INTERVIEW: Whatever you do, don’t touch the ‘Ick’
Photo: Ick stars Mena Suvari and Brandon Routh. Photo courtesy of Fathom Entertainment / Provided by 42 West with permission.
Director Joseph Kahn is trying to capture the energy and nostalgia of old-time creature features with his latest movie, Ick, now playing in movie theaters in New York City and Los Angeles, and soon to be released nationwide courtesy of Fathom Entertainment. The film stars Brandon Routh, Malina Weissman and Mena Suvari, and serves as both an homage to the sub-genre and a movie that charts a new path forward.
In the film, the title character, the “ick” itself, has been growing in nooks and crannies for years, but many people don’t pay it much mind, according to press notes. The only concerned citizens who care are Hank (Routh), a high school science teacher, and Grace (Weissman), one of his students. It’s up to them, along with Grace’s mother (Suvari), to save the day and teach the world about the mayhem of the “ick.”
Kahn co-wrote the script with Samuel Laskey and Dan Koontz.
“It was Daniel first,” Kahn said in a recent Zoom interview. “He did all the heavy lifting, and I just reached out to him with kind of 50 percent of the idea done about this idea of doing my own creature feature, kind of a modern take on The Blob or films like that. We just went into it. I think the biggest trick when we started is why make this movie? What is it going to be about? What’s the purpose of this thing, and how is it different from every other thing that’s out there? But one of the first things we kind of figured out is that … there are no creature features. People are not making new creature features. It’s a genre that people love, but for some reason isn’t getting made.”
The reason creature features aren’t getting made like they used to, in Kahn’s opinion, is because the Hollywood business model doesn’t allow for any alternate ideas.
“Horror is being dominated by a very specific brand of executives, frankly,” he said. “What do a lot of these young executives know? They know dinner parties. They know corporate retreats. … So if you look at all these horror films, they’re usually these films that are less about creatures and more about interpersonal relationships. And the fear is not death, but the fear is being exposed.”
With this theory in mind, many horror movies nowadays are adult-oriented, and there isn’t a space for teenagers who are looking to be scared on their own level. Kahn wishes there were more Amblin-esque, Gremlins-type films that allowed younger people and their families to enjoy a fright or two.
“They’re all 25 and up, so I just think people are forgetting about the teenagers,” the director said. “The teenagers are left to fend for themselves. They’ve got to watch adult content like Terrifier or whatever, and they’re not getting any starter horror. And I wanted to make something for the kid in me. I wanted to make something for that film fan that is 15 years old that doesn’t have to be scarred and doesn’t have to deal with the politics of being adult.”
Kahn proudly said that he’s not afraid of the PG-13 horror film, and he embraces that rating. His stories don’t need to have a knife going through someone’s throat. As an example of what he means, he looked back at a classic in the horror genre.
“The funny thing is when you watch the original Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock did that whole shower scene and not one piece of penetration,” he said. “Psycho II comes along, and poor Vera Miles, they actually show the knife going through her throat through her head. I thought, OK, that cheapened Psycho. You don’t need to do that, and so I wanted to play with the rules of PG-13 and limit myself and explore it.”
Kahn added: “Obviously I’m also not going for the scariest movie of all time. I want this to be more of a thrill ride. Monster movies, when I remember them as a kid, were not that scary. That was not the intent. It was the exhilaration of the mysterious. It was the fun of seeing the monster and how you react to the monster. The reaction was just as good as the monster itself.”
Interestingly, in Ick, the reaction to the monster is: who cares. The world in the film looks at the growing substance and doesn’t see much of a threat. People are too obsessed with their own lives and luxuries that they don’t take into consideration the greater good. That is, until it becomes a hazard to their health.
“I’m originally from a smaller town in Texas,” said Kahn, whose other films include Torque and Bodied. “That’s what I know. … I think the vast majority of the world lives much smaller lives, and they’re just as interesting as the big ones. More importantly, I wanted to tell a story about aging.”
This “aging” angle is what sets Ick apart from other horror fare, and Kahn is uniquely qualified to explore such a topic. He has another career as a music video director, and he has worked with a bunch of bands and seen first hand how various generations of fans react to cultural content. In fact, he called in some favors and got Paramore, Blink 182 and American Rejects on the soundtrack.
“I want to explore Millennials getting old,” he said. “I wanted to see what it’s like for a Millennial to face their own aging, and part of growing old is knowing that you didn’t accomplish everything in your life. That is natural. We all think that we’re going to have these phenomenal lives when we’re young, and we’re going to achieve everything we want, but often we don’t. But as an older person … one of the things that you come to grips with is that’s OK. Life dealt you a different set of cards, but embracing those new cards is part of enjoying your life and growing older and accepting your age. So, on one level, I want Millennials to feel old watching this movie, but on the other hand, I want them to feel good.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Ick, directed and co-written by Joseph Kahn, is now playing in movie theaters. Click here for more information.
