It is a normal Wednesday at the school. The kindergarten teacher Justine Gandy enters the classroom, but does not find her students there.
Field trip? Activity in the auditorium? Scheduled press conference? None of that. During the early morning, at 02:17, all the children from the class – except one – mysteriously woke up and disappeared into the streets of the city.
It’s not a real news, thank goodness. It’s the premise of the movie.
The Hour of Evil
, a horror epic written and directed by Zach Cregger, the man behind the terrifying
Brutal Nights
(2022)
. Take a look at the trailer:
The story of the children is just the beginning of everything that is going to happen.
The Hour of Evil
It is an ambitious project with seven protagonists, divided into seven chapters, the kind of thing that can be common in a drama or science fiction film, but that is rarely seen in horror.
Who told this to the
Super
It was Cregger himself, who also shared some of the main inspirations of the film and behind-the-scenes details of the recording – such as the fact that the soundtrack was recorded with the band he had with his best friends.
Grandiose terror
According to Cregger, the main inspiration for
The Hour of Evil
It was not another horror movie, but rather
Magnolia
, a 1999 drama written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. The film
de
three hours (which pass flying, in the opinion of this humble reporter)
Follows the lives of nine different characters throughout a day, in the same area of Los Angeles.
” I always come back to this movie, and I love its scale and how the different characters cross paths,” says Cregger.
Magnolia
It was “huge without asking for forgiveness,” something the director had not seen among horror films. He said he only realized the influence when he was already in the middle of writing the script, and Anderson’s production gave him the confidence to do something ambitious, with several interconnected narratives.
Based on the story of the children’s disappearance, Cregger began to think about how the people around would react to the event. This is how the structure of the film emerged, divided into seven chapters to follow what seven different characters would do. “That’s a good question,” he says about the premise. “What will be the answers?”
This script he was writing became a source of (commercial) war in Hollywood: several studios entered a bidding battle to produce the film. The rights to the movie were secured by New Line Cinema, after paying about $38 million and guaranteeing final cut (that is, editing the film as they see fit) for Cregger.
For the role of the teacher, Cregger cast the actress Julia Garner after seeing her in the film
The Assistant
. “We entered into a
Zoom
To talk about the movie, and in 10 minutes I understood that it would work. She is one of the best actresses of her generation.” She is one of the seven lead actors in the film, along with actors such as Josh Brolin and Alden Ehrenreich.
In addition to directing and writing the film, Cregger is also one of the responsible for the soundtrack of the project. “I was in a band with two of my best friends [Ryan Holladay and Hays Holladay] for a very long time, and I knew they could create everything that was in my mind.” The three of them wrote the songs while Cregger was editing the film. “I loved this process, probably I will do it for the next movie as well.”
The Hour of Evil
Premieres in Brazilian cinemas on August 7th.
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