Exclusive: Ali Larter Talks The Diabolical
Staci Layne Wilson
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Ali Larter burst onto the horror film scene in the Final Destination and Resident Evil film franchises, and she starred as Nicki Sanders in the hit sci-fi TV show “Heroes.” The beautiful blonde’s next scary movie is called The Diabolical (review), and instead of being part of an ensemble with multiple storylines, she carries most of the movie herself – Larter plays a single mom trying to shield her two young children from an unspeakably evil force that haunts their home.
We got the chance to sit down with Larter recently in Beverly Hills, CA, to talk about The Diabolical.
Dread Central: I found The Diabolical to be one of the more memorable horror movies I’ve seen lately. It’s pretty unique. Was that the impression you got when you read the script?
Ali Larter: I did, it definitely to me is not your typical horror movie. It is a movie that’s core is the heart of this family and it’s about this single mother struggling to take care of her children against all odds and she’s got everything against her at this point; she’s losing her house, she’s coming out of a tragic loss of her husband, and with these kids she’s just trying to guide them in the right way. Her son is starting to exhibit aggressive behavior, and so there is this social worker that comes to the house, and no one is believing that she’s doing the best she can. What was really interesting was about this desire of, ‘What will you do to take care of your children at all costs?’ And then you have this backdrop of a horror movie, and it really says it perfectly because there is no other place that you could ask yourself that, dramatically.
DC: One of the things that struck me about it, having watched thousands of horror movies, is the fact that it starts right of with the haunting already having happened and it’s been happening. There’s no setup of the family moving in and so on.
AL: Alistair wanted to turn it around a little bit, as this is his first film. I watched his shorts before signing on. They were so eerie and beautiful and haunting. He had a full bible of how we wanted the movie to look, which he showed to me when we sat down to talk. He said with this he didn’t want to tell a cheap thriller horror story, that this is a moving story and it has heart to it but you still have the scares and you still have its smarts. There are different little clues all the way through it and so I think it’s like a nice kind of burn all the way through, and then you get that payoff at the end.
DC: I don’t want to spoil it, but it does kind of change genres, and it’s really cleverly done. You did mention that Alistair is a first-time feature director, so how did you guys connect and what made you want to take a chance on him?
AL: He reached out through my agency; my manager read the script and thought it would be something I would be interested in. For me it’s also about I love young filmmakers, I love the whole part of exploring. I’m not making a movie for the outcome; I’m making a movie for the creative experience. When you meet people that are passionate and have this dream of creating something, you want to help make that happen for them. I also connected to this character, and it timed up so that I was available to do it, and I was just excited to be a part of it. Ian Hultquist did the music so it was a gorgeous soundtrack… I just think it’s a really smart little movie overall.
The Diabolical was directed by Alistair Legrand in his feature film debut from a script he co-wrote with Luke Harvis. It was produced by Ross M. Dinerstein (The Pact, The Divide, Mr. Jones) and executive produced by Jamie Carmichael of Content Media and Kevin Iwashina of Preferred Content. The Diabolical marks the first film from Campfire, the new production company founded by Dinerstein and Content Media.
Look for The Diabolical in theatres on October 16th.
The film stars Ali Larter (Final Destination, Resident Evil: Extinction, “Heroes,” TNT’s “Legends”) as the divorced mother of two children who are awoken nightly in their quiet suburban home by an increasingly strange and threatening presence. She desperately seeks help from her scientist boyfriend, who begins a hunt to destroy the violent spirit that paranormal experts are too frightened to undertake. Arjun Gupta, Max Rose Chloe Perrin, Merrin Dungey, and Patrick Fischler co-star.
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