What Keeps You Alive screened at this weekend’s Arrow Video Frightfest and was easily one of our favourites. Earning top marks from yours truly, the movie is smart, sharp thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat. It stars rising genre star Brittany Allen as one half of a couple whose anniversary trip away unravels into a fight for survival.
The film sees a re-team between Brittany and her director of the equally brilliant It Stains the Sand Red, Colin Minihan. What Keeps You Alive marks their third collaboration (the first being Extraterrestrial) together. Ahead of the Frightfest screening we sat down with the pair to get the full lowdown on their new movie.
You guys have been working together on projects for a number of years now, what do you enjoy most about working together?
Brittany Allen: There are a lot of things I enjoy about collaborating with Colin. One of the most important things is that I respect him as an artist. I respect his vision, and I trust him. I know that he’s not only looking to make the best thing that’s going on in his mind, but he’s also looking to help me access my best. He knows me well enough and he’s seen me at my best and short of that. He’s able to articulate it when I’m not quite hitting the mark in both my acting and my music. I appreciate that honesty. I think we’ve got into a place where now we are better at communicating, both from whoever is receiving it, we’re less likely to take things personally as maybe you do when you’re in a relationship with somebody and they give you advice. Also in giving constructive criticism. It’s a pretty special thing. We don’t have kids, we’ve been together for 5 years and I think we look at our films as our babies. Whether or not that’s a healthy thing to do is yet to be decided, but it works for us. We’re both so passionate about our art. Being able to share that with your partner is a really special thing, and it brings us closer (to Colin).
Colin Minihan: That was awesome!
Brittany Allen and Colin Minihan Interview for What Keeps You Alive
Brittany, your character Jules is vastly different to Molly (Brittany’s character in It Stains the Sand Red) in both appearance and personalities how did you go about creating her?
BA: I love that they are so different, and we are actively trying to think what is the next thing that isn’t something I’ve done before. A lot of it is in the writing, so it’s about facilitating what’s there. A big part of building the character is in establishing the look and that’s a process that happens in the lead-up to the shoot. In both cases I was the one who did a lot of the shopping, but it would be me taking photographs and sending them to Colin, getting feedback and getting closer and closer.
CM: You are were shaping a character from almost the outside in a way.
BA: Yeah
CM: What she looks like, how she presents herself to the world. In the case of Molly obviously, very different, but with Jules she’s presenting this very strong masculine…
BA: Almost anti-establishment.
CM: Yeah very punk rock, very grunge. I kept using the words 90’s grunge stylistically. I kept telling Brittany to speak from a lower place in her voice. To own the room more, be more confident. [To Brittany] Maybe because you’re such a gentle person that Molly is nowhere near who you are, and neither is this character. That’s the great thing about Brit. I think she’s such a fantastic character actor that she’s able to completely transform her personality depending on the role. And I get the opportunity, living with Brit, seeing her do a lot of audition tapes. Actors don’t only audition in the room, they do self tapes. I’ll help Brit sometimes by filming the self tape for her, and I’ll be able to see all of these unique facets of her and sides of her playing all sorts of different characters all of the time. I’m constantly reminded, ‘oh wow, you can be that’, it really informed and excites me creatively to see you play someone totally different than who you are on a day to day. But do it with such a convincing way about you that you’re channelling that. So I’m able to tailor a character for your strength as an actor, which I feel I did in both It Stains the Sand Red and What Keeps You Alive.
Brittany Allen and Colin Minihan Interview for What Keeps You Alive
I loved how in It Stains The Sand Red the landscape and everything was death, but Molly’s trying to bring her relationship’s alive. In What Keeps You Alive it’s the opposite the landscape is alive, but Jules’ relationship is dying. Was that an intentional choice to do something so different?
CM: I think the environment is just a by-product of the script itself. The desert, just from a production stand point, I found the desert to be the far more gruelling environment to shoot a movie in. This was more pleasant even though it had its challenges as well. We shot actually at the height of what is called black fly season in Muskoka, Ontario, which is where we shot the movie. For the first two weeks pretty much, we’re spraying bug spray in front of the lens to keep the bugs out of the lens, because they’re covering it! Brit and Hannah [Emily Anderson] are both wearing nets, as well as the rest of the crew, in between takes to not get bitten by these annoying black flies. So that was a challenge, that was psychologically challenging, you’re swatting off these flies and you’re trying to get into character.
