Juliet Landau is best-known for her portrayal of vampire Drusilla in both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. In addition to acting, she is also a keen filmmaker. This week her directorial debut, A Place Among the Dead, arrives into the world. A stunningly personal tale told through the guise of fiction in a mockumentary style, A Place Among the Dead is a startling first movie.
A Place Among the Dead is a genre-bending, elevated-horror film, which explores the repercussions of growing up under the sway of narcissism and psychological abuse. Told as if a real documentary, Landau also stars in the film as Jules, a somewhat fictionalised version of herself. In A Place Among the Dead , Landau’s Jules is hunting a serial killer who may or may not be a vampire. At the same time she, alongside partner Dev (played by Landau’s real-life husband and co-writer, Deverill Weekes) are exploring the mythos and popularity of vampires. Featuring interviews with names including Gary Oldman, Anne Rice, and Kim Newman, A Place Among the Dead blurs the lines between fact and fiction beautifully.
A Place Among the Dead arrives Worldwide on an all-regions Blu-ray and a host of streaming platforms from the apt release date of Friday 13th October 2023. Ahead of the release, THN sat down with Juliet Landau to discuss this riveting debut in detail:
A Place Among the Dead marks your feature directorial debut. It is a very complex and personal story; why was it important to you that this be your first project?
The movie is a genre-bending, elevated horror, which explores the repercussions of growing up under the sway of narcissism and psychological abuse. My husband Deverill Weekes co-wrote and co-produced it with me. We both come from this background. We were both raised by narcissists and we really wanted to tackle something that we hadn’t seen before, and talk about something that hadn’t been covered in films and that society has been reticent to talk about. Luckily, that is changing. A few days ago I looked up numbers, if you type into a Google search, narcissism, there are 181 million results. Psychological abuse has 255 million results. When we first made the film, the YouTube videos on narcissism, narcissistic abuse, psychological abuse, were something like 9 million 120,000. There’s now, I think, five times that. We wanted to get at this discussion, provoke a discussion through art and entertainment.
It is this heady mixture of mockumentary, fantasy, and serial killer thriller; how does this narrative structure help the message you are wanting to convey?
We chose this style and particularly genre, and the vampire genre, for a number of reasons. First of all, we wanted to make an entertaining movie. If you had typed in Vampires into a Google search as of a few days ago, it’s 555 million Google results. I wanted to lull the audience into a sense of safety, using a genre that they feel comfortable with, tropes that they feel safe with, to talk about uncomfortable and unsafe ideas.
I also thought it was a great way since we blur the lines of reality using an entirely scripted meld of fact, fiction, and the fantastical, that some of the factual elements – every single person in it that’s known – plays an alter ego version of themselves, and they all have ties to vampire material. So, myself with Buffy and Angel, Gary Oldman with Dracula, Ron Perlman with Blade 2, Lance Henriksen – Near Dark, Anne Rice, The Vampire Chronicles and Interview with the Vampire. It was a really wonderful way to bring in all of our histories.
Mostly we thought that the vampire was the perfect metaphor for the ultimate narcissist. It’s a being which drains all for its own needs. Vampires mesmerize and have people in their thrall; narcissists are often exceedingly charismatic. You have to invite a vampire into your house or into your space, in the movie we’re looking at familial narcissism and you don’t invite those people in, but then you’re primed to continue to do so for the rest of your life. Vampires do not change. They stay exactly the same; narcissists have zero ability to change. Vampires cannot see their reflection in a mirror; narcissists have zero ability to self reflect. It just goes on and on and on.
We were looking at the whole spectrum in the movie. We talk about the consistent systematic snuffing of spirit, light, and liveliness all the way to the heinous, snuffing of life, which the Darcel character personifies. In fact, Darcel means darkness in French and we’re never really sure in the movie… is he a vampire, or is he a serial killer who emulates a vampire? But either way, the traits are the same and I’m really exploring how we so often replay the unwinnable parent, or the past trauma in our lives, and we keep hoping for a different outcome. But in fact, when we do that, it just gets worse and worse and worse.
Both vampires and serial killer fiction are incredibly popular with audiences, why do you think that is?
I think the vampire can be used, and is so malleable, for different metaphors, and it really reflects so many different aspects of our natures. As far as a true-crime, I think there’s a fascination because we try to understand people of this ilk, we try to understand narcissists and sociopaths and psychopaths. I don’t know about you, but, you can watch a million documentaries on Charles Manson or Ted Bundy and by the end, you really have no further answer or understanding as to how a person can behave that way. I think we’re curious to see if we can figure out how people can do these kinds of things.
You star as a fictionalised version of Juliet, how did you go about finding that line between the real and unreal?
We chose to make the movie searingly personal, and part of that was because we really wanted the viewer to become the participant, and not just sit back and solely be a spectator, to have a really emotional and visceral and experiential ride. My husband and I both actually… because we come from this background, we were using my alter-ego, but a lot of it was co-scripted and a lot of the things like the voice-over and the thoughts in the mind.
