‘The Possession of Gladstone Manor’ Director K. Asher Levin Talks Flesh Walls And Epic Battle Royales [Exclusive]
Editor’s note: this article has been revised for clarity.
K. Asher Levin grew up on a steady diet of horror cinema, from Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead series to The Burbs and Gremlins. His taste was shaped not by slashers, but by more DIY, renegade filmmakers who were making weird stories that enchanted AND terrified audiences. So it only makes sense that he’s been working toward becoming a horror filmmaker himself. His latest feature The Possession of Gladstone Manor stars Jesse Metcalfe and Barbara Crampton and, according to Levin, is akin to early Wes Craven and John Carpenter.
The film follows Jamie, a young woman (Kaylee Cowen) trying to find her mother (Barbara Crampton) after she disappears investigating Gladstone Manor. Both she and her mother are clairvoyant, which her mother uses to investigate haunted locations. Now Jamie must tap into her own abilities to discover what happened at the manor. But what lurks there is more evil than she could have possibly imagined.
In an exclusive interview with Dread Central over Zoom, Levin spoke with us about starting out in music and how he eventually moved into the genre space, explaining that he’s “been on the fringes of coming out as a horror director for the last four years.”
Kid Rock And Snapchat Shows
Starting out in music, Levin was first in a band called White Star, which toured with Kid Rock in the early 2000. He credits that period of his life for why he loves the horror community so much.
“I just feel like the community has a similar vibe, anti-establishment, a little provocative,” Levin said.
From there, Levin began directing music videos for artists such as All Time Low before launching a teen girl-focused company that produced content for younger audiences, primarily comedy, romance, and drama. While Levin gained even more producing and filmmaking experiences there, it wasn’t exactly what he wanted to do. Until he joined Snapchat.
“I got hired by Snap to help steer their Snap Originals program,” said Levin. “One of those shows got me back into doing thriller and horror. I created this show called Save Me, and it was this thriller [about] a cult and William Mapother [who stars in The Possession of Gladstone Manor] was actually the cult leader.”
The Horrors Begin
Then, Levin decided to take the plunge into horror feature filmmaking. In 2022, he directed the vampire influencer film Slayers, starring Thomas Jayne and Malin Ackerman.
“Slayers was originally called with Teeth because I’m a big Nine Inch Nails fan. And it was much more evocative and not as goofy,” he said. “I initially pitched it as a 1978 John Carpenter movie. And a little bit like The Hunger and Near Dark.”
With that experience under his belt, Levin charged into his next projects, which include screen-life slasher Stay At Home and haunted house nightmare The Possession At Gladstone Manor. In fact, Levin got Gladstone Manor thanks to his work on Slayers.
Enter The Manor
Levin explained, “That’s why originally the script was brought to me because the producers were fans of Slayers. They were like, ‘Hey, do you want to make this movie?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, but I want to make this movie’, and I sent them the first 10 minutes of the original version of Slayers, which is the only thing I have left. And I said, ‘If you want to make the movie look like this, then I’ll do the movie.’ And they’re like, ‘This is amazing. Absolutely.’”
And thus began The Possession of Gladstone Manor, which went through rewrites and several casting iterations before landing on the current cast, featuring horror royalty Barbara Crampton and Lin Shaye, as well as Kaylee Cowen and Jesse Metcalfe.
A Horribly Great Cast
“Originally this movie was two brothers and then the sister, but the sister was the third role and the two brothers were the leads,” said Levin. “And when I came on, I said, ‘I’d like to flip that.’ I think I personally like doing movies where females are leads. I don’t really know why, but I think that you can make more complicated characters and have more fun with female leads in 2024.”
Cowen plays that lead and her performance is described by Levin as “a revelation”. The star has dipped her toes in horror before, appearing in titles such as Willy’s Wonderland and the 2021 Prom Night. But with The Possession of Gladstone Manor, we’re going to see a very different side to the young actor. “I keep telling her that performance reminds me of Rooney Mara. It’s incredible,” said Levin. “She’s totally different than she’s ever been.”
Then there are the horror icons of it all with Crampton and Shaye on screen together for the first time ever. Yes, you read that correctly. While both women have dominated and shaped the genre for decades, they’ve never starred in a film together. So, Levin’s excited to make history with one hell of a finale featuring the two actors.
“Because I ended up getting [Crampton and Shaye], I rewrote the ending,” said Levin. “No spoilers here, but it’s a supernatural battle royale between Lynn and Barbara and it is wild.”
Set Pieces
Levin really stretched his creative muscles on this feature, especially when it comes to set pieces and moments that will be etched into the audience’s collective memory. One such moment, which comes at the end of Act Two, sounds like something out of a nightmare.
“I kept coming up with these demented set pieces that were more and more demented as I started prepping and looking at things until I created this thing that I’ve dubbed the Flesh Wall,” said Levin.
Now, what exactly is the Flesh Wall? Well, as you can guess, it’s a wall made of flesh. But more specifically, it’s a wall of dead, naked women weaved into a strange honeycomb. All achieved practically, of course. But why a wall made of dead women? All will be revealed in time, dear reader.
“It looks like somewhere between Clive Barker and Francis Bacon,” said Levin.
Not Even The Bathtub is Safe
But that’s not the only set piece to look forward to, as Levin teases a moment involving a bathtub, unlike anything anyone has ever seen. And it’s all thanks to Barbara Crampton.
“I have a bathtub scene with Caylee that is the craziest bathtub scene everyone’s ever done,” said Levin. “Barbara pitched me how we did the bath scene. Barbara goes, ‘You know what I’ve never seen?’ and that’s what we did.”
With Crampton taking on more producing roles, it’s no surprise to hear her ideas helping shape this film’s iconic moments and specific brand of horror.
The Literal Moving Image
Levin also took inspiration from the art world in creating his mad vision, specifically looking to the video artist Bill Viola for a special portrait technique.
“Bill [Viola] had an exhibit at the Getty in LA 10 years ago that were these family portraits, but he did them with video and they were done in Slowmo. And it reminded me a little bit of the Haunted Mansion,” said Levin.
So he adapted a form of that technique for all of the portraits hanging in Gladstone Manor. “We had [our photo subjects] against a green screen and I had them do all this stuff and we ran it at like 300 frames per second. [Then] I could manipulate [the image] to be still, but then if someone walks by, I could slowly have it move. And then in certain scenes, I could speed it all the way up for an effect on a jump scare.”
That’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to set pieces in The Possession Of Gladstone Manor. “It definitely has some sort of phantasmagoric crazy Lovecraftian stuff around it, but it’s all wrapped in a haunted house movie,” said Levin.
Suffice it to say, it sounds like Levin is crafting something nasty for us rabid horror fans looking for fresh kills and fresh takes on the genre.
“There’s a lot there, but I think there’s some stuff that no one’s seen before,” said Levin.
The Possession of Gladstone Manor is currently in post-production.
The Possession of Gladstone Manor was produced by Brian Katz and Thomas Zambeck via Umbrelic Entertainment and Christopher Knitter and Jordon Rioux of Method Media in Kansas City. Sean Krajewski, Ronnie Exley, Theresa Wayman, and Jeremy Ross are Executive Producers via Rabbits Black. Anish Gupta also serves as an Executive Producer.
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