Sometimes, the monster we were hunting was always within us. When a woman goes searching for a missing scientist, she discovers a troubling connection with a mysterious forest creature.
Kryptic
Kryptic is a 2024 Canadian horror thriller, directed by Kourtney Roy and starring Chloe Pirrie, Jeff Gladstone, Jason Deline, Jennifer Copping, Ali Rusu-Tahir, Kamantha Naidoo, and Sarah Hayward. This is Kourtney Roy’s debut feature.
The mystery begins when Kay Hall (Chloe Pirrie) joins a hiking group to check out Krypto Peak, a place known for many sightings of Sooka, a mysterious forest creature. We learn right away that a Cryptozoologist, Barb Valentine (Chloe Pirrie), vanished in this very place while searching for Sooka. The trail guide suggests that the reason the creature is unable to be captured is that it uses a portal to enter from one dimension to another. While on this hiking group, Kay encounters the Sooka and strange things begin to happen, both physically and mentally.
Kay becomes obsessed with finding Barb Valentine, and along the way, meets a few women who have had their own encounters with the beast. What is the connection between Kay and Barb, and more importantly, what is the connection between both women and this mysterious beast that can travel through a dimensional portal?
And now, a few questions with the director, Kourtney Roy.
Gilbert: Kourtney, I loved Kryptic. It had a touch of Little Red Riding Hood feel to it. Was this your intention?
Kourtney Roy: Thank you! Absolutely not at all, funny enough. Obviously, looking at the film now in hindsight, it’s quite glaringly obvious that it looks like there are parallels happening. In all honesty, the red hoodie aspect or visual of the film was directly inspired by Nicolas Roeg’s DON’T LOOK NOW. I’ve always loved that imagery of the jacket/cape that the killer runs around in. I always thought it was extremely visually striking – something strangely mysterious and disturbing about it, between childish and ominous at the same time. With all of those sorts of things swirling around in what it meant for me, I wanted to somehow employ them in Kryptic– so that came out with our little red riding hood imagery and why it looks like a fairytale.
Gilbert: Chloe Pirrie was amazing in the film. How did you decide to go with Pirrie as the main character, and will you be working with Pirrie in future films?
Kourtney Roy: When we were casting, about three weeks before production, we still hadn’t cast the lead. My producer brought on UK casting, who sent a selection of incredible actors who had done self-tapes for the part. Chloe was included in that selection. She immediately jumped out – her self-tape was incredible. It was nuanced, it was subtle and was better than anything I had imagined. I watched it and immediately said, Yes, this is it. Paul Bromley, our writer, also saw her tape was on board immediately and it was very easy to convince the producers she was right for the role. I would always love to work with Chloe again in the future, as she is an incredible actor.
Gilbert: Where did you get your inspiration to have Sooka travel via portals? I ask this because, as a ghost investigator, I do believe that there are portals between dimensions and other worlds.
Kourtney Roy: There is a lot of lore around cryptids or supernatural entities, like Mothman or Bigfoot, which are seen as interdimensional beings – so for me it wasn’t a very big leap to make the Sooka be an interdimensional being that can travel via portals or gateways between these worlds. For our cryptid (Sooka) which is a completely fictional creature, I asked Paul (Bromley) can we please make it an interdimensional being because I didn’t want it to be a flesh and blood monster in the woods. I wanted it to have something with more supernatural elements, something a bit more scary, unsettling and uncanny. The biggest inspiration to get that idea was thinking of Bigfoot. One of the aspects of that legend is that it is perhaps not just a terrestrial creature but an interdimensional being as well
Gilbert: What are you working on now?
Kourtney Roy: I’m working on a lot of my photography projects at the moment. I’m going to be doing an artist residency in Naples, Italy, in June. I’ll also be doing a show this summer in France, in Arles, at one of the biggest photo festivals in the world. I’m also working on a second feature. It’s in the writing/development stages now with a wonderful Canadian writer and my Canadian producer, Amber Ripley. So stay tuned!
Conclusion
I really enjoyed this film, and I know that you will also. Kryptic had its world premiere at SXSW and Fantasia and is now on VOD/Digital.