Exclusive Interview: Jay Baruchel on Realistic Gore In RANDOM ACTS OF VIOLENCE
When Jay Baruchel’s second directorial effort Random Acts of Violence first came out, it hit us over the head with intense, realistic violence that didn’t exactly sit well with a lot of people. Based on the one shot graphic novel of the same name from Image Comics, the Canadian thriller didn’t pull any punches. Given Baruchel’s comedy background, that pulled the rug out from some viewers that were probably expecting something with a little more laughs.
In our conversation below, the one thing that’s clear is how laser focused Baruchel is and how passionate he and his team are about the way they portrayed the violence in the film. We started out on a lighter note talking about his early acting days on Are You Afraid of the Dark? and whether or not Random Acts of Violence (releasing on DVD and Blu-ray February 16) is really a holiday horror movie in disguise.
Random Acts of Violence, based on the comic of the same name by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, stars Jesse Williams (Grey’s Anatomy), Jordana Brewster (Fast & Furious franchise), Niamh Wilson (Saw franchise) and Jay Baruchel (How to Train Your Dragon 1 & 2). Baruchel also directed and co-wrote the film with Jesse Chabot (Goon: Last of the Enforcers). RLJE Films will release Random Acts of Violence on DVD for an SRP of $27.97 and Blu-ray for an SRP of $28.96.
Synopsis: In Random Acts of Violence, comic book creator Todd Walkley, his wife, assistant and best friend, are heading to NYC Comic Con when bad things start to happen—people start getting killed. It soon becomes clear that a crazed fan is using his “SLASHERMAN” comic as inspiration for the killings. And as the bodies pile up, and Todd’s friends become victims themselves, he is forced to face the killer and put an end to his notorious comic once and for all.
Dread Central: I was just sitting here trying to look up some of your old episodes of Are You Afraid of the Dark?. That’s one of the first things you did, right?
Jay Baruchel: Man, I think I hold the record. I think I’ve played the most characters on that show ever. I was never one of the campfire kids, I was always just in the stories but I think I did like four of them. I’ve been in four different episodes of that anthology show.
DC: Was it a popularity contest where most of the actors actually wanted to be the campfire kids?
JB: Oh absolutely, that was a big gig man! Instead of me coming back and getting haunted four different times.
DC: What are you shooting now? Are you currently in production?
JB: Yeah, I’m shooting season two of this Fox TV show I’m on called The Moodys with Denis Leary and Elizabeth Perkins.
DC: With Random Acts of Violence coming out On Demand and on Blu-ray, it’s going to be a couple days after Valentine’s Day. Is this really a holiday themed horror movie in disguise?
JB: (laughs) It’s a Christmas flick. I was about to say it’s a good date flick, too, but I can’t imagine it actually is. Without giving too much away, there’s a lot of bad vibes in that flick. It’s definitely not a “Virginia is for Lovers” kind of thing.
DC: I liked the look of The Man that Simon Northwood played. The welding mask reminded me of Don’t Go In the House.
JB: Oh cool, yeah he ended up cutting a pretty ominous figure. That’s all down to…yeah, the aesthetic is cool and we took that out of the comic book that it’s based on. But it’s also just Simon who plays The Man is just a fucking force of nature. He’s a real specimen. He’s a very, very soft spoken lovely man but huge and a very accomplished martial artist and a fuckin’ good actor. My god, if our movie is remotely truthful or remotely scary, it is in large part down to Simon.
DC: Now that you’ve had a little space from the film, what do you think about the visceral violence of the killings? Did you go too far or not far enough? With the killer being inspired by the graphic novel, viewers may have expected it to not be as serious. Especially when they see that you’re starring as well given your background.
JB: We knew people would go in expecting Shaun of the Dead or something. One of the things I’m most proud of in the movie is our approach to the violence because I think it’s really successful. It’s the one thing that no one can take away from us. It’s a pretty polarizing flick and there are a bunch of people that fucking hate it. But no one can dispute how fuckin’ hard we went. Maybe there needs to be a new approach to onscreen violence which is informed more by WorldStarHipHop fight videos. We started talking, ‘How come it always feels stagy?’ You can see the choreography, you can see the sequence in it.
If you’ve ever been in a fight or near someone having a fight or watched any fight videos, its doesn’t feel like that. It’s clumsy. Not every punch lands flush and only in movies does every single bottle, pint glass and chair shatter on impact. It typically wouldn’t happen like that which is way grosser. That was the kind of clumsy energy we wanted to imbue the violence with because A) It’s just fucking scarier, and B) It’s more authentic. If somebody in the audience is high-fiving the guy next to him because of how crazy the arterial spray is onscreen, then they might be feeling many things but one thing they’re not feeling is fear! There’s nothing scary about that shit.
Once it gets to Monty Python territory where stuff is anatomically incorrect and bodies do things that they would never do in real life, then it’s not scary and you’ve forfeited any chance of maintaining a semblance of truthfulness. So we wanted it to be clumsy and subtle and small and imperfect and dirty. We also wanted to bury the sequence. We wanted people to be like, ‘Oh man, how long is this fucking thing gonna go on for?’
DC: Yeah! definitely the first stabbing in the car, I love that roof POV shot, too. That setup looked like it was inspired by Psycho a little bit.
JB: Oh, awesome thank you!
DC: But yeah, when I’ve been in a fight or seen them, for some reason everybody hugs at the end.
JB: (laughs) Exactly. There’s a weird degree of catharsis.
DC: What can you say about the status of Exorcism Diaries? Being a lover of Starry Eyes and the Pet Sematary remake, anything involving directors Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer is on my radar.
JB: They’re very talented dudes. I have no fucking clue. They came in after us. It seems to be one of those unwritable scripts. I know that Jesse [Chabot] and I were number 2 or number 3 at the gallows when we got our pass at it. Who knows if it ever comes out and in what form it’ll come out. I’d certainly get a kick out of some of our shit being in there in the final product. We wrote a bunch of crazy shit and got to write a scene in 3,000 B.C. so that was pretty dope.
DC: Well, anything you’re a part of we’ll definitely be covering especially if it’s horror.
JB: Thank you so much for your kind words and it certainly will be in the genre.
Random Acts of Violence is available on VOD, Digital HD, DVD & Blu-ray Fenruary 16, 2021.
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