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In this episode of Pop Culture Weekly, we're diving into
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creature features, killer snakes, Amazon horror, and talking with the
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cast and creative team.
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Behind Beware Buena. Let's go!
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Welcome to Pop Culture Weekly with Kyle McMahon, your pop
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culture news, views, reviews, and celebrity interviews on all the movies, TV, music,
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and pop culture you crave weekly. Here's Kyle McMahon.
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What's up, degenerates?
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Welcome to Pop Culture Weekly, the show where we take
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pop culture very seriously, even when the pop culture in
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question is a gigantic Amazonian snake trying to eat everyone. I,
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of course, am Kyle McMahon, and today we are talking
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about one of my favorite corners of horror, creature features.
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Give me King Kong. Give me Jaws. Give me Lake Placid.
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Give me a gigantic animal that has decided humanity's had
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a pretty good run, and it's, you know, officially time
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to wrap that shit up.
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I am there.
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And when I was a kid, one movie in particular
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had me completely obsessed with creature features, and that is Anaconda.
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Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, John.
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Voight making some truly incredible acting decisions in A documentary
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crew floating through the Amazon while a gigantic snake picks
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them off.
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I friggin' loved that movie. I still do, to be honest.
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But the creature features that really work, they understand something important.
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The creature itself can't carry the entire movie. You have
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to care about the people that it's chasing. Otherwise, I'm
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just watching some creature's expensive lunch. And that is what
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immediately grabbed me about the new film Beware Buena. It
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is a new R-rated creature feature from director Mike P.
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Nelson.
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It stars Kiana Madera, Jessica Roth, and Logan Marshall Green.
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And yes, there is an enormous snake in it. A very,
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very enormous snake. But the film actually gives a crap.
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about its characters.
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It really does.
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So before we get into my conversations with Kiana, Jessica,
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and Mike, I need to talk about the snake because
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I went into this movie knowing absolutely nothing about Buena.
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Turns out they did not just invent a giant murder
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snake and give her.
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A cool name.
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Buena, also known as Cobra Grande or the Great Snake,
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it actually comes from Amazonian folklore in Brazil. There are
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different versions of the legend, but Brazil's National Center for
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Folklore and Popular Culture describes the Cobra Grande as a
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mythical being of the Amazon that lives in the deepest
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parts of the river. Its eyes are said to shine
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like torches, frightening fishermen, and the grooves left behind it
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as it moves across the land become streams, which is
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already enough for me.
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If I'm on a river at night anyway, what the F?
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If I'm on a river at night and two gigantic
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glowing eyes suddenly appear in the water, I don't need
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additional lore and backstory.
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I've received the message. I am leaving.
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And learning that after seeing Beware Buena made the creature
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even cooler to me because the movie's taking something that
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already has a life in Amazonian folklore and And it's
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turning it into the foundation for this big R-rated creature feature.
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And Hollywood does have a bit of history with giant snakes. Obviously,
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there's Anaconda. And Anaconda understood something that, beware, Buena. understands too.
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If you're going to put a gigantic snake in a movie,
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putting it in the Amazon is a pretty damn good idea.
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You can't see very far in front of you, right?
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Everything is alive. Everything's making noise. The weather hates you.
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The terrain hates you. Your phone is basically an expensive
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camera with no service. And then something moves in the water. And, oh,
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what's cool, beware, Buena really was shot. in the Colombian Amazon.
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I had a suspicion watching it because this did not
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look like, you know, West Dublinson County Park, Indiana, that's
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standing in for the Amazon.
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There's really a tactile kind of quality to the whole thing.
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And that extends to Bowen herself. The movie combines visual
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effects with practical techniques.
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You know, I love my practical effects.
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And they used both of them during production to give
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actors something physical to respond to and help sell the
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idea that something absolutely enormous is moving through this environment.
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And you know me. Practical effects are catnip for me.
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But at the end of the day, none of that
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matters if I don't give a damn about the characters.
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Which brings me to Kiana Madera and Jessica Roth. Kiana
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plays Lena while Jessica plays Allie. a doctor who arrives
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here believing that she can help. And if you're a
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horror fan, these two already have some pretty serious genre credentials.
