Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
In this episode of Pop Culture Weekly, Tom Blythe and
Daniel Weber discuss Billy the Kid Season three and Summer
h Howel and Brandon Kristensen discuss Night of the Reaper.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Let's go.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Welcome to pop Culture Weekly with Kyle McMahon from my
Heart Radio, your pop culture news, views, reviews and celebrity
interviews on all the movies, TV, music and pop culture
you crave weekly. Here's Kyle McMahon.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
Nritt.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Nana no Nut, Hello, and welcome to pop Culture Weekly
with Kyle McMahon. I of course am Kyle McMahon, and
this is the show where I, you know, somehow trick
celebrities into spending time with me and you get to
eavesdrop win win, Right, I'm Kyle, your pop culture sharp
(00:52):
in today's episode is stacked like me and and all
you can eat buffet. Let's jump right into it. First up,
we're diving into the world of horror, my happy place
as you know. And oh, by the way, you know,
I have a brand new book, my first book out
called thirty one Days of Horror pop Culture Weeklies Killer
Guide to Surviving the thirty one Day Horror Movie Challenge.
(01:15):
You can get it on Amazon right now on in
paperback or hardcover, and I am so hyped. I want
to know what you think. I did this with you
in mind, thirty one movies that I chose one for
each night. You don't have to do it in October.
You can start whenever you want. But I really toiled
over which movies to pick because there's so many good movies.
(01:37):
And I wanted to do a mix of you know,
sub genres of horror, so slashers and supernatural and found
footage and a mix of when it was made. So
there's stuff from the seventies and today and you know,
a few years ago, and blah blah blah. And I
really tried to vary it up make some have some
classics in there and some that maybe you've never heard
(01:59):
of before. So you can get it right now on
Amazon or go to Popcultureweekly dot com forward Slash thirty
one Days of Horror. You can read all about it
and pick it up there. But I really want to
know what you think about it. By the way, it
hit number seven on the horror charts on Amazon. Am
I best selling author. Now I think I may be
(02:19):
It's pretty crazy, at least on the horror charts. But
in any event, all right, so as we continue our
dive into the world of horror, I'm talking with Night
of the Reaper star Summer h Howell, who stars in
the film as well as she'll be playing Carry in
the upcoming Carry film, and the film's wickedly talented writer
director Brandon Christensen. And Night of the Reaper is a
(02:42):
Shutter original, and it follows a college student who visits
home and ends up babysitting, and then the local sheriff
has mailed a piece of evidence and is let on
a scavenger hunt to reveal the killer of another babysitter.
All kinds of stuff going on in the movie. It's
really great. As you know, I love Shutter, so it
(03:04):
is a Shutter original and it's a great film. So
in any event, if you're into scare, suspense and sleeping
with the lights on, this one's for you. Let's jump
in Summer h Howel and Brandon Kristensen, Brandon, and Summer.
First of all, welcome to Pop Culture Weekly with Kyle McMahon.
I appreciate you guys talking to me about Knight of
(03:26):
the Reaper. How you doing. I'm great, Yeah, yeah, of course,
So the congrats on the film. I love that it's
like this sort of throwback. It's in the kind of
babysitter sub genre of horror. What was it like to,
(03:48):
you know, do this. How did it feel for you guys.
Speaker 5 (03:53):
Somewhere you want to go first?
Speaker 6 (03:55):
Oh? Well, I had a really fun time. I filmed
the first three days with Brandon and I got to
dance around, I got to die spoiler alert. Yeah it was.
It was a lot of fun, and it made me
a little sad leaving because it was so short and sweet.
Speaker 7 (04:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (04:15):
Yeah, No, it was cool because like this was a
low budget indie, you know, and so we're shooting an
eighties movie and you know, if you've got Hollywood money,
you can just create the eighties, but we couldn't. So
we're just like finding things on marketplace and like finding
locations that had, you know, all this texture and wood
and all these things that I remember from when I
was a kid, and so being able to you know,
put put summer in that position to be dancing to
(04:37):
Pat Benatar. It was just like such a such a
weird experience just to be in that place in that
time with this TV and this music and this you know,
just everything was just so cool, and you know, Summer's amazing. Obviously,
she was just so much fun and she was only
there for three days, but I mean her presence was
felt throughout the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Yeah. Yeah, And what you know, when you're doing a
film with more human states, what is that? Where where
do you find that emotional core? Summer do you want
to start?
