How religion, school shootings, death fuelled Yellowjackets star Sophie Thatcher’s love of horror
Yellowjackets star Sophie Thatcher reveals how growing up in a generation “that is very close to death” inspired her interest in dark stories and horror movies.
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Sophie Thatcher says her fascination with horror and telling dark stories stems from a morbid fascination with death she’s had since she was young.
The 22-year-old US actor made her debut in a TV sequel to the demon-possession classic The Exorcist, is best known for her role as Natalie in the Emmy-nominated Yellowjackets, about a group of teens reduced to cannibalism after a remote plane crash, and is just about to take the lead role in The Boogeyman, taken from the short story of the same name by horror-meister Stephen King.
“Why do I choose horror?,” she ponders over Zoom from her adopted him of Los Angeles. “I think it feels the most like a release, in a sense. It can be therapeutic. Because you can go to that extreme that isn’t normalised in everyday life and being as intense as possible, there’s something very fulfilling about that as an actor and being vulnerable and opening up.”
“And it’s just the most fun to delve into gritty stories and characters that are going through a lot because there’s a lot to break down. So I think it’s the most interesting and fun and f---ked up.”
Thatcher and her twin sister Emma used to rope in their friends to make zombie movies when they were children, and developed a passion for the horror genre, citing Danny Boyle’s post-apocalyptic hit 28 Days Later, Guillermo Del Toro’s Oscar-winning dark fantasy Pan’s Labyrinth (“I was eight or nine when I watched that and it scarred me”) and Japanese creep-fest Audition as her favourites.
The fascination with death, she says, stems partly from losing a member of her extended family when young, and partly from growing up traumatised by an era where appalling gun violence and mass shootings afflict the US on an almost weekly basis.
“Coming up in this generation that is very close to death and very aware of mass shootings and school shootings,” she says. “It was mainly that for me because I’m at that age where that was just so f---king normalised and it just keeps getting worse. So I think that was always on my mind.”
Growing up in the Mormon faith was another contributing factor in so far that she says it instilled an anxiety in her around “feeling watched and feeling like you’re not good enough or you’re not honest enough”. And the central tenet of an afterlife, to her young mind, was very much double-edged sword.
“I like how optimistic it is within, if you are good, then you get to go to a good place,” she says of the faith, “but I think when I was younger, I was on the other end and didn’t want to believe in that and kind of pictured a black abyss.”
She catches herself, remembering that she’s here to talk about a movie, even if it’s a horror movie, adding with a laugh: “But not to get too f**king existential …”
Thatcher says is was her role as the young Natalie (Juliette Lewis plays the older version) in Yellowjackets that landed her the starring role in The Boogeyman after King had tweeted his admiration for the survival drama in 2022.
The original eight-page short story appeared in the 1978 anthology Night Shift and featured just three characters but the expanded feature-film version got the stamp of approval from the revered writer, who is typically not shy about sharing frank and honest opinions.
One of his observations was that it would be madness to release The Boogeyman to streaming as was first planned, and rapturously terrified test audiences confirmed the decision to release it in cinemas first instead.
In the film, Thatcher plays Sadie, a teenager grieving the loss of her mother, character who didn’t even exist in the book. When a patient of her therapist father seemingly brings a malign entity into their house that feeds on fear and trauma, Sadie has to be the bridge between the sceptical adults and her terrified younger sister
“Sadie is very different from my other roles in the way that she is much more internal and reclusive and very much internalises her sadness, and she’s in a very distinct stage of grieving right now with her mother,” says Thatcher. “She’s really just finding solace within going through her mother’s belongings and trying to recreate that intimacy and that feeling of closeness again and viewing her mum as a friend.”
Thatcher says she’s hugely grateful for Yellowjackets – the second season wraps up next week and a third has already been commissioned – not just for the roles and experience it has already bought her, but also for the ability to say no.
“That’s something that you don’t really expect really early on in your career,” she admits. “That makes me feel like I have complete control and power.”
The downside of that profile is opening herself up to scrutiny and judgment on the open sewer that social media can be and she says she’s still learning how to deal with the baffling bile occasionally spewed by complete strangers.
“I think it’s just about removing yourself from your internet persona,” she says. “And also, people are seeing me play these characters. None of these people that are commenting on myself truly know me. So you just remind yourself that there’s a disconnect. It’s not the end-all, be-all. When someone says something mean they don’t know you. It’s one video and in the grand scope of things, it’s so ridiculous.”
The Boogeyman is in cinemas on June 1. Yellowjackets season 2 final streams on Paramount+ on June 2.
BEST STEPHEN KING HORROR MOVIES
THE SHINING
Streaming: BINGE, Foxtel, Stan
More than four decades after it was released, Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of King’s book is still is terrifying as ever, with Jack Nicholson in magnificently deranged form as a struggling writer slowly unravelling while acting as caretaker at a remote, possessed hotel. The author famously hated it – and was far more satisfied with the belated (but not as good) sequel, Doctor Sleep (BINGE, Foxtel).
IT
Streaming: BINGE, Foxtel, Netflix, Paramount+
Tim Curry traumatised a generation of children as the demonic clown Pennywise the 1990 TV adaptation (rental only), but a shapeshifting Bill Skarsgard took terror to the next level in the two-part film version. A top tier cast played the adult and child version of The Loser Club as they flipped back and forth between timelines to fight the demonic entity that keeps returning to the town of Derry, Maine.
MISERY
Rental only
Kathy Bates won the Best Actress Oscar for playing the obsessive Annie Wilkes, the No. 1 fan who kidnaps self-obsessed writer, Paul Sheldon (James Caan). The book was based on King’s experiences abusing cocaine, but the author named Rob Reiner’s film as one his favourite adaptations of his work and the wince-inducing scene where Annie breaks Paul’s ankles with a sledgehammer was ranked No.12 on a list of scariest movie moments.
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Originally published as How religion, school shootings, death fuelled Yellowjackets star Sophie Thatcher’s love of horror
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