The V/H/S franchise kicked off in 2012 with the first entry into the found-footage anthology series, and just over a decade later, the series is about to launch its seventh entry on Shudder. While V/H/S/Beyond delivers audiences the madness and mayhem that audiences have come to expect from the series, this new installment sets itself apart from its predecessors by delivering stories that all lean more into the realm of sci-fi. Beyond isn’t the only thing heading into slightly new territory, as The Haunting of Hill House and The Fall of the House of Usher star Kate Siegel is stepping behind the camera for the first time for a segment that sees Alanah Pearce taking on her first major on-camera acting role. V/H/S/Beyond will land on Shudder on October 4th.
In Siegel’s segment “Stowaway,” Pearce stars as a young journalist aiming to uncover the origins of mysterious lights that have been regularly reported on in the desert. What she ends up finding might provide the answer to all of her questions, but the discovery comes with a massive sacrifice.
ComicBook caught up with Siegel and Pearce to talk developing the new segment, their collaboration process, and more.
Alanah Pearce stars in the V/H/S/Beyond segment “Stowaway”
– Shudder)
ComicBook: Kate, what were the origins of this project? Was this something that had just been bouncing around in your head and then the opportunity to join V/H/S came about or was V/H/S looking to get you involved and then that’s where this process started?
Kate Siegel: This was a rare and welcome incoming call. It wasn’t on my to-do list, but it was an opportunity that I found that I couldn’t say no to, even though I may have wanted to. I was just like, “All right, I’m going to have to jump off a new and exciting cliff.” And my original meeting with [producer] Josh [Goldbloom] and Studio 71, I was just pitching wild, out-there ideas.
I had a Muppet pitch, I had a musical pitch, I had so many ideas of what I wanted to do. Then I started talking, bouncing ideas off Mike [Flanagan], my husband, like I often do. We were bouncing back and forth and I started to really distill what I wanted to talk about, and that solidified into the idea of “Stowaway.”
Along those lines, was there much evolution or changes when you were starting to become aware of what some of the other filmmakers were doing, where you said, “Oh, we’re getting a little too close, let’s veer away,” or did it stay pretty true to your original vision?
Siegel: I very carefully decided not to be involved with the other filmmakers while we were making this movie. I didn’t want to know anything because I didn’t want it to feel overly competitive and I didn’t want it to poison the well. I didn’t want to think other thoughts, and so I kept my head down and got to work.
Alanah, a lot of what makes this short so compelling is, not only your performance, but a lot of the seeds that are planted for your backstory that are never really explained or fully explored. With this script obviously being so much shorter than a feature-length script, I’m curious how much of Alanah you brought to this character and how much you were able to just fully create on your own and how much of a background for your character you were able to create?
Alanah Pearce: It’s definitely not me. I don’t think that she acts tremendously like me, other than I do have a background as a reporter. That part was an interesting challenge that I needed Kate’s direction, which was, I’m really comfortable on camera, whereas the character probably shouldn’t be as comfortable. I would definitely posture things that I needed to do to make sure that I didn’t seem like I was used to speaking on camera as often as I am, because we’re all used to that now. Everybody has a YouTube channel, but back on the set, in the ’90s, people are a lot less used to having a camera in their face all the time, so that was a fun challenge.
In terms of backstory, I think it’s really seen in that, all the things that I needed to be able to have that performance are all an incredible script from Mike and Kate. It’s really about honing in on the things that are important for the story that we’re trying to tell. I didn’t need to think about what her favorite food is, but I did need to think about the core of the story and why it matters that it’s revealed that she has a child and that she’s still trying to make a movie for her daughter while she’s on this journey, that she’s really trying to prove herself very stubbornly against people who openly doubt her, which there are references to in the script.
All of that is really about building towards the fact that she’s losing something and that she does care about the thing that she’s losing, but that she’s so defiantly driven towards proving the point that she’s trying to prove. I think it’s really relatable. I think that you can do something like that in your personal life every day, just not to quite the same extent, and that all of those little pieces culminate, obviously, in our ending. And that’s what makes it so dreadful and so horrific is that there is a loss. I don’t think it would punch quite as hard if you didn’t know that she had things she cared about in the real world, as well, and that she was just so obsessed. A student driven to prove herself that she basically sacrificed everything she had.
I think all those pieces are really in the script, and everything that was in the script was enough for me to pinpoint focus on the things that really mattered and what we were trying to tell. They made it really easy for me, to be honest.
