Retro-nostalgic thriller Summer of 84 (2018) tells the story of paranoid youth Davey Armstrong (Graham Verchere), who comes to suspect his neighbour, police officer Mr. Mackey (Rich Sommer) is the Cape May Slayer. With the help of his three friends Tommy ‘Eats’ Eaton (Judah Lewis), Dale ‘Woody’ Woodworth (Caleb Emery), and Curtis Farraday (Cory Gruter-Andrew), he starts spying on his neighbour, gathering evidence to prove his suspicions right. While Mackey takes it with good humour to begin with, soon Davey and his friends have come too close to the truth and they find themselves in peril.The film is the sophomore feature of the Montreal-based film making collective RKSS (Roadkill Superstar), comprising François Simard, brother and sister Yoann-Karl Whissell, and Anouk Whissell.
Following the post-apocalyptic Turbo Kid (2015), their urban set thriller is initially a stark contrast. Yet perhaps the orphaned teen’s battle with the older and ruthless warlord and heroics to save the girl in Turbo Kid is not far removed from the story of teen Davey versus symbol of authority Mackey, alongside his infatuation with the beautiful older girl next door in Summer of 84.
In conversation with PopMatters, members of RKSS discuss learning how to watch movies, those behind-the-scenes choices that go unseen, and how easy it is to forget the human presence within filmmaking.
Why film as a means of creative expression? Was there an inspirational or defining moment?
François Simard: I was young, eight or nine years old, and the movie that made me want to make films was An American Werewolf in London (1981) because on the VHS there was a making of, where they showed how they did all the prosthetics.
Yoann-Karl Whissell: That movie sparked my desire to make films. Anouk and I are brother and sister, and our dad brought us a huge VHS camcorder when we were very young, so we started making films.
Anouk Whissell: I feel that being brought up in a family of cinephiles sparks that interest early on. While we were making short films for fun, when they started going around the world on the festival circuit, that was when I started to believe creating movies could be possible as a profession.
How have your experiences as filmmakers influenced how you watch films as spectators, and has it changed your appreciation for the filmmakers and films you admire?
Anouk Whissell: Yeah, I think it’s a professional transformation if I can say that; although it’s a word we can say in French, I don’t know if it translates well in English. Sometimes, it’s more difficult to enter into the stories because you start thinking about the characters, how everything is, why this, and why the rhythm. You start over analysing the movies you are going to. So I find it refreshing when I sit in the movie theatre, and I’m involved in just disconnecting and entering the movie.
Simard: I taught myself to do that because often you start watching a film, and then suddenly you see a camera movement, and you’ll be: Oh, that was clever. I liked how he played it like this, how he expressed his emotion. Then you realise that you just jumped out of the film because you are overthinking.
Yoann-Karl Whissell: The fact that we made two features with a very small budget gave me a lot of respect for every other filmmaker because it’s hard. People think the movie you show is your vision, that this is what I wanted you to see, and the reality is no. We don’t know what the conditions behind the camera are and so I definitely have a lot of respect, and I guess love for filmmakers that were able to make it through, and deliver a good movie.
Simard: And when you see a shot and you say, Maybe I would have done it differently, you don’t know the sacrifice that director has had to make to do it that way.
Interviewing Paul Schrader, he remarked: “All any artist is ever doing is collecting influences, sources and experiences, and putting them together. That’s what we do and any artist that says that is not true is lying.” Would you agree?
Anouk Whissell: Absolutely, and it translates to every form of art. It is not only cinema, it’s all artistic…
Simard: …music, dancing; everything is influenced by…
Anouk Whissell: …the things you have seen, watched, and the things that you have heard. There’s nothing new coming out, it’s always a cycle and a mash up of all things that have already been done. Sometimes, it’s even instinctive; it’s not something you plan on doing because it’s just becoming part of you, part of how you grew up and how you got into this. So, it translates by itself sometimes as well.
Yoann-Karl Whissell: It goes beyond other art because it’s your relationship with other human beings—everything influences what you do. And so, it becomes your own mashup, but there is a mashup.