Speaker 6 (05:07):
I guess so. I mean I've never been hunted or murdered,
so it's kind of a weird thing to just try
and do. But I guess my family life is very
connected and I have a lot to lose, so I
pull from that kind of feeling.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
I love that. And how about for you, Brandon, as
you know, as the man behind it.
Speaker 5 (05:30):
Yeah, I mean I think it's just, you know, I think,
like she's saying, family so important. So having all these
family connections throughout the film, like you've got the sheriff
and his son being babysat all of these pieces, there's
just there's a lot to lose. Like when we were
casting Summer and she did her audition, she actually auditioned
for Dina, but you know, her schedule was very busy
because she had a bunch of stuff in Germany that
(05:50):
she was doing right after, so we just barely sort
of fit her in into that window. But a big
part of it was just looking at her and being like,
oh my god, like nobody wants to see her die
on camera, you know, like that's so that would be
so sad to see Summer die, and so you know,
and then it is like she's so innocent in the film,
and she's so just like this cute thing that's just
(06:12):
in this horrible position, and I think that it just
sets the tone for the rest of the film.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
And for you, why did you you know your career
has been in horror, and I'm a huge obviously horror nerd,
And why was it important for you to tackle like
the babysitter kind of subgenre of horror.
Speaker 5 (06:36):
Sure, it's just been something that I've always wanted to do.
When I was in the eighth grade, I went to
a birthday party at a friend's house and we watched
When a Stranger Calls the nineteen seventy nine version, and
we all just sat there eating pizza, drinking soda, and
we're just watching that opening twenty minutes, which is just
like the babysitter horror movie it's just amazing. It's like
twenty minutes of just pure horror, and you know, and
(06:57):
that always just kind of stuck with me. And so
in my career, I've been fortunate to make movies at all,
but I'm trying to kind of tackle different things that,
you know, different subgenres. Like I've done found footage recently,
the babysitter thing, I've done supernatural, Like my last one
that came out was more of like a bodyhoror possession thing.
So it's just you know, it's just like this giant
playground that we're able to play in, and and Babysitter
(07:18):
was just one that I always wanted to do. And this,
you know, this story came together with my brother and
we just were like, this is this has to be
the next one.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
And how did you balance the kind of classic almost
slashery sort of thing with your own take on it?
You know, how did you inject Brandon into it?
Speaker 5 (07:37):
I mean, you're you're always just like stealing from the grates, right,
Like the opening ten with Summer is very scream driven
with the Drew Barrymore thing like that was when we
were talking about it's like, no, we want to get
that Drew Barrymore and we want to have that face.
And now we've got summer Who's you know, gonna be
carry soon, which is a whole other thing. But yeah,
it's just having this iconic intro that starts it and
then you go into something you know a little a
(07:58):
little softer, and you've got more of like Ty West's
House of the Devil, which was a great, amazing film,
and it's you know, when when you think of babysitter horror,
it's basically when a stranger calls and then a House
of the Devil, And I'm just trying to blend these
two things while you know you're putting I think the
spin that you know, we took was more in the
execution of the story. But we wanted to set up
a lot of familiar things on the journey so that
(08:21):
the audience expects one thing and then you can kind
of go like, ah, actually it's this thing, and it
you know, it keeps the last act of the film
really fresh for them because it's like, oh, this isn't
what I was expected. I mean, that's a hope. Anyways,
you never you never know.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Yeah, I think it, you know, was executed beautifully and
I love how there's you know, almost multiple stories kind
of weaving their way through. I think that's, you know,
for me, a fresh take, you know what I mean? Yeah,
for sure, summer you have pretty much grown up on
screen and how you know Chucky and you'll be carry
(08:58):
hell does this fit in to your like repertoire? You know?
Speaker 6 (09:04):
Well, I guess horror has always followed me, So I
wasn't surprised when it came up. But the dancing really surprised.
I don't like that wasn't a part of my audition
or anything. It was just kind of a not last
minute thing. But like I was already in Calgary in
my hotel room and Brandon's texting me like, how'd you
feel about dancing? And I'm like, I think I sent
(09:26):
him back a video of like me already practicing. So yeah,
it fits very nicely. Yeah, it was a lot of fun.
Speaker 5 (09:36):
Yeah, if I can jump on that. Like the script
only said she, you know, she turned on some MTV
some catch something catchy and then she snoops and find
cigarettes And that's basically all the script said. But then
we had a music supervisor, Natasha Dupree. She sent us
this list of music, and we were like going through
you know, there's like twenty five tracks that we could afford,
which wasn't a lot, but then you know, we're looking
at things from like Flock of Seagulls and all this stuff,
(09:58):
and it's like, oh, this is really cool. But then
when she sent a second list and had Pat Benatar
on it, and I was just like, oh my god,
this could be just like we could shoot this like
a music video, and so I sent, you know, I
sent Summer. I was like, can you dance to this?
Will you dance to this? You know, cause you never know?
Speaker 1 (10:11):
And then we're just that.
Speaker 5 (10:12):
Basically, her third day was almost entirely just shooting a
music video, like she's dancing where choreograph. You know, we
had music playing back with the whole thing so she
could dance to it. But like, you know, we did
a twenty two day shoot and that was by far
the most fun. Like, it was such a blast to
work with her on that. It sounds and I got
to kill her.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Summer. Do you see yourself as like a scream queen?
Speaker 6 (10:37):
I guess so I don't. I've seen a lot of
people online calling me that now, so I'll take.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
It I mean, I think it's and I mean that
obviously as a compliment, And I think that the horror
community loves scream queens, you know. I mean, I I
think that you have really captured, you know, a great
balance between like an emotional core of your work along
(11:07):
with like just being a freaking awesome scream queen. You
know what I mean.
Speaker 6 (11:12):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
That means a lot of course, Brandon, you have this
reputation for kind of emotionally charged horror, lots of familial, familial, familial,
you know, elements to your work. Is that conscious? Is
that subconscious? How? How has that come out?
Speaker 5 (11:34):
Yeah? I mean I think it's kind of the old thing.
You just write what you know. And I'm married, I
have three kids, and so I'm seeing all these things.
Like my first films Stillborn and Z they were about
baby and like a you know, a kid in kind
of the first grade and you know, kind of that
range and there They're all kind of based off little
things that I've just sort of picked up from fatherhood
and just being around that stuff. And you see certain
(11:55):
things and like there's nothing scarier than stuff happening to
your own kid. Yeah, So I mean, you know, a
big thing is just if you can tie that emotional
core and like you know, with Carrie, Mike Flanagan's like
the king of that. It's just if you can write
what you know and put yourself into a little bit.
I think it helps just add some authenticity to the story.
And then you know, inevitably the demon comes in and
(12:15):
ruins everything. But there's always just that first act stuff
where you're dealing with these really human things and most
of those things are things that I've personally dealt with,
and so you're just trying to you know, it's just
like a form of expression that you're just trying to do.
And you know, if you if I just made a
movie about my life, super boring. But if you can
just sprinkle some of that into something much cooler, you know,
ad it can add an extra layer for you.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
How did you know you worked with Not the Funeral Home,
Matt and and Justin. How did they come into this?
You know they've done they do Joe, Bob Briggs and
and a whole bunch of awesome stuff in the genre.
How did they fall into this?
Speaker 5 (12:58):
We did a movie called The Puppet Man Back and
we shot in twenty twenty two. And it came out
in twenty twenty three, and that just sort of set
up a relationship with us. You know, they've got a
really close relationship with Shutter. I've got a close relationship
with Shutter because this is my fifth movie with them,
and it's just sort of it felt like a natural fit.
And they're you know, they've just you know, they're they're
great to work with. They're nice guys, and it's just
(13:19):
that's what you're kind of looking for all the time.
