After catching The Perfection at Fantastic Fest last year, it can be said with some confidence that it’s one of the most chilling and bold movies that will come out this year that had its star questioning her director/writer’s sanity after first reading the screenplay.
Immediately after seeing it, we called it a “twisted and timely” horror film, and after speaking with star Allison Williams and co-writer/director Richard Shepard, that works on a number of counts.
UTILIZING THE RISING STAR FROM GET OUT
There’s an old adage that actors and musicians are just one performance away from stardom. They can have work that has a following, but then comes along that one moment that changes everything.
For Williams, that was Get Out. She’s almost universally become associated with her role as a scheming white supremacist — sorry, it’s been two years, no spoiler warning — and now any role she takes puts her in the corner.
Just look at any Reddit comment about The Perfection, or head over to the trailer on YouTube. She has become the living embodiment of yelling at the screen to tell characters to run the other way because she’s obviously the bad guy and the audience knows it.
“I think also what’s funny about being an actor in [2019] is that it’s a meta-performance suddenly between projects,” Williams said.
The whole production is timely in the sense that it plays with Williams’ celebrity. She isn’t known as Marnie from Girls anymore. That persona even if it’s closer to her in real life has been dropped. She’s the Froot Loops-eating psychopath.
Now the audience is almost immediately informed about what to expect from her in roles like hers in The Perfection as she schemes to destroy the life of a rival musician (Logan Browning) who shares the same mentor (Steven Weber).
At the same rate, audiences are smart enough to know when the wool’s being pulled over their heads and can see a twist or subversion coming after it’s been done once before as it was in Get Out for Williams.
That has a powerful and meaningful effect on the creative process, especially for Williams and Shepard, looking to find the logical connections within this creative world.
HOW PREVIOUS COLLABORATIONS HELPED MOVE FORWARD
Before becoming a modern horror icon, Williams was most known for being Brian Williams’ daughter and her work on Girls, a far cry from genre fare. And over the course of Girls’ five seasons, Shepard directed a dozen episodes including a chapter from season five focused entirely on Marnie.
This is where The Perfection as it came to be on screen was really born.
“It was really just the two of us the whole time and I knew from that experience that I was like ‘Oh my god, I want to do a whole feature with this guy,’” Williams remarked. “Cause it kind of felt a feature. It was intense in that way.”
Williams went a step further in describing the ease of “give and take” creative relationship the two share, calling him “like a parent” in the boundaries that he sets but encourages collaboration.
With so much familiarity with each other, Williams and Shepard worked on a new level to stunning effect to methodically move forward with such a dark tale.
“Her questions are always sort of like forced my hand as a screenwriter. She would say something and I would go back to the other writers and say ‘This is actually a problem,’” Shepard said of the give and take the two share.
He also sang her praises regarding her preparation, “knowing exactly where [her character was]” and sometimes more understanding than Shepard himself as a writer. Shepard also noted that there were about five versions of the film he sent to Williams for notes before arriving on a final product that was ready to premiere, using her creative touches from start to finish.
KEEPING AUDIENCES SURPRISED AND WANTING MORE
There wasn’t any way Shepard knew The Perfection would be released so close to Marvel’s tentpole features, but he inserted it into the conversation as some counter-programming.
“Even the best Marvel movies you sort of know what’s going to happen even if you don’t know what’s actually going to happen. And that’s fine. And those are extremely well-executed,” Shepard said. “But there’s also an audience for movies that are somewhat unexpected and if they hear a movie is good or well done and then suddenly the conversation about the film is a very specific way.”
For being of such a different ilk than Marvel, the movie has certainly climbed to the levels of secrecy Disney has imposed its films. For months after The Perfection’s premiere, there was only one image available. Then the trailer dropped by Netflix in April, and again, does not reveal much despite using footage from just about the whole production.
Referring back to the idea of the subverting expectations and yet again turning the tables to stay ahead of the audience, this takes place in a world with dirty sophistication that perfectly suits Shepard’s sensibilities.
“One of the things he does incredibly well here is he takes people that have that sheen on them and just pierces right through it,” Williams praised.
Even on a rewatch once all the cards have been shown, there’s more to explore and understand its deeper concepts. It’s best seen without knowing much going in, but the dedicated collaboration between Williams and Shepard pays off beyond surface value.
“I crafted it for her because there are times where I’m not sure what she’s thinking as an actor and if you use that correctly, it can be hugely helpful,” Shepard said. “Sometimes, if you can just see everything and Allison can show you but also pull it back so you’re not seeing all the cards.
“In editing too, it’s just like ‘How do you put this together so if you see it again it works?'”
In the end. It works again and again.
