(L-R) Paul Davis and Rebecca Rittenhouse attend the 2018 LAFF Blumhouse at The WGA Theater on September 21, 2018 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Presley Ann/Getty Images for Hulu)
BEVERLY HILLS, CA (LA ELEMENTS) 10/3/2018 -“So I watched Shallow Grave on Halloween,” says Paul Fischer, writer and co-producer of The Body, “and that scene where they haul the body down the stairs, I just figured, ‘If they did that tonight, I probably wouldn’t give a shit. I’d think it was a costume.’
Fischer revealed his inspiration for The Body during a panel discussion held at the Writer’s Guild Theater in Beverly Hills on September 21, 2018. The red carpet, panel discussion, and reception that followed, were all part of the show’s world premiere at the LA Film Festival where it screened before an extremely enthusiastic audience. The Body is the first installment of Hulu’s original new series, Into The Dark. If you’re a fan of horror, then this Blumhouse Television production has quite the gift for you: A year round horror series with a new episode premiering each month.
Paul Fischer arrives at the 2018 LAFF Blumhouse at The WGA Theater on September 21, 2018 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for Hulu)
The Body stars Tom Bateman as Wilkes, a handsome and debonair contract killer, who executes one of his victims on Halloween night. Desperate to get rid of the body, he drags the corpse, which he has tightly wrapped in plastic, through the streets of LA. On any other night he would garner suspicion. But it’s Halloween you see, so everyone he encounters believes that his blood spattered suit and the corpse itself are merely part of the coolest costume ever.
Especially impressed, are a group of young revelers who are not only unfazed by what they see but insist that Wilkes join them at their friend’s party. Their friend Jack (played by Ray Santiago) is a visual effects maker, who is throwing a Halloween extravaganza. While at the party, Wilkes meets Maggie, (Rebecca Rittenhouse) Jack’s assistant. Maggie falls hopelessly for Wilkes in a way that at first, even she doesn’t fully understand. When Wilkes reveals himself to be the cold-blooded killer that he is, Maggie is more amazed than disgusted. Indeed there is an undeniable romantic tension between Maggie and Wilkes. One that both Rittenhouse and Bateman reveal gradually in the delicate dance between a disillusioned woman who feels that she has finally found someone to believe in, and a man determined to let no one get in the way of completing the task he was paid quite handsomely to do-all while extracting the one thing that he needs from her. Speaking of handsome, Bateman’s attractiveness was initially a problem for writer Fisher who noted during the panel discussion, “When someone suggested Tom I said ‘too handsome.’ He’s big, I’m a nerd I don’t like handsome people. We’re ancestral enemies. And then the problem is, you meet Tom and Tom’s amazing. So you just have to say, ‘Ok fine. You can do it.’ He brought some of that, ‘He’s so charming but he’s kind of boy-like and he’s on this kind of other plane at the same time.’
Unlike Maggie, Jack and his close-knit group of friends: Dorothy, (Aurora Perrineau) Allan (David Hull) and Nick, (Harvey Guillen), are immune to Wilkes charismatic spell as they take on a desperate mission of their own to steal the corpse away from Wilkes and turn him into the police. What ensues is a fight to the finish between the hunter (Wilkes) and the hunted (pretty much everybody else).
Ray Santiago arrives at the 2018 LAFF Blumhouse at The WGA Theater (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for Hulu)
The Body may not give you all of the answers that you want. You don’t really know much about Wilkes other than like all sociopaths, he has a dim view of humanity. (“People wear masks their whole lives pretending that life has meaning. When you kill somebody, all of that’s gone.”) You never discover the back-story of the person who hires Wilkes on this sinister mission either. But what you do get is an hour and a half of fast paced action; genuine moments of suspense worthy enough to make you jump, some gore, (if you like that sort of thing…) and surprisingly, laughter, courtesy of Ray Santiago. The Ash Vs. Evil Dead star shines in The Body with his expert comedic delivery.
We caught up on the red carpet with the Co-Presidents of Blumhouse Television, Jeremy Gold and Marci Wiseman, to get their thoughts on the horror genre in general and some horror films that they have seen in the past that still make an impression on them even today.
(L-R) Co-Presidents of Blumhouse Television, Marci Wiseman and Jeremy Gold speak onstage at the 2018 LAFF Blumhouse at The WGA Theater (Photo by Presley Ann/Getty Images for Hulu)
Have you always been fans of the horror genre?
Jeremy Gold
“Funny you ask that. Originally neither of us were big horror fans but I think we’ve become big horror fans since we came to launch Blumnhouse Television.”
Marci Wiseman
“I was at AMC for a long time so I was involved with The Walking Dead, but I think as true horror fans, we’ve kind of been indoctrinated since we’ve been at Blumhouse. This has been a real thrill for us because we’ve been able to kind of combine what film commonly does with what we do on the TV side. So it’s a real like, hybrid, which is really great.”
Is there a classic horror film or any kind of horror film that you’ve seen in the past that has made a lasting impression on you?
Jeremy Gold
“For me, my first screening of The Shining as a boy has always stayed with me because I made the mistake of watching it at a friend’s house and then having to walk home alone, in the snow, by myself in a very small town late at night. So that was a really strategic error that I made. So that has always stayed with me because of that walk. I’ll never forget how terrifying that walk was. It’s an amazing movie, The Shining.”
Marci Wiseman
“I’d say that I have two. Psycho probably just as kind of a horror classic movie. And my first professional experience working on a movie was with Child’s Play. So I kind of launched my entertainment career working on a horror movie, so there you go.”
Into the Dark premiers October 5 on Hulu.
Written by: Paul Fischer and Paul Davis
Directed by: Paul Davis
Executive Producers: Jason Blum, Paul Davis, Paul Fischer, Alexa Faigen and John Hegeman
Cast: Tom Bateman, Rebecca Rittenhouse, Ray Santiago, Aurora Perrineau, David Hull, Harvey Guillen
Cover Photo: Tom Bateman and Rebecca Rittenhouse in a scene from The Body.
Watch the trailer for The Body right here.
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