Our release strategy has been an extended period of film festivals, and screening events, to create a conversation and to create prestige, which has been amazing because we’ve swept the award circuit. The other thing that’s happened is just that it’s been such a profound experience. We have at least 250 people that have named themselves, ‘A Place Among the Dead Heads’, like the Grateful Dead, and they come to every single screening event and they say that the movie has really changed their lives, which is so humbling.
So the thing that has become so paramount and clear, when we’re talking to audiences, every single time we screen the film the entire audience stays anywhere from four hours, to six and a half hours, and people begin sharing their personal experiences with this. There comes a point where people say whether it’s a partner, an ex-partner, a boss, or a co-worker, a friend, a family member or world leaders. It’s as if we’re talking about the exact same person. These thoughts are so universal. So many people have said, ‘oh my God. I felt like you literally opened up my brain and put it up on screen.’
One of the things that we found when we were developing the project and doing research for the project, we found a study that said that 80% of the thoughts, in everyone’s minds, even the people that come from the most healthy, stable, supportive loving backgrounds, 80% of them are negative. We’re very derisive and critical and mean to ourselves constantly. If you could lessen that negative, self-talk even 20%, how much more productive, proactive, present, instead of in your own thoughts that we could be. Once you recognise that a lot of that thinking doesn’t come from your own true self. It’s been planted there in other ways, you can start to learn how to let that go and have different kinds of thinking, which is really what the whole nature of the movie is, it’s a cautionary tale about what happens to someone who does not do that.
It must be incredibly rewarding as an artist to know that you have connected with your audience in such a way?
It’s unbelievable. Dev and I say if we had seen a movie like this when we were 18, it could have changed the course and journey of our lives. So we knew that people experienced this, what we didn’t realise is how prevalent it is. How it really is the issue of our time. How every single person basically, whether its family or not, someone in their lives, where they have dealt with this. Also in terms of the negative thought patterns, again those don’t have to be planted by family members. It can be in school, it can be teachers and peers in school. It can be in love relationships. Wherever those are planted by someone, they begin to fester and they grow.
In addition to yourself, who is known as being a part of vampire series Buffy and Angel, the film is populated with a variety of scholars and actors known for their work within the genre. You’re going to these people and asking them to play versions of themselves that you’ve scripted. This is your first project, how did you manage to collect such a wealth of talent?
It was amazing because every single person that we approached said yes. There was a serendipitous flow to that whole experience. Every one of the talented people said that they believed in the mission of the movie, and they really believed in the vision of the movie. How we worked with them was really wonderful, because we talked with them about their own personal views, then we scripted it, then we sent it to them and then we worked back and forth and then prior to shooting all of the material. That was really wonderful.
I approached people in all different kinds of ways. Anne Rice was the very first person who said yes, I did not know Anne. I did a complete cold reach out. I sent her the script and within two days she said she was in. Then Gary Oldman, I had worked with him prior as had my husband, and we sent him the script and the same thing. Lance Henriksen I’ve never worked with before, so I reached out to his manager. Something lovely came out of that besides getting to work with Lance, in that I got on so well with his manager, Jane, that we now work together. She’s my manager.
Ron Perlman, we worked out at the same fitness centre. I went up to Ron and said “I’m about to do something I hate. I’m about to accost you at the gym,” and he said, “I’ve been waiting years for you to accost me at the gym.” I told him about the material, he gave me his direct email and he said, “I’m in!” I said, “well I haven’t sent you the script yet” and he said, “well, you have all these unknowns like Gary Oldman and Anne Rice in your movie, I’m in, I want to do it.” I emailed him later the script and he read it, and he said, “I told you I was in before, but I’m really excited about this,” and that was wonderful. It was a really Incredible journey and it’s one of my favourite things.
Within the film there is this almost repetition of some gorgeous artwork. How did those come together?
The artist’s name is Mark McHaley, and he is so talented. He had done some artwork that I loved prior. We reached out to him and he not only did all of the artwork within the film, but he also did all of our poster artwork. What’s really interesting with every person that came on board, they resonated really deeply with the project. He has spent years dealing with a narcissistic ex, and so he immediately said, “I need to do this artwork.” The concept of the artwork for the posters is interesting because all of our main cast have separate posters with half face, half painting. It’s that idea of where you get taken over by this. It starts to literally take over your personage. We have one poster of the Jules character, of my character, not only with the half face, but with a completely painted face as well.
We had a very similar thing with our composer, Monica Richards, who is brilliant. She was in a band called Faith in the Muse and we got together, actually to see if she would do some practical songs. When we were sitting there, she started playing me some of her music and so much of it sounded like a soundtrack, the beginnings of it before it got into the vocal, sounded like soundtrack music. And I said, “have you ever thought about scoring a film?” She then played me this incredible vocal piece that she did in a cave that just had this sort of primal, unbelievable, beautiful earthy quality. And I said, “how would you feel about scoring the movie?” And she said she would love to, but wanted to just do a test first.
