Appendage director on exploring mental health through body horror: 'It makes you feel like you're a monster'

Appendage explores the dark side of mental health and imagines a world where "intrusive thoughts, anxiety, [and] depression" manifest into gruesome body parts because it felt like the perfect fit for the body horror genre, director Anna Zlokovic tells Yahoo UK.

The movie, which premieres on Disney+ on 18 October, follows fashion designer Hannah (Hadley Robinson) whose inner thoughts begin to grow into something else, something sinister that begins to feed off her pain and torments her in order to make it worse.

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"The idea got implanted, I would say, in therapy 10 years ago when my therapist and I did an exercise where she [said], 'OK, there's a lot going on in your brain right now let's just try turning your anxiety into a separate character and removing it from yourself for a second,'" Zlokovic tells Yahoo UK.

The notion of separating oneself from one's mental health issue made "a lot of sense as a narrative tool" for Zlokovic, so she took the idea and applied it to body horror.

"Which is very sad, and that to me ties really well with body horror, when you're literally turning the character into a monster. I think that resonates a lot with me thematically."

Zlokovic hopes to "contribute to the conversation" around mental health with her movie by trying to "remove stigma" around it.

"I really wanted to open up that door for people to feel more comfortable talking about it and just also put it out there that it's something that we have to learn to live with and not get rid of it," the filmmaker says.

"Like, don't put it in the basement and pretend it doesn't exist but... take care of it, and it's going to flare up sometimes so we just have to learn how to exercise self-care."

Challenging the 'unlikeable female character' stereotype

The film — which was edited with Adobe Premiere Pro and Frame.io — also sees Hannah making rash decisions, some of which may shock viewers and in turn may make some people feel she is "unlikeable".

"It's a really difficult character, an unlikable female lead. People still have problems with this, unbelievable, but it's true," Zlokovic explains.

"People are like Hannah, we all do things that are unlikable sometimes and that's just how it is."

Robinson, Zlokovic says, "was very brave" with her performance of the character, adding that the actor "brought a lot of empathy to" a role that may otherwise have been a challenge.

"What she was able to pull off was absolutely incredible, and she was so brave and just fully in it the whole time," the director adds. "She really carried it with such grace."

Zlokovic was keen to challenge this notion of the "unlikeable female character" by approaching Hannah carefully, allowing her to make mistakes without judgement.

"She's suffering, she's suffering and that's important to show, and it was interesting [when] we were testing it with certain audiences. Some male audiences, who were older, were like, 'I don't like her, why is she acting like this?'

"And I was like, 'ohh right, this is still a thing and people struggle with it' and I think that's super interesting, and something I want to keep making movies about, I think, because we need more of that perspective and not to be afraid to show that because it's human."

"[Hannah is] doing something that you wouldn't do because she's suffering and she's isolating herself," the director adds. "And it's interesting how people have trouble empathising with that, but we all do it."

Creating the creature

The titular creature that Hannah unwittingly unleashes into the world was a puppet built by Amber Mari Creations, and it was designed to grow and becomes more human-like the more the fashion designer struggles with her anxiety and depression.

It is voiced by none other than Emily Hampshire, who also takes on the role of Claudia in the film, someone who, like Hannah, has found her dark thoughts coming to life in the most gruesome way possible.

She submitted an audition for the voice of the creature as a surprise to the director, who thought she "was the most unique" out of everyone to play the appendage.

"Emily is such an incredible character actor, like she's so funny, but she also has this amazing filmography. She just does it all, and that was necessary for Claudia," the director says.

Putting the creature together and making it have different stages of growth throughout the film took time, and Zlokovic says, "We wanted it to start out kind of cute, you know? And let the audience buy into it, like, 'oh, it's gross but I kind of like it, and I want to snuggle with it a little bit.'

"We wanted it to progress into [saying] 'your friends hate you and you're a horrible girlfriend', and that one is supposed to be meaner and so that influenced [how] it's going to be like the size of a toddler, it needs to be grosser.

"Then one of the final stages is it basically [saying] 'you shouldn't be on this planet anymore', that's when it's not funny anymore. So that thematically was motivating us in the design."

The director and Amber Mari Creations took inspiration from Total Recall and Basket Case as they went, also working with a digital artist to mock up various versions until they got it just right.

"Somebody described it on the Internet as a chewed up Tootsie Roll and I thought that was pretty hilarious," Zlokovic says of the final product.

Appendage premieres on Disney+ on Wednesday, 18 October.

Watch the trailer for Appendage: