After three powerful episodes of Disruptive Film’s “Honeyguide,” the fourth and final installment will be released on September 27, 2024. The scene, titled “Clean Slate” proves that Alaric Spence (Hoss Kado) is the master of the long game. Years after he began his chess game, he has a serendipitous encounter with Kelly Dunham (Ian Holms). Their “chance” meeting sets in motion the final chapter of Alaric’s meticulously laid plans.
“I think Kelly’s relationship with Alaric was twisted from the start, which represented the capstone of the twisted way he was living his life: in the closet with his wife and in competition with his sons,” Holms explains. “However, I think in some ways he had a more gratifying ending than the others. He got to live freely in the end, in love and in lust, and happily delusional about the cause of it all, which killed him in the end!”
Co-director Siouxsie Q is proud of how the film’s darker themes are grounded through its symbolic storytelling. “Using the symbolism of the honeyguide bird species to underscore the brutality within the film ironically also allowed us to tap into a certain amount of compassion for the movie’s antihero, played by Hoss Kado. At the end of the day, humans, like all animals, will do what they deem necessary to survive. Though the majority of what Kado’s character does is nothing short of deplorable, it’s still difficult not to find oneself rooting for him to a certain degree, due to the level of intimacy and access the viewer is given to his innermost thoughts. By the end of the film, it almost feels like Kado’s character is no more evil than a lion that takes down a gazelle or, more specifically, a parasitic bird devouring the brood of its host. Humans are inexorably linked to the barbaric and ruthless place that we know as the natural world, which makes it hard to see anyone as hero or villain, rather than simply predator and prey.”“The realest fears stem from situations that could actually come true. Something that is SO close to possibly happening that your body has a visceral reaction when you see the protagonist encounter the villain,” Co-director Michael Vegas adds. “Ensuring that our villain remained human at the beginning of the movie is what allowed him to get closer to his victims. Seeing someone so meek that would regularly be ignored do a full invasion is something we wanted to lean into, to help create a real fear of this character.”
Co-director Jessica Jasmin advocated for shooting the final dance sequence and the directors allowed Kado the freedom to reveal the audacious character they spend so much time creating together.
“As an expert at coordinating motion, I treated the choreography like a dance. Hoss (Kado) and myself began with a reveal of our newly transformed villain,” Vegas states. “Using the space to reveal his character and the architecture of the house as a stage, I blocked out some main points of movement with Hoss so we could flow together and make the culmination of the movie feel like one grand scheme being unveiled before our eyes. Big Kudos to Kado for giving his all in a vulnerable moment like this.”
As monumental as the film’s ending was, the cast and crew weren’t ready for the experience to be over. “Ending the movie wasn’t great. I wanted to keep filming,” Kam Stone divulges. “It was such a fun experience learning about the movie and becoming the best version of my character I could. The entire experience shooting for Disruptive was the best! I love all studios, but I had the most fun on set shooting for Disruptive. Not only the other models made it fun, but the behind-the-scenes crew made it such an extraordinary experience for me.”