Happy Ending – a perfectly twisted date night movie

Sponsored Feature: Bold Soul Productions & Wolf Party Productions

Happy Ending is a new horror-comedy from writer-director Jennifer Wolfe, following a couple who visit a seedy “happy ending” massage parlor to reignite their spark, but end up trapped in a deadly fight for survival when a client’s obsession turns violent.

Trailer here:

Brynne and Ezra have been together for years, but the spark in their relationship has all but fizzled out. After a night of lackluster anniversary sex, they decide to try something new in hopes of reigniting their connection—a “happy ending” massage at Angel Spa. Little do they know, they’ve picked the wrong night for a visit.

Inside the parlor, they find themselves caught in a web of exploitation and obsession. An unhinged client, fixated on a particular masseuse, has been stalking her for weeks. Tonight, his twisted desires have reached a boiling point, and he’s prepared to do anything to claim what he feels is rightfully his. His dangerous obsession sparks a chaotic and bloody confrontation, sending the spa into a deadly spiral.

Trapped in a claustrophobic environment where danger lurks around every corner, Brynne and Ezra must confront the wounds that have been festering in their relationship long before they ever set foot in Angel Spa. As the terror intensifies, so too does the pressure to heal their fractured bond. If they can’t mend what’s broken between them, they’ll lose far more than their love for each other…they’ll lose their lives.

A Q&A with Writer-Director Jennifer Wolfe

Jennifer, thanks for joining us! With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, Happy Ending feels like the perfect twisted date night movie. What drew you to explore love and relationships through a horror-comedy lens?

Thank you for having me on to talk about Happy Ending! Although October is my favorite month for obvious reasons, the vibe of Happy Ending is all February, which, to be honest, is my least favorite month. I’m not much of a romantic, but as a storyteller I get a thrill out of finding ways to make audiences uncomfortable, and I find there’s very little that makes ME more uncomfortable than a difficult conversation, particularly with a romantic partner. I’ve made a little bit of a niche for myself writing dialogue-heavy films, but you don’t see as much of that in the horror genre. Horror often relies on atmosphere to ratchet up tension, which can be disrupted by too much dialogue. But with Happy Ending, I wondered what it would be like to make a couple’s relationship issues and their inability to communicate the core of the story. To make the things they say to each other (and the things they hold back from saying) the real horror. The one we can all relate to. Most of us will never be trapped in a happy ending massage parlor by a psychopath, but I’m willing to bet that nearly everyone will, at some point in their life, be forced to have a painfully awkward, cringe-inducing conversation about sex.

With Happy Ending, I wondered what it would be like to make a couple’s relationship issues and their inability to communicate the core of the story. To make the things they say to each other (and the things they hold back from saying) the real horror.

Blending horror and comedy is a delicate dance. What was your approach to balancing the scares and laughs?

Since it’s Valentine’s Day, I’m going to give my most on-theme answer: edging. For anyone who doesn’t know what that is (and I’m blushing as I write this) it’s a sexual technique for building to a climax, then backing off to prolong pleasure. When it came to the writing (and later, the editing) of Happy Ending, my approach was a bit of a back and forth between setting up a scene for a laugh, but not quite driving home the joke. Then setting up the next scene to build tension toward danger, and backing off before the culmination. Basically, I tried to delay gratification on both scares and laughs for as long as possible. So . . . yeah. Edging.

Brynne and Ezra’s relationship is put to the test in the most extreme way. Did you draw inspiration from any real-life relationship dynamics when crafting their story?

Oh, definitely. My own relationships, and friends’ relationships. After screening the movie for the first time, one audience member asked if I’d been eavesdropping on her and her boyfriend, which was one of my favorite reactions of anyone who’s seen Happy Ending. But I definitely mined my own history most of all. There’s a scene early on when Brynne and Ezra are about to have obligatory anniversary sex. Brynne wears a strappy little nightgown, not chaste necessarily, but not exactly what her boyfriend, Ezra, was hoping for. As she’s crawling toward him across the bed, he asks her, “Weren’t you gonna wear that other thing?” If anyone ever wants to kill the mood, criticize your partner’s choice of lingerie. I can tell you firsthand, this is a surefire libido killer. In my case, it was that I’d worn the wrong color of knee-high stockings, white instead of black, or black instead of white. I can’t remember, but I’ll never forget how much that trapped me in my head in the worst possible way. I have a treasure trove of such moments to pull from, as I’m sure a lot of people do. It’s like the opposite of a spank bank. Again . . . blushing.

If anyone ever wants to kill the mood, criticize your partner’s choice of lingerie. I can tell you firsthand, this is a surefire libido killer.

What was the casting process like? How did you know you’d found the right fit for the lead roles?

