:12 — A24 Horror before A24
1:09:08 — A naked film driven by passion
1:11:50 — How does The Interior shake its forgotten label?
You can stream The Interior for free on TubiTV. To learn more about the filmmaking process behind The Interior, read Screen Anarchy's interview with Juras.
