Neil Labute would have been at the 2022 Fantasia International Film Festival had he not come down with COVID a few days before flying in from New York. Instead, he left us a pre-recorded message before his new film, “House of Darkness,” telling us he hoped we enjoyed it and informing us that most of the people we were sitting around likely also had COVID.
Since the early ’90s, LaBute was sparking controversy at playhouses before adapting his premiere play “In the Company of Men” in 1997. After following it up with “Your Friends and Neighbours,” critics had difficulty deciding if he was a misogynist or a misanthrope. But those who appreciated the acidity recognized the similarities to David Mamet, one of his favorite playwrights. Arguably, fans of LaBute have fared better than those who still have to defend Mamet whenever he pops into FOX News to warn of the dangers of hiring male teachers.
The self-described “chronicler of men struggling to become men, but mostly remaining boys” first turned to horror in 2006 with his universally-panned remake of Robin Hardy’s “The Wicker Man.” His new film is positively LaButian.
“House of Darkness” stars Justin Long as a young man taking a girl (Kate Bosworth) home from a bar. Only her home is a dark, abandoned mansion, and though danger is imminent, sex is still possible. Being a LaBute man, he stays.
“House of Darkness” also turned out to be the “unnamed project” in the press Long and Bosworth were shooting when they started dating. I sat down with LaBute to talk about his new film, horror, “The Wicker Man,” Elvis Costello, and what technically counts as a punch onscreen.
KENNY HEDGES: How are you feeling, sir?
NEIL LABUTE: I seem to be COVID-free at the moment. Yeah, I tested negative. So I’m back in action.
KH: I’m glad to hear it. I actually wanted to start somewhere with some common ground. I think we have some, I think we’re both massive Elvis Costello fans.
NL: Oh, well, if you are a massive one, then yes, there are two of us. Cause I’m pretty massive.
KH: That leads me to think about music in your films, particularly in “House of Darkness,” and we’ll get to “The Shape of Things,” but can you talk about the use of music in horror and how you explored it?
NL: Well, it certainly is a genre that allows and affords for that tool to be used sometimes liberally-over-liberally, but it really can help you create a mood. And that’s such a heavy part of doing horror, I think, or suspense. So while I’m someone who is relatively judicious about music, I’ve gone so far as to try and do movies that had had almost none. I understand I think, at least how it works and what it can do with an audience. So while I don’t think we overuse music in this film, we certainly apply it when necessary to create additional emphasis on certain things and create mood with it. And I think that it can be hugely effective in doing that, particularly in a genre like this. But I do think it’s often used really successfully in horror.
KH: And going back to your other film, what about Elvis Costello spoke to “The Shape of Things?”
NL: I just think he’s incredibly good at writing short, punchy, slightly acidic love songs and songs of longing and that kind of thing, relationships. And so when I did the show on stage, I used The Smashing Pumpkins. But I knew in a film, you didn’t have the physical time that we had on stage where you’re changing sets and that kind of clothing. And, and so you would just jump from one scene to another in a movie. And so I needed someone who could, in a very quick period of time, say a lot, and that felt like Elvis Costello to me. So when I asked him about it, we’d previously talked about doing something, doing a musical. I was trying to talk him into doing a musical. I think he’s since done one now, which hasn’t debuted yet that I know of, but…am I right? Is it?
KH: I believe so. I think he’s got something about Trump.
NL: I think it’s “A Face in the Crowd.”
KH: Yes, correct.
NL: Yeah. I always thought he’d be good at doing that sort of thing. But he was kind enough to help us get a lot of his music for a little bit of money and even gave us access at the time to his newest work [When I Was Cruel], which wasn’t out. It was, I thought, really perfect for that film.
KH: Going back to “House of Darkness,” can you talk briefly about Justin Long and Kate Bosworth’s relationship and how that formed as you wrote it and as it developed on screen?
NL: I thought you meant the one that exists now, so which is [laughs], which is its own thing.
KH: We can go there too.
NL: I’ve turned out to be quite a matchmaker along the way. I brought a few couples together. They haven’t all stayed together, but a few couples have come out of plays and movies that I’ve done. I think they only knew each other in passing previous to this but had liked each other’s work and were interested in working together, and they just felt like the right kind of pair for this thing. That’s almost like a fairytale, you want to paint, almost in broad strokes, a little bit. And so you’ve got this kind of every guy that Justin Long can be. This kind of likable – at least in quotes – is the guy with a boyish charm about him, and you forgive his sins for that.
So he fit that world quite easily for me. And Kate had this ethereal beauty that I don’t think feels…you know, in retrospect, watching the movie can feel a little dangerous, but it doesn’t necessarily feel threatening. You know, she’s thin of the frame and so pretty. And, and so it doesn’t feel overbearing. It might make you stutter as you try to impress her, but it doesn’t feel like it’s physically something that’s gonna challenge you. And so that felt like the right kind of person to have in this role that is slowly revealing itself to be quite a in control. So physically, they felt right. They both knew their way around my dialogue pretty well. And then obviously worked out to create a nice I spirit on stage, but now apparently offstage as well.
