Recently I had the pleasure of viewing Malum, on top of that I had the wonderful opportunity to join writer/director Anthony DiBlasi and lead Jessica Sula for a conversation about their new film. The conversation was a blast to have and Anthony and Jessica were a complete delight to talk to. We covered a few topics like the idea of adapting your own story, and the processes Jessica went through for her brilliant performance.

Brendan Jesus: Thank you for letting us be a part of this! Since I can momentarily break the embargo, I have to say it’s amazing. Last Shift has been one of my favorites for a long time. Funnily enough, Anthony, I was doing research on you for a different project. The day before we received the press release for the Malum trailer.

Anthony DiBlasi: Oh cool!

BJ: It’s like Malum had a hand in all this!

Anthony DiBlasi & Jessica Sula: *laughing*

Anthony DiBlasi: He’s always working behind the scenes.

BJ: I wasn’t sure what to expect going into Malum. With it being a reimagining of Last Shift I knew some elements would carry over, some wouldn’t. Anthony you’ve done a lot of work with Clive Barker, and I hope this sounds like the compliment I want it to be, Malum feels like Clive Barker’s Assault on Precinct 13.

Anthony DiBlasi: I think this is the first movie where I was like, well I worked closely with Clive for about 12 years. I learned so much from him. This being further removed from us working together, I think I’ve somewhat settled into a bit of that influence from him. It’s kind of made me this guy I am today. I figured I would let that be part of me as a filmmaker, and let it come out on screen. I’m glad you felt that.

BJ: This is really your second bite at the donut, what did you want to do differently? What directions did you have in mind beforehand?

Anthony DiBlasi: The big thing was, like Scott [Poiley] and I did that first one with such a smaller budget. When the Welcome Villain team approached me we were like we need to do this, we left a lot on the table with Last Shift. So we thought we could put those things back and create a world that, well I also we didn’t really get into The Flock [in Last Shift]. We didn’t even call them The Flock in that. We didn’t get into them that much. There’s so much world building we can do with this, which was very exciting to jump into; to create something that felt different and fresh. It wasn’t just this satanic cult. With the first movie I really felt it would have played well with a big audience in the theater, but it didn’t really go that way. It came out mainly streaming without a theatrical run. With this one we knew it was going to be a theatrical run, and I’m so happy that it is. It has the elements of the first one, it’s still that thrill ride, with much deeper characters and mythology.

BJ: What’s it like readapting your own story? It’s kind of like the Psycho Psycho remake, but better.

Anthony DiBlasi: Well they really did that shot for shot! I think for this there was that trepidation when we were writing the treatment. It’s like okay is this going to feel different? Then we started writing more and more, and it just took its own life. The second we were in the scriptwriting phase I never even thought about the first movie. I didn’t go back to it, I didn’t revisit it, I didn’t read the script. We were creating a whole new world. Never once during production did it feel like I was remaking a movie. We have a new cast, new characters, you’re looking forward to seeing this new story play out. And even through post it feels like a different movie to me.

BJ: Does it bother you at all to have people continuously comparing it to Last Shift?

Anthony DiBlasi: No, I don’t think so. They should, right? That’s how it’s always going to be. But I think Malum will hit a wider audience. Some people have reached out and ask if they should watch the first one. If they ask me, I’ll say no, why bother? Watch this movie first, and then go back. Jess hasn’t seen Last Shift.

Jessica Sula: Yep, I have not seen the first one yet.

BJ: That leads me into my next question a littlle bit. Jessica, you have quite the impressive film credits; Skins, Scream: The TV Series–

Jessica Sula: That’s really nice to hear, sometimes it feels like you’re going around in the world like, what am I doing?

BJ: And also you were in one of M. Night’s best films, Split. You’re somewhat fresh to the genre community. Has it been a welcoming community?

Jessica Sula: I think so! I felt that way just being part of the production. That’s part of the reason I wanted to do it. Unfortunately there’s some films in the genre that doesn’t represent it well, and sometimes there can be people who have specific types of films they watch. It’s like just watch movies and enjoy them! Being a part of Malum made me feel very welcome. Seeing the prostethics, like RusselFX, and Luke [LaBeau] and Erik [Kleifield] with their knowledge of horror, getting to hang out with Anthony, that put me at ease. It made me take it seriously.

BJ: How did you get involved with this project?

Jessica Sula: I got an email, it said, hey there’s interest for a chat would you like to read this script? I read it and replied back I didn’t think I could do it because it’s a lot. I did Split, but that also seems weirdly separate. Partly because I was so young at the time, it’s been some years now I guess. I mean James [McAvoy] and Anya [Taylor-Joy] were really at the forefront of that. I got to really watch them work. I felt, when I read Malum, that it was a lot of responsibility and maybe you need someone who can really do that. I felt rusty, I hadn’t really been working because of the pandemic. I didn’t know if I wanted to keep acting.

Anthony DiBlasi: She let herself go, grew a full beard and everything.

Jessica Sula: *laughing* I ended up talking to Anthony and we hit it off. Still nervous though cause everything was new. After talking with some of the Welcome Villain guys I was like, well here we go. They all love this, and want to make it the best they can. Also the location being in the abandoned police station, I loved that. It was a whole character itself.

BJ: In a lot of genre films there’s ups and down, where as an actor you can sort of relax. After the first five minutes of Malum you are basically at anywhere from a level eight to ten for the rest of the film. As an actor how do you prepare for something like that? And how do you handle that emotionally? It seems like a lot.

Jessica Sula: It’s funny. Anthony’s movie made me want to find God. Even though it’s fun and there’s a lightness to it… you know I’ve watched a lot of horrible shit online. I found myself watching videos of like disasters that were going on, maybe I didn’t need to go that far. But it helped. I felt I had to. When you know the scare, you have to find the fear another way. For me that was just knowing the world is a dark place, and I think there’s a darkness to the character. The fact that she wants to do this is pretty twisted, even if it’s just because she wants to get to the bottom of things. I watch a lot of horror movies, I rewatched Martyrs for this. I asked Luke, Erik, and Anthony for some film suggestions, too. I listened to an album for someone who did the soundtrack for Sinister. I would listen to that before every scene. It was dark, and that energy felt haunted. I stared at nothing a lot. I also listened to the Mandy soundtrack at times.

BJ: I think we’re hitting our time limit. I wanted to just again say thank you for your time. This film was everything I wanted it to be and more.

Thanks again to Anthony DiBlasi and Jessica Sula for taking the time to talk, as well as the people over at Fons PR and Welcome Villain films for setting this up. Malum opens March 31.