One of the most delightfully creepy film of the class isGirl on the Third Floor , star wrestling fable Phil " CM Punk " Brooks in his feature photographic film debut . This meticulously craftedhaunted house morality talealso punctuate the directorial first appearance of Travis Stevens , the repugnance producer responsible forcritical hits likeBig Ass Spider!and – more lately – We Are Still Here .

Brooks adept as Don , a would - be paterfamilias who aims to renovate the home base he purchased for himself and his significant wife . Of course , things immediately take a turn for the supernatural , and Don ’s true character is bring out as his sanity begins to slip away . With a slight running time of just over 90 minutes , fille on the Third Floor ’s slow - burning approach is equilibrize out by its elegant pacing and slopped focus on only a few characters ; there ’s no fatty tissue on these pearl , resulting in anefficiently ruthless horror experiencewith peck of uncomfortably macabre laughs thrown in along the style .

Related : Phil " CM Punk " Brooks Interview : Girl on the Third Floor

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While advertise the going ofGirl on the Third Floor , manager Travis Stevens spoke with Screen Rant about his directorial entry . In the interview , he talk over what it ’s like to give up a motion picture to the world after spending years nurturing it from an idea toa full - fledged employment of artistic production , as well as what it was like to forge with Phil " CM Punk " Brooks . He also discourse his commitment to virtual special effects and how nearly every individual effect is done entirely in photographic camera , with but a single exclusion .

daughter on the Third Flooris out now in dramaturgy , On Digital , and on VOD .

We ’re in the home stretch of the movie ’s life cycle , at least from your ending . You ’ve probably been living and breathing this film for a long time now . You made the movie , you finished the movie , you did the festivals , and now it ’s about to go out to the public . When do you just get to put your hand up and take a triumph lap covering ?

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Man , what a great enquiry . I feel we ’re very faithful to that . And I could n’t be more excited . You make something and you require the great unwashed to understand what your intentions were . You ’re not sure how it ’s going to be received . It ’s all out of our script now . It ’s up to the audience to decide how they feel . I ’m ready for it . I ’m activated to see what people say .

I like getting to tattle to creative person at this point in the movie ’s life round . It ’s almost like it ’s " last call " before it belongs to the public forever . Is there anything you require to say , any last sales pitch you want to make to the Screen Rant reader of what they should wait fromGirl on the Third Floor ?

I would say one of the keys to this movie is , do n’t take anything at fount value . We have a guy who endure to the business firm and you accept he ’s a dependable guy , but peradventure he ’s not a good hombre . Then you ’ve receive a distaff protagonist who you may have some feelings about , but then you take those were faulty . I think that ’s fundamentally it . Do n’t take it at face time value . Look deep .

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Without indulge anything , that ’s one of my favorite things about this movie ! So , the fable is you had to freshen up your own home and then had to turn it into a horror pic . Is that correct ?

I pick up that version of it , and it ’s a better story , but the realism is , the company that produce the film owned the house . They need to make a preoccupied house movie there . That was the start of it . We had a house . The local fable was that it used to be a bordello and two women had expire there , and it actually was just across the street from a church , and that was the starting point for me . get along up with a story that apply all those facts .

You ’ve made a name for yourself as a producer over the years , but this is your first movie as a director . Was that something you had been meaning to do for a while now ? What was it about this motion-picture show that made you go , " I ’ve got ta call the shots on this one ? "

Girl on the Third Floor CM Punk

It was something I thought I was go to do much earlier , but I just got too busy , you know ? I ’ve been very fortunate to work with a lot of incredible writers and directors . Suddenly , ten class had decease by . I was like , " Oh hold back , I ’d better get back to my original goal . " So on this one , it was a combination of an opportunity and I had a chronicle to tell with this family . I finger very fortunate that I was given the chance to do so .

Not only is this your debut , but it ’s also Phil ’s first movie . I was honestly dismayed when I learned that . I think , he ’s so charismatic . How did you sleep together he was the one for the part even though he had n’t been in any moving picture yet ?

I knew him through how he deport himself in his other career . Just view him in interviews he did with Ariel Helwani before his MMA fighting . Watching how he carry on himself through the wrestling phase of his career … I just had a lot of trust in him because I think he ’s a really secure , gifted person . I guess , with anything , whether it ’s behave or directing , you ’ve get ta come out somewhere . Probably the most significant thing is find out how hard you ’re willing to work , and are you easy to work with , and Phil was both ! I ’m super excited to see what he does next with other directors , because I think he ’s fu * * * * * awesome !

Girl on the Third Floor Monster Girl

When I talked to him , I was so impressed at his cinematic pulls . He was talking about mass who worked on The affair by name , and I was like , " Okay , this guy wire knows what he ’s talking about . " Did you have any time on circle to confabulate and pick each other ’s brain on repulsion lore ?

Yeah , he ’s a repugnance fan ! Just yesterday , we were ride around , talking about the picture Kuffs with Christian Slater and Milla Jovovich . He mentioned it out of the blue , and I was like , " Man , this dude knows a lot of movies ! " He ’s just a heap of merriment to flow out with and babble about film with .

I ’m finding that ’s true of a circumstances of wrestler . They are adult nerd who just happen to be passing ripped !

Phil Brooks CM Punk Girl on the Third Floor

Yeah ! I only do it two , but both of them were just the prissy , buff the great unwashed I ’d ever met !

Are you a big wrestling guy ? Did you get any rooter moments with Phil ? Like , " Oh my God , I ’m working with CM Punk ! "

No , for whatever intellect , I stop watching wrestle in the former ' 90s . It ’s one of those things where it ’s so permeant that you ’re always , I dunno , with social media and everything , I discover myself register about Roman Reigns , and reading about AEW Even though I do n’t watch it , it ’s such a grownup part of our culture . But yeah , I fan out over Phil about the stuff he was talking about , not the stuff and nonsense he had done over his late career . I ’m a lover of him as a person , not as a personality . I was wholly cognisant of him as a martial artist . I watched all his fight , because I was singular to see how he was going to do , well before we set about throw this film . So I felt I had a real understanding of him before we form together . He ’s a fighter !

Phil Brooks CM Punk Girl on the Third Floor Close Up

I do n’t know if there ’s a unmarried CGI result in this movie . you could objurgate me if I ’m wrong , but is everything 100 % in camera ?

There ’s one gibe that takes a hard-nosed upshot and adds a CG element to it . CG can be great , but we were shooting in the factual family , and it was the first film for many of the role player , and it was my first film as a director , so it seemed chic to incline into things we could actually see , so we would know the reality of the blood seeping out of the wall , or what a marble roll across the floor looks like , rather than make to imagine it . So yeah , we dedicated a lot of prison term and resources to in reality doing it in camera , and it makes it easy , because you see what you get .

Stuff like the wits is so interesting . Because you think , yeah , it could be done more easy with CGI , but it ’s so much more telling when it ’s literally a marble falling down a steps , because it ’s substantial , it ’s being aim like an thespian , even .

CM Punk Phil Brooks Girl on the Third Floor Header Image

give thanks you . As a filmmaker , it ’s a rum affair when you ’ve done twenty issue and you ’re the one throwing the marble down the step and you ’re going , " It ’s not quite good ! " That ’s the downside of it , but it feel good .

Did you do any kind of method acting stuff with Phil ? Did you make him slumber in the house or anything , or could everyone go home ?

Everyone went home . I had delusions of , " I ’m gon na catch some Z’s in the theater for the calendar month of prep . I ’m gon na become Don , the main character . " The first night I walk over there , it was pretty unclouded remain in the house would be a fearful musical theme , because the house did n’t desire anybody there . So , okay , that was a unsound approximation . But I attempt to put myself in the character ’s shoes so I could secernate Phil about it , rather than having him do it .

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What were some of your inspirations , what are some of your movies , horror or otherwise ?

I retrieve the vainglorious influences on this one would be Stanley Kubrick’sThe Shining , Clive Barker’sHellraiser … I drew a wad of inspiration from contemporary artists . Painters and photographer , sculptors , and a lot of those influences found their room into the moving picture when composing shaft and the overall esthetic . I just wanted to make a picture that leave the consultation with information on how to live a more fulfilling aliveness .

That ’s such a great message to get , especially from a revulsion movie . Like , if you go into a motion-picture show count for a substance , it might not vibrate as strongly as if you go into a movie and are blindsided with that message , right ?

Yeah . You want to constitute a seed . You do n’t want to of necessity scream in somebody ’s face , " Hey , be a better soul ! " But if you could plant a seed and they draw the conclusion themselves , then swell : possibly you ’ve made something that ’s scary and can mayhap improve somebody ’s life . That ’s the hope .

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