It's just, you know, my company is called super Chill.
It's just I want to work with people that are
fun to be around. Like Summer, she was amazing. She
just came in, she knocked it out of the park
and left and we still talk now. You know, we
can shoot her at text and just you know, you
create those relationships and those friendships on set, and I
did that with those guys too. So it's just, you know,
it's a lucky play place to be in life, to
(13:41):
be able to shoot films with cool people.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Absolutely, absolutely, And for both of you, you know, as fans,
well in Summer, I don't I assume you are a
fan of Horror Summer or are you not, like do
you are you like binging horror out?
Speaker 6 (13:58):
I'm working on it, fully drawn to it. I love
being in horror. It's a lot of fun on set
because nobody takes it super seriously and you're creating this
crazy thing. But watching it, I don't know, do you
get scared? I get a little scared. I like comedy
a lot. Since I got Carrie, I've been trying to
(14:20):
watch more horror, so I'm starting to get into.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
It, all right. And what would you say your horror masterpiece,
like the one that you love horror wise?
Speaker 6 (14:36):
I don't know, but I watched The Fall, the House
of Usher, and like the Haunting of Hill House. Recently,
I was getting into Mike's stuff because I've you know,
I'm working with him now.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Yeah, yeah, okay, and Brandon for you, you know, as
a fan of horror who has obviously works deeply with
it creating it. Where do you see this in kind
of the pantheon of the bigger genre of horror?
Speaker 5 (15:06):
Yeah? I mean I think the ultimate goal if I
could like wave a magic will on and get my
outcome from this, it would be something that people revisit
yearly at Halloween because where there's so much Halloween injected
in the film. It takes place during Halloween. It's just eighties,
it's fall, it's orange. If it could turned into something
that people watch like every year, there's always movies that
I'll watch, like you know, Halloween and Trick or Treat
(15:27):
eat and things.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Like that, and there's the same by the way, Yeah.
Speaker 5 (15:31):
October first hits and they just start going through every
day they start watching something. People make lists and stuff
like that, and just being able to crack that yearly
traditional list would be so cool. I don't know if
that's going to happen. It's such a you know, but
even to be discussed on that level and be like, oh, yeah,
we know, I'm watching Night of the Reaper and Halloween.
You're just like Jesus, like, I never you know, you
never see that coming. So I mean that that would
(15:51):
be the ultimate goal for this for sure.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
For me, just you know, in response to that, for me,
I think this will be one that I'll be revisiting
every year because it does have that cool vibe. Another
one for me that I plan on watching every years
Late Night with the Devil. It just has that cool
Halloween vibe and it's a great movie. Trick or treat
another one. So this will be in my you know,
(16:15):
annual list, and I appreciate that as a as a fan,
So thank you both so much for speaking with me.
I can't wait for everybody to see Night of the
Reaper exclusively on Shutter, which I love as well. Thank
you guys, thanks so much. Man of course, Summer Howl.
I'm Brandon Kristenson. How awesome are they? Night of the
(16:39):
Reaper is out right? Now, go scream your face off
and support indie horror while you're at it. All right,
taking a quick break to pay the bills. Sixty seconds,
I will be right back. Welcome back to Pop Culture Weekly.
Thank you for supporting our sponsors who help me bring
(17:01):
this show. You know, every episode now from Herror to History.
We are talking. Billy the Kid, the hit MGM plus
series is back for season three, and once again I
have got Tom Blythe and Daniel Weber here to spill
all the wild West te So settle up. My friends
(17:21):
here they are Tom Blythe and Daniel Weber. Welcome back,
Tom and Dan. I really appreciate it. How are you
guys doing good? Good to see you man, Good to
see you guys. So congratulations on the series. This is
the third and final season. What does it feel like
(17:42):
closing the book on, you know, something you've worked on
for so long? This is the both of you.
Speaker 7 (17:47):
It's tough. Yeah, this one was actually tough to say
goodbye to. You know, we've been doing this for three years.
I've never been on a long, long running show where
you've lived in the carter, got to know the people
and it's not even just cast, but it's it's the crew,
it's everybody involved. But yeah, then also, just it really
(18:08):
hit me doing saying goodbye this. It surprised me. I
thought I was all good. I was compartmentalizing it all,
and then I woke up the morning afterwards and I
just I crabbed like a baby, did you? Yeah, it
just like it just hit me, So I don't know,
it's it's meant, I don't know, and then we Yeah,
it's been tough, man. It's the initial closing out was
tricky and we were sort of getting on with life figures.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
We were really tight knit cast and crew, and we're
honestly so lucky because these days TV shows don't often
run for that long. So to get three seasons out
of a show that you love is a real blessing.
And we've built this like incredible little loyal fan base
of the of the show and U and they keep
(18:52):
keep bringing us back and we've just gotten closer and
closer each season, and so it is a family, and
I think it translates on the screen. You can see
how much fun we're having and we get to do
stuff that like they don't let people do anymore. We're
riding our on horses, shooting our own guns, like last
doing cows.
Speaker 7 (19:08):
I mean it's in the Rockies, in the middle of
nowhere where that you've got moose and it's just you're
you're in the wild, like truly in the wild.
Speaker 4 (19:16):
So I think we feel blessed and like lucky to
have done it and we'll always miss it, but we'll
always have it.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Yeah, I love that. And for you know, I talked
to you guys for season one and we didn't know
where you know, season one was in the can, but
we didn't know if there was going to be further
stories there or whatever. How how now that you've you know,
taken these characters through their full arc, how do you
(19:42):
feel about that that, you know, looking back on day
one and then and then the final day story wise,
are you does that fulfill you as actors, you know,
as telling these stories that, as you said, a lot
of shows don't get to tell their whole story.
Speaker 7 (19:58):
You know, there's like a richness to the at least
our relationship that that is not what Michael's not embellished
this story between Jesse and Billy.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Uh.
Speaker 7 (20:10):
It's it's something that is part of history, but for
somehow it's really become like it's it's the headline characters
in history, a sort of Pat Garrett and Billy the
Kid and Michael's fleshed out this other relationship dynamic that
it's never been on screen before, and it's it's really personally,
really gratifying getting to to chart the whole course of that.
(20:34):
I think if we'd stopped after season one, it would
have been, you know, a tiny part of the story,
because really I always saw this as three chapters of
the friendship and then the ribe that's this bitter rivalry
throughout the Lincoln County War, and then this this one
where you know, historically Jesse wrote to Billy the Kid
to come break him out of prison, and so I
(20:54):
always knew that that was the book end to the story,
because that sort of tells you quite a lot about
these these sort of bitter rivals and the one person
he reaches out to to come and help him in
the end is his enemy. So that sort of complicated,
you know, reluctant brotherhood that these two have has been
(21:16):
really cool to try and chart. And the end of
this season we got it to a place where I
think we were really it was great to do because
it has been so much fire for us and navigating
these characters on set and by the end of their
team and their partners, and so we got to have
(21:37):
a bit of Catharsis in the sense where we got
to really work as a team in a sort of
traditional you know, duo character mythos like the Bush Cashley
and Sundance Kid or True Detective or throw them in
Luiz like that sort of you know, their misaligned characters.
They have different worldviews and that what a big part
(22:01):
of the conflict is. That's the part that's so much
fun to try and play.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
Sorry for you, Tom, you know, there's been so many
portrayals of Billy in film and TV and books and
comic books, and how is your interpretation over you know,
the past three years changed of him.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
If it has, Yeah, I mean I've not watched any
of the others that hadn't seen any of them when
I started doing Billion, and I chose not to watch
any because I didn't want to mimic anyone's performance or
do an imitation. Wanted this to be our version, my version,
My understanding of him has changed over three seasons. I think,
(22:43):
you know, there's almost like three distinct versions of Billy
Season that we've gone through. In the first is season one,
he's kind of lost. He's like a lost boy. He
loses his family, and he's on the road all the time,
and he's moving from town to town, state to state,
and he is searching for something, and he's searching for
himself within the kind of like terrain he finds himself
(23:05):
in he kind of starts to find it. And then
season two, he basically is trying to like carve out
a life for himself in this like rugged terrain and
is kind of like trying to achieve the American dream
still and trying to be a farmer and almost like
be a surrogate son to Tunstall because he's never had
(23:26):
a real real father along the way and then all
that gets ripped out from under him and he's a
lost boy again. And then he's angry and lost and
trying to be a leader. And then season three he
like is a leader and he's leading this kind of
resistant group essentially against the corrupt, the corruption he sees
around him and trying to take down the house and
(23:49):
the Rings, which are you know, part of history, were
real corrupt, real corrupt groups that were like very much
forming America at the time.
