Taglines: Escape has its limits.
Somewhere Quiet movie storyline. Meg (Jennifer Kim) is trying to readjust to normal life after recently being involved in a heinous abduction. To recenter herself, she takes a trip to the woods by the coast in Cape Cod with her husband Scott (Kentucker Audley) to stay at his wealthy family’s countryside compound.
An excursion like this offers the kind of peace that Meg deserves to regain her sense of normalcy — but those plans get swiftly disrupted when Scott’s upper-class cousin Madeline (Marin Ireland) arrives unannounced. Madeline’s insertion into their activities causes Meg’s recent traumatic memories to resurface through eerie hallucinations and nightmares.
While Scott tries to attend to the emotionally fraught Meg, she begins to clash with Madeline’s aristocratic personality. The conflict brings out passive-aggressive behavior that makes Meg question her sanity while also coming to terms with the truth behind her kidnapping.
Somewhere Quiet is a 2023 American psychological thriller film written and directed by Olivia West Lloyd, in her directorial debut. It stars Jennifer Kim, Marin Ireland, Kentucker Audley, Micheál Neeson, Dave Whitmore, Jan Devereaux, Paula Loud and Michael J.R. Murphy. It had its world premiere at the Tribeca Festival on June 8, 2023. The film was released on February 2, 2024 in the United States by Vertical Entertainment.
Interview of Olivia West Lloyd
Olivia West Lloyd breaks ground at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival as she marked her directorial feature film debut with Somewhere Quiet, an anxiety provoking and engrossing horror/thriller.
Olivia West Lloyd breaks ground at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival as she marked her directorial feature film debut with, Somewhere Quiet. The film premiered as part of the US Narrative Competition that is an anxiety provoking and engrossing horror/thriller. The film follows Meg (Jennifer Kim) who gives an incredible performance as she readjusts after escaping a kidnapping. She needs some time away and is looking for normalcy and to spend time with her husband Scott (Kentucker Audley).
Together they travel to Scott’s family’s house in the woods for some relaxation and to reconnect and rebuild their relationship. However, the couple is not alone. Scott’s cousin Madeline (Marin Ireland) shows up unexpectedly to stir things up. Madeline becomes the unwelcomed third wheel adding drama and causing Meg to become paranoid about the people around her. In an exclusive interview with the director, we discussed her journey about making her exciting directorial debut.
What was it like to get that acknowledgment that you were going to be part of the Tribeca Film Festival?
Olivia West Lloyd: Yeah, it feels great. It feels wonderful to debut this film among so many other filmmakers that I really, really love and respect and excited to see so many of the films. I live in New York and a lot of the crew and cast live here too, so it’s also going to be a nice moment for everybody to be back together and celebrate this thing we made together. It’s going to be amazing!
Where did you film the movie? It feels very much like Cape Cod.
It’s yeah, it’s filmed in Cape Cod. In a in a small town called Cotuit.
Lovely! Getting into the film itself, what fascinates you about horror and thriller and why was this your first directorial debut?
I’ve been sort of fascinated by horror for a long time. It’s always just kind of drawn to me. I think there is something for everybody who loves horror, that there is sort of like a little bit of like an elemental, inexplicable thing that you’re just sort of taken by these intense macabre images.
I think for me what I really gravitate towards in my own work and what I love about horror is the way that horror centers around emotion, particularly female emotion and the interesting way tit lets it be sort of unbound and unruly. I find that very exciting. I love the sort of journey that you go on in a film especially with a female lead where you go from this repression to this unleashing of feminine rage.
There’s something just so cathartic to me. I think that it’s such a beautiful thing. I’ve just been interested in the ways horror allows you to explore the depths of human emotion and allows it to get big and messy because that’s just so fun to me.
Horror can be fun and messy. You also wrote the film as to what it was like taking on both roles as a director and writer for this project.
Yeah, they feel very intertwined to me. I think that a lot of the work on set was really geared towards the characters and the actors and figuring out together our backstories for each of these people. We spent a lot of time, especially Jen (Jennifer Kim) and I, would go on these long epic walks and just talk. We would talk through all the scenes that we were going to do that week and talked a lot about what do we think Meg was like ten years ago. What we thought Meg was like 15 years ago. Just like really trying to drill into who this person was. I felt it intertwined to me, I mean, I love that they’re both wonderful. Those wonderful, separate experiences.
I love that! Doing my research, I learned that you had done a lot of producing and you were a production coordinator. What was it like directing for the very first time?
