Madame Web director on those Final Destination comparisons, and injecting the movie with "thriller-slash-horror moments"
Feb. 7, 2024Exclusive: S. J. Clarkson also talks tinkering with Cassandra Webb’s origins and how the Marvel Comics gave the writers their own sense of clairvoyance
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Madame Web’s whole plot revolves around someone preventing three murders after seeing said murders happen in a vision. So it’s hardly surprising that the newSonyMarvel movie has been likened to the Final Destination series sinceits first trailer dropped back in November.
Turns out, director S. J. Clarkson is all for people comparing it to the long-running horror franchise, which famously centers on fate catching up with people who’ve cheated death in grisly ways, since it signals that her attempt to inject some terror into the comic book flick was successful.
“Listen, I’ll take that,” she tellsGamesRadar+and Total Film when we mention the association, and how refreshing it is to see a superhero movie with a bit of blood in it. “It’s a thriller at the end of the day and it was exciting to be able to have those thriller-slash-horror moments.
“If you see really scary things in the future, it’s like a nightmare in a way,” Clarkson continues. “You wake up from them in the most random moments, like on a train or when you’re trying to save somebody’s life as a paramedic and these things come hurtling at you, you know? How would you deal with that? How would you react to it, especially when everybody else around you is looking at you, thinking I’m going crazy?”
Starring Adam Scott, Sydney Sweeney, Tahar Rahim, and Dakota Johnson, Madame Web follows New York City-based paramedic Cassie, who inexplicably finds herself with clairvoyant abilities following a near-death experience. One random evening, she sees a horrifying vision of a man murdering three young women and saves them all by intervening, subsequently forcing the foursome into a dangerous game of cat and mouse with the determined, ruthless killer.
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“The comic books, you know, they are the Bible of Marvel, really, so to go back to those and see who a character is and who they become is really interesting,” recalls. Clarkson. “It gaveusclairvoyance, we see where she goes. So how do we find a way to get there? So that was a gift really, it was almost the clairvoyance of the comics that enabled us to realize her origin.”
Madame Web releases on February 14. While we wait, check out all thenew superhero moviesheading our way. Keep an out for a future episode of the Inside Total Film podcast to listen to more of our chat with Clarkson.
I am an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering all things TV and film across our Total Film and SFX sections. Elsewhere, my words have been published by the likes of Digital Spy, SciFiNow, PinkNews, FANDOM, Radio Times, and Total Film magazine.
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