Today, we were lucky enough to be able to have a chat with Federica Alice Carlino, the director and writer of the short film, The Monster’s Club. Federica was born in Milan, but now lives in Los Angeles. Thank you for taking the time for our questions.
Darida Rose, UniversalCinema Magazine (UM): This was really an intriguing short. I had no idea where the story was going, and I was on the edge of my seat the entire time wanting to know what would happen next. Could you tell us how you came up with the idea for The Monster’s Club?
Federica Alice Carlino (FC): Thank you! My idea was to present a genre and switch to another, I honestly wanted the audience to feel confused and don’t know what to expect, so I’m glad to hear that. I came up with the idea for The Monster’s Club, from a real life experience and current life among teenagers. My experience involved a friend of mine getting injured during a prank, he fell from a tree and he broke his leg, he still slightly lips to this day, and my friends and I still talk about it. I always wondered what would have happened if he fell in a different way and the prank had a tragic outcome. How would that affect our lives? Just because we were young and naive, we had to show how cool we were with these pranks and that was the moment I realized it wasn’t worth it. It was a moment of self realization for me.
The aspect that includes current events is especially social media and how teenagers are willing to risk their lives to be seen as the cool ones. I was truly shocked to read articles about The Bird Box Challenge, The tide pod challenge or any other trends that truly put these kids in danger and can kill them easily. All of these actions are made just for a one minute video and go viral, for 5 seconds. The Monster’s Club is a mixture between past and present, because we always had these problems, but with social media, it worsened. What if we had social media in the 90’s? How would that affect us? I don’t really like to show teenagers on their phone, so I wanted to go back in the 90’s and add that hunger for fame and visibility to it throughout TV shows, looking for home made videos to air, which was such a huge phenomenon back then.
(UM): The title here seems ambiguous. On the one hand, the kids dress up as monsters. On the other hand, the actions of some of them make them seem like real monsters. Could you tell us a bit about the title?
(FC): The title refers just to Jackson, it literally is the club of the monster. The story gets worse because he decides he cares more about the consequences on him, than helping his dying friend. The problem is, the choices you make in these situations as a teenager, will haunt you forever, and that’s exactly what happened to him.
(UM): Do you think teenagers should be forgiven for a serious mistake like the one we see in the movie? Or were they old enough to know better?
(FC): In this particular case, Jackson didn’t really understand how bad the situation was, he wanted to believe that Dumpster would make it, so he didn’t have to feel bad about it. Colin is rational, he already felt like Dumpster could have not made it, but Jackson had a hard time accepting that. When the officers receive the bad news while questioning Jackson and Colin, it truly hits Jackson, Colin, at that point already accepted that he was going to lose two friends that night, for two different reasons.
In general, I think that, if the teenager is willing to admit his mistakes he might be forgiven for it, if he truly understands how dangerous the situation was and why he has been punished for it. As you said, they were old enough to know better, but also at that age you feel indestructible, you think “This will never happen to me”and you are very emotional and hotheaded. Many of us made mistakes when we were younger, maybe not to this level, but we learned from them and we know we won’t do it again. I guess it depends on the situation. One thing is for sure, none of them killed Dumpster, it was a misunderstanding, Jackson panicked, and decided to jump out from the situation by going into self defense mode, by thinking about possible repercussions.
(UM): The production is very well done, and the acting is great. Could you tell us a bit about the production process? How long did it take? Did anything unexpected happen that you had to work around?
(FC): For sure, being a 90’s kid helped the process. I went to my parents’ house and looked at some family albums, some VHS tapes, I found some magazines that I used to read in 1999, when the short was set, and tried to remember the feeling. I also rewatched some of my favorite movies that I used to watch at the time such as E.T., The Goonies, Stand By Me… they are more 80’s movies, but they inspired me a lot for clothing and for production design, especially for the basement. Some 90’s movies could be Matilda or Home Alone, again for visuals, because they are not as heavy as my short. A recent movie that inspired me for the dynamic between the main characters is for sure the IT remake by Andrés Muschietti, it felt so real and authentic and I wanted that in my story as well. I like to add fun elements to dramatic events, it makes the audience breathe for a bit, or maybe they relax and I can surprise them with something unexpected. Once I had all the people I needed, I prepared a lookbook for each member of my crew, with visuals, videos and even a playlist that I also gave to my actors, since they didn’t experience that decade. It was a great teamwork, for sure, and I will never thank them enough for bringing my vision to life. It took me a year and a half to work on pre production. I started in July 2019 by going location scouting by myself, then a year later with part of the crew. The casting process started in February 2020 and ended in July, of the same year. The hardest to cast were Jackson and Colin’s adult versions. I’m also a casting director, so I particularly cared about making it believable. Then I learned all the rules about having a fake weapon on set in LA, I’m Italian and that was my first time using one in the US. LA rules are way different, but to be honest, they make so much sense. Something unexpected that happened on set was that, since the actor that plays Dumpster, Max Vector, was a minor, he couldn’t stay much on set, so we couldn’t film his close ups in the woods in time. The day we shot the basement scenes, we also shot his close ups in a little garden behind the set. It actually turned out great and you can’t tell it’s a different location.
(UM): Could you tell us about your future plans? Do you intend to make The
Monster’s Club into a feature?
(FC): My plans in general are to develop other ideas I’ve been having in store for a while now and I’m starting a Podcast with a friend of mine called No Experience Needed, it will come out this February. I have clear plans for The Monster’s Club, I wanna turn it into a TV series, I would like to explore the outcome of the events on Jackson and Colin. I would love to see the aftermath affecting them at school, among the other teenagers and also seeing them living their adulthood carrying this heavy feeling. We didn’t get the chance to know them better, especially as adults. I feel like there’s so much more to add to this story, that a feature won’t be enough.
(UM): Were you trying to make a statement about gun control or the dangers of hunting? Or was this really just about the mistakes these kids made in their youth?
(FC): It was mainly about their mistakes, how one bad decision can affect your entire life, about growing up, about leaving your youth to become an adult, with responsibilities, but for sure gun control is a huge element in this story. Moving to LA, it was such a cultural shock, finding weapons in Walmart next to the toy section, I was truly surprised about how easy it is to own a gun or a rifle. On the other hand I truly like to see what the audience sees in this short, all I heard are amazing points of views and I loved seeing people reflecting and truly taking their time to discuss the theme of my short.
(UM): Do you think the kids would have turned out differently if they’d told the truth up front?
(FC): I very much think so. As I said before, if you hold yourself accountable for your own mistakes, you are showing growth and you are taking the best decision on the matter. Probably Jackson and Colin would have been still friends and could have faced it all together, coping with Dumpster’s death and being each other’s support system, instead they grew apart, and lost their friendship forever. facing a huge secret like this one, it truly eat you inside, it’s an unsolved problem.
(UM): In the last scene, Jackson receives a message from Colin. What was
the intention behind Colin’s message?
(FC): Since I want this short to become a series, this was a proof of concept for the first episode, I wanted it to end with a cliffhanger, so the audience would start to want more and to know what’s next in Jackson’s perfect life. Will this VHS ruin his career, and possibly his marriage? Will he meet Colin after all these years? I wanted Colin to wait for the perfect moment to ruin Jackson’s life, it doesn’t matter how long he has to wait, he has lived with this rage and sense of vendetta his whole life. I’m still thinking about different possibilities and outcomes from their encounter after 20 years. All I know is that it will be very intense.
By: Darida Rose