It was really great! I have worked on a bunch of sets in different capacities, often in production, and it felt like a special skill that I had to understand. Sort of like the workings of a movie and an independent film especially and understanding the little tradeoffs that you’re making all the time in terms of whether we’re going to do two more hours here that meant I’m going to have to make it up later.
I felt like I had a sense of the overall structure of filmmaking in a very logistical sense and a sort of deep respect for all of the jobs that people do on set, like what each person’s job is and knowing that it just takes a particular amount of time to change the batteries in the boom mic. I think it’s really been helpful for me to have that kind of background and just like logistical filmmaking that I felt I had that, that sort of understanding on the set.
Is there something that you enjoy more since after directing for the very first time? Do you still want to continue to produce or just go straight into directing?
I’m certainly more interested in directing, but I would still produce for the right type of project. I like making films and I like working with interesting collaborators. I think if I can put that different skill set to work on a project that I really care about, you know, I’d still do that. Right now, I’m focused more on directing.
I’m looking forward to seeing more of your hard work. Can you discuss a little bit about the casting process? I love the character of Meg.
OThe casting was so important to this film. It’s a quiet film. It sort of says that there’s a lot of very small things that build up as you get to the end. I knew I needed a cast that was really going to invest in that kind of like, subtle performance so we brought on Kentucker Audley first and that was because I had seen his work a couple of different times. I just had this sort of sense that he would embody Scott beautifully and I think he did. I’m excited about the challenge of playing a difficult character and he may not be the most lovable.
Definitely not the most lovable character!
We brought on Kentucker first and then yeah, and then we were looking around and I found Jen’s work and was just so taken with how sort of natural and organic her performances are. I think I’m very drawn to that and both Kentucker and Jennifer have that same type of very organic feel.
We did a little Zoom audition Jen and me. It was a magical experience where I had her do a scene sort of like without giving much context, just have her do it sort of like dry. She did it so perfectly and then we talked about it afterwards and every question she asked was exactly what the scene was about.
It was a very fated moment where I was “Oh, I might have just found this person who really intuitively understands what this character is all about”. It was kind of a no brainer for Jen to come on. Then Marin is just like a powerhouse and so epic and extra. She was such a perfect third for that dynamic. I always felt like we needed to have Meg and Scott first and then figure out Jen as she would complement that really well.
She does. It’s the craziness that all three of these characters face together in this like environment that they’re in. So, my final question for you is I love it and good tense, thrilling score. I really want to discuss what was it like working with Ariel Marx for this.
She’s a yeah, she’s a genius. She’s amazing!
Absolute genius.
Yeah, I had heard her score for I think the first-time watching Shiva Baby.
Yes Yes! I love that movie!
Not a horror film. And it feels as tense as a horror film. And I remember writing her name down and this was like, you know, probably a year or two before we were looking for a composer. When it came up, I really wanted to work with Ariel Marx. She was so good and she really responded to the script.
I’m not a musician, so it was so interesting to have to try to explain like a mood or a tone and not have any of the right words to talk about it, and musically what it would sound like. I had some references and that kind of thing. But mostly we just talked about feelings and what the overall themes and ideas in the piece were. And then she sent me what she called palettes that were these little tastes of “What about something like this? Do you like this kind of girl?”
So, then we just went back and forth a little bit. And I know, I laughed thinking about the emails I sent her. I was like “You know, I like when it goes ‘doo doo doo’”. It’s like ‘dum dum dum’ trying to say music words that I have no language for. That’s what is so amazing about her that she’s able to translate somebody who has no musical background and is just giving her, like vibe language into something. I was like “That’s perfect, you’ve got it”! That’s exactly what it should be. It was a wonderful, great collaboration.
She did a great job capturing your vision of what you wanted. And you did a really great job for this new project.
Someewhere Quiet (2024)
Directed by: Olivia West Lloyd
Starring: Jennifer Kim, Marin Ireland, Kentucker Audley, Micheál Neeson, Dave Whitmore, Jan Devereaux, Paula Loud, Michael J.R. Murphy
Screenplay by: Olivia West Lloyd
Production Design by: Caity Birmingham
Cinematography by: Conor Murphy
Film Editing by: Sofi Marshal
Costume Design by: Maria Hooper
Art Direction by: Lyndsey Starr Smith
Makeup Department: Chelsey Trainor
Music by: Ariel Marx
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Vertical Entertainment
Release Date: June 8, 2023 (Tribeca), February 2, 2024 (United States)
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