GRAFTED: Our Interview With New Body-Horror Director SASHA RAINBOW!

Introduction

In Grafted, a bright but socially awkward exchange student takes her craving for popularity to horrifying new heights.

Synopsis

Chinese scholarship student Wei travels to New Zealand to study medical research at a prestigious university. Shy, introverted, and hiding a genetic facial birthmark, Wei is shunned by her social butterfly cousin Angela and her glamorous friends. Determined to change her fate, Wei immerses herself in her late father’s research, working on a revolutionary skin grafting procedure that could cure her deformity.

As her experiments take a dark turn, she becomes more dangerous and unhinged, willing to eliminate anyone who threatens her secret.

A Word from Sasha Rainbow

When I first read Grafted, I was blown away. I wondered why I was pulled through with such ease and entertainment (considering the incredibly morally questionable and violent story) and I realized it was because the victim, our protagonist, Wei, leads us through her story, from her perspective; and by sharing it with us, she is empowered and emboldened in the process, forcing us to see her as a force of life, as a human; as one of us. It’s so easy to turn away, to avoid confronting what makes us uncomfortable.

I love the social commentary of the ‘Mean Girls’ themes in the film, a reflection on how society creates its own monsters. The brilliant dark comedy sets a new tone in this horror film, one that doesn’t allow us to put our protagonist in a box; it’s a savagely funny and self-aware portrait of what it is to be a victim of society’s cruelty that makes you re-examine a story you thought you knew all too well.

From the epic opening sequence to the moment Wei accidentally spills her first blood, every single detail plays with the audience’s expectations, forcing us to question our own sets of beliefs and values, asking us the question – what would we do?

Interview

Cinema Scholars’ own Glen Dower sat down with Sasha Rainbow, writer/director of the new body horror film Grafted, starring Eden Hart and Jess Hong. They discuss the exhilaration of directing your first feature film, how important it is to band together when you only have a 25-day shooting schedule, and the numerous horror films that influenced Sasha, among other topics.

Glen Dower:

Sasha Rainbow, how are you, Ma’am? 

Sasha Rainbow:

I am excellent. Super excited about Grafted being birthed into the world.

Glen Dower:

Oh, I bet, this is your first feature film as well. How does that feel? That step up after your handful of really cool shorts into a whole feature of awesomeness.

Sasha Rainbow:

It feels bloody brilliant! I mean, we all know that that’s like a horror story unto itself: trying to get your first feature off the ground. And for such a cool script to land on my doorstep, I mean…it’s fucking awesome! I couldn’t have wished for anything more. I was actually working on something similar to that for about a year and a half, like thematically back here in lockdown in LA. And when Grafted came through my inbox, it was almost like the gods had sent it to me because it was so thematically similar to what I’d been pouring all my energy into. I was like, oh, this is an absolute hard yes for me.

Glen Dower:

That’s great. The film has been widely praised and described as Face/Off meets Mean Girls, which I think is accurate. I also felt a sprinkle of Carrie in there. I don’t know if you agree, but there’s something in there. We don’t want to give too much away, of course, but the first note I made while watching, and I have watched it twice now, and my first note was, ‘Whoa, and we’re off! Boom.’ That first scene. Should we say economical? We get all the little layers in there and we get some, again, I don’t want to spoil anything, but whoa, the gore is flying. Scene one. How important was that first scene to you to get just right? 

Sasha Rainbow:

It was so important because we take, hopefully, the audience on a bit of a journey till things get really, really crazy. So the first scene, I think everyone has a founding moment on who they’re going to become. I think in order to experience the journey in our modern day, like you said, ‘Mean Girls World’, we really needed to understand ways, our founding moment, so to speak. And it is horrific and gory. And I wanted to let everybody know that this is the ride you’re going to be taking…but bear with us. Let’s get to know her a little bit more in her present day. It was really, really important. And obviously working with a younger version of herself as well, getting that right. You know, that was a really interesting journey.

