Brandon Christensen & Jessica Clement Talk Babysitters, Scares, and Subverting Expectations in NIGHT OF THE REAPER
- creepykingdom
- Sep 22
- 6 min read
By Shannon McGrew
In the latest film from Brandon Christensen (Still/Born, Z, The Puppetman), NIGHT OF THE REAPER, set in the heart of a quiet, 1980s suburb, college student Deena (Jessica Clement, Dream Scenario) returns home and reluctantly takes on a last-minute babysitting job. That same night, the local sheriff receives a cryptic package that pulls him into a sinister scavenger hunt that sets off a game of cat and mouse with a dangerous killer. As the clues unravel, Deena finds herself ensnared in a nightmarish mystery that she may not survive.
For the release of NIGHT OF THE REAPER, Creepy Kingdom’s Shannon McGrew spoke with director Brandon Christensen and actor Jessica Clement. During their chat, they discussed everything from paying homage to classic babysitter horror tropes to overcoming brutal night shoots and crafting a final girl story with a twist.
Thank you both for chatting with me today. It’s always been a classic horror motif to set up a babysitter in a horror film. So, for you, Brandon, how difficult was it balancing a fresh perspective while paying homage to the films that came before?
Brandon Christensen: I think it’s such a tried and true thing to do. It’s an obvious horror setup when you’ve got a 16-year-old girl taking care of kids that they don’t really know in a stranger’s house. That’s ripe for horror. That’s why it’s been done so many times. When you’re doing something like this, you’re trying to subvert the audience’s expectations. It helps a lot to be able to lean on things that they’ve seen before, like movies like House of the Devil, Scream, When a Stranger Calls, etc. Horror audiences watch everything; they know everything. You can’t fool an audience member because they’ve seen it all. If you can use that against the viewer, that was kind of the goal of this: to show off all these cozy things we’re doing that they’ve seen before, but the whole time, they’re totally ignoring everything because we’re throwing these red herrings at you.
It’s fun for me because, when I watch with an audience and see that they don’t quite get it, and I know it, so I know what’s going on. I’m terrified that they’ll figure it out too early. It’s been a lot of fun to see if we can pull the rug out from under people. So far, it’s done a pretty good job of that.
For you, Jessica, what drew you to the role of Deena? Was there something in her journey that you connected with?
Jessica Clement: This is such a tricky question to answer without giving too much away. I think that because I’ve always been pretty small and meek, I tend to be typecast as the victim or the one who dies, so I have been wanting to play a final girl character for a while. The script really drew me in because it was such a different story, and it also made me feel a little bit stronger and autonomous.
How did you two collaborate to bring Deena to life and make her feel authentic?
Brandon Christensen: I shared certain movies like House of the Devil and was like This is the vibe that I want to capture for the babysitting stuff. I want a dark house, I want a girl in plaid. I want to have these things, and that’s the vibe of the film I like. I think I sent her When A Stranger Calls, too, because it's about being alone in a house with kids upstairs and things happening, which is precisely what we’re tapping into. It’s a primal fear of just not being in a comfortable place. You’re in a place that you’re unfamiliar with. There might be some vices you can find, and you probably will, but in general, it’s a very bizarre thing that we allow kids to do. For me, it needed to be played as earnestly as possible. You need to be scared.
Ultimately, we’re making a movie that we need to entertain first time through, and so it’s a balancing act because if you watch it again, it’s going to be a totally different experience. There are hints in Jessica’s performance that she can speak to where she’s doing certain things that will allow a second-time audience, if they do it, to see things that they didn’t see the first time. Jess was awesome and very receptive. She took the things and totally knocked it out of the park.
Jessica Clement: I had fun. That was the whole thing, balancing it. I made a timeline to track Deena's journey, and since we didn’t shoot everything in order, we developed our own language to communicate with each other. Creating a balance that avoids giving things away completely at the beginning. When you rewatch it, you’re like, how did I not see that? I wasn’t a genre actor to begin with; that style was not in me. So, it made it easier for me to play it more earnestly, which in turn helped with this film specifically. Now that I’m more familiar with this genre, I’m excited to hopefully be that genre actor at some point as well.
What was the most challenging aspect of making the film?
Brandon Christensen: I can personally speak on the cemetery scene because the day before we shot that, the skies in Calgary opened up, and it was just a massive blizzard. We had already shot the cold open, and it was supposed to be a summer night with a thunderstorm coming in. Then, all of a sudden, the location we’re shooting at is completely covered in snow, and it's around 9 or 10 PM. I’m talking to the producers, and I’m like, What are we going to do? We can’t move the day. So, I went three or four hours early and rented these giant snowblowers, and I spent three or four hours just blowing snow. I didn’t even have AirPods in [Laughs]. It was the craziest thing I’ve ever had to do. I walked in a pattern and blew away everything, and you can’t even see it in the final movie [Laughs]. There was more there than we shot, and it’s not even in the film. I wasted all that time, and I destroyed my boots. So for me, that was very challenging.
Jessica Clement: I knew coming onto this, it was called NIGHT OF THE REAPER, so I knew it was going to be cold and there were going to be night shoots. But I was excited because I was coming from a show that was more in the corporate world when it comes to creative things, so I was craving an indie. I wanted to get down and dirty, like in the trenches with everybody working hard and not being so pampered. We were doing a lot of night shoots outside, and it was so cold. There’s a scene outside where I’m holding a pretty heavy object for quite a while, and I was on day three of Norovirus and was really sick and weak. Brandon had to hold the end of it to take some of the weight because I was so weak in my arm and cold [Laughs]. But it adds to the tension in the scene.
What are you most excited for horror fans to experience with this film?
Jessica Clement: Horror fans are intense, and I know because I’m marrying one [Laughs]. Horror seems very polarizing, like you either love it or hate it. I think it might not be good if you feel neutral about something. I’m hoping that people either love this movie or hate it. I hope that they talk. I hope it sparks debates about whether they saw things coming or not. The overall goal is to trick the audience into thinking they’re watching something you are an expert on, only to reveal, "Just kidding."
Brandon Christensen: People always have their favorite binky movies. They love these movies. They return to them often. Often, they are movies with a specific vibe, like Halloween-related themes. They are very re-watchable, but ignore the story of the script and other details. People often mention cold opens like Ghost Ship, Scream, and The Ring. All these movies feature amazing short films that essentially kick off the main story. Going into this, that was a big thing too; I want to be in the pantheon of those movies. You can’t expect that, obviously, those are iconic films, but already in early reviews, people constantly bring those up because that’s what it’s kind of referencing, and that’s what people think about, and it’s a great honor to have that already.
People do those "31 Movies to Watch in October," and you’re always hoping that your film is on there. I’m praying that this one gets on that list and people want to revisit it. They'll want to share their experience seeing it, how it changed and evolved for them, and how they picked up on little things and clues we’ve sprinkled in. That’s really exciting for me because this is the first time I’ve done a movie that’s built to be rewatched. You can never expect anyone to watch anything; it’s a blessing if they do. If they enjoy it and give it another shot, I think it’ll be a really interesting experience for them.
NIGHT OF THE REAPER is now available to stream on Shudder.
