Pollyanna McIntosh Talks Let Us Prey
Matt Boiselle
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We here at Dread Central recently had the opportunity of speaking with Pollyanna McIntosh, who back in 2011 served as the ultimate caveat against trying to make a feral chick into a house pet in Lucky McKee’s The Woman. She now stars in the horror/thriller Let Us Prey (review), releasing on DVD and Blu-ray May 26th, and she was generous enough to sit down and field a few questions for us – so sit back and enjoy!
Dread Central – Can you give us a look back at how you got your start in the business?
Pollyanna McIntosh – When I was a kid, I used to do a lot of theater because I loved it – not paid, not professional, but I’d been doing it since I was about 9. I moved to L.A in 2004 after I’d gotten my degree in drama and basic study of psychology in London, and my first audition was for a movie called Headspace, which was produced by Andrew van den Houten, and he gave me my start. He auditioned me and thought that I was good for the role, and that movie helped me get a manager, and I then got an agent, and it all went from there. Andrew has been a huge part of my career because he also directed and produced Offspring, which then became The Woman, which he produced.
DC – Let’s talk about Let Us Prey – tell us a little about the story as well as your character, Rachel.
PM – It’s going to be an entertaining and bloody horror film with strong cast development, and I play Rachel, who is a rookie cop who comes to a small backwater town, and her first night on the job as a policewoman – she’s got a very troubled past that she tries to contain inside herself, but on this particular evening, she meets this mysterious stranger called “Six,” played by Liam Cunningham, and he’s brought into the cell where everyone’s ills become apparent, and it’s a night where everyone must face what they’ve done in life, and Rachel is stuck in the middle. She becomes a sort of moral compass, and someone who seems unwilling to accept her new role as such, kind of like Ripley in Alien, where she doesn’t want it to happen, but then she starts kicking everybody’s fucking ass – so she ends up taking care of business.
DC – This looked like a very physical role – did you undergo any specific training for it?
PM – You know, I did work out – it’s not like an independent film, where you’re given a trainer or a stuntperson, or you’ve got weeks and weeks to practice, but we had a great team of people, and we really enjoyed ourselves with that. I’ve never had to run through fire before, or be tackled by a giant man, but we did it all with good humor, and we had a really good time doing it.
DC – Now you’ve covered a multitude of roles over the course of your career – is there one role that you could look at and say, “no way, I’m not going to do that.“
PM – Oh man, I’ve turned down a lot of stuff! There’s been a lot of stuff out there that doesn’t suit me, and it may seem that I take on extreme roles, and obviously it’s how you make your living, but I turn down a lot more than I take. There’s always something that I end up doing that I can find fun with, or a role that I feel has something to say, or if it will challenge me in some way, and with this one, the script came to me and I thought, “There can be something great there, but I want to see who’s making this movie, because it could be something too exploitative.” Luckily, the director was Brian O’Malley, and he was the right man for the job, and I felt quite comfortable working with him, so we tweaked a fair amount here and there with Rachel, and when you’ve got a director like that, you know you’re going to be in good hands. I hope I’ve done it some justice, because it was something I really wanted to do.
DC – Lastly, what can we expect to see from you in the future?
PM – Well right now I’m down in Baton Rouge, LA, filming a TV series called “Hap and Leonard,” directed by Jim Mickle (We Are What We Are) – it’s a great cast with James Purefoy, Michael Kenneth-Williams, Christina Hendriks, Jimmy Simpson, and some other great actors – it’s a great dramatic series set in the 80’s, and I’m having a lot of fun playing a character named Angel. I’ve also got a dark comedy that I’m directing and acting in called Perfect, and it’s about a stand-up comedienne, and I’ve only shot 4 days of that, and I’ve got a British Hammer-style horror film called It’s Walls Were Blood, and that’s with Paul Davis on direction, and just before Christmas I finished up Tales of Halloween from Lucky McKee, who directed my section, and that will be out in October of 2016 – that was crazy-assed fun!
DC – Now here’s a question off the beaten path – when do you find time to breathe?
PM – Between smoking? Not much! I really like what I do – I’m really happy.
Let Us Prey Release Details:
A new breed of screen villain takes over in LET US PREY, about a malignant loner’s chilling effect on everyone he encounters during a night in jail. The supernatural horror film will be available on VOD and Digital Download from Dark Sky Films on May 26, 2015 – it will also be available on Blu-ray/DVD day & date.
Rachel (Pollyanna McIntosh; The Woman, Filth), a rookie cop, is about to begin her first night shift in a neglected police station in a backwater town. Surrounded by both disgruntled officers and irate petty offenders, her job becomes all the more difficult and terrifying when a mysterious man (Liam Cunningham, “Game of Thrones”‘ Davos Seaworth) is brought in and strange things start happening to everyone in the station.
As it becomes clear that the enigmatic stranger, known simply as Six, has something to do with the supernatural, terrifying events, Rachel finds herself in a fight for her life against cop and criminal alike as one by one they turn on each other. Now she must survive the night and uncover the stranger’s true plans for the station’s hapless denizens before she too falls prey to the unholy power that seeks to destroy them all.
Also starring in the film are Hanna Stanbridge (Outcast) and Bryan Larkin (TV’s “Outlander”).
LET US PREY marks the auspicious directorial debut of Brian O’Malley. Sight & Sound listed the film as one of the best horror films of 2014. Sarah Boslaugh of Playback called it “an effective and surprisingly philosophical horror film.” The List’s Henry Rothmore said it is “an intriguing horror flick. … Cunningham is suitably sinister and shadowy, spouting Bible quotes as he manipulates the others.”
The film was an Official Selection and audience favorite at both the Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, and Montreal’s Fantasia Fest. It won the Silver Méliès Award at the Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film and the Audience Award at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival.
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