“All The Creatures Were Stirring”
Jonathan Kite Interview
In the past year, writer/directors Rebekah and David Ian McKendry’s new horror anthology, All the Creatures Were Stirring, as had an exceptionally successful film festival run. The film has since been picked up by RLJE Films and it will have a DVD and VOD release in time for Christmas.
All the Creatures Were Stirring follows different tales of Christmas horror, often with a dark comedic twist. The different segments cover Christmas ghosts, a strange evil entity, a murderous office party, and many more. One of the stars of the film, Jonathan Kite (2 Broke Girls), was kind enough to speak with us. We spoke about his role in the film, how he became involved in he project, and even what his experience was like on set.
The Coda: We’re here to talk about your new film, All the Creatures Were Stirring and you star in a segment titled “All Through the House,” which, of all the segments, is probably the most recognizable as a Christmas story. What can you tell us about the segment and your character?
Jonathan Kite: It’s a modern adaptation, retelling of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and my character, Chet, is alone on Christmas Eve. It sort of follows the tradition of the story with the three ghosts, but it’s not as blatant. The ghosts, their there, but when we visit the past, present, and the future the ghosts sort of talk through me. There’s a great scene in the mirror when I’m having a conversation with myself where we kind of talk about where my life is headed and it’s not me talk to the ghost of Christmas present or future. It is, but it comes in the form of me. So it was a very cool. I’d never done that before and it was a very cool kind of a process to figure out that dub matching of the shots and whatnot.
The Coda: You seem to play multiple characters. How did you get into each character, even thought some of them are just different versions of yourself, but they all feel very distinct?
Jonathan Kite: Myself and Amanda Fuller, who plays my girlfriend, and Archie and Connie we all play different people, but they all sort of have the same point of view. Like, for instance, when I play my father he’s sort of what I would have been thirty years ago or something. So we had talk about that, sort of creating a family dynamic and of how people would relate before cell phones because we’re all on the couch watching little me sing a song and it’s like those boring family gatherings. We were trying to do something as a unit and kind of give off a flavor more than an individual performance added to the scene picture. For me, I focused on what I would have been like thirty years ago or what Chet would have been like thirty years ago and would have been like as a kid.
The Coda: How did you get involved with the project?
Jonathan Kite: I know Morgan Brown, who executive produced it. Morgan and I go back years and years and years. We went to university together and he had been telling me about it. I love horror anthologies like The Twilight Zone; the original is one of my favorite TV shows of all time. I really like this kind of stuff like Tales From the Crypt and Creepshow and stuff. So he had talked about producing it and finding people he really wanted to work with and he was like, “Hey if I ever do this would you be interested?” and I said, “Of course.” He literally came to me and was like, “We want you to play Scrooge in this thing, will you do it?” and I didn’t even read the script and I was like, “Yep, I’m in.”
The Coda: Between working with the McKendrys and some of the more unfortunate events that your character goes through, what was your experience like working on the film?
Jonathan Kite: You know what, it was pretty amazing because I know Morgan exceptionally well and his wife. Other than that I knew the sound guy, but I didn’t really know anyone else until I got there. I had never met the McKendrys. I think they were kind enough to sign off on me just from, maybe they had seen footage of me or Morgan, I have no idea how that went down. We shot everything I was in, we shot it in one day, which is a little insane because the mirror scene took forever. Just, everything had to be matched and I had to go back in later and redo the ADR because of the camera, the sound on it, but it was pretty amazing that we were able to get all of the stuff I was in in one day. It’s interesting because everybody got along so well on set and it was a very positive environment. We just sort of trusted each other. You know, in that situation where you’re trying to do everything one and done and figuring it out on the fly, because we used an actual house and figuring out camera angles when you can’t move the walls with the lighting, you’re limited to even the colors of the walls and how that bounces the light. The crew was really amazing. Just great, great, smart people who really knew what they were doing and worked well on the fly and it was a great team. So I had a very positive experience. Amanda and I became good friends; she plays my girlfriend on the segment. I think everybody was very good at the job they were hired to do, which always helps.
The Coda: Now this is more of a fun question for you. If you were to plan a double feature, which film would you show along with All the Creatures Were Stirring?
Jonathan Kite: Wow, that is a good question. Maybe Krampus or… Well, I don’t know, maybe Gremlins.
The Coda: That’s a good one.
Jonathan Kite: Yeah, I love that movie and I love that it’s a Christmas movie.
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All the Creatures Were Stirring is available currently on DVD and VOD and available to stream on Shudder on December 13th.
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