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BEHIND THE LENS #508: Featuring Renny Harlin and Bryan Fuller
This is a fun week for me on BEHIND THE LENS, given the two films that we're talking about and the two filmmakers I'm speaking with. It's a great way to kick off my 44th year as a film critic (although I was published with reviews going back 5 years before that)! Today you'll hear from one of my all-time favorite directors, RENNY HARLIN, as we talk about THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 3, which now completes his trilogy of the rebooted classic. And, then a new fave writer/director BRYAN FULLER, who makes his feature directorial debut with the sumptuous and fun visual feast, DUST BUNNY.
First up – RENNY HARLIN and THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 3.
The Strangers began back in 2008 thanks to w/d Bryan Bertino, who treated us to the tale of James Hoyt and Kristen McKay, who visit an isolated vacation home to enjoy some time together. Hopeful bliss turned into terror, making their stay a bloody nightmare. In 2018, director Johannes Roberts, with a script by Bryan Bertino and Ben Ketai, rebooted the franchise with The Strangers: Prey at Night, starring Bailee Madison, Lewis Pullman, and Christina Hendricks. It was always Johannes's intent to do a sequel, but that didn't pan out. But then in 2024, RENNY HARLIN stepped into the franchise with what has become a three-chapter series with all three films shot at the same time over 53 days of principal photography, with a cast led by Madelaine Petsch.
Now, we have the final piece of the puzzle with THE STRANGERS CHAPTER 3. Maya is again the last woman standing. She survived what she thought was the worst of the worst, but now she must move on. But how to do that, when she must face the masked killers one last time in a brutal, full-circle reckoning of survival and revenge. This final chapter is very internalized, very observational as Maya tries to absorb what all has happened while trying to understand the psyche of these masked psychopaths. Where lighting and lensing were the key tools in the cinematic toolbox for Chapter 2, sound becomes all-important with CHAPTER 3. And that's what Renny and I focus on in this exclusive interview.
Switching gears into a film that I absolutely love is my conversation with writer/director BRYAN FULLER, talking DUST BUNNY. This is a cacophony of creativity and truly a sumptuous visual feast! How the work of production designer Jeremy Reed was ignored by the Academy members in Oscar nominations is beyond me. His work, in concert with that of costume designers Olivier Beriot and Catherine LaTerrier, and cinematographer Nicole Hirsch Whitaker, is vibrant, alive, and magical.
Written and directed by Bryan Fuller, DUST BUNNY stars Mads Mikkelson, Sigourney Weaver, and a scene-stealing performance by Sophie Sloan as the precociously adorable Aurora.
http://eliasentertainmentnetwork.com
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By debbie lynn elias
5
66 ratings
This is a fun week for me on BEHIND THE LENS, given the two films that we're talking about and the two filmmakers I'm speaking with. It's a great way to kick off my 44th year as a film critic (although I was published with reviews going back 5 years before that)! Today you'll hear from one of my all-time favorite directors, RENNY HARLIN, as we talk about THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 3, which now completes his trilogy of the rebooted classic. And, then a new fave writer/director BRYAN FULLER, who makes his feature directorial debut with the sumptuous and fun visual feast, DUST BUNNY.
First up – RENNY HARLIN and THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 3.
The Strangers began back in 2008 thanks to w/d Bryan Bertino, who treated us to the tale of James Hoyt and Kristen McKay, who visit an isolated vacation home to enjoy some time together. Hopeful bliss turned into terror, making their stay a bloody nightmare. In 2018, director Johannes Roberts, with a script by Bryan Bertino and Ben Ketai, rebooted the franchise with The Strangers: Prey at Night, starring Bailee Madison, Lewis Pullman, and Christina Hendricks. It was always Johannes's intent to do a sequel, but that didn't pan out. But then in 2024, RENNY HARLIN stepped into the franchise with what has become a three-chapter series with all three films shot at the same time over 53 days of principal photography, with a cast led by Madelaine Petsch.
Now, we have the final piece of the puzzle with THE STRANGERS CHAPTER 3. Maya is again the last woman standing. She survived what she thought was the worst of the worst, but now she must move on. But how to do that, when she must face the masked killers one last time in a brutal, full-circle reckoning of survival and revenge. This final chapter is very internalized, very observational as Maya tries to absorb what all has happened while trying to understand the psyche of these masked psychopaths. Where lighting and lensing were the key tools in the cinematic toolbox for Chapter 2, sound becomes all-important with CHAPTER 3. And that's what Renny and I focus on in this exclusive interview.
Switching gears into a film that I absolutely love is my conversation with writer/director BRYAN FULLER, talking DUST BUNNY. This is a cacophony of creativity and truly a sumptuous visual feast! How the work of production designer Jeremy Reed was ignored by the Academy members in Oscar nominations is beyond me. His work, in concert with that of costume designers Olivier Beriot and Catherine LaTerrier, and cinematographer Nicole Hirsch Whitaker, is vibrant, alive, and magical.
Written and directed by Bryan Fuller, DUST BUNNY stars Mads Mikkelson, Sigourney Weaver, and a scene-stealing performance by Sophie Sloan as the precociously adorable Aurora.
http://eliasentertainmentnetwork.com