ComingSoon Senior Movie News Editor Brandon Schreur spoke to Henry Thomas and Sarah Lind about starring in The Curse of the Necklace. Thomas and Lind discussed what drew them to the horror project, working with Violet and Madeline McGraw, and more.
“The Curse of the Necklace follows the Davis family who navigate through tough times in 1960. Laura Davis has separated from her husband Frank due to his unpredictable temper, fueled by alcohol,” the description of the film reads. “As Laura returns to work as a nurse, her daughters, 11-year-old Ellen (Violet McGraw) and 16-year-old Judy (Madeleine McGraw), grapple with the changes in their family dynamics. The plot thickens when Frank attempts to win Laura back with a beautiful antique necklace, which turns out to be a conduit for the tormented soul of an evil boy from long ago, putting Laura and her daughters in grave danger.”
The Curse of the Necklace releases in theaters today, September 27, 2024. It will be available on digital platforms on October 1, 2024.
Brandon Schreur: You’ve both starred in a number of horror projects before. Henry, you’ve done all kinds of work with Mike Flannigan over the years, and, Sarah, I know you were in A Wounded Fawn and you have A Desert coming out sometime soon. I’m curious about what was it about The Curse of the Necklace that stood out to you and made you want to be part of this project.
Henry Thomas: My involvement comes directly from working with Violet [McGraw] years before on The Haunting of Hill House. This project kind of came to me through their mother, Jackie, and I guess them as well because they were executive producers. So they had a say in who they wanted to cast. I’m very grateful that they thought of me and I was happy to work on it.
Sarah Lind: I read the script and then I watched [Juan Pablo Arias Munoz’s] movie Pumpkinhole. I was so impressed by the performances in that and the space that he gave to the characters and the relationships. I was certain that this would be a movie that would explore those as well. I think that’s really interesting, and particularly interesting in a horror film. It can elevate horror and even pays it off a little better.
That was one of the things I loved about it. It’s a horror movie, you’ve got all your scary stuff in there, but the family drama is really at the heart of it. I thought that was really interesting. I thought the dynamic between your characters was really interesting, too. It added a lot of depth. Tell me a little bit about what it was like filming those scenes together because the dynamic is kind of intense at times. You guys are trying to reconnect but can’t really make it work. Was it challenging at all to do those scenes together?
Lind: It was challenging for the characters, but it was well-written, it was well-shot, and all the actors were so good that it was just really fun to play around. There’s so much uncertainty and so much strife between them all. I think maybe Frank and Laura was a little more difficult because, you know, it was pretty strife-y between the two of them.
Thomas: You spend so much time in the first part of any horror film sort of grounding it in a firm reality. Unfortunately, we can all relate to interpersonal strife in relationships, marriages, friendships, or anything. It is a touchstone. Unfortunately, it is a touchstone and we can all relate to that. By making that as real as you can, you bring the audience into your world and they start accepting the less believable things.
Henry, that was something I really liked about your character. He had a lot of layers. On the one hand, he’s trying to reconnect with his daughters and his wife. He has a past history that comes out at times in not the best ways. But, also, every now and then you’d have a line that had me cracking up. There’s one part in the police station where you’re talking about the necklace and you just say, ‘I washed it off! It could be worth a lot of money!’ I was dying, I thought that was really funny. I thought it was interesting how you have so many different layers to the character you are playing.
Thomas: Yeah, poor Frank. He just doesn’t have it together. But, yeah, it’s often funny. And it’s often funny when you are working on a horror film in between takes and on set. Making a film is often like watching paint dry and there’s a lot of downtime. The more ridiculous or fantastical the circumstances are, the funnier it gets. You have to always remember that you’re not in a comedy.
I’m sure that can be hard sometimes. Sarah, I’m curious what it was like working with Madeline and Violet. Like we said, they’re executive producers, but they’re also sisters in real life. You get to play their mom and there are a lot of scenes between the three of you. Sometimes, they’re happier scenes, and, sometimes, they’re more intense scenes. What was that dynamic like?
Lind: We hit it off so quickly. The three McGraw girls and I did. The third one is off-camera for the whole movie, and that’s their mom. They are three of the loveliest, most easy-going, easy to get along with, generous, kind people that I’ve ever met. There’s a family vibe on this movie in so many ways — obviously, on screen, but the production company, they all work together constantly so they are like this family unit. And then an actual family was on set. It was really helpful to me because I’m not a parent and I was nervous about playing a mother believably. Having that bond made it a little easier.
There are not enough good things that can be said about Violet and Maddy. They are just the most lovely girls. They are so talented and so professional. They’re so nice to work with. The only thing about them is that they get along so well that I don’t know how they were so believably able to fight with each other. I don’t think they even fight like that when they do [in real life]. If they ever do.
Sure, especially right at the beginning of the movie. You can tell they’re actually sisters because it really seems like they are at each other’s throats the whole time. I thought that was great. You, as their mother, was great, too, I thought that dynamic totally worked and I loved it.
Henry, I mentioned Mike Flannigan already once before. You’ve been in a bunch of his series. I’m thinking of something like Midnight Mass and how that character is kind of two sides of the same coin [with Curse of the Necklace]. In this movie, you are the father who has been kind of cast out and is trying to reconnect. In Midnight Mass, you are the father who is there but kind of struggling to accept his son after everything he’s done. Did you find any similarities between the two characters when you were working on this? Did your time working on Midnight Mass influence your performance here at all?
I think they are the same in the sense that they’re from the same generation of men who handled things in a certain way and thought that their wives should stay home and work and not have lives outside of the home. Basically, the old guard, stay in your lane sort of attitude. They’re kind of cut from the same cloth. I know that because these are people that I saw growing up. This generation of men that kind of came before us. It’s a very real trope that I’m playing on.
No, definitely. I thought that was interesting, seeing some similarities and also some differences, exploring that trope. Real quick, I just wanted to talk to you guys about the third act of the movie, too. Some stuff goes down — I don’t want to get too much into it without spoiling anything, but some big, crazy things happen. There’s also an Exorcist vibe to some of the stuff that happens toward the end. I’m curious what it was like filming these big, final moments. Were there any special effects involved in any of it or was this all practical?
Thomas: There were some effects, but it was mostly practical because we made this on quite a limited budget. We were forced to do a lot of practical effects just out of necessity. JP, the director, was so instrumental in the feel and the pacing of everything. Our DP did an excellent job at making it look like we had a lot more money than we did. That’s just movie magic right there.
Lind: I really like in horror movies — once you’ve done a few of them, you realize you can just run around and scream. That can get you most of the way there, but it’s not very much fun and audiences deserve better than that. Crafting sort of an arc of terror for a character; why and how is this moment specifically scary and how does it build on this, what’s the trajectory and sort of unique path of this woman’s fear and terror? I think that’s really, really fun. Honestly, it felt like it was half the script, the third act. You know, it was long and a lot happens. It was really a fun challenge to sort that out.
