Sex and death are essential parts of human existence, yet somehow, we still struggle to confront them openly. For writer/director Christopher Winterbauer, that fear and angst became the source material for his graduate thesis film, and today’s Staff Pick Premiere, “Wyrm.”
Set in a retro-futuristic version of the mid ‘90s, Wyrm is a socially awkward teen battling loneliness, puberty, and the loaded expectations of society. In this world, school districts monitor students’ emotional and sexual development through remote collars as part of a program called “No Child Left Alone.” The last in his grade to lock lips with a lover, Wyrm has six days to complete the task, or he’ll be placed in the remedial learning program.
All of this is backgrounded by the death of Wyrm’s older brother, a thing no one in his family can seem to face, and the dawn of the internet age, which also proves difficult to grasp. These items play pivotal roles in setting the atmosphere of confusion and oddity within the film.
Despite its heavy themes, the film plays as a delightful, offbeat comedy that looks back on those awkward adolescent moments as a necessary and hilarious part of human experience. In honor of today’s premiere, I got in touch with director Christopher Winterbauer to ask about the film. Here’s what he had to say.
Where did the idea for “Wyrm” come from? Is this coming-of-age story based on any of your own emotional and sexual developmental experiences?
When I was 15 or so, I remember inadvertently revealing to a young woman (who I may or may not have had affections toward) that I had not yet performed my first kiss. She teased me (good naturedly) and, of course, stoked in me a deep, deep fear that I was light years behind my cohort. I felt as though there was some sort of indicator hung around my neck by which people would know I had fallen behind.
Midway through grad school, I found myself at an impasse trying to write a thesis film script. My ideas were ridiculously self-serious and silly. I thought back on this event and decided that it could be fun to explore that feeling of public shame through a program designed to help kids keep up (which would, of course, backfire). I wrote a few drafts and finally landed on the idea that the actual kiss was secondary and ultimately unimportant in relation to the family struggling to deal with the trauma of Dylan’s death.
Is the concept of “No Child Left Alone” a prequel to Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Lobster?
The Lobster was definitely an inspiration, but if Wyrm were to exist in a shared universe with said film, I’d worry we’d be The Phantom Menace to The Lobster’s Empire Strikes Back.
The characters in your film are innocent and sheltered. Do you think the internet has taken some of that away?
I said more horrifying, horrible things between ages 10-16 than in any other span of my life. It’s a period of time where you’re auditioning things previously unavailable to you, seeing how they fit. The one thing that makes me nervous is that while finding online communities can be important and necessary forms of socialization for people, it can also facilitate fringe behavior at a young age, and normalize it in an arena outside the purview of folks who may be able to help.
The film’s retro-future alternate reality is so well developed — from the remote monitoring collars to the set design and Dennis Miller jokes. What made you choose this time period?
The setting was 50 percent an aesthetic and story choice and 50 percent budget related. Making a science fiction movie is really challenging because you’re ultimately guessing where we’re headed technologically, and you’re going to guess wrong 99 percent of the time.
Retro-futurism is a great way to avoid that take — you’re presenting an alternate timeline/reality wherein you get to make the rules. The collar was my idea, but the rest of the credit goes to Maren Jensen, our incredible production designer. She spent weeks driving to every thrift store and prop house making this look work. Also, the Dennis Miller joke was ad-libbed by Davey Johnson on set — it was the only non scripted line, so I don’t get credit for that, either. Could you ask me about something I was responsible for? Jeez.
Trauma plays an interesting role in “Wyrm.” What meaning did you want Dylan’s death to play, not just for Wyrm, but for his parents and their interaction with the kids?
I come from a family that, like many families, has a really difficult time speaking about sex and death. We’re very close, but those two subjects are… challenging. I wanted to make a short that spoke to that challenge in the most awkward, direct way possible. I wanted part of Wyrm’s feeling left behind to be tied to the idea that his sister is moving forward and he isn’t; then when he tries to move forward, his father tells him he needs to leave things be for just a bit longer. I wanted to take the absent parents from Stand By Me and dial it up to 11, basically.
Your characters’ dialogue is stylized but direct. They say exactly what they mean, for better or worse. Can you talk about the scripting process?
I did something similar for “Break Down,” which is another short I shot with Davey Johnson. I think it can work well in short form, but it’s really challenging to sustain. It was appropriate for these two stories because both seemingly exist outside of our reality, but it can get in the way of genuine emotion unless your audience is completely bought in.
I’d like to add that this style really only works with amazing music to drive the emotion home. Our composer David Boman really knocked it out of the park creating something strange and satisfying with the score that felt cohesive to our fabricated setting and cinematic at the same time.
What are you working on now?
We just wrapped post on a feature expansion of “Wyrm,” so depending on how the sales process goes, I hope you all get a chance to see that in the near future. Now I’m working on a new script (think Harriet the Spy meets Fargo), and trying to get a narrative podcast off the ground (it’s a supernatural comedy — a genre in high demand, I hear). Also, my wife and I recently adopted a cat who just learned to play fetch.