We started with what became the Jules theme, which is in the blue room in the beginning of the movie, and also later, and then peppered through the movie. It was a violin piece and she sent me a few options and the minute I heard the Jules theme, I said, “oh my God, I think this is it.” The only thing is she had a part of it, that stepped-up musically, and I said “I think the character is descending. So I think it needs to step down. I don’t think we’re going up here. I think she’s going down and down and down. Ignoring every red flag and going into the depths.” She reworked that section. We started doing the next piece of the film and then we kept going. She kept saying “I just want to do one more test.” We’d made it through so much I said, “hey Monica, we’re actually doing this. We’re working on it, let’s just make it official. Let’s get the contract, let’s do it. We don’t need any more tests to do this.”
Then we had another really wonderful experience in relation to the music in that we found a piece of Mozart’s Requiem that I loved on YouTube. Carlo Dumont had a quartet, he’s a concert violinist. He’s just unbelievable. He was playing in an ancient church outside of Florence and I loved it. So I thought ‘maybe we can keep it in the movie, but I have to figure it out. How do we clear the rights on it? Because it’s not the usual sync licence. It’s not the master, it’s an actual live recording…’
I think I spent about over two weeks on the internet looking and looking and looking and looking for his contact. I finally found what I thought might be a personal email and I emailed him and he wrote back immediately. He said “I’ve talked to everybody, the four of us, we are happy for you to use it.” I said, “oh my God, that’s amazing, by the way, would you be interested in playing any of the other violin pieces for the movie?” He said, “I would love to. Would you like you the same, we can work remotely in that church.” So we worked remotely while he was playing in the most beautiful, exquisite, acoustically unbelievable space and Church in Italy. He played a lot of the exquisite violin in the movie.
It has been over 25 years since Buffy first aired and it still has legions of loyal fans. hat do you think it is about the show that has seen it sustain?
But I think you know, as you are a person who writes about and knows about genre and horror. I think that there’s something first of all that you can do, that you can’t do with a straight drama. There is a way that the deeper themes can get into people’s tissues and subconscious in a way that’s very different and unique. I feel that Buffy did that, and continues to resonate with people, because of that. The whole metaphor initially was high school as a nightmare and so many people can relate to that period of time of being young and coming-of-age and it feeling nightmarish, and feeling like you have the world on your shoulders – which Buffy literally does. Also, the whole posse around her, who doesn’t want this great group of people supporting you and fighting all the demons and bad things in the world?
The cast are also clearly still attached to the world and there is the forthcoming Slayers: A Buffyverse Story audible show, which you star in. How does it feel to be back?
Well, it’s amazingly easy to inhabit Dru. I think if you’ve worked on a character for a long period of time, whether it’s on a run of a play, there’s some part of you that has put that amount of work in and it stays in there somewhere. Dru thankfully is very different from me in a lot of ways, hopefully I’m a lot more stable than Dru. She’s always been a character with so much dimension, and rife with so many contradictions. I think with this particular material, what is interesting about it is that Dru is not subservient to anyone. She’s not an appendage to anyone, but drives a lot of the action. The other thing about Dru is she has such a big heart and is very loving, even though she’s exceedingly damaged.
Why should people seek out A Place Among the Dead, and what do you hope that people experience when watching it?
We’ve had so many people say that the movie is first of all entertaining, but also that it has changed their lives. I think that if you just want to see a movie and enjoy a movie, that’s wonderful. If you also want to see something that’s thought-provoking and makes you reflect on certain things in your own life and that can improve your own life. That’s wonderful as well.
We have this outpouring on social media and people posting and writing and emailing. I’m just going to give you a couple examples because I think it will typify it better than me even saying it. I think one of the very first emails we got from the first screening was a gal, and I’m going to keep everybody’s anonymity, so I’ll call her K. K wrote that her partner committed suicide and she felt like the movie helped her really understand what he was dealing with, with his mother, and the narcissistic abuse that he came from. And she said, she never really understood it till she saw the movie.
Then we have a gal named Dee who is one of our Place Among the Dead Heads, and she said she had this ‘aha’ moment when she saw the film and went, “Oh my gosh, this is my life.” Since that time, she found a therapist who understands narcissistic abuse. She’s moved out of the toxic family home. She’s gotten a job. She got promoted three times, she has made friends, she has this whole community and network around her. Every time we have zooms and get to talk to the people that have seen the film, we see their lives growing and growing. People are being creative, and they’re making music.
One of the things that’s been really fun for us, is the social media campaign. People are making videos. As the movie blurs the lines of reality, with a scripted blend of fact, fiction, and the fantastical, many people have made with the Darcel police sketch that appears in the film, tons of videos with that, and they’re making music and they’re making artwork. We’ve been posting everybody’s stuff that they’ve been inspired to make from the movie. So hopefully it will touch people. It will move people. It will make people think, and they will enjoy the ride.
The All-regions Ultimate Blu-ray of A Place Among the Dead is available now for pre-order on Barnes and Noble, Best Buy, Amazon, Walmart and various sites. There is also a signed Blu-Ray + Q & A + Interactive Worldwide Zoom option. On Oct 13th, A Place Among the Dead will be available at more than 40 online retailers and will also be available to Stream on Amazon Prime US, Amazon Prime UK, Apple TV and Google Play.
