Interview with Screwdriver film director Cairo Smith: 'Divorce is an outcome from a relationship failing'

Screwdriver is the film in theaters

The film is Neo-Gothic. What films and styles were you inspired by?

I think ‘neo-Gothic’ as I use it to describe the film is a bit of a neologism, something deliberately a bit against the grain of how films are discussed. That’s on purpose, and my hope is that it provokes a bit of a new spark in the viewer as he or she reflects on the film’s relationship to the Western canon. Obviously, there are hallmarks of the Gothic genre of literature, which arguably peaked well over a hundred years ago. Mad women, strict gender roles, large houses with secret rooms and studies, austere men of questionable science. All these things are a pretty rich and delightful canvas of tropes that serve the story we’re telling in 2020s suburban Los Angeles. Another thing that defines horror and thriller fiction of that milieu is the idea that one can terrify without being graphic, gory, or explicit. That’s not to say we don’t have our moments in Screwdriver, but we definitely tried to maximize the unease of an eerie, oddly pedestrian setting — without having to resort to blood and guts.

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