The Eggers Brothers Tease The Front Room's Delightfully Disturbing Brand Of Horror (2024)

Loosely based on the short story by Susan Hill, The Front Room stars Brandy Norwood and Andrew Burnap as Belinda and Norman, a pregnant couple who are forced to take in Norman's eccentric mother, Solange (Kathryn Hunter). Already stressed by her pregnancy and losing her job, Belinda immediately finds herself in conflict with Solange. While seemingly old and feeble, she's also duplicitous, conniving, racist, and potentially outright psychotic. And you thought your mother-in-law was a hassle.

The Eggers Brothers, younger siblings of The Witch and The Lighthouse helmer Robert Eggers, make their directorial debut with The Front Room — and like their brother's films, calling it merely a horror film is a reductive assessment. Thanks to an incredible stand-out performance from Hunter, The Front Room is oftentimes laugh-out-loud funny, even when the characters are pushed to their physical and emotional limits. With its eccentric tone, nuanced performances, and wickedly subversive sensibilities, The Front Room is another feather in distributor A24's cap, a horror-adjacent psychological thriller that eludes traditional genre trappings.

While promoting the theatrical release of The Front Room, Max and Sam Eggers sat down for an interview with Screen Rant, where they discussed their work on the film, as well as their relationship with big brother Robert. They talk about leaning into their own real-life experiences with senior care when shaping the story, as well as the richly complex script that allows viewers to approach the movie in a deeply personal way, be it through the prism of marriage, race, age, or religion.

Max And Sam Eggers On The Unsettling Realism Of The Front Room

"Solange shouldn't be representative of us all as we age; most people are far more gracious."

Screen Rant: I took care of a sweet little old lady when she was 88. She passed away last year. She was so much nicer than Solange. But there were some scenes where I was, like, "All right, I feel seen." There's some real-life inspiration from your own lives in dealing with people who were suffering from dementia. Can you talk a little bit about developing and warping it into the character of Solange?

Max Eggers: I mean, I think I just want to say first, Solange shouldn't be representative of us all as we age; most people are far more gracious. Most elderly people are not, you know, to be feared like Solange. In terms of inspiration, yes, there was our personal connection that we injected into the short story, but she was a creation, a wonderful creation of Susan Hill from The Woman in Black. When we read her story, it was sort of like, oh my God, this is an iconic character and we know how we can twist it into a personal space for us.

Sam Eggers: We took care of our grandfather as he declined and he was very, very different from Solange. But he was a Southern gentleman, you know, who was born in 1923. So he was of a certain generation. He was very progressive for how he grew up, where he grew up, and all that stuff. But as he declined, and he was the sort of patriarch of our family, he started to become this baby boy.

It was so surreal because he was such a strong force of nature for us that we then ended up having to, you know, like, literally wipe his butt. You know, he would make messes in the bed and he would do these things... He didn't quite have dementia. I mean, wasn't there as he was nearing his end, but he would do these things that were cries for help. I wouldn't say they were similar to Solange and the things she does, but it was very surreal for us and inspired us in terms of the film where you could open a door and you would find something terrifying, hilarious, sad, all these things all at once. And that's we wanted to inject into this film.

That's great that you say that, because, and I mean this in a very good way, I can't imagine two people reading the script and coming away with the same idea. How did you get everyone on the same page?

Max Eggers: You know, it's funny. To the first point you made, a lot of people had personal connections and I think that was big. I can't speak for them, but what I recall across the board, despite some hard questions or whatever people have over the course of a script, it was that. It was that people knew elements of this and could really attach themselves to some part to it. You know, Brandy had a lot of personal connections to Belinda that she really was excited to explore. Andrew was really into this story. I can't recall if he had a personal connection, but he got into it right away.

Sam Eggers: He really wanted to be part of a film that was about these two women.

Max Eggers: But Kathryn especially, you know, it was tricky to find her Solange, but she connected with it. Solange is a Southern conservative Christian, and Kathryn is a British Shakespearean actor.

Sam Eggers: I mean, she's completely different.

Max Eggers: Completely different. I would say it's the personal connection thing that, through all of the surrealness and all the things we asked of each of all of them, there was a truth to it that they connected with.

Sam Eggers: But they all have, but everybody has different interpretations of what's going on. Why is it going on? You know, is Solange actually evil? Is she just kind of going through something? everybody has different opinions.

And I guess when you're shooting and when you're writing, when you're editing, do you know for sure what is real and what is not? Or do you write in the ambiguity or is it something that only you know?

Max Eggers: I mean, I think it would do a disservice to answer that question, you know, at this stage, especially because I think hopefully things aren't irreducible. They are ambiguous in a fun way, you know? We have the answer. Yes.

In Praise Of Kathryn Hunter's Performance In The Front Room

"What drew her to the character was that she loves to explore the dark side."

I'm thinking about Kathryn and how amazing she is. She is a gorgeous lady in real life. And Solange just has this darkness within her that does manifest on the outside in that way. Kathryn's transformed herself so many times in other roles, which I believe is why you cast her.

Max Eggers: Yes, absolutely.

Can you say there was just no vanity in that performance? Was she ever like, "Oh geez, here we go?"

Sam Eggers: No. In fact, there's a scene where they find Solange in a "M E double S" mess. And Kathryn was like, "More, more, put more on me."

Max Eggers: We had, you know, we had a sprayer for pee that she was like, "You have to put more on me now. I need more."