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Kiana starred in Netflix's Fear Street trilogy, which is amazing,
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and Jessica survived being murdered over and over and over
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again in Happy Death Day. I talked with them about
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Lena and Allie and discovering things about their characters during
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filming becoming action stars and what it was like actually
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making this thing in the Amazon.
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Ready? Here they are.
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Kiana Madera and Jessica Ruff. I love the film. Congratulations
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on it. It's really, I love a great creature feature
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and this is really well done.
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Thank you.
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Of course. So this is for both of you.
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Kiana, Lena, you know, kind of wants nothing to do
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with this place anymore, right? And Jessica, Allie arrives kind
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of believing that there's a chance for her to save it.
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What do you think that each woman sees in the
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other that she actually needs?
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That's a great question.
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That is an amazing question.
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We've been talking a bit about this discovery of needing
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each other, like you said, that wasn't necessarily obvious on
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the page, that really came to life after Jess and
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I met each other and we dove into our characters
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and actually started filming. I think, like you said, Lena
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comes in, guards up, heart closed. I'm here on a mission.
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I just want to find my brother and get out
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of here. I'm not trying to make friends. And Allie
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is so earnest in the way Jess plays her so
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earnest and genuine and curious and like heart wide open,
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like quite the opposite of Lena that I think that's
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what she, what Lena needs is like, um, a little softening.
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And I think like, As an actor working alongside Jess,
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it was impossible to keep my guards up as Lena
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throughout the process. Just in the dynamic that we discovered,
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I feel like Lena definitely softened up and her heart
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was opened. Because of that, I genuinely think that throughout
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the film, Lena was able to continue on and fight
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for herself in a way that was with her heart open.
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And not so guarded.
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There's a version of this story where Lena's like, you
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know what, I'm leaving and I'll figure out finding my
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brother in a different scenario. But I think Ali really
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equips Lena with the bravery and the fearlessness and the
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openheartedness that she needs.
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Oh, that's so nice. I mean, I think for me,
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Ali is, like Kiana said so beautifully, wears her heart
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on her sleeve. And it's just trying to make a
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difference and trying to show up. And then she meets
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this mysterious, strong, brave, courageous, badass woman who's like fixing
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engines and doing all of these like tactile kind of
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more traditionally masculine things. And I think that for Ali,
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it's such an incredible moment in her life where she's
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really challenging all of the things that she believed about
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herself and about who she could be growing up. And
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I think that Nina is such a beautiful example of
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There's so many ways in this world to be brave
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and to be courageous and to help people. And I
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think that Ali's perception and idea of who she is
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and who she can be just expands throughout the entire film.
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And so much of that was to do with Kiana's
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beautiful performance and the relationship that we came together with.
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And I think that Leanna helps Ali realize she's braver
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than she thinks she is and that she can do
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more than she thinks she does. And she's incredibly capable.
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And then the other thing I've loved talking about, which
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was a surprise for me, Jessica, as the actor, as
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we were shooting this, I was like, oh. And also,
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maybe Ali has, like, a crush on Lena. And I
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don't think Ali knows that she's queer yet. But, like,
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maybe this is her, like, sexual coming-of-age story. Like, there's
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just something happening here that is deeper even than thisâ deep,
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deep respect and kind of like fascination. And that was
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a really fun layer to discover. Um, and again, I
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think it was such a testament to Kiana and the
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brilliant performance she was giving that I just, the whole
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time I was like, well, are you, is she going
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to look at me?
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Like, like, how do I look?
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Oh my God.
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I feel nervous around this person. It was cool.
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Like seeing that come to life.
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I remember like when they.
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Said cut, we would be like, Oh, so cool.
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We actually coined a song called Allie and Lena Best
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Friends Forever that was just like playing on repeat in
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Allie's head. She would have gone full Thelma and Louise
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with this relationship.
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Like get in a car.
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Let's drive away.
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I love that.
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And both of you, you've survived enough horror movies at
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this point that I feel like you've earned a doctorate
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in like terrible situations. But what does a big, you know,
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kind of thoughtful, I would say, creature feature like this?
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Because it's really, you know, it's not just like.
