At the red carpet premiere of the upcoming horror movie Marshmallow, The Direct spoke with the film's cast, and they talked about what classic mistakes they'd absolutely make if they were on the screen.
The movie follows a campfire story come to life at a summer camp, leaving the kids there doing everything they can to live to tell the tale.
The talented people we spoke with include Miya Cech (May), Kai Cech (Pilar), Pierson Fode (Kaszwar), Geoffrey James (Avery), Kue Lawrence (Morgan), Dylan Friedman (Sam), Max Malas (Dirk), Sutton Johnston (CJ), Samantha Neyland Trumbo (Laurie), Daniel Delpurgatorio (Director), Warner Davis (Producer) and Todd Friedman (Producer).
Cast and Creatives of Marshmallow Reveal Those Horror Mistakes They'd Never Make
People Can Do Some Really Dumb Stuff In Horror Movies
- The Direct: "When it comes to horror and slashers, what are some of those mistakes that characters often make that you look at and go, I would literally never do that if I were in this situation?"
Miya Cech: Go somewhere alone. They're always going places alone. It's like, it's a tale as old as time. They're always splitting off. I love it when horror movies make jokes about that and then still go ahead and do it in their plot later. It's amazing.
Kai Cech: Okay, sometimes I feel like when they're stopping to look, why are you taking so long? Just run. Guys, just go. No, yeah, I'd be running for my life. But see, some of these characters, they stay and watch for a second, which, I mean, looks beautiful on screen, but in real life, that would not end well for you.
Pierson Fode: There's a murderer downstairs. Let's go check it out. Clearly, don't do that, you know. Oh, there's a demon. The cracks are in the house. Just burn the house down, dude. Leave, leave, immediately, leave. But obviously, we don't get a movie out of that. So, like, they have to make, yeah, we want them to go down, but I'm not gonna go down.
Geoffrey James: If it's nighttime, don't go downstairs and check the living room or outside. Definitely not. Just lock your bedroom door. Go to sleep. You can check it in the morning. This has happened to me recently, and I'm like, I heard a noise. I'm like, not gonna go check. I just survived a horror movie. I think I would be the least interesting watch, but I think I'd make it.
Kue Lawrence: Did you hear that? I'm gonna go check it out. No, no, don't check that out. Don't check out the scratching noise you heard in your attic. It's unnecessary.
Dylan Friedman: Like, in some movies, I kind of see a little bit of a like, unnatural fear, like little bit of fake. I'm more just scared all the time on set, like I got scared all the time. So I don't know if I could really fake the fear.
Max Malas: Splitting up is probably the biggest mistake. It's probably the most well-known mistake in horror movies. Is like, if the killer, like Michael Myers or someone after you, even though he's on killable, why did you split up?
You like, if you're in a group and you had the opportunity to beat him up for a good while and get away. Why did you split up and let him just pick you off one by one? I guess? Just build, like, atmosphere and tension. But I mean, if it was real life, it would not be me.
Sutton Johnston: Running to where the killer would be... Some of them like, go to the kitchen and just like, hide themselves in a corner. Like, no, just run away. Yeah, that's the biggest mistake, in my opinion.
Samantha Neyland Trumbo: I think the biggest mistake is probably assuming everything's fine, which I may or may not do in the movie. So that's all I will tell you about that. Yeah, but I don't think I would do that in real life.
Warner Davis: I mean, I'm always just like, run away. The classic horror trope was, just run away, get out of the area. Nobody seems to do that. They always want to stay there.
Todd Friedman: Going towards the light. You know, they're always going towards the light [with] curiosity. Why are people so curious all the time?... I'd want to get the hell out of it.
- The Direct: "On the other end of that, what is that mistake that you would absolutely make?"
Kai Cech: Oh my god, I would tumble. I would fall. If we were in the woods, I would be falling everywhere. I'm the first one gone. Lets just say that.
Pierson Fode: Go down and say, what's up to the demon.. Are you real, bro? Come on. Are you real? Are you really a demon? Because if so, I got some questions. Are you fucking with me right now? Like, come on, are you real?
What's going on after we die? I just want to know. I'll give you some—you want gold? I don't know. Let's find out. You want Bitcoin. Let's do it. You know,
Geoffrey James: I think my phone would ring, and it's not because I'm popular; it's because I don't respond to enough texts.
Kue Lawrence: Investigating the noise. I'll be mad when they do, but I feel like I would still do it.
Dylan Friedman: I'd probably trip over everything. I wouldn't look, I'd be looking to the side. I wouldn't be looking in front of me. So I definitely trip over everything.
Max Malas: Once I take my like attention somewhere else and look back, they're gone. Everyone's gone. I don't know where they went.
Sutton Johnston: Definitely when they fall over branches, or just following in general, just like being clumsy and just, the killers right there.
Samantha Neyland Trumbo: Probably thinking that I can handle it on my own. Because, I like to think I'm an independent woman, until I'm also really clumsy, so I run into a lot of things, and that wipes me out pretty quickly.
Daniel Delpurgatorio: Run and hide. Yeah, I am—I would not be, well, I can. Unlike when you watch something and you're like, oh, you should do this, this, this, this, but in this situation, I wouldn't be able to think fast enough.
Warner Davis: I mean, I would say I'm... the curious person. Be like, Oh, my God, going on. I'm kind of curious what's happening every here. So, you know, I should be running, but I'm like, I'm kind of intrigued at the same time...
Todd Friedman: I would just run and fall over myself. I'm just, you know, everything scares me.
On How the Story Utilizes Campfire Stories
"The Cool Thing About Campfire Tales In General Are the Tropes of Them..."
- The Direct: "The story is about a campfire story come to life. At the end of the day. Most campfire stories are tall tales. They're falsehoods. So how does this take the horror genre and serve as like, a fun cautionary tale against that idea misinformation?"
Pierson Fode: Ooh, that's an interesting take. Cautionary tale against misinformation. It's hard to say anything without giving the movie away too much. You know, maybe just for everybody, do your own research, independent research, like go out, discover things for yourselves, and make sure your camp counselors are decent at their job if they don't have criminal records.
And yeah, I mean, you know, if there's a murder on site, maybe just don't send your kids there. That seems like a good choice.
Daniel Delpurgatorio: I think it's important. I mean, I think the cool thing about campfire tales, in general, is the tropes of them, right? And so, no matter who's telling it, they lean very heavy into specific tropes.
We definitely want to do that with our film, but it really, the story tells every aspect of the movie in every trope that it says. And some of those are pretty dark, some of them are deep, some of them are fun.
And, yeah, I think that was kind of the goal for what we were going for is, like, you know, sometimes you gotta dissect what you hear... You don't just throw it like, Oh yeah, and you throw it out the window, you gotta, like, pick it apart, yeah.
Warner Davis: You've got a twist that's going to blow your mind. That's the bottom line. You are not going to see what happens in this movie coming at all.
Todd Friedman: We blend a lot of genres on this one. So you think of the classic camp story. It's just not we blend all them together, and we kind of liked about it. It's very visual. It's not the kind of classic story at all.
The full red carpet interviews can be viewed here:
Marshmallow hits theaters on April 11, 2025.
