Earlier this week, in our interview with Castille Landon (After We Fell, After Ever Happy), the actress/writer/director explained how a great deal of negative and inaccurate stereotyping of mental illnesses on the big and small screen had inspired her to turn said tropes on their head. Rejecting clichéd platitudes in which people with severe mental disorders are treated as being “dangerous villains and people unworthy of love,” Landon came up with her latest project, Fear of Rain; a harrowing and intimate film based almost exclusively on first-person accounts of people living with schizophrenia.
The film highlights teenager Rain Burroughs’ (Madison Iseman) constant battle with herself – never sure what’s actually real, and what’s the result of her illness. When Rain insists, against her parents’ (Katherine Heigl and Harry Connick, Jr.) advice, that the cries she’s being hearing coming from her neighbour’s attic are hiding a terrifying secret, she enlists the help of Caleb (Israel Broussard), a charmingly awkward new boy at school – although she also has her doubts as to whether or not even he exists.
With Fear of Rain releasing on Digital, On Demand and receiving a limited theatrical release this Friday, February 12, SCREAM sat down with Iseman and Broussard who explained how the family drama and horror elements of the film complemented each other so well when it came to shaping such an intimate and demystifying portrayal of schizophrenia.
Words: Howard Gorman