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It really has a story that has meaning and depth.
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And what does a film like this let you do
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as an actor that, say, Happy Death Day or Fear
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Street didn't?
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Like, what, you know, what has that allowed you to
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do as an actor?
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I think for me, like, there were some moments where
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I was like, I'm an.
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Action star now. Like, this is like.
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My, like, I... There were some stunts involved in Fear Street,
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but this kind of took it to another level. And
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I think, like, this movie's so brilliant because, like, there
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are times where it does feel like an action thriller
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and a horror.
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And a drama.
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Like, checks in big boxes in that way. So that
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was new for me, like. It's not just a horror film,
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which was really, really cool. I learned that I love
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action and would love to continue doing films like that
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as well. So this film definitely taught me that about myself.
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I think for me, it's funny because... I try to
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bring full commitment to everything I do, whether I want
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to or not. I think I do. And that, I
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feel like, is some of the special sauce for horror films,
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whether it's something like Happy Death Day or Fear Street
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or Beware Boy Una, is just full commitment to, in
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some ways, the bit. Like the bit of the horror,
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the bit of the stakes, the bit.
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Of the jokes.
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Yeah.
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And I guess this one for me was different than
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Happy Death Day. I mean, Happy Death Day, we shot
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on location in the university, but there was a lot
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of set work. And this we shot entirely on location
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in the Amazon rainforest. And that was such an amazing
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gift that Mike P. Nelson and our incredible producers gave
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us because everything was real. Everything was tactile. The sweat
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you see, the dirt, the mud, the water, luckily not
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the blood.
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But like it's all real.
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So real.
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And it helped us create such nuanced performances. Um, and man, yeah,
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just getting to, getting to get out there in nature
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and experience. This was such a huge gift and one
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that I would love to continue doing throughout my career
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is just as many times as possible, get into the
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real place as long as it's safe.
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Yes.
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Yeah.
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I love that. I love the film. You guys are amazing.
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Thank you so much. And I can't wait for everybody
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to see this.
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Great. Thank you so much, Kyle.
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Have a good day.
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You too.
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Okay.
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I love Jessica realizing that they were filming when they
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were filming that Allie might have a crush on Lena.
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Like what?
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I did not read it that way when I watched
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the movie, but like moment that she said it.
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I went, oh, now I see it. And then Kiana
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having that moment of realizing, wait, am I an action
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star now? Yes. Yes, Kiana, you are.
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And that is what I mean when I say, you know,
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this film gives you more than a snake.
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It's a horror. It's action. It's survival thriller energy. And actually,
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character work is happening underneath all of it. And then
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you have director Mike P.
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Nelson, who has made The Domestics, Wrong Turn, and Silent Night,
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Deadly Night. We're going to talk to him in a moment.
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We're going to take a quick break to pay the bills.
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But when we come back, director Mike P. Nelson tells
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me why, despite making a movie about gigantic killer snakes,
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he never actually wanted to make a giant snake movie. So, yeah,
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we're going to unpack that. I'll see you right here
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in 60 seconds.
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Music.
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All right, welcome back, and thank you for supporting our
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sponsors who allow me to keep bringing you Pop Culture
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Weekly each and every week.
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Now, about that giant snake, right? Here he is. It
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is Mike P. Nelson. So, first of all, congratulations on
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the film.
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Thank you so much.
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I absolutely love it. I love a good creature feature,
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and I love that it's R-rated as well.
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Yeah, dude, it had to be like that was a
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discussion from very early on.
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I was like, I think this this has got to
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be rated R. Like, you know, even though we're not
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like we're not going like full on, like like crazy
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is like we need to make the people feel.
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Like there's some real danger here.
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So and what you know, you what drew you to that?
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Was it that part of it?
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I mean, to a certain extent, yes.
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I remember going into this being like, if I'm going
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to do a giant snake movie, first of all, it's
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got to have some great characters. It's got to have
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a lot of heart. But second of all, I don't
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want it to be tongue-in-cheek. I don't want it to
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be a joke of itself. I kind of want to
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try to do something straight, if that makes sense. And
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something that really is scary and dangerous... And it.
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Hurts at times.
