The Great White North has bestowed our genre with a myriad of gifts: David Cronenberg.
Black Christmas. Moosehead Beer. "Rue Morgue Magazine." And Jessica Lowndes.
With eyes that paralyze, Lowndes demanded our attention with her smoldering beauty when she associated herself with the godfather of the
Texas Chainsaw family, Tobe Hooper. This Vancouver native starred in the director's
Masters of Horror episode "Dance of the Dead" playing a young girl living a sheltered existence with her mother in a post-apocalyptic America. Then an organ trafficker named Jack (Jonathan Tucker) comes along and exposes her to society's underbelly where Robert Englund hosts a club and makes the dead "dance." Pretty wild start to anyone's acting career, wouldn't you say? Still, Lowndes sells her trip down this surreal rabbit hole Hooper creates, making an impressive debut and bringing to the grim fantasy a girl next door charm and plausible naivety.
The young actress made an inevitable move to Los Angeles in 2006 where she was introduced to a script over the holidays called
Autopsy, the directorial debut of Adam Gierasch. Lowndes was offered the role of Emily, a Marti Gras partygoer caught in a sinister hospital run by Robert Patrick, Jenette Goldstein, Robert LaSardo and Michael Bowen.
Autopsy opened earlier this year in Horrorfest, After Dark Films' annual genre event. The film hits DVD this week and ShockTillYouDrop.com caught Lowndes for a brief chat while she was en route to the set of The CW series
90210 in which she stars as Adrianna Tate-Duncan.
ShockTillYouDrop.com: What were your first impressions of the Autopsy script?
Jessica Lowndes: I thought it was twisted and smart. I could see everything in that reading experience. The idea of doing my own stunts and going through all of the emotional stuff was very intriguing for me to do.
Shock: Yeah, about the stunts...Adam told us you were gung-ho about doing most, if not all, of them?
Lowndes: I did almost all of my own stunts, I didn't regret it. The make-up department probably regretted it because they had to put body makeup on me every day because I was covered in bruises and scratches. It was the first project I booked coming in to L.A., it got me my work visa. It was fun and cool and I think it turned out good.
Shock: Being a relative newcomer to the States, what did you think of Louisiana?
Lowndes: Louisiana is one of my favorite places ever. We shot at this crazy hospital and got to go into this college town on the weekends and go to New Orleans.
Shock: A fully-functioning hospital...
Lowndes: It was fully functioning. I made the mistake after the hand drill scene - I've got blood running down my face the rest of the movie - and I didn't realize it was picnic day. [laughs] And some of [the patients] were sitting around outdoors. I came up out of the hospital - everything looked the same in there, you got lost easily, and it could get very claustrophobic - to get some air and one of the patients saw me and started freaking out. I wasn't allowed to leave the building ever again.
Shock: You went head-to-head in this film three pretty intimidating figures - Robert Patrick, Jenette Goldstein and Michael Bowen. How was that experience?
Lowndes: Robert is just very intense, and very funny, so when the camera went off we were just laughing. And Jenette is one of my favorite actresses I've ever had the pleasure of working with. I just loved how much she committed to the character and the choices that she made for the character were fantastic. Michael Bowen he was incredible for the physical scenes and emotionally hard scene. And it does get a little rough. I basically told them where my injuries were and when they're pulling my hair, they're not really...well, maybe a little. You just talk about your boundaries and you have to make a pact with that person. I am so glad about the experience all around. I learned so much about myself and pushed my boundaries. Learned to scream.
Shock: You've now worked with one horror vet - Hooper - and one newcomer to the director's chair. Obviously there were some differences there...
Lowndes: I love Tobe Hooper, he's so sweet! It was different because Tobe's done it for years. Adam had a lot of pressure on him especially because he was directing it and other things. And all I had done was
Masters of Horror and a couple of other projects. We both needed to prove ourselves. Adam was so great to work with and gave us a lot of creative freedom. The film turned out really colorful, which is what Adam wanted.
Shock: After this you went on to take a brief part in The Haunting of Molly Hartley. How'd that come about?
Lowndes: I originally auditioned to play the lead, but I couldn't do it and after I got back they decided to write this whole opening - after the movie was shot and done. That was an incredible set to work on. What Drew Barrymore is to
Scream I am to this movie.
Shock: In the time that I've known you, you seem to have a genuine appreciation for horror. Are there a few more genre films in your future?
Lowndes: I love the genre and for me it's really fun. It's interesting because when you watch a horror movie it evokes so many real emotions. I'm up for anything, I'd like to hopefully do a romantic comedy and give my [crying] eyes a break.
With a season of
90210 behind her (cameras will begin rolling again this June), Lowndes tells us she's going to star in another thriller entitled
Altitude, for more on that
click here.
Comments
Posted by: Jeff on April 29, 2009 at 06:41:08
You were so courageous in this movie, it reminded me of such great movies as far as the hospital is concerned as Halloween 2 you had alot of aspects of Jamie lee Curtis in you. Hellraiser 7, Assylum, Hostel 1 and 2 even Saw 3, I would like to quote you from a book from my horror class which I got a B+ in by the way and my teacher said I did better than half the class as I am obssesed with Horror movies I watch them 24/7 in fact my friend is a director for a horror mini series now which will air on channel 11 or cw11/Pix which you already know about because you are on it for 90210. The book is called The Dread of Difference Gender and the Horror Film By Barry Kieth Grant the paragrraph reads which I think strongly applies to you very as you are the Final Girl the paragraph reads in the chapter that is labeled her body himself "Final Girl. The image of the distressed female most likely to linger in mem-ory is the image of the one who did not die: the survivor, or Final Girl. She is the one who encounters the mutilated bodies of her friends and percieves the full extent of the preceding horror and of her own peril; who is chased cornered, wounded; whom we see scream, scream,stagger fall, rise, and scream again. She is abject terror personified. If her friends knew they were about to die only seconds before the event, the Final Girl lives with the knowlege for long minutes or hours. She alone looks death in the face; but she alone also finds the strength either to stay the killer long enough to be rescued (ending A) or to kill him herself (ending B). She is inevitably female. In Schoell's words: "The vast majority of contemporay shockers, whether in the sexist mold or not, features climaxes in which the women fight back against their attackers- the wandering, humorless psychos who populate these films. They often show more courage and levelheadedness than their cringing male counterparts." 32 Her scene occupies the last ten to twenty minutes (thirty in the case of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) and constitutes the film's emphatic climax." (Grant 82-83)
Your fearlesness reminds of all the girls in these famous movies The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, all The Hell Raisers All the Nightmare On Elm Streets, Dario Argento Sleepless Trauma, Freeze Me,Born Innocent The Girl Next Door Jack Ketchum andIrreversible, Step Father 1,2,and 3. and I think this spills over in to 90210 with your corageousness to tell everyone at Beverly Hills high about your pregnancy. You are an amzing actress keep it up, oh yeah, and the only reason why I am not on my friends set is because I am not well and it is very serious. I hope to hear from you at some point soon and always a pleasure to see you on the screen whether TV or film either way you are a natural again my email adress is navyseals302@hotmail.com I really hope to hear from you soon
Posted by: Jeff on April 29, 2009 at 06:41:51
You were so courageous in this movie, it reminded me of such great movies as far as the hospital is concerned as Halloween 2 you had alot of aspects of Jamie lee Curtis in you. Hellraiser 7, Assylum, Hostel 1 and 2 even Saw 3, I would like to quote you from a book from my horror class which I got a B+ in by the way and my teacher said I did better than half the class as I am obssesed with Horror movies I watch them 24/7 in fact my friend is a director for a horror mini series now which will air on channel 11 or cw11/Pix which you already know about because you are on it for 90210. The book is called The Dread of Difference Gender and the Horror Film By Barry Kieth Grant the paragrraph reads which I think strongly applies to you very as you are the Final Girl the paragraph reads in the chapter that is labeled her body himself "Final Girl. The image of the distressed female most likely to linger in mem-ory is the image of the one who did not die: the survivor, or Final Girl. She is the one who encounters the mutilated bodies of her friends and percieves the full extent of the preceding horror and of her own peril; who is chased cornered, wounded; whom we see scream, scream,stagger fall, rise, and scream again. She is abject terror personified. If her friends knew they were about to die only seconds before the event, the Final Girl lives with the knowlege for long minutes or hours. She alone looks death in the face; but she alone also finds the strength either to stay the killer long enough to be rescued (ending A) or to kill him herself (ending B). She is inevitably female. In Schoell's words: "The vast majority of contemporay shockers, whether in the sexist mold or not, features climaxes in which the women fight back against their attackers- the wandering, humorless psychos who populate these films. They often show more courage and levelheadedness than their cringing male counterparts." 32 Her scene occupies the last ten to twenty minutes (thirty in the case of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) and constitutes the film's emphatic climax." (Grant 82-83)
Your fearlesness reminds of all the girls in these famous movies The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, all The Hell Raisers All the Nightmare On Elm Streets, Dario Argento Sleepless Trauma, Freeze Me,Born Innocent The Girl Next Door Jack Ketchum andIrreversible, Step Father 1,2,and 3. and I think this spills over in to 90210 with your corageousness to tell everyone at Beverly Hills high about your pregnancy. You are an amzing actress keep it up, oh yeah, and the only reason why I am not on my friends set is because I am not well and it is very serious. I hope to hear from you at some point soon and always a pleasure to see you on the screen whether TV or film either way you are a natural again my email adress is navyseals302@hotmail.com I really hope to hear from you soon
Posted by: Jeff on April 29, 2009 at 06:50:36
which Masters of horroer episode were you in and who was the director of that episode?
1
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