Ick Cast & Director explain why the film is meant to be watched in its classic form [TIFF]

Joseph Cohen’s new film IC had its midnight premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday, September 7, opening to a crowd of enthusiastic moviegoers. Brandon Roth (Superman Returns, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow) stars as Hank, a high school science teacher whose football aspirations are ripped away after a Vic-induced injury on the field. While most of the population is unbothered by the disturbing anomaly consuming their town, Hank and his student, Grace (Malina Weissman), worry about the IQ’s evolution.

The two find themselves unexpectedly allied when the creatures rise and pose the threat they have always feared. While it did have a few jump scares, yikess Comedic element is at its strongest, poking fun at tropes and flipping mass panic on its head. Kahn shares that he wanted to create something for the viewers who see movies in their classic form by going into a theater without expectations. In addition to Root, Malina Weissman, Mena Suvari, Marian Gallo, Harrison Cone, Taya Sophia, and Jack Seavor McDonald make up the main cast.

Screen Rant Interviews with Kahn, Root, Weissman and Suvari about their own reactions to the scientific anomaly, the meaning of Hank’s playlist, and what makes IC Stand out from other films in the genre.

Ruth believes music is keeping Hank alive in ICU

“That was his connection to that time, to his youth and to Stasi. It means a great deal to him.”

Screen Rant: Joseph, at the premiere you said you were watching the movie for the first time. How did it feel to experience that with a live audience?

Joseph Kahn: I’ve seen versions of it. I just combined it together. In terms of the actual outcome of it, in terms of when it becomes a movie, is when you actually watch it with an audience. I thought we had an amazing reaction. I actually test screened it before, and this version was kind of crazy because every little beat there is a laugh.

I have calibrated the movie to be rewatched. It’s one of those rewatch movies. So some of the laughs go over different lines of dialogue and stuff like that. I knew it would happen. The audience laughs, but then another line starts really fast, and then they stop, and they laugh again. It’s really meant, ultimately, for rewatches, but I was super thrilled with the reaction.

Everyone in the film has a bit of a different mindset when it comes to the IQ. Would you each accept IQ as a part of life, or would you be trying to get to the root of it?

Melina Weissman: I would certainly accept it. I know grace doesn’t work, but I would probably just accept it.

Mena Suvari: I think in real life, I wouldn’t be Stassi. [Laughs] I would react very differently. I would hope at least that I would. I would not be so happy.

Brandon Routh: I would be similar to Hank. You are obviously aware of it, and so you have to deal with it in some way, but it does not mean, just because you deal with it, that you do not work to solve the problem and let it continue.

Brandon, I loved Hank’s playlist. Did you listen to it when you were trying to get into character, and which song do you feel captures his energy the best?

Brandon Routh: Higher by Creed, the whole thing in the car is the pinnacle of Hank’s experience for me because, if you think about it, music was probably the only thing that kept him alive this whole time. It was his connection to that time, to his youth and to Stasi. It means a lot to him, and it’s literally the soundtrack of his life. I think that song is just an epic song, period. I’ve been a fan of it since it came out. So we have this big, epic, pivotal character moment about it.

Speaking of Hank and Staci, Mena, their relationship is one of the film’s catalysts. What’s it like playing a teenage version of yourself?

Mena Suvari: Very wild. Very cool. Something I never thought I would ever get to experience. I was grateful that I got to, and especially by someone like Joseph Kahn.

Joseph Cohen: I had a choice to make them teenagers again. The normal way you would probably do it is you just cast younger actors, but everyone always knows on a certain level there is a certain system of disbelief, especially when they get to the 18-year-old stage. Now we have the technology to actually just de-age them in the age bracket.

I know people always struggle with stuff like this, but it’s the right tool because I want the actors to play it. I don’t want other actors. I want the actual real people to be their 18-year-old selves. And if we have the technology to do it, let’s do it. It doesn’t take away from the humanity, it actually lets the two actors be the characters.

Kahn thinks audience members want a movie like IC (they just don’t know it)

“If you have an open mind and an open heart, I think there’s a good reward in here for you.”

Malina, what do you admire most about Grace? Is there anything that really stood out about you from other characters you’ve played?

Melina Weissman: I admire her a lot. I think she’s a super smart, strong girl that a lot of younger girls can look up to. I think she has a lot of drive, but at the same time is super cool, calm, does what she wants, wants what she wants, and she’s super strong.