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And, you know, I feel like that was what we
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all set out to do. I think all the actors
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knew that. All the producers knew that. And so we
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went in and we just tried not to hold back.
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And that's where you get it. That's where you get
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Beware Boyuna. It's unrelated.
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So you had said something about this movie that kind
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of had jumped out at me where you weren't interested
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in making a giant snake movie, but you were interested
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in making like a great story that happened to have
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this giant snake in it. Like, so once you kind
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of made that decision, what was the first idea where
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you kind of went like, all right, this is what
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my version is.
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You know what I'm saying? Yeah.
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You know, I think it was finding our backdrop, which, again, was,
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I mean, the Amazon is a huge character in this.
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And it was figuring out that we had to drop
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the audience in a place that was already, there was
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already things happening.
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And that, you.
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Know, is the gold mining epidemic that's going on down there,
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which is a very real thing. And it's running rampant
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even right now. Um, and so starting in a real
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world scenario that has really nothing to do with a
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giant snake and, and seeing people, you know, that are,
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that are butting heads, showing the conflict right off the bat.
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Um, and then putting our care, throwing our characters right
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00:17:39.250 --> 00:17:42.170
in the middle of that. Um, so immediately you're like, okay,
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something's awesome. Things dangerous.
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00:17:43.990 --> 00:17:47.839
You know, what is going to happen to our characters? Um, obviously,
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you know, that you're going into a giant snake movie. So,
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00:17:49.740 --> 00:17:51.559
you know, that that's also going to come up at
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00:17:51.619 --> 00:17:52.140
some point.
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00:17:52.180 --> 00:17:53.180
So you're just kind of waiting.
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00:17:53.990 --> 00:17:56.650
Oh my God, when is this going to reveal itself?
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00:17:57.170 --> 00:17:59.630
And that was a huge part of it was when
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00:18:00.410 --> 00:18:04.359
is our snake going to come and make things even
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harder for this group of characters? It was really allowing
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00:18:09.519 --> 00:18:15.250
there to be time to spend with these people. So
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when shit hits the fan, it's bad. Um, and you
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are really scared for these people in this situation. Um,
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and so, yeah, that was, that was kind of, those
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00:18:26.990 --> 00:18:28.769
are the bones of it. Like it had to be,
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00:18:28.890 --> 00:18:31.109
those are the things that had to be there. You
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00:18:31.150 --> 00:18:32.490
had to kind of fall in love with these people
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and they had to be people who are broken, who
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are trying to find themselves in the midst of this,
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because really at the core of all of this, it's like,
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00:18:40.500 --> 00:18:43.859
where do I belong? And the, and, and Boyun is saying,
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00:18:44.160 --> 00:18:47.589
you don't belong here. Or I decide if you belong here.
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00:18:47.609 --> 00:18:48.529
We'll leave it at that.
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00:18:49.289 --> 00:18:49.609
Right.
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00:18:50.710 --> 00:18:55.390
So, you know, with your career, which I have loved following,
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00:18:56.259 --> 00:18:57.119
you know, I've kind of.
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00:18:59.220 --> 00:19:00.920
You've done some slashers.
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00:19:00.960 --> 00:19:04.039
You've done survival horror, now like a big giant creature
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00:19:04.099 --> 00:19:08.319
feature movie. Is there a corner of horror that you
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00:19:08.339 --> 00:19:11.779
look at and you're like, I haven't dipped my toes
348
00:19:11.839 --> 00:19:12.779
into that yet.
349
00:19:12.960 --> 00:19:18.349
Like, what's kind of... what is that on your, you know, wishlist?
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00:19:19.410 --> 00:19:20.309
Oh my God.
351
00:19:20.789 --> 00:19:25.529
Um, that's a great question. Oh, okay. Well, I would
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love to do vehicular horror.
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00:19:30.130 --> 00:19:32.190
Okay. Like a Christine style.
354
00:19:32.869 --> 00:19:34.450
Oh my God. Like, give me, give me a, give
355
00:19:34.470 --> 00:19:39.250
me a fricking giant truck race with the devil.
