Prior to the horror film premiere at Sandance, Boyd spoke about making it. Read more below:
The Sundance Film Festival is known for producing bittersweet dramedies about modern life, deep-dive docs on subjects you didn’t know you needed to learn about, and profound dramas that plumb the depths of human existence — but it would be a mistake to sleep on its genre offerings, too.
One such film is Sean Ellis’ Eight for Silver, which will premiere this weekend as part of the 2021 digital edition of the iconic indie fest. The deliciously eerie horror film takes place in rural 19th-century France, where a mysterious, possibly supernatural menace threatens a small village. Boyd Holbrook stars as John McBride, a pathologist who comes to town to investigate the danger — and exorcise some of his own demons in the process.
“I really love stories that are in a particular place and time, and [I loved] playing off this classical folklore,” says Holbrook, who was drawn to the filmmaker’s “arthouse” approach to genre cinema. “I’m a big fan of films like Hereditary… Scary films, if they’re done well, are so good.”