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Welcome to Kicking the Seat!

Ian Simmons launched Kicking the Seat in 2009, one week after seeing Nora Ephron’s Julie & Julia. His wife proposed blogging as a healthier outlet for his anger than red-faced, twenty-minute tirades (Ian is no longer allowed to drive home from the movies).

The Kicking the Seat Podcast followed three years later and, despite its “undiscovered gem” status, Ian thoroughly enjoys hosting film critic discussions, creating themed shows, and interviewing such luminaries as Gaspar Noé, Rachel Brosnahan, Amy Seimetz, and Richard Dreyfuss.

Ian is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association. He also has a family, a day job, and conflicted feelings about referring to himself in the third person.

Ep767: Something in the Water: An Interview with SO COLD THE RIVER Filmmakers Paul Shoulberg and Claire Tuft

Ep767: Something in the Water: An Interview with SO COLD THE RIVER Filmmakers Paul Shoulberg and Claire Tuft

Ian Simmons

Ian talks with writer/director Paul Shoulberg and producer Claire Tuft about their new horror film, So Cold the River!

Based on Michael Koryta's novel, the movie follows down-on-her-luck documentary filmmaker Erica Shaw (Bethany Joy Lenz) as she visits an old Indiana hotel in search of stories for her latest gig. There, she discovers secrets about the people of West Baden's troubled relationship with her subject, and begins to fall prey to a malevolent supernatural force. At the center of it all is a local legend involving the town's river and the mysteries that travel its currents.

Shoulberg and Tuft discuss the challenges in adapting a 500+ page book into a ninety-minute film; how setting an attitude and an aesthetic for a movie can lead to creative surprises, and why it was important to shoot in the location that Koryta wrote about instead of relying heavily on sets.

Show Links:

  • Watch the So Cold the River trailer.

  • Rent/own So Cold the River on Amazon.

  • Buy the book that inspired the film! Michael Koryta's So Cold the River is available on Amazon.

  • Subscribe to, like, and comment on the Kicking the Seat YouTube channel!

Ep768: DR. STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS (2022) - Round Table Review

Ep768: DR. STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS (2022) - Round Table Review
Ep766: There's No Stalgia Like Nostalgia: MOTHER (1996)

Ep766: There's No Stalgia Like Nostalgia: MOTHER (1996)