Jacksepticeye and Alanah Pearce’s Horror Movie ‘Godmother’ Gets First Look

Ahead of its film festival premiere, TheWrap has the exclusive fist look at “Godmother,” an independently produced and financed horror feature from creators Alanah Pearce (684,000 YouTube subscribers) and Sean McLoughlin, aka Jacksepticeye (31.2 million YouTube subscribers). This upcoming movies continues the trend of creators expanding into independent feature filmmaking and financing, much like what Mark Fischbach, aka Markiplier, did with “Iron Lung.”

“Godmother” is directed by John Veron and written by both Veron and Pearce. Pearce also produces the movie through her production company, Charred Pictures, and McLoughlin executive produces. McLoughlin personally financed principal photography for the movie, and Helmstreet Pictures funded post-production.

Inspired by “Rosemary’s Baby” and “The Return of the Living Dead,” “Godmother” follows a young woman named Theo in her late 20s (Paige Evans) who heads into the desert for a romantic weekend with her tech bro boyfriend (Cameron Cuffe) as well as her tagalong sister (Riley Dandy). But when they arrive at their vacation rental, they’re greeted by a couple (Dee Wallace and Bruce Davison) who seems far too eager to meet Theo. The resulting horror movie promises to have bloody betrayals, home-made torture chambers and frenzied elderly people as it tells the story of one woman fighting to define herself in a world that has seemed as though it’s decided her future for her. Check out the fist look images below.

After thinking about how unsettling it actually is to stay in an Airbnb, Veron started working on what would become “Godmother” about 10 years ago. Pearce joined the project later.

“A lot of what I put into the script is specific to bringing in a female
perspective to what was already a very female-led story. Our three leading women are vastly different people, and how these women are perceived — and judged — by the world accordingly was a big focus for me: Who is discarded, who is rewarded, who is respected, and why,” Pearce told TheWrap, praising Veron and producer Craig Sherwood for acknowledging that this woman-focused story would need a female creative voice. In addition to Pearce, “Godmother” lists Eri Hawkins as its producer, Mali Elfman and Lindsay Helms as two of its executive producers and Marie Lessel as its editor while also having several female department heads.

“When we initially tried to get funding for Godmother, we had numerous conversations with more traditional studios and financiers. Most of them required us to attach A-list actors in order to mitigate financial risk — one company even specified that we cast J.K. Simmons in Bruce Davison’s role, which would have made it a completely different movie from the one on the page,” Pearce said. “We could have pursued those options further, but in doing so, we would not have made ‘Godmother.’ We would have made some studio-mandated cash grab Frankenstein version of ‘Godmother.’ What’s the point?”

Pearce then reached out to McLoughlin and Mali Elfman of Helmstreet Pictures, two friends and known horror lovers, and asked them if they were interested in investing. After reading the script, both said yes.

“I really liked the script and it felt like John had a very distinct vision for the movie and what he wanted. He had been trying to get it made for about 10 years and I really love being able to help people make the things they want,” McLoughlin told TheWrap. “I think the idea of being able to make it ourselves and avoid some of the headaches of a more traditional studio system, especially for an indie movie, has always been more appealing. There are strengths and weaknesses to both, but being able to have full control and call the shots ourselves within our own timelines was a massive help. It didn’t feel right to do it any other way.”

Both Pearce and McLoughlin noted that they’ve seen a notable increase in interest from Hollywood following the success of Kane Parsons’ “Backrooms” and Curry Barker’s “Obsession” — two horror movies that came from creators. After making over $393 million at the box office, “Backrooms” has become the highest grossing movie in A24 history. As for “Obsession,” the movie that made over $495 million at the box office now holds the record of being the highest-grossing movie made for less than $1 million. Though it didn’t make as much as those two behemoths, “Iron Lung” is also a big part of this ongoing trend as the independent and self-financed movie made $50 million at the box office.

“There has been a lot more outreach from companies and executives. All eyes are on the creator space now to see if there’s more diamonds to be found,” McLoughlin said. “I’ve had a lot of projects floated my way recently for sure. It’s an exciting time and hopefully we get to see some incredible work coming as a result of it.”

Pearce, who launched Charred Pictures in March, has already had a number of meetings with different Hollywood studios that seem “very eager to onboard content creators.”

“Being successful on YouTube is tremendously challenging, and requires so many skills that have certainly been overlooked by traditional media — not only do these creators have to ideate, they also often have to do their own writing, set decoration, lighting, sound, editing and marketing, all in one, for just the tiniest shot at success. It’s hard! It makes sense that people who have learned to do all of these things are able to tell stories in other formats so successfully, and it’s nice that older industries are finally, slowly, giving that credit where it’s due,” Pearce said.

She also suspects that studios are so interested in creators because of their massive built-in audiences. “I’m partly glad we shot ‘Godmother’ back in December — before ‘Iron Lung’ and ‘Obsession’ and ‘Backrooms’ came out — because I suspect there’ll be a huge, overwhelming wave of content-creator-led features funded by Hollywood over the next couple of years,” Pearce said. “I’m glad we’re set to come out ahead of that, not only because it’s easier to stand out, but also because I fear quality will drop.”

As for McLoughlin, though he has experience with producing now between “Godmother” and the upcoming “Bloodborne” movie, he’s open to directing his own horror movie.

“I think directing has always been a goal of mine. I have lots of ideas for what I would like to make and I love the creative process involved in movie making,” McLoughlin said. “We’ve had such an amazing year for horror and it’s very inspiring.”