Freaky Tales: Inside the wild new 80s anthology movie

Upcoming dark anthology movie, Freaky Tales is set in Oakland, California. It’s where director Ryan Fleck grew up and is inspired by real stories from its history. Filmmaking duo Anna Boden and Fleck, who were also behind Captain Marvel and the Oscar-nominated Half Nelson starring Ryan Gosling, tell us that Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction and Jim Jarmusch’s Mystery Train informed the framing device for the 1980s fantasy-comedy anthology film.

“It’s got different stories but the characters find themselves in different stories, and you revisit them in different timeframes and places throughout the movie,” Fleck explains.

“Creepshow was an influence, and we reference Creepshow 2 on the [cinema] marquee as well,” he continues. “But also, the movies have a little more of a weaving structure to them than anthologies.”

The first two parts of the film view Oakland from a musical perspective, focusing on punk rock and then the rap music world, with both sets of characters seen exiting the aforementioned cinema after watching The Lost Boys.

Fleck first watched the cult vampire flick at the age of eleven, he says: “I just saw it on a VHS from the video store, a year or so after it came out.”

“As did I,” chips in Boden. “But probably a little bit later. It was during the Coreys era for me. I was obviously in love with both Corey Feldman and Corey Haim. I had my crushes on both Coreys and was watching both of their movies including License to Drive and Dream a Little Dream.”

Chapter One of the film is titled, ‘Strength in Numbers: aka the Gilman Strikes Back’. The title refers to a sense of unity in the punk scene in the face of fascism and takes inspiration from real events at the Gilman venue. “When I was that age in the 1980s, I was not a big Punk fan. That’s something that I grew a taste for later in life,” explains Fleck. “I learned more about the Gilman venue… I grew up right around the corner from there. I knew about it, but I was too shy of a kid for the punk scene. But the more I learned, the more I respected and admired what they did. That first chapter is the one that comes closest to being a true story where they held a meeting about what to do about being harassed by Nazi skinheads. They decided to fight back.”

Chapter Two is called ‘Fight the Feeling’ and is inspired by female rappers Entice and Barbie, who comprised the duo Danger Zone. They were best known for their work on Too $hort (who narrates) Don’t Fight The Feeling, which takes aim at misogyny.

It’s performed in the film by pop star Normani and Dominique Thorne respectively. “That whole chapter was basically driven by us thinking about a fictional imagining of how that song might have come to be,” explains Boden. “We created these fictionalised versions of them based on who these women might have been and who would’ve written this song with Too $hort.”

Over the end credits, a full music video plays out with Normani and Thorne performing. Boden explains how the popstar came on board: “Normani is an incredible performer who obviously has a huge following but she had never acted before. She was willing to come in and actually read for the role even though she is obviously a huge star and she kind of blew us away with her natural way in front of the camera, and the way the camera almost sees inside her soul. Pairing her with Dominque, they just have such an amazing chemistry with one another. They’re so different, even though you can totally see how they would be best friends, which we just loved.”

Throughout the film, there are many references and nods to 1980s pop culture and movie references across history. The third chapter, ‘Born to Mack’, starring Pedro Pascal, is the most Tarantino-esque sequence. It features a surprise cameo from a quintessential 80s actor who works in a video store and is obsessed with the best underdog films. According to Boden and Fleck, Freaky Tales was made on a small budget and they called in actors from their past films, including Ben Mendelsohn (from their buddy film Mississippi Grind which also stars Ryan Reynolds) who plays a racist, sexist and corrupt cop.

The final chapter, entitled ‘The Legend of Sleepy Floyd’ stars Jay Ellis as a basketball player who goes on a revenge mission in the style of a Bruce Lee movie. “Jay’s commitment to this was beyond!” explains Fleck. “We couldn’t afford to really train him as much as he needed for the movie, so he was just doing it on his own. He was doing three training sessions a day leading up to this.

“We talked about the movies, Enter the Dragon and The Last Dragon, with the glow of course – it was those two [films] playing off each other. We also made him a playlist of songs that Sleepy Floyd would listen to and that would inspire the vibe… things from the pop songs in the film but also Tangerine Dream from the Sorcerer soundtrack.”

Freaky Tales is in select cinemas from 18 April and on digital platforms from 28 April