In our interview with the directors and cast of Honey Bunch, they discuss film inspirations, practical effects and embracing the bombastic scores of 1970s horror.
Honey Bunch follows Diana (Grace Glowicki), a woman in the 1970s who suffers from memory loss after severe trauma. Her husband, Homer (Ben Petrie), has brought her to Dr. Tréphine (Patricia Tulasne), a specialist who runs a cutting-edge facility that supposedly deals with this specific kind of trauma. As the therapies – overseen by Farah (Kate Dickie) – begin causing Diana to experience excruciating mental pain, while Homer keeps disappearing for extended periods of time to talk to other resident Joseph (Jason Isaacs) – whose daughter Josephina (India Brown) starts experiencing severe symptoms from the process – Diana must uncover what is really going on beneath the surface of this facility, what caused her memory loss and who can she truly trust if not her own self.
The directors of Honey Bunch, Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli, are no strangers to a film festival. The two, who are a couple in real life, met in 2015 at Toronto International Film Festival and have been collaborating since. Their debut feature film Violation played at TIFF and Sundance to acclaim, earning the couple the Emerging Canadian Artist Award at the Calgary International Film Festival and the Emerging Canadian Director Award at the Vancouver International Film Festival. The duo return for their sophomore feature, Honey Bunch, the kind of deliciously macabre thriller that could have only been made by horror freaks who are utterly in love with each other.
Joining the duo for this interview are cast members India Brown, Ben Petrie, Jason Isaacs, Kate Dickie and Patricia Tulasne.
Madeleine Sims-Fewer, Dusty Mancinelli and the Cast of Honey Bunch On Their Film Inspirations and Preparation
I was wondering what films you guys watched to prepare for this?
Kate Dickie: I never watch films to prepare for a role. I don’t tend to do that with scripts, unless the director would like me to watch something for reference. I don’t think that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but I tend to just concentrate on what the interpretation is of the script in front of me.
India Brown: I didn’t watch any films to prepare myself for this role or to know how to enter this world. I don’t normally do that anyway. I was very much trusting in Madeleine and Dusty’s vision of the world, and there was much I could get from them in regards to the characters and storyline. Really, my prep was music as an avenue to get into the role. I had a 70s playlist going, with tracks like Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights”: That was the first song. As I played that and read the script, I was like, ”Oh my god, I’m there.”
K.D.: I’m more into music than films too, yeah.
Jason Isaacs: I don’t know anyone who watches films to prepare. [looks at Patricia] Do you ever watch films?
Patricia Tulasne: I didn’t know Madeline or Dusty, so I wanted to see their first film Violation. I was very impressed by the atmosphere of that movie. I think the same atmosphere can be found in Honey Bunch. I found the script interesting, but I wanted to know how they would bring that to screen. Violation was so impressive and it gave you a good idea of what to expect with this.
J.I.: I’ve never watched films to prepare because we don’t want to get influenced by other people. Having seen the film, I do see all kinds of movies in it; Not any that I should have watched to prepare, because we were just trying to tell true stories about humans. But I had no idea that the styles of Lindsay Anderson or Nick Roeg, or even Ken Russell would be so prevalent within the film. There was clearly a timeless setting to the place and the costumes we were wearing. It feels like a film from an entirely different time.
It felt very Kubrick to me. The Shining and A Clockwork Orange specifically.
J.I.: Yes, it was very A Clockwork Orange, definitely.
The film felt very classical, very old school. The characters reference Rebecca at one point early in the movie. What were the really major touchstones when writing Honey Bunch?
Madeleine Sims-Fewer: I mean, you’ve covered some of them.
Dusty Mancinelli: There was Don’t Look Now, and Wicker Man. The Innocents was a big one.
M.S.: As too was The Elephant Man.
D.M.: We’re just huge fans of films of the 70s. Often, when we go to throw something on to watch, most of the time, we throw on an old film. We were really excited about trying to make a film set in the era, as if it was made in that era.
M.S: We want people who watch it to feel like they’re discovering a film from that time that they’ve never seen before.
