Interview with “Z” Writer/Director Brandon Christensen and Actress Keegan Connor Tracy

RLJE Films, a business unit of AMC Networks, has picked up select rights to Z from Shudder, AMC Networks’ streaming service for horror, thriller and the supernatural. Z is now available on on VOD, Digital HD, DVD and Blu-ray.

Directed by Brandon Christensen (Still/Born) who co-wrote the movie with Colin Minihan (What Keeps You Alive, Grave Encounters), the horror film stars Keegan Connor Tracy (Final Destination 2), Jett Klyne (The Boy), Sean Rogerson (Grave Encounters), Sara Canning (War for the Planet of the Apes), Stephen McHattie (Watchmen), and Chandra West (White Noise).

In the film, when Beth’s (Keegan Connor Tracy) son (Jett Klyne) brings home an imaginary friend named “Z,” she becomes concerned that he is falling too deep into a world of make believe. He starts to display extremely destructive behavior, blaming Z for all of his actions. But after he gets kicked out of school, Beth is forced to find a solution. She medicates her son, making him unable to see his imaginary companion. But now Beth sees Z…and he wants to be her friend.

In support of the DVD/Blu-Ray release, we got a chance to first talk with Z’s director and writer Brandon Christensen, and then actress Keegan Connor Tracy, who plays Beth. Both talk about working with the young actor, Jeff Klyne, bringing some of the scares to life, how the movie ends, and more. Here are a couple of quotes from the interviews, but please take a listen to both interviews in the video below…

-PH: What do you want the audience that hasn’t seen this movie yet to get, and enjoy most about it?

-Brandon: I think that they are going to be surprised by what it is because on its face it is a film that’s a pretty standard horror troupe about a kid, a creepy kid kind of film. I think there are a lot of surprises to be had in this film because it’s not exactly what you think it might be…”

-PH: Is the image of Z on the wall what you originally thought of Z as, or is that something that developed over the time of the movie?

-Brandon: We definitely had the idea of a charcoal drawing, but because it was an eight year old drawing on the wall it was expected to be a lot more kind of scratchy, and vague, but when we started filming we weren’t actually able to draw on the wall of that house because we didn’t own the house. We weren’t able to do something like that. So that was all visual effects…

-PH: How did you get involved with Z, and why was it a role you ended up taking?

-Keegan: …I could see something I could really dig my teeth into once I saw the psychological journey this woman was going to go on. The roller coaster. I liked it. I liked the challenge.

-PH: How much input did you have in your character especially at the end?

-Keegan: Yea, I think a lot. Whenever you’re doing an indie you have sort of more availability for your opinion, and your sense of where that character is going. And Brandon to his credit really let me talk about that, and let me tell them what as an actor what would make that performance more believable for me…

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