English comic actor Matt Berry describes the level of improvisation afforded to him and the cast of FX’s hit comedy “What We Do in the Shadows,” in which four vampires and a human familiar share a house on suburban Staten Island, as “very generous.” That freedom to “go for the most outrageous thing,” he says, is one reason why his justly admired performance as vaingloriously pervy 300-year-old bloodsucker Laszlo Cravensworth earned him an Emmy nomination for lead actor in a comedy. It’s a first for Berry, who also has won U.S. fans with such imported Britcoms as “The IT Crowd” and “Toast of London,” a show he co-created about an arrogant actor.
But before he filmed one episode of “Shadows,” one of Berry’s ideas was met with serious resistance by creator Jemaine Clement and executive producer Taika Waititi. “I offered at the beginning to do a sort of Eastern European accent, what you always associate with vampires,” he recalls, then imitates the pair’s reaction — “no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no” — with a deadpan calm that slyly conveys exactly how horrified Clement and Waititi would have been to lose one of the more priceless gifts in present-day comedy: Berry’s epically plummy, theatrically swaggering English baritone. “And so I have my own accent,” he says, adding, “on the keen enthusiasm from the creators.”
I should first clarify for readers that in real life you don’t speak like the ghost of every British stage ham converged into one larynx. But it’s not that far away, either.
To me, it doesn’t sound anything exceptional, because I’ve had it all my life. When I was younger, it made me laugh if I heard someone with a clipped accent be pompous. I’d instantly mimic it. It’s rare to hear now. Maybe some members of the royal family, but not your average citizen.
When you’re revving it up, is there anyone in particular you’re thinking of?
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An actor called Jon Finch [who] had an incredible delivery. Even when doing everyday things, he sounds like he’s doing Shakespeare. And Tom Baker.
… Who is most well known for playing Doctor Who in the ’70s.
When I was a kid watching [Baker], I thought he was terrifying, the way he sounded. As I’ve become an actor, I’ve realized a lot of it was down to the fact that he was trying to remember his lines. He would start every sentence with [affects a deeply throaty sound] “We-e-e-lll …” and then he’d launch into whatever he was doing. That I find really funny. And I find anyone who is not particularly self-aware very amusing.
The sets for the series, says Matt Berry, are “so good, you forget you’re in a warehouse in Canada. You really are in this turn-of-the-century mansion full of furniture from the last 700 years.”
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Laszlo certainly qualifies. Do those showy Victorian threads help put you into his ancient-and-randy mindset?
It’s also the sets. They’re so good, you forget you’re in a warehouse in Canada. You really are in this turn-of-the-century mansion full of furniture from the last 700 years. Because they’re vampires, they don’t get rid of anything. It’s so kind of warm and inviting, you want to stay there. Because outside is a warehouse and, you know, three feet of snow.
Is there a vampire power you’d take?
It wouldn’t be immortality. As you can see from them, it doesn’t look fun. And if you suffer from a mental health issue, you’ve got that forever. But they have no real interest in material things. That’s what I like. They couldn’t give a f— about things around them, or technology. That’s what I envy about them.
A very human power you have is musical ability. You’ve released many albums, and you’ve been a musician longer than you’ve been acting. Didn’t it play a part in how you were discovered?
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I was playing singer-songwriter-type songs, and for a comedy club above a pub, I turned it into a character who was actually a serial killer confessing in his songs what he’d done. I thought it was hilarious. Matt Holness and Richard Ayoade saw me, and they were looking for someone to play a doctor in the TV version of their Edinburgh show, which became “Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace.”
That spoof of ’80s-era horror television, which first ran in the U.K. in 2004, became a cult comedy classic.
I’m so thankful for it every day. I’ve worked ever since, which is a complete and utter mystery.
What can we expect from the final season of “Shadows,” coming this October?
There are some clever things with the finale that I hope people will be really into. I’d be into it if I had nothing to do with it. Don’t get me wrong — nothing to do with me. The concepts, I think, are interesting, as opposed to watching myself. I must make that clear.
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It’s funny how, being so expert at playing grand narcissists, you retreat from the merest hint of self-promotion.
That’s a British thing, I suppose, isn’t it? We largely don’t like to blast our own horns outwardly.
Forget the “video game movie” curse;The Mortuary Assistantis a bone-chilling triumph that stands entirely on its own two feet. Starring Willa Holland (Arrow) as Rebecca Owens, the film follows a newly certified mortician whose “overtime shift” quickly devolves into a grueling battle for her soul.
