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Kevin Bacon Reveals Why He Keeps Coming Back to Horror

During an interview with ComingSoon, They/Them star Kevin Bacon discussed his history with horror films and why the genre is so exciting for him.

RELATED: They/Them Interview: Kevin Bacon & Carrie Preston Discuss Unique Slasher

When asked about his long relationship with the horror genre and They/Them, Bacon talked about the unique setting and high stakes:

I love horror because horror has very, very high stakes. It’s life and death, and that’s good stuff to act,” Bacon said. “John could have made a movie that was about gay conversion. It could have been a dark little indie sort of drama, but to his credit, he realized that horror is a genre that has the possibility of reaching a lot of people. We see that all the time when things come out of the gate and have a very widespread appeal. So to take this background, this terrible idea, this horror in itself of gay conversion, and then plug it into a very traditional structure, for us — a 70s camp slasher movie — was, I thought, a super brilliant idea.”

Bacon also spoke more specifically about his character from They/Them, the charmingly menacing Owen Whistler:

“To his [John Logan, director of They/Them] credit, he wrote a guy that was not a cookie cutter, crew cut, flag-wearing, right-wing or religious nut, you know? He wanted to soften the edges of this character and make him a little bit more of a Dead fan or something and make him feel as reasonable as possible,” Bacon explained. “I think that when you set that up, then there’s room to really shock people in a way that happens later on in the film, obviously.”

RELATED: Interview: They/Them Director John Logan Talks Queer Horror & P!nk

“Kevin Bacon plays Owen Whistler in this slasher horror film set at an LGBTQIA+ conversion camp,” says the synopsis. “Several queer and trans campers join Whistler for a week of programming intended to “help them find a new sense of freedom”. As the camp’s methods become increasingly more psychologically unsettling, the campers must work together to protect themselves. When a mysterious killer starts claiming victims, things get even more dangerous.”

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