Speaker 7 (23:59):
And so yeah, and three he's like he's like Shay
gri Era.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
He's like a he's like a resistance figure and he's
like a gorilla warfare expert. So it's cool. I get to, like,
I get to see him through these like three major
transitions and h and kind of end up playing like
a folklore kind of resistance hero.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
I love that. And this is finally for both of you.
You know, what do you hope fans people that have
been tuning in for three years? What do you hope
that they take from this final chapter in this tale?
Speaker 6 (24:31):
Ooh?
Speaker 4 (24:32):
I mean, first of all, I hope they entertained. I
hope they get to watch Western like that is a
proper classic Western it's like the hero's journey. There's relationships,
like Dan said, that feel like Butching Sun Dance and
like that classic Western romanticism with real Western action. So
I hope they're entertained, and then I hope they like
(24:53):
I think Michael Hurst is really good at holding a
mirror up to like also what's going on today and
saying a lot has changed and also a lot hasn't changed.
And the political atmosphere is very much like mirrored in
the show. And ultimately, I think Michael's trying to say,
look like, at the end of the day, our humanity
is what matters the most, and that's what Billy believes,
(25:15):
and that's what like I think Jesse comes to believe.
And I think he's kind of he's making a point
about like a common humanity.
Speaker 7 (25:24):
Help about for you dare. I mean, I think Tom
said it so perfectly. You know, obviously the entertainment aspect
of it all, like you got three three different fates
colliding this this season. You've got Pat Garrett who's hunting,
You've got Billy the Kid, he's on the rum, this idealist,
(25:44):
you know, revolutionary sort of figure, and then Jesse this
sort of pragmatist, survivalist, and cynic ultimately, and I think
we're just watching those those sort of forces, and each
each character is such a force on their own collide.
I think that that will be really I hope that's
engaging and entertaining because it was so much fun to
(26:07):
play and to flesh that out and to see what
he does, see what Alex brings. So I think that's
I actually thin it's gonna be incredible. It's an enormous season.
It's full of action, great, great characters and story. And
then yeah, it's it's I think it's a good time
to be talking about people who stand up to essentially oppression,
(26:30):
and so it's great being a part of that voice.
And I know we're doing it in a television format,
but it's a good message to be putting out there,
to stand up, to have your voice heard in this
day and age.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Yeah, it's and it's just a testament to the fact
that art matters, you know. Thank you both so much,
congratulations on all three seasons. I love it and I
can't wait for everybody to see it.
Speaker 7 (26:57):
Awesome, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Thank you guys, Tom Blythe and Daniel Webber. Two incredible actors.
And seriously, if you're not watching Billy the Kid yet,
you're missing out. Start with season one. Season three is
streaming right now on MGM plus, so binge responsibly. But
it is a great historical action drama. I love it
(27:20):
all right. That's gonna wrap it up for this episode
of pop Culture Weekly. Huge thanks to my guest Summer
h Howel, Brandon Christensen, Tom Blythe, and Daniel Weber. Make
sure you subscribe, leave a review, and tell your mom
about the show, because she and I we'd get along great.
I'm Kyle McMahon. This is pop Culture Weekly. I love you,
See you next week.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
Well, thank you for listening to pop Culture Weekly. Here
all the latest at popcultureweekly dot com.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Maight of billyyly th reper
Speaker 7 (28:05):
Mmhm