Glen Dower:

Definitely. There are those little layers of darkness in there as well, like her little joy of feeding the snake. We think, oh, she’s a little angel, a little sweetheart…oh, maybe she’s not. Then we time jump…into what must be an actor’s dream, with some of the ladies in your cast playing each other. That must’ve been a lot of fun for Eden and Jess. Firstly, how did they come to join the film and what was the casting process like?

Sasha Rainbow:

It’s absolutely bonkers. Not only do you only have 25 shooting days, but you’re also working with young women in sometimes their first role to take on this epic journey. And not only that, they play different versions of themselves and each other. And I wasn’t even sure if we’d be able to pull it off. First of all, Eden was just a no-brainer. I mean, I love how much she is able to encompass the sort of Mean Girls aspect, but then really go into the deep, raw, violent version that she plays. And then it was really about creating a bridge between all of them. So we did some exercises and I only had two rehearsal days with them.

We didn’t have a long time. I was like, are we going to be able to pull this off? And I got them to kind of experience their journey together. So we sat in a group and got each of them to sort of talk about where they were at mentally. We kept going around in the group and they would just bridge off each other’s experiences. And then one of the other things was just the physicality of it all.

I thought about the main character, the evolution of man, and how those images of homo sapiens, hunched over grow into these sorts of humans in a visual sense. For me, that was interesting because I think the way she almost starts really small and hides from the world, and by the end, she’s kind of flying. So it was about mapping out that kind of physicality of that journey as well between the three of them. I’m amazed at what an impressive job they did. They were so much fun to work with.

Glen Dower:

And so much fun just to watch because I just want to talk about the horror genre now because I was late to the genre. I was a sensitive little child but then I discovered horror and Body Horror became my thing, almost literally as The Thing is my favorite movie. The Fly is on my list too. Now, I read an interview you did with Little Black Book and you said one of your inspirations was The Wizard of Oz, which of course is everyone’s first horror movie.

Sasha Rainbow:

Yeah, totally!

Glen Dower:

So how did other movies influence you? Maybe the color palette because obviously the Mean Girls aspect again, the pinks and the very vibrant colors throughout. Do you think maybe all the way back from Wizard of Oz influenced your color palette to be bright and vibrant and obviously the red, the blood is a constant theme throughout? What do you think?

Sasha Rainbow:

That’s so interesting. I never thought of The Wizard of Oz as a horror film but you’re absolutely right. You’ve just broken my brain! I think I was also late to the game because I basically freaked myself out around 13 with The Ring. I watched The Ring in the cinema. Then I watched the Japanese version. Then I went back to the cinema. And after that, I couldn’t have a television in my room. I couldn’t watch the TV turning off.

After that, I went, my brain is too sensitive. But then as I got into my film career, I was like, you know what? I think I need to make a horror film and get over this, you know? So this was a very cathartic experience. But in terms of color palette and everything, I wanted the universe to be its own thing and to reflect this story, this coming of age, as you said, Carrie-ish kind of coming of age, a body horror film.

And I felt like that world of pinks and pastels popping against the red is a kind of candy-colored reflection of the end of innocence. And so I thought that was far more interesting than leaning into the many cool tropes of horror, which we did do. We went and saw houses that were sort of falling apart and dilapidated and like cool, creepy wallpaper.

I just thought, you know, we’ve seen this before. How about we kind of really go hard into something that feels a little bit more fresh and a little bit more relevant to this story of the ideal of beauty and the facades that we present to the world? So that’s how we came about with that.

Glen Dower:

Back to the game and idea of horror and body horror, you’ve created the sub-genre of ‘face-horror’. I found it really interesting that body horror in particular is you want to look away, but you can’t because you don’t know what you’re looking at. And then the whole idea of it could happen to you – if it’s done right. We have the moment with the boyfriend, let’s call it the unpeeling incident, which is a credit to you and your VFX and makeup department, you don’t know if it is makeup or is it VFX. How much fun did you have playing with the practical and also the VFX? 