356
00:19:39.309 --> 00:19:42.339
Give me, give me something in which it's just, how do,
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00:19:42.759 --> 00:19:45.910
how would I make, a horror car chase movie. Like
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that to me is like dream, dream scenario.
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I love the film and I can't wait for everybody
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to see it and so you know we can start
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00:19:59.500 --> 00:20:02.559
I can start talking about it to people oh.
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00:20:02.420 --> 00:20:04.819
My gosh I can't wait for the world to see this.
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00:20:04.779 --> 00:20:07.980
One yeah it's so awesome thank you so much I
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00:20:08.019 --> 00:20:10.079
really appreciate it Mike All right.
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00:20:10.099 --> 00:20:10.559
Thanks, Kyle.
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Have a good one. Mike P. Nelson.
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That right there is the creature feature sweet spot for me.
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00:20:22.279 --> 00:20:24.740
Mike didn't want to make a giant snake movie. He
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00:20:24.789 --> 00:20:27.210
wanted to make a great story that happened to have
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00:20:27.230 --> 00:20:29.829
a giant snake in it. Of course, you know, I
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00:20:29.869 --> 00:20:32.529
want the monster. I want the reveal, the attacks. I
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00:20:32.549 --> 00:20:35.940
want great effects. I want to sit there thinking, oh,
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absolutely the fuck not. Every time something enormous moves in
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the background. But you have to give that creature something
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worth threatening. And beware, Buena does. I care about Lena.
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00:20:50.369 --> 00:20:53.349
I care about Ali. I care about what happens to
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these people, you know. So when Buena enters their orbit,
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00:20:57.460 --> 00:21:00.859
there are actual stakes to all of it. The creature
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00:21:00.940 --> 00:21:04.779
is fantastic. I love the practical work. The mythology gives
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00:21:04.819 --> 00:21:08.039
it a different flavor from, you know, any other generic
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oversized animal movie. And the Amazon is both gorgeous.
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And threatening at the same time.
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So it's suspenseful, thrilling and intense without me needing to
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spoil a damn thing for you, because I will not ever.
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00:21:22.289 --> 00:21:26.299
You know that you are safe here. Beware, Buena is
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00:21:26.440 --> 00:21:26.960
out now.
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And if you love creature features, this is absolutely one
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00:21:30.359 --> 00:21:34.690
to have on your radar. But we cannot leave without
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00:21:34.710 --> 00:21:39.069
addressing the other extremely important revelation from my convo with Mike.
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00:21:39.650 --> 00:21:42.890
This man wants to make a vehicular horror movie involving
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00:21:43.009 --> 00:21:46.869
a giant truck. So, Hollywood, I'm asking you nicely. Give
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00:21:46.890 --> 00:21:49.470
this man his fucking truck. I've seen what he can
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00:21:49.490 --> 00:21:52.410
do with a giant snake. Give him the keys. All right,
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00:21:52.430 --> 00:21:55.769
huge thanks to Kiana Madera, Jessica Roth, and Mike P.
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00:21:55.809 --> 00:21:58.319
Nelson for hanging out with me. Make sure you're following
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00:21:58.359 --> 00:22:01.920
Pop Culture Weekly wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe on
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00:22:01.980 --> 00:22:06.859
YouTube and head over to popcultureweekly.com for even more movies, TV, horror,
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00:22:06.880 --> 00:22:09.980
and everything else that we can't stop talking about. And remember,
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00:22:10.480 --> 00:22:13.180
if you see two giant glowing eyes staring at you
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00:22:13.259 --> 00:22:18.609
from the Amazon River, don't panic. There's a perfectly reasonable explanation.
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00:22:18.630 --> 00:22:22.849
You're probably at West Dublinson County Park in Indiana.
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00:22:23.349 --> 00:22:26.569
All right. See you next week. I love you. We out.
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00:22:26.630 --> 00:22:29.750
Thank you for listening to Pop Culture Weekly. Hear all
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00:22:29.769 --> 00:22:32.609
the latest at popcultureweekly.com.
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00:22:35.440 --> 00:22:40.000
I'm a sneaky snake. I'm a sneaky snake. Yes, yes, yes.
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00:22:40.680 --> 00:22:41.720
I'm a sneaky snake.
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