D.M: So we had to think about the filmmaking practices and techniques from that time and what lenses would be suitable to emulate those. We actually shot with the same lenses as Taxi Driver and Barry Lyndon, and we adopted those very manual zooms that Nicholas Roeg made famous in his film Don’t Look Now. I hope it has a kind of hand crafted feeling to it. It’s rough around the edges. It’s not super polished, clean and pristine. There is a creamy, textured quality that we just love.
I’ve never heard of a film being referred to as having a creamy texture before.
Ben Petrie: Sounds delicious.
The Directors and Cast of Honey Bunch on Receiving and Writing the Script
What was your first impression when you got the script?
India Brown: Personally, I was floored when I first read it. I’m only 19 years old, so there’s only a selection of scripts that I’ve read in different formats. This was the first script I had seen ever that I’d gone, oh my god, this is insane. Immediately, I was immersed. I was like, you’ve never seen this before. This is foreign to me but it’s exciting.
Kate Dickie: It was just a unique script. I loved the story, and I loved that the more you read, the weirder it got. I love weird and different things. I was the same [as India], I wanted to be part of this story.
Jason Isaacs: I was told that this was a low budget horror film. So I read it through that prism, expecting to find that I knew what the tropes were and where it was going, and then it just subverted my expectations at every turn. It was certainly a thrilling, suspenseful script but it became much more emotional and much more surprising. When it takes a turn, those characters are in a very different situation. Instead of what more traditionally happens, which is hurtling towards an end where a man running around with a knife stabbing people, it did something totally different and much more human. It reminded me that in the 70s, there were fewer rules about films. They were less restricted by narrative conventions.
Patricia Tulasne: It’s certainly a strange film. It’s a horror movie but it’s also a story all about love. I think that everybody can be touched by that too.
It’s very difficult to hide your message in plain sight, like you do. Did you have anything cut when you were writing the script? Were there any deliberate measures you put in as you’re writing to try and hide things?
Dusty Mancinelli: A good question. We knew we wanted to have that thematic connection early on without you noticing it. I think we were really hopeful that as long as we can really deceive you, misdirect you, that you’ll never see it coming. And at that point you’re too caught up in the switch of the movie to be able to contemplate everything else.
Madeleine Sims-Fewer: I mean, when we wrote the script, we took a no holds barred approach to it. We would just put everything on the page that was thematic and then strip the too obvious away.
The Cast of Honey Bunch Discuss Their Best Day On Set
Did you guys have a best day when you were on set? Did anything specifically memorable happen?
India Brown: I would literally say my wrap day. We had a scene in the pool. It was only Jason with me, as the cast and crew were on the side so there was no need for them to jump in the pool or anything like that. But I had wrapped, and Madeleine walked into the pool fully clothed and handed me flowers. I had such an incredible experience on this. It was so special, and you don’t get that every single time on jobs. Then everyone jumped in the pool, in their clothes.
Jason Isaacs: The whole crew, everyone went into the pool. It was pretty great. There was just mass hysteria and joy and so much love. We were so emotional and so tense as we were focused on the project. It wasn’t one of those giant, sprawling crews. It was a relatively small number of people. The scenes were so gripping that there was this kind of relief we all felt together and we all ended up in the pool.
Patricia Tulasne: I remember my first scene with Ben because I was so nervous. English is not my first language, so I was really nervous. It was great being directed by Madeline. She went and she gave me some notes, and some to Ben, and we all worked together on it. I remember being so relieved when the scene was over.
J.I.: I’m often relieved at the end of the first take that I haven’t been fired yet. If you didn’t audition for things, you get there on the first day and you go, well, this is what I’m planning to do. Even now, after how many millions of years I’ve been acting, I’m just waiting on someone saying “oh, terribly sorry, we’ve made a mistake”.
I.B.: They’ll be like “oh it’s not you, it’s me”.
The Cast of Honey Bunch on How They Chose This Project
You mention auditions. How did you each come on board the project?
Kate Dickie: The script just got sent through my agent.