Whereas the desert is like you’re… well first off you’d think with It Stains the Sand Red it was boiling hot when we made it, but it was actually freezing cold. The challenge was actually how to play the scene and not show she was freezing for Brit in a lot of ways. The environment was much harder in the desert than it was here, but this still had its unique set of challenges as well.
BA: Yeah, but I think that Colin thrives on challenges, and is very ambitious and distinct in the world that you want to create with your films. You don’t want to repeat yourself so you’re always finding a completely new texture to work in.
CM: I’m often inspired by where I’m living.
BA: Yeah.
CM: So when I wrote It Stains I was living in LA and I was going out to the desert a lot, like Death Valley and stuff. Tinkering with ideas that could be explored in that environment. Then with What Keeps You Alive it was actually a cottage town where Brit grew-up visiting her grandma’s cottage every summer. I remember five years ago, when we started dating, I went out there and one of the first things I said was ‘I want to make a movie out here’. There’s just something about the landscape that you know that it presents such beauty and such production value, and also the environment is a character in both those films.
Brittany, you also provide the music for this film, is that something that you’ve always wanted to do and how did you get involved?
BA: I never thought that I would score a film. Music has always been a part of my life, I sing a lot and I used to write some original music years ago, but it’s been in the last couple of years that I have really set my mind to learning music production and writing. I’m new to releasing my music into the world. Colin is one of the few people who has witnessed this progression and this creative output. Both of us I think realised that I might be getting close to being capable of taking on a project like this, so once Colin finished the first cut of the film I tried my hand at a couple of scenes. It turned out to be a really natural fit. It was the most I’ve ever been challenged creatively, and in terms of committing to a job, for such a long period of time. It really did feel like ‘oh wow I think I’ve stumbled onto something that I think I have a knack for, and I would like to do more of’. It was a learning curve, but again it came naturally.
Brittany Allen and Colin Minihan Interview for What Keeps You Alive
One of my favourite sequences in What Keeps You Alive is the montage set to Moonlight Sonata with the UV light, where did that idea come from?
CM: Thank you.
BA: Colin stole that idea from me, (laughs) just kidding. Just kidding, it’s all him.
CM: I don’t know. The idea of the cathartic act of cleaning-up bloody splatter wounds from your victims, and doing it so peacefully while inter-cutting her playing the piano to that song, (chuckles) I just don’t know where it came from. When I was writing it I knew I wanted to drop a few Beethoven tracks in the film, and I have always wanted to use the Moonlight Sonata because it’s just such a dark and f-ed up piece of music that triggers something in me emotionally that I felt resonated with the idea of a psychopath. Also it has this delicateness to it that starts to reveal maybe the cracks in her character. That’s why the last key that she plays is out of tune. It’s kinda like her, as perfectly planned and executed as what she just did is, there’s still flaws to be shown in there.
BA: And she breaks the fourth wall in that, at the end of that she stares directly into the lens.
CM: Very much a big moment in the film.
What will audiences get by choosing to watch What Keeps You Alive?
CM: I feel like this movie is just a shocking, tightly woven thriller, that dabbles in horror and offers a unique take at the psychopath sub-genre. I think that people will enjoy its darkness, but also fall in love with the characters in the film, and hopefully relate to them and root for them, and have a lot of fun doing so.
BA: I second that.
Brittany Allen and Colin Minihan Interview for What Keeps You Alive
What’s next for the both of you?
BA: I’m just finishing-up working on a new show for Amazon called The Boys. It’s got the same team behind it that did the TV show Preacher on AMC. It’s a dark satirical look at superheroes and celebrity culture. It’s been a really fun project to be part of. I’m excited for that one to come out. Then I’m also going to be in Nicholas McCarthy’s new film called The Prodigy opposite Taylor Schilling. I think that’ll be coming out probably around the same time. Sometime in the new year for both of those projects.
CM: I just wrapped production on a movie that I co-wrote and produced called Z, right now that is the working title. It’s about an eight year old boy who develops an imaginary friend that may not be so imaginary after all. It’s directed by Brandon Christensen who I worked together on the movie Still Born with. We just finished shooting that, and I’m excited to begin post production on it.
What Keeps You Alive is currently touring the UK film festival scene, and can next be caught in Nottingham at Mayhem Film Festival. It’s available to own in the US now.
