The Welcome to the Blumhouse collection returns with Bingo Hell, a horror-thriller set in the small town of Oak Springs struggling against gentrification and a group of elderly friends who refuse to change and modernize. When they find their bingo hall has been sold off to a mysterious eccentric known as Mr. Big promising lavish prizes, the group's fiery leader Lupita begins to realize the darker nature of the new owner.
In time for the film's release, Screen Rant spoke with stars Adriana Barraza, Joshua Caleb Johnson, and Richard Brake to discuss the latest installment of the Welcome to the Blumhouse film series.
Screen Rant: I remember when the trailer first dropped for this, I was like, "Okay, this is the one that I'm really excited for," and sure enough, it lived up to my expectations, it's so much fun. What about it drew everybody to it?
Adriana Barraza: Well, the script and Gigi, first of all, Gigi Saul Guerrero, this Mexican young woman, this amazing director, this beautiful and intelligent script, and then the producers, Blumhouse and Amazon Prime Video. It's amazing for an actress like me because I am Mexican, I'm not American, so for me I think it's double fantastic, this opportunity.
Richard Brake: I second everything Adriana said, for sure. There wasn't anything that didn't draw me into it, there were so many pluses. But I think, you know, [if] picking something, one thing was that I love horror films. I've obviously done a fair number of them, but I love horror films that have more to it than just scares, that there's a deeper message. Every time I read it, and I read it several times, I'd find something new. I'd find another hidden little message, there was so much behind all the scares and I love a smart horror film. And Gigi, I mean she's just the best, she's really an amazing director to work with.
Joshua Caleb Johnson: To kind of piggyback on what Adriana and Richard said, I mean, everything about this project - what doesn't draw you in? Gigi is an amazing director, the cast are amazing people, amazing actors, I love everybody at Blumhouse, Jason Blum, Jeremy Gold Marci Wiseman, and Lisa Bruce, just everybody at Blumhouse is amazing; I love working with them. This project has a message and I love to call myself an artivist in the sense that I love fighting for what's right and putting the proper messages out there and this message that this movie has, it's just super impactful. It was one I couldn't pass up on.
Each of you has such a unique character both in personality and arcs. Obviously, Richard, you're very eccentric and Adriana, the fire that comes from you in every scene is just amazing to watch and Joshua to see your character grow throughout the film and deal with as much as he has. What was it like for each of you getting to the heart of your character to really properly bring them to life?
Richard Brake: Playing characters like Mr. Big, who is very eccentric is a nice way of putting it, he's such an extreme character. He personifies an incredible amount of extremity, like greed and these terrible things, and to play a character like that you have to go kind of go out there and take quite extreme risks.
I was able to do that and I can only really do that safely with a great director, someone I can trust, and from day one with Gigi, I knew that I could trust that I could give her an intense performance that's so extreme and know that she's got my back and keep me from looking like a complete buffoon. Having that trust in Gigi allowed me to just explore quite some quite crazy places with his eccentricities, as you say. [Chuckles]
Adriana Barraza: It was beautiful to see Richard acting, you know, it was amazing. For me, it was to see a lot of women around me. First of all, Gigi has amazing energy and Gigi told me about her grandmother and how her grandmother is very much Lupita. Then my own grandmother [was an inspiration], but also many women who need to fight for everything, but with love and joy, not only with pain or something like that. No, with joy and then nothing can kill me, nothing.
Joshua Caleb Johnson: For my character, Caleb is a not-so-easy one, he's very complex, [with] a lot of levels to him. But for me, it was easy to relate to because Caleb is a really good kid at heart. I mean, he's grieving at this moment, because he lost his father to cancer, and his way of grieving is to be rebellious and to act out and do whatever he wants. I was just really able to easily associate [with] that because a few of my family members have died of cancer, so I just really understand what choices he made and it was easy to put my mind where his was.
Bingo Hell is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.