I spoke to Brandy about the scary parallels between A24’s The Front Room and her Cinderella film. Impossible things happen every day!
Among the upcoming horror movies The horror season kicks off this weekend with A24s The front room. The film marks Brandy Norwood’s return to horror films in a long time, and wow, she outdoes herself with a fantastic performance. But I have to speak directly to the children who saw the actress in Cinderellabecause once you notice the parallels, you’ll see this 2024 movie schedule project in a new and twisted light.
How A24’s “The Front Room” Scared Me Even More as a Fan of Brandy’s Cinderella
When leaving the The front roomI felt something I hadn’t felt in a long time as a huge horror fan: real fear and stress in my body after watching the film. The film is about a pregnant couple who take in the husband’s stepmother Solange (played by Kathryn Hunter) after she becomes a widow and promises to support the couple financially if they let her live with them.
Even though the concept is pretty simple (I’ll refrain from giving spoilers here), Hunter’s portrayal and the way she torments Brandy’s Belinda and her husband Norman were so profound that I found myself feeling just as stressed as the characters.
On the way back I gasped when I strangely realized The front room is, oddly enough, a Cinderella story as only an A24 film can be, as it reminds me of my favorite role from Brandy’s childhood, which is still holds up better than other Disney remakes I’ve seen.
It made the whole messed up experience of the film even clearer because I realized that it had to be intentional. I grew up seeing Brandy in an absolute fairytale scenario and then it was turned into a real nightmare. This is incredibly clever of the filmmakers, but I’m still shocked by it.
What Brandy told us about the parallels
Max and Sam Eggers confirmed my suspicions when I read in the film’s press notes that they were looking for “our Cinderella” when casting for the horror film. And when Brandy’s name was mentioned, they were able to The front room because it felt like a “stroke of genius.” When I brought up the parallels I had noticed with Brandy Norwood during our conversation for CinemaBlend, she said this:
It was a challenge. Belinda was not an easy role for me. I had to really learn and get to the point, and when you work with someone like Kathryn Hunter, you have to be on your toes because you never know what she’s going to do. So I worked really hard on this role and really wanted to see if I could pull it off. And she’s a lot like Cinderella, except she doesn’t have the best life at the beginning. So that’s pretty much the similarity.
So Brandy doesn’t see it the same way I do, but she talked about how difficult it was for her to get into the role after not having done a film of this genre since the 90s. Next up is Brandy hoping she’ll get a call to take part in another horror filmso that they can I know what you did last summer Cast of the sequel. I really hope she continues to work in this genre because she was so excellent in The front room.
I warn you, however, that I am also very traumatized by this film and its strange parallels to the twenty-year-old Cinderella film On the contrary, it was the stuff dreams are made of. Now I have to watch the musical produced for television with a Disney+ subscription to get me back to my happy place.
The front room hits theaters on Friday, September 6. Check out what other upcoming A24 films are here on CinemaBlend.
