‘Grimcutty’ Cast and Director Talk ‘Screen Time Horror’ in Hulu’s New Monster Movie (Exclusive)

Hulu recently debuted a brand monster movie, Grimcutty, which follows a small-town panic over an online monster. The film was written and directed by John William Ross, and stars Sara Wolfkind as Asha Chaudhry, a teenager desperate to show her parents Amir and Leah— played by Usman Ally and Shannyn Sossamon, respectively — that the meme creature Grimcutty is real, and that taking her phone away isn’t the defense they hope it to be. PopCulture.com had a chance to speak with Ross, Wolfkind, and Ally, and we asked them about working on the project, as well as the film’s approach to modern “Satanic Panic.”

“I feel like everybody is just struggling with screen time [and] trying to put the phone down,” Ross said when posed with the idea that Grimcutty might be paving the way for “screen time horror,” a whole new sub-genre. “And these things, we feel like they’re sucking our attention. I mean that it is this thing that we can’t escape from just, I mean, the horror aspect of it just kind of writes itself. So I think that’s a really good way to describe the movie.” He also implied that the “satanic panic” elements of Grimcutty were intentional. “I feel like every generation has that thing that parents are freaking out about, that kids are just kind of like, ‘What? Seriously?’”

He continued, “I mean in the ’80s: Satanic panic. The ’90s was rap music…And nowadays it’s like, ‘Oh, phones. Phones are turning our kids’ minds into mush.’ And I think all this stuff should inspire more discussion, not like dogmatic behavior, to deal with it.”

Capturing the crucial dynamics of a story like Grimcutty can be challenging, but Wolfkind praised Ross’ direction, saying, “I feel like John set the vibes on the set really well, and I think we just played with what we had. And I think a lot of the tone came together at the end.” She added of his unique screenplay, “And the way the script was written, when I was reading it, I don’t think I thought of anything else.”

Sharing how the actors approached the film, Ally explained, “It’s hard to play genre or play tone or type as an actor. Those aren’t playable things, you know what I mean? What’s playable is like an action, or what’s playable is a desire and what do you want and those sorts of things. And so I think what’s really was beneficial is that we all just, as a cast, focused on that what is the playable thing happening in this scene? And I think it really lends itself to the movie because it creates an element of realism within this world of here’s this creature that’s chasing down our daughter and the paranoia and all this sort of stuff.”

On a more personal note, regarding his specific character, Ally added, “And similarly, that sort of exasperated dad stuff. It’s in the script. I mean, it’s right there. Do you know what I mean? So as long as you can honestly find the reason for feeling that way, why is he feeling so exasperated? Well, he feels disconnected from his kids. He wishes they weren’t on their phones all the time. And now that thing that he’s been so worried about, this phone, is actually making his daughter cut herself and attack people.”

Ally continued, “And it’s a slow dissent, in some ways, maybe a rapid dissent for him, but that’s where that exasperation comes from. So I really feel like John does a great job of putting that in the script for the actors to find. It’s almost like a treasure hunt for you when you’re an actor. You look for these things. You find them there so that you can play them.” Grimcutty is now streaming, only on Hulu.