There’s Something Wrong With the Children is set to hit VOD this week, and we got a chance to speak to co-writers T.J Cimfel and David White, all about the brand-new chiller from Roxanne Benjamin.
There’s Something Wrong With the Children is almost here, how excited are you for horror fans to see it?
Uh, really excited. We think we have something special that will satisfy creepy kid connoisseurs but that’s also a pretty engaging look at the pressures of parenthood—and how scary it can be.
What can you tell us about the collaborative writing process?
We’ve been writing together for a long time. It’s great to have a creative partner you really connect with, both because it makes the writing process more fun, but also because it feels like our collaboration often yields more than the sum of its parts. It’s great when one of us solves a problem the other was struggling with, but it’s better when the discussion between us, whether over email or beers, leads to something totally new and unexpected that neither of us would have come up with on our own.
Given the focus on children, was this an opportunity to manifest some of your childhood fears?
Not childhood fears. Adulthood fears. We wanted to capture that space where so many couples find themselves as their relationship matures. It’s scary trying to decide if you want kids or not. How much will it change your lives? How much will it change you? And after you have kids, those questions shift. How can you resolve the tension between who you were and who you are now so that you know you’re taking the best care of your kids, while also still being true to who you’ve always been.
Additionally, the grounded real world fear we based this entire movie on was the simple question of: What would happen if you lost someone else’s kids? How is that tragedy amplified by the fact that you’re responsible for the loss of the most important thing in your closest friends’ lives?
We also just had a ton of fun thinking about what we could play with and how we could exaggerate the awkward situations non-parents can stumble into with children. Kids can be too honest, too cruel, and just downright weird. As an adult, being called out by a kid can be seriously embarrassing. We had a blast coming up with ways for Spencer and Lucy to put poor Ben through the wringer.
How closely did you collaborate with director Roxanne Benjamin?
By the time this movie got going, it was a race, so we didn’t get much of an opportunity to work together with Roxanne. We had a lovely call at the outset, which convinced us she was drawn to the exact things we were, especially with the messy, complex nature of the adult characters. It’s deeply satisfying to see what she’s done with the material.
Roxanne is well known for female-centric horror, how did her previous work feed into directing TSWWTC?
That’s a better question for her, but she did tell us she was drawn to the dramatic elements between the adults, particularly the big blowout fight that the whole movie feels like it’s been leading up to. There’s so much packed into that fight: mental health, sex, heteronormative expectations, long-held resentment, judgement, etc, etc. As for the horror, well, she’s got a huge track record of bringing the scares.
How much of an evolution for you is this film from V/H/S Viral and Intruders?
Every movie is an evolution. You become a better writer. You become interested in different things. You become more daring. In this case, it was a bigger canvas for us than INTRUDERS, with more characters and relationships to play off of. And V/H/S VIRAL was just a wild-ass ride we were happy to be a part of.
Is it easier to have someone to bounce ideas off when writing a script together?
Absolutely. There’s nothing like being able to just try stuff, and know that you always have someone there who can tell you if you’re a genius or an idiot before you get a hundred pages in.
How much of a coup was it getting Zach Gilford off the back of his work on the Mike Flanagan series’?
That was huge. We had just finished watching MIDNIGHT MASS, so he was super fresh in our minds. Zach is a great actor, and we knew he would meet the material where it was and then elevate it from there. We were knocked out by his performance. All the performances, really!
There’s Something Wrong With the Children is available now on VOD platforms.
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