The Knockturnal
  • Home
  • Entertainment
  • Music
  • Lifestyle
  • News
  • Videos
  • Covers
  • Merch
EntertainmentFilmThe LatestVideo

Exclusive: Directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein Talk ‘Freaks’ [Video]

by Hershil Vora September 12, 2019
by Hershil Vora September 12, 2019 0 comments
2.2K

Check out our exclusive interview with the directors of the new sci-fi thriller, “Freaks”!

“Freaks”, the brand new Sci-Fi Thriller follows a disturbed father (Emile Hirsch) who locks his 7-year-old daughter (Lexi Kolker) in a house, warning her of a mysterious world full of dangers outside.  Until one day, when the mysterious Mr.Snowcone (Bruce Dern) convinces the girl to escape her father’s control and to join him on a quest for freedom, revenge, and her mother (Amanda Crew).

We were able to sit down with the directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein and get their thoughts on making the movie.

The Knockturnal: So congrats on a wonderful film.

Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein: Thank you so much.

The Knockturnal: This isn’t your first collaboration. How did this come about? Y’all working together.

Zach Lipovsky: We met twelve years ago on a reality television show as contestants. It was called ‘On the Lot’ it was basically like American Idol but for filmmaking, with Steven Spielberg and Mark Burnett. We were making movies every week against each other. America would vote someone off every week, whoever made the worst film.

Adam B. Stein: It was like filmmaking summer camp. We just made movies ever week and we became great friends after. We kind of worked separately on stuff and started to collaborate more and more. This was the first big project we did together. We were kind of struggling filmmakers trying to get our dream movies made and none of them were happening. So we said alright what kind of movie can we write, that we could make, even if we had zero dollars and that’s where the initial conversations about Freaks started. But it obviously grew from there. At first we were thinking we would play the roles and my son would play the kid, that was the first draft.

Zach Lipovsky: Shoot it in his house. (laughs)

The Knockturnal: I love it.

Adam B. Stein: But then when we started showing it around we started to get actors interested. Bruce Dern was the first actor who signed on and we never expected a two time Oscar nominee to want to be in our movie.

Zach Lipovsky: I was supposed to play that role and then Bruce Dern’s playing it. He stole my role.

Adam B. Stein: It’s way better that we can have actual actors play the parts.

The Knockturnal: So tell me about the story of Freaks. Is it allegorical? How did you come up with the idea?

Zach Lipovsky: The film was really inspired by Adam’s son growing up, seeing his perspective on the world. As kids grow up they don’t really know how the world works. A car alarm is super scary but dragons are real and totally safe. We wanted the audience to have that perspective as they were watching the movie. In the movie you follow this little girl named Chloe who’s growing up in this house, she’s never left her house. Her dad says “if you ever go outside people will kill you”. As an audience, you don’t know if he’s telling the truth or not. You don’t know if there’s scary stuff outside or not.

Adam B. Stein: So we wanted to tell a sci-fi story from a little girl’s perspective to get the audience into that mindset. Then crazy stuff happens but it’s really hard to predict where the movie is going because it’s all from her perspective. Then thematically we definitely were inspired by political stuff going on and also stuff from our own family history to tell a story about what it’s like to be different in the world.

The Knockturnal: I think that effect really worked because I definitely I felt that claustrophobic feeling and that feeling like “wait what’s the ice cream truck here for? Can I trust him?”

Adam B. Stein: You can’t trust anybody. (laughing)

The Knockturnal: So obviously there are a lot of really cool powers in this movie. What was your favorite one to bring to life?

Zach Lipovsky: Well the film has an interesting take on the people with powers genre. We tried to approach it from a much more grounded, much more real, and much more character-driven perspective. People that have powers in our movie all their powers come from their character, what it is they want in the world. So if its someone who is a trickster, maybe they can disappear. If someone really wants to get outside and leave the world, they have the ability to bring the outside world to them. We tried to also make sure that even though this movie had a low budget we wanted it to feel really, really, big. So all of the visual effects, there’s over 200 visual effects in this movie, all had to feel like a camera had just captured them by accident. They all had to feel very real and very photographic. So we also tried to pick visual effects and abilities and powers that felt authentic and real and very photographic rather than big CG monsters and stuff because we couldn’t afford that.

The Knockturnal: Emile’s character is really the only one that has that graphic bubble.

Adam B. Stein: And for us that came from… he’s a dad and he wants to protect his daughter and put her in a bubble, keep her safe. So that was kind of how we approached the superpowers. What made sense for this character.

