LAFF 2016 Interview: Jackson Stewart and Barbara Crampton Take Us BEYOND THE GATES

Last week at the 2016 Los Angeles Film Festival, the supernatural throwback horror film Beyond the Gates premiered to a packed audience in Culver City, and hot on the heels of the successful debut, Daily Dead caught up with co-writer/director Jackson Stewart and co-star/producer Barbara Crampton to talk about their collaboration.

Also written by Stephen Scarlata (Jodorowsky’s Dune, Final Girl), Beyond the Gates stars Graham Skipper, Chase Williamson, Brea Grant, Justin Welborn, and Matt Mercer, and follows two estranged brothers (Skipper, Williamson) who return home to deal with their father’s video store business after he’s gone missing, only to uncover a mysterious VCR game that may be directly linked to his disappearance.

Congrats on the film, guys, I had a lot of fun with it. Jackson, can you talk about where this idea came from and the process of working on the script with Stephen?

Jackson Stewart: Basically, the idea came about when Steve and I were working on another anthology project which we ultimately didn't end up being involved with, but we were both brought on as directors for this thing. So we met there and then just started talking about our mutual interest in things like Euro crime movies from the ’60s and ’70s and just a lot of fear craft that only we were into. Steve told me, "I've had this idea of a VCR board game that leads to this other dimension," and I was like, "That's the best idea I've ever heard. We have to start writing."

So pretty much immediately, we just started outlining it and then spent the next several months working on it together and while we were doing that I was using Stephen’s clout from Jodorowsky's Dune to approach financiers, so that certainly helped us. But during that time, Steve and I would write up the outline and then bounce the script back and forth. I would do 20 pages, he would do 20 pages, and then we would rewrite each other after we agreed on all the story points.

Stephen wanted to skew more towards the set pieces in it and I wanted to drill down and focus on the relationships between the brothers, create the character Margot, and find some interesting stuff in there.

Excellent. And Barbara, at what point did you get involved with Beyond the Gates? I know you get offered a lot of different projects these days, so what was it about this one in particular that made you want to also come in as a producer?

Barbara Crampton: That's a good question. I had known Jackson for a few years and watched him work on a few short movies and get better and better with each one. At that time, I was working on another project that I was set to produce that got a little delayed and he said to me, "Well, you know, I have something that I would really like to have you come in and help me with in a producing capacity, so would you read it?"

And I was busy acting in a bunch of other movies, so it took me awhile to get to read the script, and he was on me for a little bit, and when I finally read the script, I called him within five minutes and said, "I love this movie. What do you want me to do and what do you need and when are you beginning and I totally want to be involved."

I just felt like it had all of the best elements of a throwback ’80s story that you could have—a really great, cool visual story with a lot of wonderful special effects that have a great foundation in the story. I loved the relationship of the two brothers and their journey together and that's what sealed the deal for me: the script and the story that these guys were telling.

Jackson, because this was your first time doing a feature film, was it important to have this core group of people that you knew as well as you did going into this? Or rather, did it make it a little easier for you to tackle such an ambitious project when you knew you had so many pros on board?

Jackson Stewart: Oh, yeah. My thing with this movie was I needed to get all my aces on board for it just because it was my debut. It's a huge undertaking to do any kind of a movie, whatever the quality level is, and so I was like, "Okay, well, I've got to get all these actors who I know will work in the role." Basically all the roles were written for the main actors in it.

But it was one of those things where I felt like I needed to surround myself with people that I knew would knock it out of the park and that I trusted and I had worked with before, and that extended into the crew as well. I just got to cherry-pick all these people I adore to work with on this movie, and it was a total dream come true. So yeah, I was very conscious of that.

Barbara, your character Evelyn becomes such a fixture throughout this movie and I love how easy it was to get drawn in because of her mannerisms. Obviously, this is a much different role for you than I think we've ever seen in your career, so what was your approach to playing her for the movie?

Barbara Crampton: The funny thing is, recently—and some of these movies haven't come out yet—people are embracing my bad side and this movie definitely appealed to me in that regard. I was a little bit more in control and I got to be a little more severe than you've ever seen me. She's this game host and I found the role fascinating. I hadn't watched any of these VCR horror games, but I'm actually glad that I didn't watch any of them beforehand. I just really talked to Jackson about what he wanted from the character and he clued me in on the energy he wanted.

Jackson also said that he wanted me to have a Barbara Steele appearance and feeling from Black Sunday, so I could immediately clue into that. Black Narcissus was another reference that he wanted me to watch. One of the more interesting directions that he gave me that was really subtle—and you probably wouldn't notice unless you were looking for it—but he didn't want me to blink, and so I didn't blink.

How much did this journey mean to each of you professionally and personally?

Jackson Stewart: Leading up to it, honestly it was pretty stressful for me because I've been working on this thing for two years at this point and it all culminates in your big premiere. So it was hard to look past that in the moment, but today I’m much better.

The big thing I took away from it was to trust my instincts and to surround myself with people that I adore and like working with, and keep good relationships with them. It's been a total dream working with everyone involved and it has been pretty incredible for me on multiple levels.

Barbara Crampton: For me, it's my first foray into producing, and to help a young filmmaker like Jackson to realize his dream and support him in his vision and keep talking to him about his vision and make sure that he's hitting all the notes that he wants to hit as far as the movie and script, was an amazing opportunity.

This has been really wonderful for me, aside from playing the fantastic part of Evelyn, to really look at all the different players and be able support all the actors and Jackson and Stephen, so that everybody feels that their voice is heard and their vision is complete and they feel like their ideas are employed. It was a really collaborative film and one that is born out of a lot of passion for throwback ’80s horror movies that we all love.