Freaks , an indie thriller from newcomers Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein , entry in theater just in time for Friday the 13th . The film tells the story of young Chloe ( Lexy Kolker ) , who get away her control father only to find herself part of a bizarre new universe never knew existed . Screen Rant sit down down with the directing duo , who also wrote the script together , to discuss the motion picture ’s genre - stoop ways and fable - like lifespan lesson .

First of all , Freaksis emphatically musical style - bend . It might be easier to label this film either a thriller or a sci - fi . , but to me , it ’s more of a mystery because you ’re figuring out things along with the characters . What do you describe this musical style of film ?

Adam Stein : We call it a sci - fi thriller , just because that ’s the easiest matter to say . But it is sort of a moving picture that changes genres and keep you on the edge of your seat .

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Zach Lipovsky : Some multitude call it the kitchen sink of writing style , because it has a short bit of everything . A caboodle of that comes from the fact that the movie is from the perspective of this little girlfriend . So , whatever she ’s tone is the literary genre . At the source , she ’s really frightened and it ’s really shivery . Then she depart explore the world and it ’s satisfy with marvel , and it becomes like a Spielberg moving-picture show . And then she starts feeling bloodlust , and Tarantino kind of crawling in there a little bit .

Adam Stein : And you ’re yelling for revenge . I mean , our favorite , preferent movie go experience as film fans are the ones where we ’re sitting in the audience , not experience what ’s gon na happen next . And that ’s what we wanted to make .

And that ’s just what I love about it . Because even with the resister of the plastic film , which to me kept throw who I consider it could be – I ’m not blend to give that away . But Bruce Dern is a fable . What did he bring to Mr. Snowcone that was n’t necessarily envisioned while preparing for the film ?

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Zach Lipovsky : Well , that ’s a really swell doubtfulness . When we wrote this type of Mr. Snowcone , we wanted him to be this kind of originator type eccentric . And when we started working with Bruce , he brought this whole other element to the character that was really cool .

Adam Stein : He institute a plenty of humour to it , and a chip of a variety of discombobulated screw - up .

Zach Lipovsky : Yeah . Someone who is n’t a mastermind , but –

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Adam Stein : So , he guess he ’s a mastermind , but he always neglect somehow . Which was cool .

I mean , Bruce , he ’s such a legend . He actually had n’t done a science fiction film in 45 year ; not since 1972 . And he kind of had this bias in his top dog that we do n’t cogitate is bonny , but he was like , “ scientific discipline fable is BS . I want to play real people . ” Like , “ I do n’t need to bring any fantasy alien creatures . ”

But he see to it this role , Mr. Snowcone , who ’s trying to protect his family . And he ’s like , “ That ’s something I can fall off my teeth into . I require to save my daughter . ” That ’s what he was all about . It made it personal for him , and it made him really require to recreate the part . Which is something we were very grateful for , because we had $ 1.50 to make this pic . We had , like , no money . So , we needed people like Bruce to believe in it and bring their A biz .

Freaks movie poster cropped

speak to me about some of the influence in this film . Because , in person : I saw a minute of Firestarter , some of the X - Men . What were some of the influences for you guy rope ?

Zach Lipovsky : I stand for , Adam and I are immense sci - fi fans . So , there ’s flock of sci - fi movies that you could say influenced the flick . But when we were indite it , all the movies we watch over and kind of draw off breathing in from were not sci - fi movies . They were movies like Room , or Beasts of the Southern Wild or Florida Project – because we wanted to take that type of personal indie drama tone and apply it to a science fiction world . We ’ve already seen and know every scientific discipline fiction moving-picture show by gist , so we did n’t inevitably need to go into all of those in detail . Because we have intercourse all of that .

We wanted to recover a means of claim this thing that ’s just about a mob ; it ’s just about people and their own personal stakes . It ’s not about saving the world ; it ’s just about saving themselves , and the complication of family and arguments at the dinner party tabular array – but put it into a much more almost Marvel or sci - fi type of world .

Bruce Dern in Freaks

Adam Stein : We wanted to take one of those sci - fi picture and make them more genuine and more personal .

Another brilliant carrying into action was Lexy . Can you talk to me about what she bring in to the character that may not be on the page ?

Adam Stein : Absolutely . You get it on , when we first auditioned Lexy , we were trying to find kids who could bring their veridical emotions to it . nestling had big feelings . I sleep together because I ’m a dad , and male child , they get heated sometimes . They get , you know – And that was in the script , but we also want that to finger very existent and born .

Lexy , from the first audition , she was screaming , and her optic are water . She ’s so acute , but she ’s also got this innocence . We did a circle of improv with her on curing to kind of starting line with the script , but then take it into her own words and really make it palpate very real .

Now , verbalise to me about the liveliness lessons that can be learned from spiel poker in your picture show and in the real world .

Zach Lipovsky : Well , there is some poker in the moving picture . We used to play fire hook ourselves . But really , in the movie –

Adam Stein : He ’s teaching her to lie . He ’s teaching her how to a poker face . And , actually , we shot that vista early on . It was like the first or 2d Clarence Day , and we taught Lexy what a poker game face was .

Zach Lipovsky : She ’d never get a line that word before . “ What ’s a poker face ? ”

Adam Stein : She had the most perfect poker facial expression . And then later , when we were filming and we needed her to reckon wild or serious , we would say , “ Lexy , poker face . ” And she would instantly go [ blank ] .

Zach Lipovsky : You could try it with her .

Adam Stein : Ask her to do it . Ask her to do a poker grimace .

Last head : I ’m hoping this moving picture gets a short ton of word of mouthpiece , because I think that great word of rima oris bring forth a lot of people do into the theaters . But what do you require audience to take away from this film ? Because sci - fi is usually a cautionary fib about thing that could pass off .

Zach Lipovsky : Yeah , I opine it we want to a few things . One is , we need that Book of mouth , because we are tiny filmmakers with our first film that we just have created out of favour .

Adam Stein : Comes out Friday the 13th !

Zach Lipovsky : It ’s up to the mankind to fundamentally , if you see the movie and you like it , severalize everyone you screw . Because that ’s all we ’ve got , is people becoming fans . But in the end , the movie is a really interesting view on what it ’s like to be the other , and what it ’s like to kind of try and be yourself . And that interrogation of : should you be yourself when there ’s a huge risk to being yourself ? Or is it better to kind of hide who you are because it ’s safe ? And that enquiry is something that I cerebrate anyone can relate to , and also is very relevant to the times today .

Well , you allow it open - ended , so I ’m desire for a subsequence .

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