Zach Lipovsky: Luckily freezing time and turning invisible are very cheap visual effects.

Adam B. Stein: We also kind of wanted to go real with the sort of story of what would really happen in the world if people started to develop special abilities. They wouldn’t just go out and start saving strangers. We thought maybe superheroes wouldn’t even exist. It would be people trying to use these for their own gain and then what would be society’s response to that? Well, they would make that illegal.  And that kind of creates this cycle.

The Knockturnal: So there’s a lot of narratives that are run between two locations. How did y’all approach that narratively?

Zach Lipovsky: We really wanted to make a movie that we could make no matter what. That meant it would have to be made for a low budget, that we would have to have creative control of it. So it would have very few locations. But in writing it we tried to be very, very, clever about making sure it didn’t feel like one of those movies where you’re just trapped inside of one house and a few rooms. Even though a lot of the movie is in a few rooms we do a lot of very visual clever things to expand the scope of the movie.

Adam B. Stein: Make it feel bigger.

Zach Lipovsky: In some inventive fun kind of ways that I don’t think audiences have seen before.

Adam B. Stein: A lot of that came in the editing process. We had to build this sequence that tried to be more and more exciting and put people on the edge of their seat. We’re cutting between location. A lot of that was found through editing and testing. We showed it every weekend while we were editing to our friends. “We were like is this working? No? Okay it’s not working yet, back to the editing room.”

The Knockturnal: I think it was really cool.

Zach and Adam: Thank you.

Also check out “Freaks” when it hits theaters on Friday, September 13th!

Adam B. SteinFreaksZach Lipovsky
0 comments 0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Hershil Vora

previous post
Hanh Merriman Presents Spring/Summer 2020 Collection
next post
Exclusive: Amanda Crew, Lexi Kolker, and Bruce Dern Talk ‘Freaks’ [Video]

Related Posts

Taking Off: IDID’s I did it, KCON LA...

October 1, 2025

Dylan Efron Teams Up with Marriott Bonvoy to...

October 1, 2025

2025 Teen Vogue Summit Recap: Full of Fun,...

September 30, 2025

“Jay Kelly” — It’s a Hell of a...

September 29, 2025

San Sebastián Film Festival: A Review

September 29, 2025

Brother Magazine’s Style Kings NYFW Party: Celebrating Black...

September 28, 2025

Daniel Day-Lewis Talks Pushing Aside His Pride to...

September 27, 2025

P1Harmony Breaks Down ‘EX,’ Spanish Version, Dream Night...

September 27, 2025

Julia Roberts Jokes That Andrew Garfield is Her...

September 27, 2025

Hot Ones Celebrates Ten Years of Star Studded...

September 26, 2025

Digital Cover No. 19

The Knockturnal Merch

Follow Us On The Gram

theknockturnal

Lifestyle. Music. Entertainment.
Info@theknockturnal.com
New Cover Out Now ⬇️

✨ From powerful panels to unforgettable performa ✨ From powerful panels to unforgettable performances, the 2025 #TeenVogueSummit brought together voices shaping fashion, culture, and activism today. 💬🎶

🔗: https://theknockturnal.com/2025-teen-vogue-summit-recap-full-of-fun-fashion-and-connection/

✍️: Zipporah Pruitt

-
#TeenVogue #TeenVogueSummit2025 #TeenVogueEvents
#TeenVogueCommunity #TeenVogueStyle
Visit the @Complex x @Aepsa_official Pop-Up for ‘Rich Man’ in LA with The Knockturnal! ✨

From exclusive merch and photo cards to signatures and more — ~ 100% worth the visit 

⏰ Sept 16–17 | 11 AM – 7 PM PT
📍 433 N Fairfax Ave, Los Angeles

#Aespa #Complex #RichMan #KPopMerch #AespaInLA #KPopFans #Kpop #Karina #Giselle #Winter #NingNing
NYFW magic ✨ @aliceandolivia by Stacey Bendet tr NYFW magic ✨ @aliceandolivia by Stacey Bendet transformed the runway into a dazzling celebration of bold prints, playful silhouettes, and timeless style. From Surrogate’s Court to the city streets, the collection truly captured the spirit of the modern woman. 💄