Sasha Rainbow:

I mean, it is mental with the time constraints and the amount that we had to do. It was a lot of fun. It was very much if you want to know the answer, it was a blend of the two. You know, our post house came in and just like took certain elements to the next level, which was a blessing because we could never have afforded the time or the money to do that practically. But yeah, I mean, come on, like there’s nothing better than like, without giving too much away, a bubble of blood emerging from somebody’s forehead before it starts to fall off. I mean, they’re the highlights.

When that all goes down, I mean, everyone just has so much fun with it. That’s the key to body horror, right? It’s basically, it’s gore and sound, really. That’s the really fun part, trying to create the most visceral experience you can for the audience. And I mean, it’s not real because you’re making it, and you’re still having the reaction, then you know you got it.

Glen Dower:

You have done the festival circuits and, of course, received some well-deserved awards. What moments in a packed house have really made the audience react? Do any moments stand out?

Sasha Rainbow:

What I would say, when I saw it with an audience for the first time at the Chicago International Film Festival in the Music Box Theatre, a really old and beautiful theatre, it was so exciting. Rather than specific moments, I think what people maybe weren’t expecting is the humor in it. You’ll have the whole crowd cringe with disgust and then burst into laughter. And that was really a fun kind of melody that I wanted to play with, you know, that kind of comic relief after something completely disturbing and disgusting. And I think the Mean Girls face-off kind of analogy is really interesting because it kind of does lean into that satirical humor that is throughout it. But hopefully, we don’t ever sort of disappoint in terms of the disgust factor.

Glen Dower:

It is a very fine balance because you have to have that comedy element. And moments are laugh-out-loud funny, like when we have that over-the-fence fight…And that is your favorite scene, correct? 

Sasha Rainbow:

It is my favorite scene. Yeah, it’s played by Eden with the neighbor. I mean, we have just some really amazing icons of New Zealand actors in there. One of them is playing the neighbor next door, the nosy neighbor. And I just thought that Eden’s visceral, violent, hilarious sort of enjoyment playing this role of this beautiful blonde is so satisfying after you’ve seen how meek and shy she was at the beginning. And hidden bodies in tow in the darkness behind her. It’s definitely my favorite moment.

Glen Dower:

It definitely stands out for sure. And I just want to go back to the point about how this is your first feature after you made a number of shorts. At Cinema Scholars, we always have readers who are aspiring directors and want to get into filmmaking but don’t know how. So I always like to ask directors can you give us some wisdom, some words of advice? And get them over that line to get making movies and be one day…be interviewed by me. Imagine that. So any words of wisdom you can offer, Sasha?

Sasha Rainbow:

Yeah, absolutely. I’ve thought about this a lot, actually, because I didn’t go to film school. So I feel very passionately about people feeling like they can take this route without going down the sort of traditional line. And one thing I would say, and it sounds annoying, but just make stuff. And I know that that sounds really hard. Like, how do I make stuff? First of all, you have a cell phone. Robert Rodriguez had to save $7,000 to have enough film to make El Mariachi and he put himself through medical experiments! You know, we don’t even need to do that.

We literally can start with a cell phone. But second of all, if you’re really lost, I’ve always thought that the most obvious way is to find people who are already making short films and feature films and offer to get involved. Offer to help out. It’s a community-based art form. And the minute you insert yourself into other people’s projects, you will learn so much. You can easily start to make contacts and connections with people who are also really creative and who you vibe off, and then start your own project. So you can’t really do it alone. And I wish I’d done that sooner, actually.

Glen Dower:

There we go. What a perfect way to close. Sasha, it’s been such a pleasure. I can’t wait for our readers and viewers to discover your film! 

Sasha Rainbow:

Thank you so much. So fun talking. Thanks, Glen.

Shudder presents Grafted, which is currently available on streaming/VOD platforms.

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