I live in Portland, Oregon, which is where we shot Happy Ending. Only two of the actors were from Los Angeles, and the rest were Portland-based. Bradford Downs, who played Ezra, was attached to the project before I was even involved, so I was able to watch his audition tapes before I started writing and tailor his character accordingly. It’s a great way to work, knowing who your actor is and what they’re capable of, especially when it comes to comedy, which can be tricky. Not everyone can make you laugh. It’s a particular skill among actors, and one that Bradford nailed.

To find the rest of the actors, I posted the project on a casting site and hoped for the best. It was terrifying. I’d never cast anything out of Portland, and I didn’t know what kind of talent I’d find here. But I have to say, I really lucked out, first with Lex Helgerson, who plays Brynne, and then with Zoe Rose Curzi, who plays Victoria, one of the “massage girls,” a pivotal role in the story. The second I watched their audition tapes, I knew they were my Brynne and Viktoria. It wasn’t simply that they could act; it was that both of them made me feel. That’s what I look for in an actor. They have to move the emotional needle. They have to make my heart hurt.

I want to mention a few other cast members, as well. Chynna Rae Shurts, who plays another masseuse named Dasha, and Ling Ling Huang, who plays Joy, a masseuse who’s being stalked by an obsessed client. Chynna was a dream to work with, and has become something of a Portland scream queen. There are very few Portland-made horror movies in which she doesn’t at least make an appearance. And Ling Ling I cast even though it was her first time acting. She’s actually a concert violinist and an author. I didn’t realize what a big deal she was about to become until I tried to schedule her for a rehearsal and she couldn’t make it because she was going to be appearing on Good Morning America to promote her debut horror novel, Natural Beauty! 

One other actor I have to mention is Andy Lindberg, who played Freddie, the homeless man with a . . . compulsion to masturbate publicly. Andy played an iconic role in a classic Stephen King movie. I challenge your readers to try to guess who he played without checking IMDB!

Any fun BTS stories to share?

SO MANY. But I’ll keep it to my favorite BTS moment. I’ve never laughed so hard as I did when we shot what I refer to as the “shoe dick” scene. Filming it required our cinematographer, Maggie Kirkland, to lie on her back on a bed with the camera pointed at Ezra/Bradford’s crotch while he gyrated in his boxers, a shoe protruding from the peep-hole. Every crew member present for the scene was struggling not to burst out laughing as we filmed. Maggie in particular, couldn’t laugh because she needed to keep the camera steady. Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore and I busted up, and then everyone was ROTF. That was on day one of a nine-day shoot, which is madness as far a production schedule was concerned. But the nice thing about doing these guerilla-style, microbudget movies is that you have to keep the cast and crew small, so you end up feeling like family by the end. Even the crew, who are the unsung heroes on every production, felt seen and appreciated on this set. No one was invisible. Everyone was vital. Bigger productions tend to chew the crew up and spit them out, but I wanted everyone on set to feel taken care of.

There’s a series of event screenings coming up for the film. What can audiences expect from these special viewing experiences?

A Portland-based distributor, Hibernation Films, has come on board to arrange special event theatrical screenings of Happy Ending, starting in the Pacific Northwest, and extending out to other parts of the country. Our goal is to turn these screenings into “experiences.” You’re not just coming to see a movie. You’re coming to an event. We aim emulate the communal, interactive experience of a Rocky Horror event, but make it our own with musical guests, comedians, therapists doing live couples therapy, costume contests with prizes that tie in with the movie, Happy Ending Bingo, worst date night ever storytelling competitions, etc . . . 

It’s getting harder and harder to convince people to go out to see a movie that isn’t either a huge blockbuster with a marketing machine and a massive studio behind it, or an Oscar contender. Most indie movies are released on streamers now, and go unwatched. They get a few hundred views, or, if they’re lucky, a few thousand. Happy Ending is currently available on streaming services (Amazon, Plex, Fandango, etc . . .) but we think we can bring another level of fun to viewers. This is about showing them a good time with more than a movie. We want people to leave the theater feeling like they got their money’s worth and then some.

What themes did you explore through the film and what do you hope horror lovers take away from Happy Ending?

Ultimately, Happy Ending is a redemptive story about couples. For most of my life, my experience with relationships led me to believe that every long-term relationship was toxic. I didn’t know anyone in a functional relationship. I only knew couples who either fought constantly or were in denial about their untenable problems. In my first marriage, I felt like I was trapped in a horror movie, but the horror was in the thoughtless things we said to each other, the words we used to hurt and manipulate and punish. Or sometimes the horror was in all the things we didn’t dare say to each other because the truth had the potential to do even more damage. 

It wasn’t until I got a divorce and soon after met the love of my life (my husband, Thom Hines, who produced this movie with me, edited it, and composed the score) that I experienced what a healthy, safe relationship could be like. To write the parts of Happy Ending where Brynne and Ezra say and do everything wrong, I pulled from my first marriage. For the parts where they started to figure out how to talk to one another, I pulled from my second.

For more information on Happy Ending, visit their official website and IMDb.

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