Currently on VOD and in theaters is Colin Minihan’s dusty zombie road movie, It Stains the Sands Red, and to mark the occasion, Daily Dead was thrilled to catch up earlier this week with the film’s star, Brittany Allen, who spends most of the movie being chased down by a single zombie while traversing an unforgiving desert terrain.
During the interview, Allen discussed what she enjoyed about her character, who transforms into something of an anti-hero by the end of It Stains the Sands Red, the challenges she faced while shooting, creating “chemistry” with a zombie, and she even briefly chatted about her experiences collaborating with the Spierig Brothers on the upcoming Saw sequel, Jigsaw, which arrives in theaters this October.
I thought your character was so interesting because, as I mentioned to Colin, she starts off in this one place that’s pretty rough, and by the end of the movie, you're just so in love with her. It was really great to see a character go through this metamorphosis, and I was wondering if that was something that stuck out to you when you considered taking on the role of Molly?
Brittany Allen: Oh, yeah. Definitely. This was kind of a dream role for me. Actually, I shouldn't say "kind of." It was a dream role for me. I'm always drawn to characters and people who maybe are easy for people to judge and kind of see only their exterior hard shell, but who only have that hard shell because of how broken and afraid they are inside. So that's a big reason why I loved her, and I think characters like this is why I was drawn to acting in the first place, so I could portray people like that, and to encourage others to be more empathetic towards those that don't necessarily resemble them or who might put on a certain façade because of what life has sent their way.
Molly was the epitome of that for me, and it was such an honor to play her. And yeah, I just fell in love with her from the start, even all of her flaws, and I, too, was excited to present a very flawed person to the audience and hope that by the end of it, they could empathize with her.
You know, 90% of the dialogue in this movie comes from you, and you're in almost every single frame of this film. Was it daunting at all once you realized how much of this film was going to end up falling onto your shoulders at the end of the day?
Brittany Allen: Yeah. It was terrifying on a daily basis, really. It wasn't until a few days into filming that I was like, "Oh, wow. I have nearly all of the dialogue in this film." I don't know why that didn't occur to me leading up to it, but it just really hit me as soon as we got into shooting, and it was very daunting. It brought up a lot of my fears and a lot of my insecurities, but I actually found that those were some of the biggest tools that I had to approach in this one because Molly herself is facing her insecurities and feeling so burdened by them, and so it really worked. I was able to use those feelings, and then I was also able to overcome my own fears, as Molly overcame her situation, too. So it was a really transformative experience for me.
A lot of this movie is you sort of in this relationship that develops between Molly and Smalls, the zombie. And I've never really asked anybody how it is to develop chemistry with an actor who doesn't really talk and just basically skulks behind you, but there is a chemistry there that develops between your two characters. How was it working with Juan [Riedinger] to build that relationship?
Brittany Allen: Yeah, it was a combination of things, like depending on what the scene required and where I was at on a daily basis. So some days, I found it was deeply helpful to connect with Juan as a person because he is such a gentle, compassionate person that it really wouldn't take much before a scene to just check in with him. If I was struggling with connecting to him or connecting to a scene, all I would need to do was just tell him that, and the way that he received that was just so open and loving that instantly, the emotions would come up in me and it would all be under the surface, just needing someone like him to be warm enough to help them come up. He as an actor is just an incredibly giving person and very present, and so that was always helpful and it was so special sharing that with him.
But I would say, in a sense, that Smalls kind of came to represent all the different relationships in her life, depending on what she was working through, particularly her relationships with men and lovers and her father, so whoever she was projecting onto him in that moment, I would almost envision that person instead, because at times she didn't really even see him as a zombie. It was more just like he was a sounding board to her.
It was like she had this opportunity to sort out everything that's running through her head, as we do when we're not in the presence of someone, but we're having a fake argument with them because like, "Oh, if only they were here, this is what I would say." I think a lot of that was going on, too, with the zombie. All these things that she wished she could have said.
One last question before we go, and I realize you probably can't say too much, and to be honest, I'm a big fan of the series so I don't want anything really to get ruined. But I know that you're in Jigsaw, which is coming out this October. And so I was wondering how was it finding out that you were going to be a part of this movie? And are you able to talk about your character at all, or is that totally off limits? I'm just curious as to what you can tell us about it.
Brittany Allen: I can’t say much, honestly [laughs]. I think you can get a sense of the kind of character I might be in the film just based on how I look in the trailer. It was definitely one of those roles that when I got the audition, I was like, "I'm going to go get this role. I'm going to get this one." And I wish that that happened every time I audition for something, but it doesn't, and this is one that I instantly knew that I could really sink my teeth into this character if I was hired.
But, in terms of the character and the story, I don't think there's much I can reveal, but the experience itself was really, really positive, and the Spierig Brothers were just such a treat to work with. They're skilled and I love their previous films, and they really cared a lot about making a great film, and I think that they have. They have given new life to this franchise, and I hope that the diehard fans feel the same. But for me, it was definitely an honor. I feel like I'm being welcomed into a community that's been in existence for a while, and it wasn't really until after I booked it that I realized, "Oh, wow. I'm stepping into something that has a bit of a legacy right now, which is cool." So that was exciting.
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In case you missed it, check out Heather Wixson's interview with It Stains the Sands Red director Colin Minihan.
Heather A. Wixson was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs, until she followed her dreams and moved to Los Angeles in 2009. A 14-year veteran in the world of horror entertainment journalism, Wixson fell in love with genre films at a very early age, and has spent more than a decade as a writer and supporter of preserving the history of horror and science fiction cinema. Throughout her career, Wixson has contributed to several notable websites, including Fangoria, Dread Central, Terror Tube, and FEARnet, and she currently serves as the Managing Editor for Daily Dead, which has been her home since 2013. She's also written for both Fangoria Magazine & ReMind Magazine, and her latest book project, Monsters, Makeup & Effects: Volume One will be released on October 20, 2021.
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