Sam Eggers: And that was the thing. She wants to explore. What drew her to the character was that she loves to explore the dark side. I can't remember how she put it exactly. The ugly side of things, you know. And like Max said earlier, we had a lot of trouble casting the role of Solange because, you know, agents would say like,"You want my client to fart on camera? What's that about?" But Kathryn was more excited than anybody to do those things. I don't want to speak for her, but she thinks that we don't talk about these things enough.

Especially when it comes to death and the acceptance of that. That's a very important part of life. And she was just really thrilled to be a part of something that was taking a chance in that way. And I think her background in theater and Shakespeare, you know, many of the characters she's played are so well-rounded, so to speak, in the sense of they're awful and hilarious and like there's genuine pathos in them. I think she just is comfortable in that kind of space. But there's one thing I will say that she was very insistent on, which is that she wanted Solange to really have a heart to her. Something where you could look at her and go, okay, she is a person. She's not just this evil maniac. You know, she was very insistent on that.

Yeah. Maybe it's my personal experience and I don't want to spoil anything in the film, but I do feel like I was on Solange's side for maybe longer than I should have been.

Max Eggers: Well, that's the thing! Like you said, personal experience. When we read the short story, it's a very different piece. First of all, it's in Britain in the 90s, I think, and Solange is the secular one and the couple are religious. And so basically, suffice it to say, a lot of things happened that inspired us to enlarge those events, where someone is. to put it crassly, driving you crazy because you're trying to help them and you cannot. But you know that they're not responsible, but that element really helped us with the ambiguity. How much of what Belinda is seeing is real? How much is it just a person who needs some help? It's just a disaster.

Sam Eggers: I don't want to speak for Brandy, but I think what drew her to the character was that Belinda is not a perfect person. She makes mistakes, you know, and to your point about who's side you're on, we were heavily inspired by Whatever Happened to Baby Jane as a sort of parallel. When you watch that movie, Baby Jane is a hilarious villain. But then at certain times you're like, wait, but is she a victim? You know, like, is it actually Joan Crawford?

Max Eggers: She ends up a victim. I mean, no spoilers...

Sam Eggers: It's fine, I mean, you can spoil Baby Jane by now.

Max Eggers: She is the victim in that story!

Sam Eggers: It's the same kind of thing where there's a battle. And we don't necessarily want people to pick sides, per se. But you we do want that moral ambiguity.

Max Eggers: And Kathryn is just so charming. And that was also something I would say that the Susan Hill Solange is like almost devoid of charm, like so charmless, just outright evil. Our grandfather was the most charming Southern gentleman. And so I think, when we were looking for a Solange, yes, she needed to be able to be willing to be covered in poop. But she also needed to be somwone where you needed to enjoy when she was driving you crazy. And Kathryn, she's so likable and charming.

The Eggers Brothers Reflect On Their Brother Robert's Cinematic Success

"We are endlessly inspired by our brother. And we would hope he's inspired by us."

I guess the elephant in the room you're always gonna be asked about is your brother. I know a thing or two about sibling rivalry. At a certain point during The Lighthouse or something, were you like, "We don't need him. We can do our own movie!" That way, you can take jabs in the Christmas cards, like, "Hey, we did a movie, too!"

Sam Eggers: (Laughs) We are endlessly inspired by our brother. And we would hope he's inspired by us. I think that we feed off each other in terms of just trying to find stories to talk about. And I think, seeing him do The Witch, The Lighthouse and the Northman and now Nosferatu... Honestly, we love telling stories like him. And we grew up in the theater together. It was just, I think, a natural evolution of like our careers sort of coming to this point. And he's only ever been encouraging. Of course, there's competitiveness, especially we're releasing our film. He's releasing his later this year.

Max Eggers: A couple of producers were saying there should be an Eggers thing, like a Barbie and Oppenheimer thing. But that might be too many. Too many Eggs in that basket. But our mother had a children's theater company. She was, in no small part, responsible for where we are now. And we've been telling stories with each other forever. And that's the truth. Honestly, we're so blessed. And it's so fun to be able to do this together. And it is like that. It's together.

More About The Front Room (2024)

Everything goes to hell for newly-pregnant Belinda (Brandy) after her mother-in-law (Kathryn Hunter) moves in. As the diabolical guest tries to get her claws on the child, Belinda must draw the line somewhere…

Check back soon for our other The Front Room interview here:

• Brandy Norwood & Kathryn Hunter

The Front Room releases in theaters on September 6.

The Front Room

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R

Horror

Thriller

The Front Room is a psychological horror film directed by the Safdie Brothers. Set in a single location, it revolves around a young, pregnant woman caring for her ailing grandmother, whose secrets and dementia create a tense and eerie atmosphere. The film stars Brandy Norwood and Kathryn Hunter, and explores themes of family, memory, and the supernatural.

Director

Max Eggers , Sam Eggers

Release Date

September 6, 2024

Writers

Max Eggers , Sam Eggers

Cast

Brandy Norwood , Andrew Burnap , Kathryn Hunter , Neal Huff , David Manis , Mary Catherine Wright , Ellen J. Maddow , Mary Testa

Character(s)

Belinda , Norman , Solange , Pastor Lewis , Old Man , Old Woman , 2nd Old Woman , Mary

Runtime

94 Minutes

Main Genre

Horror