Jason Isaacs: I don’t think there were any other kind of unusual circumstances. Did you just get sent to your agent as well? [looks at Patricia]
Patricia Tulasne: No, Madeleine and Dusty called me directly. They saw me in I Killed My Mother. We talked together on the phone and by zoom but it was directly and my agent was not in the conversation. It’s very flattering when you’re a person of a certain age, to be approached by young people who want to work with you.
I.B.. I auditioned. I got an email coming through saying, “the directors have got you as their top choice for this role”. I was like, “oh, this is interesting”. I’m always interested to see why that is: what did you like? Where did you see me?
P.T.: [To India] Where did they see you?
I.B.: They saw me in Apple TV+’s Invasion. I just couldn’t say no. I loved the character, and I love the father-daughter dynamic, and it really does evolve into something that I really enjoyed playing.
India Brown on Honey Bunch as a New Challenge
India, you have done things like Wurzel, and That Christmas and obviously Invasion but this is probably one of your biggest physical productions to date. How did you manage to handle it mentally, because there is a lot in the film that would have been quite a lot to deal with at your age?
India Brown: I was ready to do something that really pushed me out of my comfort zone. I’m only 19. I always say I want to do and be a part of things that challenge me, or play a person you can connect to. This script came along, and it just felt right. I think that’s what I’ve kind of done throughout my career, doing things that feel right but still feel like me. I’ve had some challenging things to do before but I wanted to do more. Then when this comes through, every single scene she has she is going through some trauma. I loved the father daughter dynamic. They come into this already existing story, and really change things. I loved it. So for this, I was ready for a challenge and to be just thrown into the deep end.
Madeleine Sims-Fewer & Dusty Mancinelli on Crafting The Score
Let’s talk about that excellent score. It’s high camp but it’s also so prominent in the film that it could have been a risk?
Madeleine Sims-Fewer: Yeah. We wanted to return to the scores of films in the 1970s. Like Don’t Look Now and Carrie. We listened to a lot of Pino Donaggio and Ennio Morricone, and some Bernard Herrmann for good measure. Just some really melodic, driven scores with motifs and themes that help tell the story, rather than just being textual background or supporting a scary moment. We wanted the score to be really front and center.
Dusty Mancinelli: We knew the movie was weird when we wrote it. I think Grace and Ben brought more weirdness to the screen in a really fun and exciting way. Early on in post production, we knew we needed to embrace that weird, that we had to lean in that direction. We had to create a tone through the soundtrack, in a way that really helped capture that feeling. We worked closely with Andrea Boccadoro, who composed all of our previous films together. To do a live score with a small budget at this scale is really challenging. We went to England and did a whole thing for two and a half days. We discovered a wonderful flute player who really became the sound of the movie.
Madeleine Sims-Fewer & Dusty Mancinelli on Directing Grace Glowicki
You mentioned Grace. What a performance. As directors, how do you get a performance like that?
Madeleine Sims-Fewer: We already knew that part of the reason we wanted her to play the role is that she is a very physical actor. Part of our process as directors is to blend the psychological and the physical so that they’re informing each other all the time. We had a long rehearsal process which, blessedly, Grace agreed to. She was very up for rehearsing so we did a lot of physical exploration of the character before shooting
Dusty Mancinelli: She’s just one of these transformative actors who has this ability to walk into a room and change that space. If you met her in person, she’s absolutely nothing like that character. It is just so interesting when you get to work with people that have that ability.
M.S: Something else that she does, which I think is just so perfect for this, is that she embodies a very 1970s woman. She doesn’t seem like a woman of our era. So often you go and see a period piece, and it’s people like you and me acting in period costumes.
Ben Petrie: A millennial in stirrups.
I like to make the comparison “this person has totally used an Iphone” when commenting on that. Did Grace and Ben do chemistry tests together beforehand?
B.P.: Well, in fact, we’ve been doing 11 years of chemistry tests. Grace and I, we’re married. We’ve made a couple of films together before as well. So yeah, that was probably their chemistry test for us.
