Crowley native Bryan Bertino’s new horror movie ‘Vicious’ stars Dakota Fanning
After five years between projects, Crowley native Bryan Bertino is back with a new film.
Bertino grew up in the area, graduated from Crowley High School in 1996 and later attended the University of Texas at Austin to study film. In 2002, Bertino packed up his car and hit the road to Hollywood to pursue his filmmaking dreams.
Six years later, Bertino wrote and directed his first feature film “The Strangers,” about three masked killers invading a couple’s home. The film proved to be a cultural and financial hit, with some horror fans considering it one of the scariest movies ever made.
Bertino went on to write and direct several horror films over the next decade, including “Mockingbird” in 2014 and “The Monster” in 2016. He returned to write “The Strangers” sequel, “Prey at Night,” in 2018.
In 2020, Bertino wrote and directed his fourth feature, “The Dark and the Wicked,” about two siblings reuniting at their childhood home in Texas to mourn their dying father. It was filmed at Bertino’s family farm in nearby Tolar.
Now, Bertino is back with the film “Vicious,” which is streaming on Paramount+.
The film follows a woman (Dakota Fanning) “fighting for her existence as she slips down a rabbit hole contained inside a gift from a late-night visitor.” The movie also stars Kathryn Hunter, Mary McCormack, Rachel Blanchard and Devyn Nekoda.
Ahead of the film’s release, Bertino spoke with the Star-Telegram about his local ties, how “Vicious” came together and his pitch for a new “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” movie.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Star-Telegram: Bryan, thanks for your time. How often do you get back to the Crowley and Fort Worth area?
Bryan Bertino: I mean, my dad lives in Tolar near Granbury now, so I spend more time in that area than in Crowley-Fort Worth. I still go to Hulen Mall, still do certain things. I always drive through Crowley whenever I’m back home. Then a few years ago, before the pandemic, I made a movie (”The Dark and the Wicked”) in Tolar-Granbury. I’m back at least two or three times a year.
S-T: Speaking of that movie, I watched it the other day in prep for this and it scared the hell out of me.
BB: I love that movie. It was kind of a passion project. It was on my family’s farm, where (the characters) live. Yeah, it was very cool to get to do.
S-T: I was looking back in the Star-Telegram archives and found that we spoke to you in 2008 for “The Strangers.” This quote I’m about to read is in reference to what you said about your time studying film at the University of Texas at Austin.
“The only thing I did was work on movies and it became my obsession. I was always working on somebody’s project or trying to get something started. I just never loved anything like I loved making movies.”
All these years later, do you still love making movies?
BB: Honestly, yes. I think writing and directing is my passion. It is what I’m most focused on, like I don’t have a lot of hobbies. I work on it all the time. I’m a little bit one track. I’ve always just been focused on creating stuff, and so that’s what I do more than anything else.
S-T: That brings us to “Vicious,” which is out this weekend. I did not get a chance to watch this beforehand, but it looks like another scary good time from you. The trailer shows that this lead character has to put three different things in this box to survive the night. How did this idea come about?
BB: I think that I was very interested in telling an intimate story that really dove into this woman, and had something that attacked her or attacks anyone that it comes across like internally and really picks at who you are. I started thinking about questions that I felt like at its base were very simple. But really could explore things, whether that’s spiritual or emotional or physical. Could really tear at the core of what makes (Dakota Fanning’s) Polly, Polly. That was really where it started from.
S-T: It feels like we sometimes live in an unauthentic world, mainly because of social media. Just by watching the trailer, it seems like this box truly knows what Polly wants and needs and will punish her for not being true to herself. I thought there may be something there about how the only way to break through the mold is to stay true to yourself. Were you thinking about any of that?
BB: I mean, I think that we all wear masks. I think, sadly, social media has made it even easier to have a distance with how you really interact with the world. For me, I look at somebody like Polly and I’m sure, as a young woman, she has many different masks that she’s wearing on a day-to-day basis. It’s a terrifying thing for any of us to go through, to be attacked in a way with something that knows everything about you.
