Q&A with ANTIBIRTH Writer/Director Danny Perez

Both unflinchingly realistic and strangely surreal, the new film Antibirth boldly blazes a path into a genre all its own. With IFC Midnight releasing Antibirth in select theaters and on VOD this Friday, September 2nd, I had the opportunity to catch up with writer/director Danny Perez for our latest Q&A feature to discuss working with Natasha Lyonne and Mark Webber, mixing contrasting elements in settings and tone, and much more.

Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions for us, Danny, and congratulations on Antibirth. It’s definitely a film that will stick with me for a long time to come. Had this story been brewing within you for a while? How long did it take you to write the screenplay?

Danny Perez: Thanks for your support. The script had gone through about twenty drafts over about four years. I had been interested in various elements of the narrative for years and it just took the right characters to allow me to build the world they could all clash and commingle in.

I was originally inspired years and years ago when I visited my older brother Gabriel who was in the Marines out in the desert of 29 Palms. I ended up naming one of the main characters in the movie after him. He told me about problems they were having with new recruits and enlisted men going stir-crazy on the weekends with nothing to do out in the desert. For shits and giggles, they would turn to drugs, local amphetamines, meth-type stuff to party with on the weekends. Get loaded, shoot guns, and then go back to being whipped into shape—it was an interesting duality that struck a chord for me.

How much of the filming for Antibirth took place in Michigan and how long was your shooting schedule?

Danny Perez: Zero percent took place in Michigan, haha. In order to make a satirical movie about America’s consumer culture we had to go to Canada. We really just chose Michigan because it fit the landscape and social milieu we were trying to create. The shoot was 17 hard, cold days.

Natasha Lyonne is phenomenal in the film and really makes you invest in her gritty world and surreal situation, and I understand that you wrote the role with Lyonne in mind. When did you first become a fan of Lyonne’s work, and what was it like collaborating with her in Antibirth?

Danny Perez: We’re about the same age, so it’s definitely a mindfuck to me that I was a fan of hers beforehand and that we’ve ended up working together and being very simpatico. Like many fans, I think her performance in Slums of Beverly Hills is pretty iconic. The movie is great as well, but she created such a character both visually and performance-wise. Collaborating with her was a blast, pretty wild at times, but so is the movie, so I think you do feel that energy in the movie. In that regard it does become somewhat personal despite the genre trappings.

I’ve been a big fan of Mark Webber since I saw Snow Day growing up, and it’s been a real pleasure to see him get a lot of juicy roles in recent years, including Gabriel, his character in Antibirth. Did you write that role with Webber in mind?

Danny Perez: Mark did not come onto the project until very last minute, like literally the last minute. He flew in from Costa Rica the night before and showed up to set on day one and he was there till the end. He was the one actor who had to stay in this small Canadian town in the dead of winter to finish the film. But I reveal this because it goes to show you that casting is so tricky and sometimes you don’t know who you’re gonna end up with. And sometimes you’re lucky as I was in the case of Mark, as he was someone who did a great job and now I can’t imagine anyone else playing that part.
He jumped into this movie pretty blind and took a big chance on me and the movie, so I’ll always appreciate that.

Throughout the film there is quite a bit of snow swirling around, which only adds to the film’s twisted fairy tale feeling. Did it really snow a lot during production? Was it a hindrance or did you welcome what it added aesthetically?

Danny Perez: The snow was another lucky accident. A pain at the time for sure. The movie was originally written to take place in the desert near Joshua Tree. Ultimately, I needed a desolate wasteland kind of location, so we traded cacti for rocks and snow.

It’s a nice factor visually, though. It does emphasize a certain bleakness and isolation, but it's not fun to shoot in. Night shoots in negative 20 degree weather are rough. Every time you see Natasha in the exteriors of the movie, just know that she’s freezing and still delivering a complete performance.

The “family-themed” Funzone and its mascot monsters were a great contrast to the film’s other grimy settings, and in a way, the Funzone’s false cheerfulness is creepier than the movie’s ominous abandoned building. What prompted you to include the Funzone setting in this story?

Danny Perez: For me, this moment epitomizes the entire approach of the movie as far as exploiting and cranking up dualities. I like the idea of creating this sinister and ominous mood with what would otherwise be festive and bright. It becomes a recurring idea in the movie: sexualizing the girl with the mutated mouth, gameshow footage and commercials being distorted to strange sounds, pregnancy being turned from something sacred to something monstrous.

I liked the idea of including children into the visual palette as well to reinforce this motif of toxic habits being instilled in the consumer from a young age.

Do you have any favorite alien abduction movies that inspired or influenced you while creating Antibirth?

Danny Perez: There’s not too many that go beyond the usual blue light and bug-eyed probers. Wavelength is a really cool one. I watched a lot of YouTube videos of experiencers and abductees. That’s where I stumbled onto the Milab conspiracy, which I’ll let your readers dive into if they’re so inclined. There’s a book called Passport to the Cosmos that I gave to Meg [Tilly] that had a lot of great material.

The climax of Antibirth is definitely a jaw-dropper and even reminds me a little of Re-Animator and Hocus Pocus in terms of the headless monster running around Lou’s trailer. What was it like shooting that scene and how did you pull off the creature effects?

Danny Perez: Well, spoilers ahead, haha: it was a combination of practical and digital FX. I love practical monster effects, but I'm also not a purist nerd about it. It’s naive to not see the advantage of combining the two. The movie Slither did this wonderfully.

The monster was a performer in a suit and we had to digitally remove his head. All the flashing lights kind of made it a pain for the VFX artists, but they did a great job.

With IFC Midnight releasing Antibirth on VOD and in select theaters on September 2nd, what do you have on deck that you can tease for our readers, and where can they find you on social media?

Danny Perez: I’m on Instagram @dipuss and readers can follow me there. I hope that people seek the movie out and support cinema like this. It’s not easy getting movies like this made, but I made it as a fan of the genre and the actors I got to work with.

I’m working on a comedy script now that would still have fantastical and violent leanings but perhaps a lil' more absurd. I’m interested in highlighting bizarre human behavior. In the case of Antibirth, the horror genre was one that served the tone I wanted well.

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In case you missed them, check out our Sundance Antibirth interviews with Danny Perez, Natasha Lyonne, and Chloë Sevigny.