Double Blind<\/a> and returning as Jadis in The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live.<\/p>\nDouble Blind is the debut feature film from Irish director Ian Hunt Duffy and sees an experimental drug trial go awry. The affected test subjects then face a terrifying side effect: if they fall asleep they die. Trapped in an isolated facility, panic ensues as they try to escape and somehow stay\u00a0awake.<\/p>\n
Coming Soon\u2019s Senior Editor for Horror, Neil Bolt spoke with McIntosh before Double Blind\u2019s digital release this week about the high-concept horror and her role in it as a scientist for the shady drug company. McIntosh also discusses what she\u2019d do with four days of no sleep, her relationship with the horror genre, and reuniting with Andrew Lincoln on The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live<\/p>\n
Double Blind was really good. There\u2019s a strong sense of John Carpenter\u2019s Apocalypse trilogy to it, and I can\u2019t help but look at the central hook of \u2018\u2019stay awake or die\u2019\u2019 in that environment and think of A Nightmare on Elm Street, but clinical rather than supernatural. Yet, it was compelling beyond those comparisons. What about the project caught your eye when you were introduced to it?<\/strong><\/p>\nYou know, it all starts with the writing, and I was sent this by one of the producers. Patrick at Epic Pictures, who I\u2019d worked with on a couple of films he\u2019d distributed before, I like him, and I like his tastes. I read it and thought it was tight, no fat, and moving along at a great pace, but wasn\u2019t self-conscious in its capacity. It was still all about character, and I think it had a brilliant mix of everything. A high concept, but totally grounded. And sometimes, when you have a diverse cast of misfits, who are outcasts, it can be a bit on the nose, but these guys were so different from each other. They were truly characters that I could recognize.
With Ian (Hunt Duffy, Director), I contacted an actor friend who\u2019d done a short with him and asked \u2018\u2019Hey what\u2019s this bloke like? Can I watch the short you were in?\u2019\u2019 and it all came back positive. So I watched the short he\u2019d done, Gridlock, and I thought, \u2018\u2019This guy\u2019s interesting, you know? This is gonna be fun!\u2019\u2019 And sure enough, it was. Doctor Burke is such a wonderfully complex character and it was a role that gave space for me to shoot another movie around the same time (Apocalypse Clown) as well as voiceover for an HBO project called Scavengers Reign.<\/p>\n
So doing the comedy of Apocalypse Clown, and voice work on Scavenger\u2019s Reign, I\u2019m going into Double Blind and I think it worked out really well all around.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Was it refreshing or indeed challenging to go from mean, cold sci-fi horror to comedy horror?<\/strong><\/p>\nThe jobs lining up like that are just something that happens sometimes, and I think it works for me. I have ADHD and find it really suits me to be busy and challenged, I function better that way. So I find it easy to step in and out of different characters, As long as I\u2019m having a good time and I\u2019m with good people, there\u2019s nothing wrong with a busy schedule to me.<\/p>\n
And on that note, you get to effectively play two different versions of the same character\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\nYeah, yeah! When I look at my career, and I know that might sound grandiose, but I have played double characters in so many things!<\/p>\n<\/figure>\nIt\u2019s an interesting habit to get into, I suppose. If you can do it, then do it!<\/strong><\/p>\nRight, and she (Dr.Burke) is a complicated woman, and she definitely has two sides. I love the dreamscape element of the film and how well it works in the genre. I think it\u2019s rare to see a crossover between the two that world so sleekly and isn\u2019t self-conscious, and every element of the film is in sync. We could spend the whole interview talking about the score, for instance. That music is amazing.<\/p>\n
Yes, it\u2019s part of why it has those aforementioned Carpenter vibes to it. Rolling back to Dr. Burke, you\u2019re one of the few people working for Blackwood we see in the film. Did you alienate yourself from the actors playing test subjects?<\/strong><\/p>\nNo, you know it\u2019s funny, when I was doing The Woma, I thought I would be alienated from the other actors because I was being held captive and that I wouldn\u2019t want to know them. Then we were all put in this house together, the three of us in the middle of the woods, and it\u2019s some of the best friendships I\u2019ve ever had in my life with those two guys. In Double Blind, I didn\u2019t have any mean feelings, I wanted to meet all these young actors and know what they were all about. They were a great bunch, very social. You know, as social as you could be during a COVID shoot. We were lucky to have outdoor space at the hotel, and we were often in the hotel bar outside, chatting by the River in Limerick; it was so beautiful there.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re involved in a rather gruesome scene in Double Blind. Did you have much input in how it played out?<\/strong><\/p>\nIan really knew what he wanted and how it was going to work. I was very impressed with how clear he and his crew were on shots. I wasn\u2019t there like, \u2018\u2019Oh I know what to do!\u2019\u2019 which does normally happen a lot with gore stuff for me because I\u2019ve done a lot of it and love being able to go, \u2018\u2019Ohh, I\u2019ve got an idea!\u2019\u2019 if something\u2019s not working, but everything worked great here. Fantastic all around, and Madonna Bambino in the makeup department? Watching the final film told me what I already knew about her and her work. Such impressive work from that whole team. They really knew what they were doing and it was so lovely to see. So I got to just do as I was directed.<\/p>\n
\u00a0I do think I enjoy those kinds of scenes a little too much. It all felt intense and exciting, and I was there making all kinds of terrible noises. It was fun.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s something I\u2019ve noticed interviewing horror-centric people is there\u2019s almost a numbness to filming gore scenes where it\u2019s more about trying to think what looks best rather than how disturbing you find it.<\/strong>There are elements that can feel torturous, though, like if I\u2019m playing a bad guy who knows how awful they\u2019re being? That can be really distressing. I did that in a short film, The Herd. In that, my character knew how awful she was being. And it was only a short shoot being a wee short film, but in those two and a half days, I was suffering more than on any other film I\u2019ve done. All because of this feeling inside me caused by this character being absolutely awful as a person.<\/p>\n
Generally, when I\u2019m playing a villain, I can see how they believe they\u2019re doing the right thing, you know? That saves my head a loy. But with the gore stuff, it\u2019s definitely more fun than people might imagine, but it can be distressing, especially watching other people go through stuff.<\/p>\n\n