S-T: You have Dakota Fanning leading the movie, who has been such a constant screen presence for much of this century. How was it working with her?
BB: I mean, honestly, it was probably one of the highlight working relationships of my career. I’m not just saying this, I think that she’s just so talented and beyond anything that I could have imagined in the performance she gives. The way that she is able to utilize herself, all of her facial expressions, emotions, breaths. You see somebody that has been working, since she was barely walking and is in full command of her gifts.
The movie, I couldn’t have done without her. She was more of a partner than anything else, because she really worked with me and my cinematographer, Tristan Nyby. We ended up becoming a unit. She was the gift that kept giving on a day-to-day basis.
S-T: I noticed that all five of your written and directed films are originals and not based on anything prior. I was curious to how you come up with an idea and how do you know when it’s actually something you want to pursue? Because I’m sure you always have ideas, but how do you know when something is worth the time or risk?
BB: That’s a great question. Like any writer, I’m jotting down one sentence here and there. I send myself emails when I’m out and about, just like five words or three words. I look at something like this, and I was playing with the idea of something that involved a box for probably four or five years before I wrote the script. It was only kind of as I went back to the list over and over, at this particular time, it clicked.
I always describe it as almost like hearing the music. It’s like a certain point as I’m starting to create, it’ll start to have its own sound, its own feeling. Once that happens, I just go with it and I just follow it [laughs]. Not to be hoity-toity or artsy or whatever. I just go wherever the music is, because I’m not presumptuous enough to think that I can create anything at any point.
S-T: On the flip side, there were reports this summer that you were in the running to land the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” rights. They went in another direction, but I’m curious if you could share what your version would have looked like? And did you think you had a better idea since you’re from Texas?
BB: I mean, look I love “Texas Chainsaw.” I love the original, I’ve seen all movies. I loved the world, and I still love the world. I think for me, I was just really fascinated in trying to create a film that took me back to the feelings that I had (for the 1974 original), the rawness. I think it’s the hardest thing in the world with the more you’re making sequels, is like, “How do you make Leatherface scary again? How do you recreate the first time?”
To me, I think my idea was really to try to capture that. To tell a story that was scary first and foremost, then when you add in the Sawyer/Slaughter family, it would have only taken it over the top. But you never know (in) Hollywood. I’m hopefully in it for the long haul, so maybe one day I’ll get to make it.
S-T: You mentioned “The Dark and the Wicked” earlier, which filmed in Texas. This past legislative session, Texas lawmakers passed a bill that would inject $1.5 billion in film incentives over the next decade to projects filming in the state. Being from Texas and having made a movie here, how do you see the film landscape changing now? And do you have plans to make another movie in your home state?
BB: Absolutely. I always felt like Texas, going back to when I was in Austin, there was that want for Austin to become a third coast. I feel like Texas was kind of missing opportunities because we didn’t have the tax rebates that other states did, whether that was Louisiana or Georgia or New Mexico. I think that this is the exact right moment to dive in. As a filmmaker, you’re kind of forced to go where you can get the most bang for the buck. I think I speak for a lot of filmmakers, I would love to be able to stay in the environments, whether it’s something that you write for Texas or in the world that you know. I think it’s really exciting, I was thrilled to hear it.
S-T: There’s already some things filming here like all the Taylor Sheridan shows.
BB: Absolutely [laughs], he’s brought a lot of stuff to Texas.
S-T: Last question for you Bryan, what’s next for you?
BB: Right now I’m just in the process of writing. I decided to go off to London to take a couple of months and just get away and focus on writing new stories. I have definitely three or four projects that I would love very much get to make, so we’re just hopeful. I often have a long gap in between movies, but I’m hoping to shorten that up this time [laughs].
“Vicious” is now streaming on Paramount+.
