It’s time for some body-snatching mayhem.
Zach Clark’s “The Becomers,” about confused alien lovers trying to find their place on Earth, and each other, has debuted the first clip and poster ahead of its Fantasia Film Festival premiere.
“I was really inspired and influenced by 1950s B-movies. I have always liked the disreputable pockets of film history. My general approach to the entire movie was to embrace that and embrace kitsch as an access point,” said Clark.
“Older genre films really invite the audience in. Now, it’s all about visual effects and things looking as real as possible. But this more lo-fi effect asks you to play along in a way that modern stuff doesn’t.”
Also joining in on the fun is the film’s surprising narrator, Russell Mael, best known as the lead singer for Sparks: The cult American band celebrated by Edgar Wright in his 2021 doc “The Sparks Brothers.”
“I have been a huge fan of Sparks,” admitted Clark.
“During the pandemic, a friend was running secret Zoom movie screenings. He was able to get special guests, and one time he got Sparks. When it was time to find someone to do this narration, Russell was the first person I thought of. He is famous for his voice, but hissingingvoice. It seemed like a cool opportunity to do something different with it.”
“The Becomers,” produced by Joe Swanberg and Edwin linker for Slasher Film – with Yellow Veil Pictures handling sales – features Isabel Alamin, Mike Lopez (seen in last year’s Fantasia offering “All Jacked Up and Full of Worms”), Keith Kelly or Molly Plunk, who collaborated with Clark on his previous film “Little Sister.”
“The producers came to me, asking if I had any ideas for low-budget genre movies. It was something they wanted to do more of, but we had to shoot in Chicago, with mostly Chicago-based crew and actors,” he recalled.
“The main characters are played by several people, as the aliens keep inhabiting other bodies, and I was looking for performers who would surprise me. I like people who have a uniqueness about them.”
Despite its “heightened” style and a sex scene that Cronenberg would likely approve of, the emotions in the film are real, stressed Clark.
“There are moments that would seem shocking or gross, but hopefully, in the context of this story, end up feeling sweet, moving and romantic.”
Or surprisingly timely.
“I wrote the script in March 2021 and the politics in the movie are very much about what was happening at the time: the [January 6] insurrection, [Michigan] Gov. Gretchen Whitmer failed kidnapping plot, Cuomo’s resignation,” he explains.
“The aliens believe that becoming this unassuming couple in the suburbs is their ticket to happiness, but there is something darker lurking under the surface.”
At the moment, Clark – who also directed “White Reindeer” and “Vacation!” while continuing to work as an editor – doesn’t rule out staying within the realm of genre filmmaking.
“I would be excited to work in that space again. I think this film approaches genre the same way ‘White Reindeer’ approached Christmas movies. It checks all the boxes, but also subverts many cliches in order to tell a story that, ironically enough, is very human,” he said, hoping the audience will get to experience a “variety of emotions.”
“In life, you also oscillate very quickly from happy to sad, from funny to scary. When I was describing this film to people, I kept saying it has this sort of ‘sustained strangeness.’ It’s not necessarily about tension or about the scares, but it’s nevernotstrange.”