🔗: https://theknockturnal.com/stars-stripes-and-alice-olivia-by-stacey-bendet/

✍️: ElizaBeth Taylor

-
#NYFW #AliceAndOlivia #StaceyBendet #RunwayStyle #FashionWeek
Some things are just a perfect match—milk & cook Some things are just a perfect match—milk & cookies, Oreos & a cold glass of milk… and @nickbarrotta on the red carpet celebrating 30 years of the iconic milk mustache. 🥛🍪

🔗: https://theknockturnal.com/got-milk-celebrates-30-years-with-stars-and-everyday-californians/

✍️&🎤: Ashley Lopez

-
#GotMilk30 #GotMilk #NickBarrotta #TylerPerrysTheOval #MilkMustache
On the red carpet, Stranger Things star @priahferg On the red carpet, Stranger Things star @priahferguson spoke with us at the @gotmilk 30th Anniversary Milk Mustache Celebration, where the campaign unveiled its bold new focus on everyday Californians as the real icons. 🥛✨

🔗: https://theknockturnal.com/got-milk-celebrates-30-years-with-stars-and-everyday-californians/

✍️&🎤: Ashley Lopez

-
#GotMilk30 #PriahFerguson #StrangerThings #MilkMustache #RedCarpet #GotMilk
First-time nominees dominated the 77th Emmys, turn First-time nominees dominated the 77th Emmys, turning the spotlight on breakout stars and fresh wins. 🎬🥇✨

Read about the rising talent redefining televisions biggest night.

🔗: https://theknockturnal.com/emmy-awards/

✍️: Danielle Biondi

-
#Emmys #Emmy #EmmyAwards #Emmys2025 #EmmyWinner #Film #AwardWinning #AwardSeason
We had the honor of celebrating VMAs weekend with We had the honor of celebrating VMAs weekend with @bacardi and @mtv! 💫
History met history last night 🗽🎬✨ The Ha History met history last night 🗽🎬✨

The Hamilton movie premiere transformed the Delacorte Theater into a stage of its own, as the original cast and creative team reunited to celebrate a story that changed Broadway forever. From the first note to the final bow, the revolution continues. 🎭📜

🔗: https://theknockturnal.com/under-the-stars-at-the-delacorte-theater-hamilton-premiere-original-cast-in-attendance/

✍️: Lauren Wire

-
#Hamilton #Broadway #HamiltonMovie #DelacorteTheater #LinManuelMiranda #BroadwayLegends #StageToScreen #MusicalTheater
✨ Disney magic meets coffee culture ☕🐭 @dis ✨ Disney magic meets coffee culture ☕🐭 @disneyfamily x @lalalandkindcafe are serving up the sweetest collab of the season — from Mickey drink sleeves to Munchlings surprises 🎁 Don’t miss it before it’s gone Sept. 16!

🔗: https://theknockturnal.com/mickey-friends-bring-whimsy-to-la-la-land-kind-cafe/

✍️: Ashley Lopez 

-
#Disney #LaLaLandKindCafe #DisneyCollab #DisneyMagic #CoffeeLovers #MickeyAndFriends #DisneyFoodies
From @iamcardib undeniable reign to @wutangclan ev From @iamcardib undeniable reign to @wutangclan everlasting impact, the 2025 Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Power Players Awards celebrated the artists and executives shaping the culture today. 🎤🎸💥

With honorees like @leonthomas and @gelo alongside hip-hop’s legends, the night was a reminder that the genre’s future is just as powerful as its past. 🤩

🔗: https://theknockturnal.com/cardi-b-leon-thomas-gelo-wu-tang-clan-more-honored-at-2025-billboard-rb-hip-hop-power-players-awards/

✍️: Nishat Baig

-
#Billboard #RnB #HipHop #PowerPlayers #CardiB #WuTangClan #LeonThomas #Gelo #RnBMusic #HipHopCulture #MusicAwards
PSA!!! We have another #knockgiveaway and this tim PSA!!! We have another #knockgiveaway and this time it’s for tickets to see LU KALA 💥

We’re giving away a pair of tickets to see her at Mercury Lounge in New York City on September 10th! Join us as we dance the night away to some of her top hits like Pretty Girl Era and Hotter Now 🎶

To enter hit the link 🔗 in our bio and fill out the form. Winners will be contacted through email! 

📍MUST BE IN NEW YORK CITY
🎶 From EXO standout to solo powerhouse, @zkdlin 🎶 From EXO standout to solo powerhouse, @zkdlin brought charisma, control, and creativity to every second of his Shrine set.

