A brainchild of Jon Stevenson, “Rent-A-Pal” opens in drive-ins, select theaters, and VOD tomorrow, Sept. 11, 2020. Set in 1990 with an 80s noir vibe, the clever film centers around a bachelor named David who lives a miserably lonely life caring for his aging mother. Denver’s own Brian Landis Folkins tugs at the emotions of people living in quarantine due to COVD-19 with a brilliant performance as David. Nerd hero Wil Wheaton charms David as well as the audience. Get to know Stevenson, the Writer and Director of this horror film, as well as the stars in Nerd Alert News’ up close interview.
Q: Congratulations on the film and the question was for Jon. How did the original “Rent-A’ Friend” video from 1987 become the basis for your film?
Jon Stevenson:Â “Rent-A- Pal” in general game together in this really bizarre set of circumstances, and it started with “Rent-A-Friend.” A few years ago, essentially I was in a really dark place. I had fallen into this depression and anxiety, and I was just really going through a lot. I was in this really vulnerable place. One day I came across “Rent-A-Friend.” It was this amazing concept from the 80s by a guy named Ben Hollis and the idea was that you would just rent a friend. You would just bring the VHS tape home and talk to this guy on the tape. It was a one-way conversation, but for the 80s, it was interactive. I’ll never forget though, because of where I was in my life, how that video made me feel. I knew that how I felt, I had to capture that in a horror movie. I started writing “Rent-A-Pal.” As I started writing, I realized it wasn’t about the tape at all–it was a man who was very vulnerable being led down a very dark path by someone who was evil and manipulative and just how if two people can meet at the same time can have really disastrous results.
Q: Regards to the resolution of the film, was the script aligned to David having a hallucination experience, or it was meant to be a down to earth resolution?
Jon Stevenson: I don’t want to spoil the movie, but I think when writing the script, that was the big question. Was this all real?
Wil Wheaton: An aspect of the script that I really loved that moved me from wow, I really like this to I have to be part of this was this moment in the script, and it happens in the film too when I went, I don’t know if Andy’s even real. There’s an actor named Andy who sat down for a video cassette, but I don’t know if the things he’s actually saying are real. Or if all of this exists inside David’s mind. I love that because either interpretation is completely valid. The picture is satisfying in either case being true. That’s so hard to do and it’s so rare that that happens. We have our fan theories about things, like my fan theories about the ending of “Breaking Bad” is not valid according to Vince Gilligan. My fan theory about the changes in “Rent-A-Pal” is completely valid because the material absolutely supports it in, either way, and it is a testament to Jon’s skill as a writer.
Q: There’s a social commentary on our lives on social media where we seem to be taking what strangers put out on the internet and we mold ourselves to it. Have we really changed that much from the 1980s from video dating to Twitter and Tinder?
Brian Landis Folkins: Great question. What I love about this film in coming out now is between our isolation and David’s isolation and relationship with the screens, because in quarantine we were all glued to the screens in a variety of different ways and a variety of different devices, and I don’t think it’s any different from David in the late 80s finding a kinship with the screen both in trying to date and with his Rent-A-Pal.
Q: How do the look and tone of the 80s speaks to us today in 2020?
Brian Landis Folkins: That’s when we grew up.
Jon Stevenson:Â Growing up you have all these textures you remember like what a VHS tape feels like: The creeks that it makes and the ribbon inside, and the sound that a VCR makes. My life as a kid growing up was so centered around the TV and that is all the kind of stuff that I remembered, and I figured if we leaned into that in the production, no so much making it about the 90s, but about the feel of that.
Brian Landis Folkins: I grew up watching TV. I would take VHS tapes and record movies off HBO
at super slow speeds so I could get as many movies on a tape as possible. I watched the shit out of them. I’d watch them until they fell apart, and one of those movies was “Stand By Me” with my good friend over there (Wil Wheaton) who was close to my age. Pretty great.
Wil Wheaton: I’m aware of them discovering the 80s like we discovered the 50s. We discovered the 50s through “Stand By Me” and “Back to the Future” and there is absolutely an audience that wants to experience that time. There’s those of us who lived it and want to remember the good parts, and then there are those, who are our kids, who weren’t there and their experience of the 80s is really filtered through our desire to only remember the good parts. We don’t want to remember the AIDS crisis. We don’t want to remember Reagan destroying the economy. We don’t want to remember Challenger. We don’t want to think of that stuff. We want to remember malls and video games and riding our bikes. It is important.
Q: I couldn’t help but think of “Child’s Play.” What were some of the influences did you have in creating the film and your characters?
Jon Stevenson: I’m so glad that you brought up “Chucky” because that’s the perfect analogy for this movie in that taking something that’s a part of your childhood and using it against you is just really scary. Also movies like “The Ring,” I know it’s older but it really captures how creepy a VHS on a TV is.
Brian Landis Folkins: For me, watching the original “Rent-A-Friend” video was like earth-shattering. When I first read the script when Jon sent it to me, I was about nine pages in and I was like this is different than anything I’ve read before. I have to be a part of this. Please, Jon. Please. Please. Then he referred me to the “Rent a Friend” video, and it rocked my world. The things that he was doing in that one on one relationship through this videotape. I was so fascinated. For me, it was just like OK, what would need to happen for someone to come to a tape like this and have that change their life.
Wil Wheaton: I wanted to keep Andy really simple and I felt that Andy was a predator. He was an abusive boyfriend. He was deeply insecure and extremely controlling and super manipulative. His primary fear, the thing that he was absolutely terrified of, was being along. He seduced his friend and he wouldn’t let him go. This whole thing is that Jon’s script is so clear and so specific and it is written for actors. This character was the monster in the house but you have to open the door to invite him in.
Q: Is there a message to the audience so that we can avoid this happening to someone?
Jon Stevenson: All you need is love is probably the best way to put it. That’s where I was in my life when I was writing the script. A big thing that I think people feel while watching the movie is that David just needs to love himself. He has everything to make the right choices, but he’s lead down the wrong path because ultimately he doesn’t love himself. And that’s where I was when I wrote it, and again writing it was this huge therapeutic process is. Oh, this is what self-expression means!
Wil Wheaton: My job here is to be the monster; to be the person that you’re afraid of, who you don’t trust. In doing all of that, my goal was to create the other half of this relationship that is central to the picture so that Jon’s message could be delivered to the audience. Whatever I wanted to do individually it doesn’t matter. What I did on my own was in service of Jon’s mission. Bringing Jon’s script to life and making this story something that we’re going to be talking long after we see the film.
Brian Landis Folkins: I absolutely agree 100% that it was all about finding what Jon has already written on the page, and amplifying the story that he had provided because it was so unique and so wonderful and so layered.
Be sure to catch the trailer!
Written by Colleen Bement
