Brandon Scott on ‘Big Baby’, creative frustration and finding a new horror family

For Brandon Scott, Big Baby is not simply a film about a killer in a disturbing mask. Beneath the bloodshed, Spider One’s new meta-slasher taps into something considerably more familiar to anyone who has ever tried to make a living creatively: the frustration of pouring yourself into an idea only to find that reality has other plans.

Scott, whose credits span Grey’s Anatomy, Dead to Me, This Is Us, The Last of Us and Adam Wingard’s Blair Witch, leads the film as Adam, a struggling writer whose increasingly volatile creative frustrations begin to manifest in far more dangerous ways.

Scott tells Love Horror. “I play Adam. I’m a struggling writer whose frustrations become a bit of a monster.”

It is that collision between creativity and personal turmoil that immediately appealed to him.

“One of my favourite things about is it’s kind of meta, and it’s about creatives and the struggle of creating something,” Scott says. “And what happens when all that creation doesn’t go the way you want it to go.”

That aspect of Adam was not especially difficult for Scott to understand.

“I mean, yeah, I get a little frustrated. So I had a lot to draw from.”

There is, however, a sizeable difference between recognising creative disappointment and experiencing the kind of nightmare Adam finds himself trapped inside. Scott found the intensity of horror filmmaking both demanding and rewarding.

“What I love is, you know, in terms of horror, it’s always exciting but frustrating and exhausting,” he explains. “Well, to go through what the character goes through. And so I had a lot to draw from, but I had to I learned a lot doing it.”

Written and directed by Spider One, Big Baby follows a screenwriter whose recurring nightmares involving a murderer wearing a baby mask begin intruding upon his waking life. The premise folds the mechanisms of the slasher movie back onto its own creator, turning fears, frustrations and creative impulses into something increasingly difficult to separate from reality.

Scott stars alongside Krsy Fox, Adam Marcinowski, Catherine Corcoran, Chaz Bono and Terrifier star David Howard Thornton, with Cher serving as executive producer.

Like many independent horror productions, the film was made quickly. Scott recalls a 13-day shoot where limited time and resources demanded that everyone arrived prepared.

“Well, indie filmmaking, I think in general you’re on a shoestring budget, you know what I mean?” he says. “And everyone hopefully brings their A game. And with this one, I mean, I wouldn’t say it’s a challenge. It’s kind of like sometimes a gift. Everyone came prepared. You know, you’re only getting a few takes.”

That compressed schedule created its own rhythm.

“Everyone has to be ready to go. We shot this thing and I think it was 13 days,” Scott continues. “But Chrissy and Spider, they’re just a producing powerhouse. And they curate a beautiful indie community in LA and honestly, all over. And so they just brought the the right family together.”

For Scott, Big Baby was also his introduction to a filmmaking circle that had already developed around Spider One and Fox through their previous genre projects.

“And it was my first time being integrated into this family and immediately just swept up,” he says.

So much so that he would happily do it all again.

The limitations of independent filmmaking can often become part of the creative process, and Scott describes the shoot as highly collaborative despite the practical boundaries surrounding it.

“Yeah. Very collaborative. I mean, free in the sense of, you know, a container with a container of 13 days and only so much money.”

Those restrictions, he suggests, can sometimes be exactly what pushes filmmakers towards unexpected solutions.

“But, you know, sometimes, you know what a necessity is the mother of invention,” he says. “And the container was great and fun, and we had a lot of fun. And hopefully that comes across. And the fear, also the horror, all that comes across in the film.”

Festival audiences have already given Scott the chance to see whether that energy translates.

“I’ve seen a few times. We’ve done a few, few festivals and I just love watching it,” he says. “I feel like it is an audience movie. It’s a great movie to watch with, like a popcorn eating candy audience, so I’m always excited to be a part of that energy.”

That made its arrival at Tubi FrightFest particularly fitting. The festival has long specialised in films best experienced collectively, where shocks, laughter and discomfort can ripple across a packed cinema rather than disappear into the isolation of a home screen.

And if his enthusiasm for watching the finished film alongside a crowd is anything to go by, FrightFest audiences proved to be exactly the kind of company Big Baby was made for.

Big Baby received its UK premiere at Tubi FrightFest London on 27 August. Watch our full interview with Brandon Scott below, where he discusses playing Adam, the film’s rapid independent shoot, working with Spider One and Krsy Fox, and why Big Baby is best experienced with a packed horror audience.

Brandon Scott Big Baby interview