The nature of this premise means you’re doing voiceover and you’re also on camera and also manipulating the camera to some degree. What were those conversations like, collaborating with Kate? She’s the director, but you’re trying to execute her ideas, so what were those conversations like between you two?
Pearce: When she first sent me the script, I think my immediate response is, “How the hell are we going to make this?” Because the latter half of the script, I couldn’t even visualize it. So then I asked Kate to have a meeting where I, basically, just after a bunch of questions that were all, “What are you trying to sell?” or, “What do you really want to say with this? What do you want people to take away from it? How can I start with the character?”
Kate gave me a ton of great advice. I have done acting previously, but I’ve not led something like this before. Previous things I’ve led was comedy, which is a very different space. Interestingly, a lot in common terms of timing and tension, but to a very different result. It was really all about trying to figure out how to serve the vision that Kate wanted more than anything and what I could do to find the pieces of the character I could portray the right way to serve that vision. But, obviously, extremely collaborative.
When we got to set, trying to figure out how me and our director of photography, Michael Fimognari, would space things out, which I’ve just learned this morning that they had actually done with all the shot-listing way beforehand. But when we actually got to set and it was me doing it differently, we had walkthroughs to make sure that … I really feel like it was a dance. I was basically waltzing with Michael Fimognari a lot of the time because he’s only the cameraman, but it has to look like I am. All of those pieces were super collaborative. It was really, really fun. Just such a fun, creative journey that we went on together.
Kate, you said that this wasn’t necessarily something that was on your to-do list, but it was an opportunity you realized you had to jump on. Has this now inspired you, especially after all of the praise that you’ve already been getting out of Fantastic Fest, like, “Oh, I had no idea this would resonate so strongly with so many audiences,” so you see yourself wanting to pursue that further? Develop a feature, develop more shorts, or do you think it was more like, “That was a great experience. Let me get back to acting and producing,”?
Siegel: As a person, there is a very strong streak of, “Dance, monkey, dance,” in me. If it makes people happy, I’ll do it over and over and over again. But V/H/S changed my life because it became very clear what I want to do with the back half of my career, which is to create stories with the people I love and to find new people to fall in love with creatively and make stories with them.
I think I will never, at this point, stop directing. I’ll probably keep acting. I do it and I love it, but there was something about this that felt so right to me. I understand the cliche of, “But what I really want to do is direct!” I’m not unaware of that, but what I really want to do, I guess, is direct.
Pearce: Is that a cliche? I know.
Siegel: Oh, actors, all the time. Yeah, it’s like a thing. “What I really want to do is direct.” But you have to do it with the double hair toss.
Pull out the megaphone that the old-timey directors used to speak into.
Siegel: No one gave me one of those! Although I did drive around in a golf cart in the desert just screaming “Action!” at people. Like we had so much fun.
I am sure now you have more of an appreciation of, even though that is a cliche, “Oh, I see why so many actors when I really want to do is direct.”
Siegel: Well, it’s interesting, too, because I had the benefit of having, on some level, shadowing by osmosis for almost 15 years. At this point, I don’t stand next to him on set, but I’ve been watching Mike create, direct, showrun, produce, edit for years and years and years, and so I understood the amount of work to do, what it takes to do it well, and that was something I’m very grateful for, because I worked as hard as I could from the very beginning in terms of storyboards, shot-listing, research, camera testing, and trying to come in as prepared as possible, because they say a movie, “You can fix it in post.” You don’t, you fix it in prep and then you put out the fires in post. And so that I felt very grateful for knowing.
Well, since you mentioned this guy Mike, do you already know who you’re going to be playing in The Dark Tower TV show? Or do you have to wait to find out?
Siegel: Yeah, I’m going to be playing Stephen King in book seven when he gets hit by the van.
Very interesting. I feel like that is clearly from your directorial vision. This guy Mike. I feel like he’s lost it a little bit, especially after The Life of Chuck totally bombed. It’s nice that you’re there.
Siegel: It’s a very big, celebratory season in our house right now. And no, I don’t know who I’m going to play in The Dark Tower. I have no idea. We’re not even close to that. But no, it’s a beautiful — listen, this industry, this career has high highs and low lows and it’s feast or famine. And it just happens to be that Mike and I both hit a moment of joy together and that’s very special.
V/H/S/Beyond lands on Shudder on October 4th.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. You can contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter.