Five FrightFest Facts with Jay Reid and Natasha Calis from ‘Sick Puppy’

Every so often a film comes along that dares you to laugh when you should probably be horrified. Sick Puppy is one of those films. Written and directed by Jay Reid, with Natasha Calis leading the cast, this darkly comic character study flips the serial killer subgenre on its head by shifting the spotlight onto the wife who tries to make her murderous husband go straight. Her solution? Pottery instead of bloodshed. But when love and denial collide, the results are messy, disturbing and strangely tender.

Reid’s debut feature embraces the spirit of a cult midnight movie, blending true-crime unease with absurdist humour and twisted romance. At the centre of it all is Calis, whose performance roots the grotesque in emotional reality, turning the story into something that’s as unsettling as it is oddly moving. Together, filmmaker and performer navigate the blurred line between complicity and devotion, asking what someone might be willing to excuse, or even become, in the name of love.

In this Five FrightFest Facts interview, Reid and Calis talk about their paths into filmmaking and acting, the kinds of films they’d most like to experience with a FrightFest audience, and the unconventional awards they’d love to see handed out at the festival. They also share what their own lives might look like if they were turned into horror movies – with results that are just as surreal as the film itself.

Jay Reid, writer-director and Natastha Calis, actress

1. Tell us about your film

Jay: Sick Puppy is a serial killer film that somewhat sidelines the serial killer and focuses on his wife, Charlie, who is complicit in his crimes. She manages to convince her husband to quit killing and take up pottery, but obviously that doesn’t go well. But Charlie will do anything to keep her husband on the straight and narrow, even kill. It’s like Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer if it had a bit of romance in it. It’s sort of a classic midnight movie, something bizarre you’d watch on cable late at night, but I also tried to give the characters a lot of emotional depth and tell a story about the cost of complicity, exploring what some people will do for love. It’s disturbing, weird and darkly funny, the perfect combo for FrightFest audiences!

Natasha: The film is a darkly comedic serial killer film that’s a psychological exploration of the effect of a criminal’s violence on those close to them. While it delivers some creative kills for horror fans, at its core it’s about emotional fallout, denial, and the ways love can blur moral boundaries. It’s a twisted take on relationships and loyalty – how people justify the unjustifiable when they care for someone deeply. The film walks a fine line between comedy and tragedy, making it both disturbing and strangely moving as these broken characters try – and fail – to live normal lives while hiding something monstrous.

2. How did you get into making movies?

Natasha: I started acting when I was seven! It was something that came very naturally and I’m thankful every single day that I discovered my passion so young and have been able to make a career of it.

Jay: I’ve always been a writer and a movie buff, but I never actually thought I’d make movies. As a kid, I wanted to be a psychologist, a cop, even an archeologist at some point, never a filmmaker. I considered trying to become a novelist, but writing is a pretty solitary gig, and I’m someone who enjoys being around people. Then, when I was 16, I wrote my first screenplay for English class, a slasher film called 1988, about a serial killer who dressed up like Ronald Reagan. It was the most extreme thing I’ve ever written, totally gratuitous in every possible way. But when I was finished writing it, I realized I wanted to see it on screen. I wanted to sit back and enjoy it as a movie in the cinema. And the only way to do that was to film it. Unfortunately, it never got made, but it gave me the confidence to believe I could become a filmmaker. It also helps that I received the best grade in the class for the screenplay, though the teacher did admit the script freaked her out a lot. I would have been sent to the school psychologist for something like that now.

3. What films would you love to see screened at FrightFest and why?

Jay: Possession by Andrzej Zulawski. I’d love to see that on the big screen. And Gozu by Takashi Miike. That’s weird even for him and I have not been able to find it anywhere on Blu-ray. Both movies are intense and completely off the wall, so I think it would be fun to watch with an audience. Those movies establish very unique atmospheres which I think would be interesting to experience in a cinema, since it’s far more absorbing than sitting at home watching it on TV or your laptop.

Natasha: Honestly, I’d love to see The Possession and The Harvest screened at FrightFest purely for nostalgic reasons. I think it would be fun (and mildly traumatic) to revisit my younger, haunted self on the big screen surrounded by horror fans.

4. If you could create your own award to give at FrightFest, what would it be and why?

Natasha: I’d create “The Bloody Brilliant Breakdown Award” — for the character who delivers the most unhinged, over-the-top meltdown that has you equal parts horrified and impressed. Screaming, crying, laughing maniacally, maybe smashing a mirror or two — full emotional buffet. It’s the kind of performance where you’re not sure if they need an exorcist, a hug, or an Oscar. Ideally all three.

Jay: Most Upsetting Kill. I think audiences, especially horror people, including myself, have become desensitized to onscreen violence with films like Terrifier 2 and 3 which are super fun and wild, and have pushed the limits even further. I try to go the other way and leave more to the imagination in the style of Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (also much cheaper!) but sometimes that can inadvertently make things more disturbing. It would be interesting as a filmmaker to learn what an audience thinks is truly upsetting these days, and keep that in mind when approaching the depiction of violence in the films we make.

5. If your life was made into a horror film, what would it be called and who would play the starring role?

Jay: Well, I still have nightmares about having to shoot more scenes for Sick Puppy, so it would probably be a film like Groundhog Day where the filmmaker has to keep working on the same movie forever with no end in sight. And it would still star Evan Peters, cause I’m a big fan of American Horror Story and that guy knows how to go wild with a role. I can’t come up with good titles on the fly, but The Long Take sounds kind of right?

Natasha: If my life were a horror movie, it would be called Tech Support – a chilling tale of a girl relentlessly haunted by modern technology and daily reminders of how hopeless she is with it. Jane Fonda would play me because people constantly tell me I’m an 80-year-old trapped in a twenty-something’s body. I may forget all my passwords, but I’ll look fabulous while panicking.

Sick Puppy trailer