New Horror Express

Cody Calahan Interview – “The Oak Room”, Toxic Masuclinity & Small Town Bars

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Episode notes

NHE host Scott Murphy chats to director Cody Calahan about his film “The Oak Room”. A acclaimed hard-boiled neo-noir which is adapted from screenwriter Peter Genoway’s own play and sits firmly in the tough talking Mamet-esque tradition.

In the interview (the interview begins at 1:44) we talk to Cody about why he wanted to adapt Genoway’s play, how he tried to avoid the pitfall of making the movie feel “stagey” and how the film marks a departure for him given his previous three films have been Sci-fi horror’s. Also, he talks about the challenges of working on someone else’s material as opposed to his own and how the film was inspired by many ’90s films.

Elsewhere in the interview Cody talks about the film industry seems to become more risk-averse, the successful festival journey of “The Oak Room” (which was a hit at Fantasia and picked up the audience award at Grimmfest) as well getting into his latest film the serial killer therapy group horror-comedy “Vicious Fun.”

You can watch the trailer for “The Oak Room” here

You can watch the trailer for “Vicious Fun” here