D.M: There are these moments in the film, specifically at the dinner scene, where you’re looking at them but it’s really like Ben is looking at Grace, and he has so much love in his eyes. There’s just such a strong connection that they have for one another that you feel it on the screen.
Ben Petrie On His Preparation for Honey Bunch
Ben, how did you prepare for this? You have got to be a little sleazy but also balance that other side of the narrative? How do you capture that dichotomy?
Ben Petrie: It’s such a challenge to balance that, but I’ve always tried to just trust that the script was going to do that misdirection, that it was Dusty and Maddie who were going to do the misdirection, and really play it straight so it wasn’t telegraphing something sinister. I hope that that comes off. It does in the cut that I saw. I think the script did such a great job of it, rather than myself.
Did you do any research into what the character goes through?
B.P.: I visited people who were going through something similar to my character, people whose loved ones had been hospitalized. I’ve never had an experience of somebody close to me get very ill or get very hospitalized. So I tried to get as close as possible to people who have, and think about them and try to channel their experience and honor their experience.
Dusty Mancinelli: We shot it out of order too, so it was really challenging to keep everything coherent. I remember that Ben had this terrific little notebook that was his character’s emotional journey so that no matter where we were going to, he would take a moment to get back in that emotional space. And it was so incredible to see you kind of figure that out. [To Ben] Was that something you often do?
B.P.: No, it was my first time doing that. It was invaluable.
Ben Petrie and the Directors of Honey Bunch on Using Practical Effects and Make-Up
Let’s talk about the makeup and the effects work.
Madeleine Sims-Fewer: We’ve been working with Tenille Shockey since Violation, and she’s just an unbelievable artist. Her work is photo real. It’s really uncanny and incredible. So she came on early and helped design the makeup with us, knowing that we wanted to adopt this analog approach. Practical effects were so vital to that aesthetic that we were trying to capture. It did make things infinitely more challenging to film. And Grace was amazing in the last week of filming, she had to do 20 hours a day for those vision scenes. We had to pre-visualize everything by using a storyboard and animatics, just so that we can actually feel really confident about what we were doing, because there’s just so much choreography, so much movement.
Ben Petrie: Then there was also the hair and makeup team, who were so lovely. They were applying a prosthetic moustache to me every day because I can’t grow one of these suckers. We became so close to them over the course of shooting Honey Bunch that they came and did the hair and makeup for Grace and I’s wedding several months later.
What was it like seeing Grace in that way?
B.P.: Grace’s character is going through something physically vulnerable. My body responded to that with a kind of automatic gentleness and tenderness. She was manifesting that vulnerability so convincingly that I found myself approaching her gingerly, even between takes, because she was in that physicalization so much. So it was quite surreal to see my wife go through all of these different vulnerable states, and to have to act around her and not just try and take care of her like a baby.
Madeleine Sims-Fewer & Dusty Mancinelli on Choosing The Right Location
Where did you shoot this?
Dusty Mancinelli: We shot most of it in Owen Sound, which is a few hours north of Toronto.
Oh? I really expected a UK production, since the Manor House feels so European.
D.M: Obviously, we were very influenced by European cinema and wanted that look for the movie and the world that we were trying to build. It was difficult and required us to scour the countryside for six months, I think, to find that particular one.
Madeleine Sims-Fewer: Even the driveway is a different place. We were wanting to have that broken wall that she runs past, which is very specific and impossible to find alongside the manor. The cave was somewhere else too. We actually drew a big map of how everything in our heads connected together and where we laid it all out so we had the geography correct.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
Honey Bunch premiered at the Berlin Film Festival on February 18, 2025. Read our review of Honey Bunch!
Header credits: A still from Honey Bunch (© Cat People, 2025) / Kate Dickie and Patricia Tulasne at the Berlin Film Festival Premiere of Honey Bunch (© Gerald Matzka/Getty Images) / Madeleine Sims-Fewer, Dusty Mancinelli, Jason Isaacs, Ben Petrie and India Brown at the Photo Call for Honey Bunch (Courtesy of the Berlinale)