Kai On Tour gave fans in LA a front-row seat to his evolution as an artist, and it was nothing short of iconic. 👏

🔗: https://theknockturnal.com/kai-on/

✍️: Emma Salehi

-

#KaiOnTour #KAI #KAIatTheShrine #KpopInLA #EXO #KpopSoloist #KpopConcert #KAI2025 #ShrineLA
🗞️ Extra, extra! Go inside the newsroom with 🗞️ Extra, extra! Go inside the newsroom with “The Paper” — the sharp new workplace comedy making headlines. 🖋️ We sat down with the cast + creators in an exclusive video interview to talk inspiration, improv, and bringing chaos to the copy desk. 🎬✨

📺 Watch the full interview now 

🔗: https://theknockturnal.com/the-paper-puts-a-newsroom-spin-on-classic-workplace-comedy/

✍️: Alyssa Threadgill

-

#ThePaper #VideoInterview #WorkplaceComedy #BehindTheScenes #IndieTV #ComedySeries #CastInterview #OnSet #TVTalk #MakingTheShow #WritersRoom #BTS #NewSeries
🎥✨ Austin Butler and the cast of Caught Steal 🎥✨ Austin Butler and the cast of Caught Stealing open up about stepping into this gritty new story, the challenges on set, and why this film is unlike anything they’ve done before.

Catch our exclusive video interview now!

🔗: https://theknockturnal.com/austin-butler-cast-talk-new-movie-caught-stealing-video/

✍️: OJ Williams

-
#AustinButler #CaughtStealing #MovieInterview #ExclusiveInterview #FilmFeature #BehindTheScenes #Hollywood #OnSet #NewMovies #EditorialContent #CastInterview
Vegas was just crowned the No. 1 nightlife spot in Vegas was just crowned the No. 1 nightlife spot in the world. We put our detective skills to work at @resortsworldlv to see if it lives up to the hype 🎰 🪩🥂💃🕺

Read the full review on our website ✍️ 

#lasvegas #resortsworld #hilton #sliving #zoox #zouk #stubbornseed #alle #nightlife #vegas #elderbrook
When French comfort food, @marthastewart48 hospita When French comfort food, @marthastewart48 hospitality, and @parisvegas combine you get @thebedfordbymarthastewart 🇫🇷🤤 Our recent trip to the legendary homemaker’s restaurant in Las Vegas had us positively stuffed.

Read the full review on our website ✍️ 

#lasvegas #marthastewart #thebedfordbymarthastewart #parislasvegas #frenchfood
@zkdlin performs ‘Mhmm’ at his solo tour #KaiO @zkdlin performs ‘Mhmm’ at his solo tour #KaiOn in Los Angeles ✨

Full Concert Review Coming Soon… ✍️

#Kai #Kpop #KpopConcert #Exo
@zkdlin performs ‘Rover’ 🚗⚠️ at #KaiOn @zkdlin performs ‘Rover’ 🚗⚠️ at #KaiOn in Los Angeles ✨ 

Full Concert Review Coming Soon… ✍️

#Kai #Kpop #KpopConcert #Exo
A @weareone.exo throwback from @zkdlin at his firs A @weareone.exo throwback from @zkdlin at his first ever solo tour, #KaiOn 🐺✨ This is ‘Growl’ 

Full Concert Review Coming Soon… ✍️

#Kai #Kpop #KpopConcert #Exo
🎶 Meet @hitgs_offcl — the K-Pop girl group ma 🎶 Meet @hitgs_offcl — the K-Pop girl group making waves at KCON 2025. In our exclusive, they open up about growth, music, and their U.S. debut story.

🔗: https://theknockturnal.com/hitgs/

✍️: Emma Salehi

-
#HITGS #KCON2025 #KPopGroup #RisingStars #KPopOnStage #KPopInTheUS #GlobalStage #KPopExclusive #MusicAndCulture #NextGenKPop
Follow on Instagram

About The Site

We are a collective of creative tastemakers made up of fashion, music and entertainment industry insiders. It’s all about access. You want it. We have it.

Terms Of Use

Privacy Policy

Meet The Team

CONTACT US

For general inquiries and more info on The Knockturnal, please contact our staff at:
info@theknockturnal.com
fashion@theknockturnal.com
advertising@theknockturnal.com
editorial@theknockturnal.com
beauty@theknockturnal.com

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin
  • Youtube

© Copyright - The Knockturnal | Developed by CI Design + Media

The Knockturnal
  • Home
  • Entertainment
  • Music
  • Lifestyle
  • News
  • Videos
  • Covers
  • Merch