The film Glorious is the kind of productions whose summary one reads exclaiming: “Excuse me? ! It’s also the kind of work you can only see at the Fantasia festival, which is in full swing until August 3.
Behind closed doors at the same time horrifying, comic and cosmic, Glorious recounts the misadventures of a young man who, having become a prisoner of a rest stop toilet, must communicate with a mysterious stranger through a “ glory hole (the usual function of the “oral blow job” gives rise to one of the best gags of the film). Excuse me a bit: it’s none other than Oscar winner JK Simmons who lends his voice to the stranger. Faced with such a proposal, an interview with the director Rebekah McKendry was essential.
“We had been in the pandemic for about three weeks, and my husband [le coscénariste David “Dave” Ian McKendry] and I kinda felt like it was the end of the world. A friend of mine then sent me this script by Joshua Hull, telling me that it was my style. The concept was already there, with this guy locked in a toilet with, in the next cabin, an entity claiming to be a god, ”explains the filmmaker.
At the same time, Rebekah McKendry and her partner were discussing the various ways in which they could go about integrating not only philosophical content into an upcoming film, but moreover in an incongruous context.
“We had just seen for the umpteenth time Repo Man [la comédie culte d’Alex Cox campée dans le milieu de la saisie de véhicules et truffée de réflexions philosophiques]. At the same time, Dave and I share an immoderate love for the absurd. However, in this first version of Glorious, there was all that potential. With another friend, Todd Rigney, Dave and I reworked the script with this in mind. Think Rhinocerosfrom Ionesco, or Waiting for Godot, by Beckett. But in the toilet, ”says Rebekah McKendry, bursting out laughing.
For the count, the influences are quite discernible.
Lovecraftian patterns
Another very clear influence is that of HP Lovecraft. Endowed with a characteristic almost unpronounceable name, this deity lurking in the darkness beyond the hole in the partition evokes, when we finally see him, this “dreadful ancient race of beings from another dimension”. A sprawling cluster, the protagonist’s improbable jailer could just pop out of Color Out of Space (The color that fell from the sky).
“I love Lovecraft. And his influence was already in Joshua’s script from the start — that’s one of the reasons why the project appealed to me so much. Lovecraft fascinates me with both his cosmic and aquatic deities. I didn’t have the budget to shoot in a huge reservoir, but I still wanted to allude, subliminally, to this aquatic aspect: you can always hear, for example, this dripping noise. »
In one mind-boggling scene, a sudden downpour in the restroom turns out to be a rain of blood that will keep the cramped set wet and sticky for the rest of the film.
Named Wes, the antihero played by Ryan Kwanten (from the series True Blood and Them) is visibly upset when you meet him. It is because he is dozing at the wheel that he stops at the famous rest area. From dreams to nightmares, then to hallucinations, we understand that he left behind, abandoned or fled a young woman, and that the memory of her haunts him.
“These dreamlike or nightmarish sequences are really my visual universe. It was also a way we found to get out of the camera without betraying it. »
We are thus entitled to a handful of delirious passages, as when this teddy bear to which Wes clings resurfaces in giant format in a feverish dream, swallowing it in a kind of enormous vaginal cavity.
“That moment was plot-defining, and with Dave, when rewriting, we were wondering how to make it visually meaningful as well as narratively. Spontaneously, I said: “We would have to find a way to ‘cronenbergize’ the scene.” When Cronenberg becomes a verb! I saw again Videodrome and that vaginal slit in James Woods’ stomach where he inserts a videotape… The bear was already something Wes used to cling to the memory of his ex… It’s an example of the sometimes associative and intuitive nature of the process. »
In subtext
It should further be clarified that despite the key setting element that gives the film its title, Glorious nothing scabrous or even sexual to speak of. The film has other ambitions, which it gradually reveals, like Wes’ past.
“One of the reasons I love horror so much is because it’s a genre particularly conducive to making comments in subtext. Invasion of the Body Snatchers [L’invasion des profanateurs de sépultures, de Don Siegel, 1956] was talking about McCarthyism? Godzilla [Ishirô Honda, 1954] talking about the atomic bomb? Absolutely, but by telling a story; seeming to be talking about something completely different. For me, the subject of Glorious, the point is misogyny. It’s this fear that Wes has of women. It is also this fear that he has of other men, ”summarizes Rebekah McKendry.
In this regard, it is interesting to note that, despite the tenor of the narrative, JK Simmons never resorts to threatening or gloomy inflections in his vocal performance.
“It’s one of the first things I discussed with JK. I wanted him to remain ‘sympathetic’, ‘banal’, to the point that it becomes unusual. But mostly because Wes, like most people, is socially conditioned to respond, to carry on a conversation even if he doesn’t feel like it. Except that if the caller had been disturbing or overtly weird, Wes—again like most people—would have gotten the hell out of here immediately rather than surreptitiously hunkered down like he does. »
JK Simmons on board
Exactly, how on earth did the director convince the star of whiplash (Oscar for Best Supporting Actor) and Being the Ricardos (named in the same category) to join a similar project?
“It’s pretty amazing. Once the final version of the script was finished, I sent it to David Matthews, my usual cinematographer — and above all a great friend. The idea was that we all confine ourselves together and shoot the film. After reading the script, he asked me if he could show it to JK Simmons, who is a good friend of his and who is, I then learned, passionate about Lovecraft and the weird. Of course I accepted. David came back to me less than 48 hours later telling me that JK loved it. I was like, “You fucking silly! ?” Immediately after, JK wrote to me to confirm that he was embarking on the adventure. I still can not believe it. »
After seeing the film, we want to say the same, but not for the same reasons. This is a compliment.
The film Glorious premieres on July 21 at Fantasia and will be released on the Shudder platform on August 18.