Simard: As Long as you make it yours and fresh, I would say. We can go back to the earlier question, and for me, it was early movies from Peter Jackson; I loved Braindead (1992) and Bad Taste (1987). You can see the influence on our short films, on the set pieces of Turbo Kid (2015), and Peter Jackson was probably one of my heroes, and that’s why I’m making movies right now because I love his stuff so much. But like I said, as long as you make it yours and as long as you make it fresh.
One of the challenges confronting you in telling this story is the audience’s familiarity with the notes the story is likely to hit. Is the key to creating an immersive experience that has such an effect as to dull this conscious awareness?
Yoann-Karl Whissell: But we used that in Summer of 84 in another way. In the movies Stand By Me (1986), The ‘Burbs (1989), and The Goonies (1985), everything people are used to the code of four boys going on an adventure, and by the end of the film, we have subverted those codes. So we used the way people think about those films and played on them, pulled the rug out from underneath their feet, or switched what their expectations were and gave them something else.
Anouk Whissell: Yeah, we used their expectations to trick them into thinking they know where this movie is going and that they will be safe, but by the end, they will not be because we take that safety away from them.
Being manipulated in life is not a pleasant experience, yet is the false sense of security and discovering we have been manipulated the source of one of the great pleasures of storytelling?
Simard: It is the greatest pleasure, but it’s risky, like you said because it needs to be well done. Otherwise, you can lose your audience. But if it’s well done, it’s the greatest pleasure in the world when everybody goes: “I didn’t expect that!” And it’s fun to sit with the audience and feel their reaction at different moments in the film.
Anouk Whissell: I think the unexpected triggers the biggest emotional response.
Yoann-Karl Whissell: Apart from the fact that the movie pays homage to all the movies we loved when we were kids – we all love The ‘Burbs, The Goonies, Stand by Me, and The Monster Squad (1987). But the reason we said yes to the project and why we jumped in was especially because the story takes a huge risk. That’s why this movie will stand out from all the other ones and people will remember it.
Discussing Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015) with Leigh Whannell, he said: “This film makes me feel very exposed because directing is a lot like pulling a knife across your stomach and letting your guts fall out everywhere. You are just exposing yourself to the world, and it does make you feel very vulnerable because anyone who is judging the film is judging your own decisions, and your own personal tastes.” Do you share this feeling of vulnerability and do you perceive the film as being an extension or a part of you?
Anouk Whissell: You spend so much time discussing it and everything that it becomes a huge moment in your life. You’ve sometimes spent two or three years on this project, so it becomes personal, and you work hard to make it the best you can. Then, when you unleash it to the public for the first time, it’s nerve-wracking because it can either go well or wrong, and you can’t expect what will happen. And yeah, it does hurt if the audience doesn’t respond well to it because it means you fell.
Simard: It’s a tough business, and you are as good as your last film. People are getting harder and harder on films. It hasn’t happened to us so far—knock on wood—but for other directors, sometimes people go out of their way to be incredibly mean to them. But you have to understand there’s a human behind that project who gave their soul to it, and you don’t know what they went through.
Yoann-Karl Whissell: With Turbo Kid we learned that you can’t please everyone anyway, we can only please some of them.
Anouk Whissell: We were incredibly lucky with both our first two features because so far, we have had an incredible response from the audience. And we like to be in the room with them and feel the reception. But so far, we’ve been pretty lucky.
When I interviewed filmmaker Christoph Behl, he remarked, “You are evolving, and after the film, you are not the same person as you were before.” Do you perceive a transformative aspect to the creative process, and should the experience of watching a film offer the audience a transformative experience?
Simard: I know that personally, yes, as a director, you have grown after making a film. You have learned new things and you are not the same person. As a director, you hope that at least – and especially with a movie like Summer of 84 – for the weeks to come, the audience will think about it or have conversations with their friends. I don’t know if you change them, but you make them feel and think something. That’s what’s important.
Summer of 84 has its European premiere at Arrow Video FrightFest 2018 on 23 August and is released on VOD and Digital HD in the US on 24 August by Gunpowder & Sky.