KH: And was it always Kate Bosworth? You’ve worked with her before on Netflix’s “The Island.”
NL: I had worked with her before, and she certainly fits the profile of what I wanted. So I kind of went after her first and hoped we landed.
KH: You came from a time of the independent film that doesn’t exist anymore.
NL: It kind of doesn’t.
KH: I wonder if you can talk about what you’ve learned and how you’ve managed to stay alive in shifting environments.
NL: Yeah. Just stay alive. You have to be a bit of a shapeshifter as well. I think in this business – theater, film, whatever, it’s not just going with the times, but being able to do still what you want to do. You either have to be a little bit savvy or willing to twist and bend to make things fit or seem more appealing to people. That’s never really been my trade, to go after the thing that would clearly make the most money wasn’t the way that I handled my career. I kind of went after things that I thought would be interesting, whether they worked or not, they were challenges. So I guess it’s just having some good sense and some good luck and, you know, an eye on trying to make something that feels like you really wanted to make it, and then hopefully people will respond to that.
KH: Again, going back to the ’90s, you’ve spoken about labels that you’ve been identified with, and I don’t want to get into that. But do I wonder, do you think the ’90s were a more misogynist time?
NL: I don’t know that that was true. Maybe that ability to go less checked or unchecked was perhaps true. Since then, people have begun to question those things, call them out, or check them on anyone. But I think that has always been a part of our culture for at least a long time. It’s been a rampant thing. And whether we’re comfortable with it or not personally, it was something that was a part of the fabric of who we were, and we dealt with it. Now it’s being called a task, I think more and more all the time. And so people have to answer for that. And probably as it should be. If things are gonna stand or be a part of who we are, we have to be able to ask questions about them, and they have to be able to have them answer for themselves. So, it may have been a time where it was more widely accepted behavior, but I don’t know that it was just the big spring from those times, I think it’s always kind of been around.
KH: And, lastly, this isn’t your first horror film. “The Wicker Man” may be a divisive film –
NL: [laughs] I hadn’t, I hadn’t heard that.
KH: Nonetheless, it’s something that comes up a lot. People are still talking about it. On Twitter, the conversation came up just last week about the best punch in a movie. And I think you can imagine which one…
NL: I mean, there’s several to choose from, so –
KH: The bear punch came up, but I’m more of a fan of the Leelee Sobieski dropkick.
NL: Yeah. I mean, arguably, that’s not really a punch, so you’ve gotta take that into your thinking, but the bear is certainly a punch, and there are one or two others, I think.
KH: How do you feel about its longevity regardless?
NL: [laughs] Well, that’s tough for me. I had a great time working with Nic doing the movie. It was one of those things where you end up with too many cooks in the kitchen, and you have your mind on doing one kind of thing, and more and more people are because they’ve got a piece of it or, you know, have, have put money into it. [They] want to have a say, so in the end, do you get enough of what you wanted on screen or get it right? I stand by the fact that I thought it was always a movie that could be remade because it’s classic for a reason, but the story is great.
The execution is good and bad, and that’s what’s charming about it. And then it has this killer ending to it. Maybe if I’d been born in England, it would’ve felt more like an untouchable film to me. Only afterward you hear everybody going, “Oh, it’s my favorite or my second favorite horror film!” You know, my God, I wish I’d heard that going into this. But I’ve had that experience. That was maybe one of the first experiences I had on a film, but I have since experienced that in either film or television – that notion of the sort of not being in control of this thing that you’re supposedly in control of [laughs]. Because your name will be the one that goes on it, and the people will either love it or blame you for it.
Yet it’s not really fully yours for that to happen. The toughest part is that you don’t get to put a disclaimer on the bottom that says, “Well, let me explain how this came about, you know, why the tone might shift here or there.” It’s not like Nic and I weren’t aware of like the possibility of humor along the way. That a guy running around in a bear suit and punching someone – you know – a woman or two wouldn’t play as funny. But in the end, they’re gonna drag him up and burn him! That’s gonna be quite a sobering end to this weird lead-up. But I just think that the recipe got jumbled along the way by too many people throwing – I’m ruining that analogy, but, you know – it’s the cook one. There are too many people who had a handful of spices that they thought, “Let’s put some Terragon in there as well,” you know? It’s how close you get to that target. This one is wide over the mark. I think that’s the kindest way to be. But some of the stuff I absolutely adore and others I kind of go, “Oh boy, I wish I had another shot at doing that one.”
“House of Darkness” had its International Premiere at the 2022 Fantasia International Film Festival