I think she goes through what a normal teenage girl goes through as well. She hates her parents. She is trying to figure out high school. She hates her boyfriend. She has her friends, and I think that it’s a cool character for young girls to watch and look up to and relate to. I love her. She is a really cool person.

with IC Being a satire, did you write this for moviegoers who are bored with classic film tropes, or for people who love them, but enjoy poking fun at the concepts?

Joseph Cohen: I will tell you who I wrote this for. I wrote it for people who really want to watch movies in the classic form. Right now, I feel like we’re so structured in terms of how we watch movies. It’s like an exchange. I’ll give you money and some time and you better give me exactly what I order. I want my comic book movie and it better have a certain number of laughs. If I get my horror film, it has to have a certain number of scares. It’s better to jump scares and have that tone, and it also has to be about serial killers.

It’s like ordering a hamburger now where you get exactly what you want. But I remember in the eighties, when I was a kid, I went into these movies, like, Raiders of the Lost Ark, who knew what the genre was at the moment? Jaws, a shark movie? What is this all about? Or when you saw Ghostbusters, a movie about people who catch ghosts, and it’s funny, and it has this pop song, those experiences were magical because you were open to new ideas.

When you walked into the dark movie theater, there was no expectation of exactly what you wanted. You have really explored mysteries. I made this movie basically for people who are open to adventure. If you go into this movie, and you want a very specific movie in a very specific genre with a very specific structure, and it’s not what you get, you’re going to be very disappointed.

But if you have an open mind and an open heart, I think there is a good reward here for you. And I believe in this audience, by the way. I think the audience wants to do that. The audience wants a movie like this, they just don’t know it yet because they’ve been taught to look at this very marketed, structured, social media enclave of small tribes. And when I make movies, I try to break that, and this is no exception.

What’s it like filming without the IC versus watching it on screen?

Brandon Routh: My favorite shot is when I’m on the ground and it’s rising behind me and growing. It’s just such a sweet shot. And when it crystallizes and hardens, sometimes it’s pretty amazing, and just the rapid pace that it moves. It’s pretty gruesome, but so interesting.

Molina Weissman: It was fun. We did a running scene. We ran on the field, we ran to the towers, and that day we just ran around on air. So it’s really fun to see the actual IC on the floor and see that come to life.

Joseph Cohen: As a filmmaker, it’s interesting, because I let the actors really define the act according to how they move on the field. It’s basically like there are four actors running around on a field, and it’s completely empty. It is a normal field. And I told them: “Jump around.” Imagine where the IQ is”, and they did it. This allowed me and my VFX artist to actually start animating the IC on each of their jumps and things like that.

Brandon Routh: I really like how, because it’s a horror movie, there always has to be some scary stuff, but when the IQ is going to take somebody, a lot of times, when we see what’s going to happen, we know something gross is going to happen, but you Are pushing in, so you only get half of it. You don’t get the full grossness, you only get a mild amount of bulkiness. I like this because it makes it more of an adventure movie, or that movie that won’t be too gruesome that you don’t want to watch it.

Joseph Kahn: I’m a big fan of horror films, but lately everything is skewed towards one type of horror film. It’s the film where you’re really interested in how people die. You buy a ticket, and you’re really interested in “how do people die?” I wanted to make a horror film where you are more interested in how do the characters live? What do they have to live for? Why do they have to live? These are the questions I wanted to ask through horror – not how they die.

About Joseph Cohen’s IQ

“Joseph Kahn returns to Midnight Madness with a berserkly sardonic creature feature that riffs on classic science-fiction horror films, but with a critical subversion.”

In the small American town of Eastbrook, nearly two decades after a viscous vine-like growth – colloquially referred to as “the ick” – began encroaching on every nook and cranny, a nonplussed population found their lives seemingly unaffected by the creeping Anomaly.

The exceptions to this oblivious conformity are Hank Wallace (Brandon Root), a former high school football prospect turned hapless science teacher, and his perceptive student Grace (Malina Weissman), both of whom regard the IQ with a suspicious eye that was soon violently validated. . Bursting with bloody bedlam and pale attitudes, cannily satirizing how a society can grow accustomed to living in a perpetual state of emergency.

Check out our others TIFF 2024 Interview here:

IC Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7.