What Makes It Work
The film expertly balances the stomach-churning procedural work of embalming with a spiraling demonic nightmare. Alongside a mysterious mentor played by Paul Sparks (Boardwalk Empire), Rebecca is forced to confront both ancient evils and her own buried traumas. And boy, does she have a lot of them.
Thanks to a full-scale, practical River Fields Mortuary set, the film drips with realism, like you can almost smell the rot and bloat of the bodies through the screen.
The skin effects are hauntingly accurate. The way the flesh moves during surgical scenes is so visceral. I’ve seen a lot of flesh wounds in horror films and in real life, and the bodies, skin, and organs. The Mortuary Assistant (especially in the opening scene) looks so real that I skipped supper after watching it. And that’s saying something. Your girl likes to eat.
Co-written by the game’s creator, Brian Clarke, the movie dives deeper into the demonic mythology. Whether you’ve seen every ending or don’t know a scalpel from a trocar, the story is perfectly self-contained. If you’ve never played the game, or played it a hundred times, the film works equally well, which is hard to do when it comes to game adaptations.
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Nailed It
This film does a lot of things right, but the isolation of the night shift is suffocating. Between the darkness of the hallways and the “residents” that refuse to stay still, the film delivers a relentlessly immersive experience. And thankfully, although this movie is filled with dark rooms and shadows, it’s easy to see every little thing. Don’t you hate it when a movie is so dark that you can’t see what’s happening? It’s one of my pet peeves.
The oh-so-awesome Jeremiah Kipp directs the film and has made something absolutely nightmare-inducing. Kipp recently joined us for an interview, took us inside the film, discussed its details and the game’s lore, and so much more. I urge you to check out our interview. He’s awesome!
The Verdict
This isn’t just a cash-grab; it’s a high-effort adaptation that respects the source material while elevating the horror genre. With incredible special effects and a powerhouse cast, it’s the kind of movie that will make you rethink working late ever again. Dropping on Friday the 13th, this is a must-watch for horror fans. It’s grisly, intelligent, and genuinely terrifying.
A former executive at Live Nation, the world’s largest live entertainment company, is suing the company, alleging that he was wrongfully terminated after he raised concerns about alleged financial misconduct and improper accounting practices.
Nicholas Rumanes alleges he was “fraudulently induced” in 2022 to leave a lucrative position as head of strategic development at a real estate investment trust to create a new role as executive vice president of development and business practice at Beverly Hills-based Live Nation.
In his new position, Rumanes said, he raised “serious and legitimate alarm” over the the company’s business practices.
As a result, he says, he was “unlawfully terminated,” according to the lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
“Rumanes was, simply put, promised one job and forced to accept another. And then he was cut loose for insisting on doing that lesser job with integrity and honesty,” according to the lawsuit.
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He is seeking $35 million in damages.
Representatives for Live Nation were not immediately available for comment.
The lawsuit comes a week after a federal jury in Manhattan found that Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary had operated a monopoly over major concert venues, controlling 86% of the concert market.
Rumanes’ lawsuit describes a “culture of deception” at Live Nation, saying its “basic business model was to misstate and exaggerate financial figures in efforts to solicit and secure business.”
Such practices “spanned a wide spectrum of projects in what appeared to be a company-wide pattern of financial misrepresentation and misleading disclosures,” the lawsuit states.
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Rumanes says he received materials and documents that showed that the company inflated projected revenues across multiple venue development projects.
Additionally, Rumanes contends that the company violated a federal law that requires independent financial auditing and transparency and instead ran Live Nation “through a centralized, opaque structure” that enables it to “bypass oversight and internal checks and balances.”
In 2010, as a condition of the Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger, the newly formed company agreed to a consent decree with the government that prohibited the firm from threatening venues to use Ticketmaster. In 2019 the Justice Department found that the company had repeatedly breached the agreement, and it extended the decree.
Rumanes contends that he brought his concerns to the attention of the company’s management, but his warnings were “repeatedly ignored.”
At the centre of Madhuvidhu directed by Vishnu Aravind is a house where only men reside, three generations of them living in harmony. Unlike the Anjooran household in Godfather, this is not a house where entry is banned to women, but just that women don’t choose to come here. For Amrithraj alias Ammu (Sharafudheen), the protagonist, 28 marriage proposals have already fallen through although he was not lacking in interest.
When a not-so-cordial first meeting with Sneha (Kalyani Panicker) inevitably turns into mutual attraction, things appear about to change. But some unexpected hiccups are waiting for them, their different religions being one of them. Writers Jai Vishnu and Bipin Mohan do not seem to have any major ambitions with Madhuvidhu, but they seem rather content to aim for the middle space of a feel-good entertainer. Only that they end up hitting further lower.
