Anthony DiBlasi’s Last Shift, which was released in 2014, follows a rookie police officer on assignment at an old, empty police station that is about to close. However, the officer is haunted by the station’s infamous past in terrifying ways. DiBlasi and co-writer Scott Poiley have reimagined the film with Malum in collaboration with Welcome Villain Films.
We spoke with DiBlasi and Natalie Victoria, his talented wife and writing partner who plays Merigold in Malum, in an exclusive interview. The film was released theatrically on March 31, 2023.
Horror Geek Life: I am a huge fan of Last Shift; it’s one of my favorite modern horror movies. So, I must ask, what made you decide to remake it?
Anthony DiBlasi: That’s a common question I’m getting lately. Scott [Poiley] and I, when we wrote Last Shift, we talked about maybe doing a sequel, and he really wanted to do a prequel. And we just never did it. We never sat down and wrote it. We never got it off the ground.
When I met Luke LaBeau, who started Welcome Villain with his team there, he was like, have you ever thought about revisiting that world? And I’m like, yeah, we have some ideas that would be cool. And I was very happy with Last Shift. It was done on a very limited budget, but I thought it was a scary movie and really played to audiences.
The only thing I was disappointed by was that we wanted it to play theatrical. We wanted people to experience it in a theater and for it to hit that audience. So with the Welcome Villain team, that was part of their plan from the get-go because I think they felt the same way. So that was why we said, let’s do a reimagining. On the first one, we had to leave a lot of stuff on the table because of the budget. And on this one, we could explore the characters more. We could explore the cult much more.
And then, also, the challenge is that people seem pretty happy with Last Shift. Now we have to make this one better, or at least different enough that it’s a completely different experience but somewhat familiar. Kind of like when we see Easter eggs in a movie, and we enjoy that. I think fans will get a sense of that. But that’s mainly the reason. Once we started talking about it, we were excited to just open up the world and do things we couldn’t do with the first movie.
Horror Geek Life: Remaking or reimagining a film is always tricky, especially when it’s yours and one that has found an audience. What concerns did you have going into production?
Anthony DiBlasi: I think the biggest one is that I never walked away from Last Shift saying, oh, I wish I did this, or I wish I did that. I was happy with that film. I think the audience that found it was also happy with it. So my main thing is, this has to be something else. That’s why we were so specific about calling it a reimagining when Scott and I sat down to write it.
There were certain things in the first one that worked really well. If a new audience member is going to come in and has never seen Last Shift, I want them to experience a version of this scene. So there were a couple of things that we kept in the new film.
But besides that and the basic premise of it, we really did re-approach it entirely differently. Once we started changing character motivations, it just became something else entirely, and I never felt like I was remaking the same movie.
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Horror Geek Life: Natalie, you were, of course, in Last Shift, and I was happy to see you return for Malum. Your character goes from 0 to 90, from sympathetic, especially as a woman, to terrifying. How did you prepare to go through this range of emotions in such a brief amount of time?
Natalie Victoria: It’s a great question. I’m very thankful you see that and are asking along those lines because it is really hard. The first thing I said when I got the script and we were going through the auditioning process, was I don’t know if I can do this for that exact reason. Like you said, 0 to 90, close to 100 in such a short amount of time. It’s a fast ride. It’s up and down and up and down and up and down. And you’re not really sure there’s just this elevated danger. Anthony did such a good job writing it. I think bringing these characters to life is 50% writing and 50% the actor. I didn’t want to let him down on his vision.
As far as prep work goes, I did a lot. I have done a lot of training over the last decade-plus with acting coaches who are just wonderful and uniquely different in their own way of teaching. There were a lot of things that I garnered and took from that in order to bring different techniques to get there.
But it’s a lot like a faucet. Actors are to understand human behavior and emotion, fine-tune that, and turn the faucet just a little bit and then all the way. And I tell you, I was exhausted at the end of the day shooting, for sure. It does take it out of you because you’re doing it several times. He’s like, do it again. Maybe I can push you further.
Anthony DiBlasi: I knew when we were writing that scene that I was going to give Natalie the scene. I’m like, the range of this to this in such a short amount of time is the perfect scene for you. I knew she’d nail it.
Natalie Victoria: Marigold is reimagined almost like in a different universe this time. So you will definitely get something new for sure. She’s like a dimension walker, right? Marigold popping up.
Horror Geek Life: You really brought it with Marigold, and the new lead did as well. How did Jessica Sula get involved in Malum?
Anthony DiBlasi: Well, we were pretty sure we knew the age range we wanted to go for and the type of actor we were trying to get. She was on a very short list of ours. We really liked her and saw her recently in Panic for Amazon. We sent the script to her agents, and they were nice enough to set up a meeting.
When I took that meeting with Jess, we immediately clicked, and she was very knowledgeable. And meeting with a younger actor, I’m like, is she going to know references that I’m talking about? She was extremely knowledgeable about the horror genre. I wouldn’t call her a diehard horror fan, but we were talking about Funny Games and Dumplings, and we speak the same language.
She was just really excited about the challenge of it. It’s challenging to be on camera that much to have to carry a whole movie. It’s like a stage play. It’s so exhausting. And, boy, she just came to play. I think fans are going to be really excited with Jess. She’s wonderful and different from Juliana Harkavy, who is so good in the first one.
The motivations are so different between that Jess and this Jess. Sula brought this kind of stoicism that was required because it was such a chip on the character’s shoulder. Everyone, the whole world, is against her. I knew she’d be able to bring that. And then where she ends up is this completely different place. I think fans will enjoy that almost deconstruction.
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Horror Geek Life: Now that you have reimagined the film, is this the end of the Malum/Last Shift universe? Would you consider a prequel showing us more of the dad and the cult?
Anthony DiBlasi: The next one, we’re going to do a reimagining of Malum. (laughs) No, I mean, we would love to do another one. We set it up so we could. There’s a lot to explore again with the cult and with what maybe happens with them at the end of the film. So, yeah, we definitely would love to do more.
Horror Geek Life: I know you’re both busy and just wrapping up on Malum, but is there anything coming up that you want readers to know about?
Anthony DiBlasi: We’re writing a lot together now. We’re out with a thriller called The Step Counter right now that’s doing its rounds, and I need a break after this. We just finished this movie like four days ago. So take a little vacation and then get back to writing.
Natalie Victoria: Yeah. But we have a couple of projects we’re working on right now. One, in particular, we’re really excited about is in the horror genre.
