The star talks to RadioTimes.com about her new film, the upcoming entry in the Planet of the Apes franchise and what’s next for Ciri in The Witcher. <\/p>
Thanks to her role as Ciri in Netflix\u2019s hit fantasy series The Witcher<\/a>, Freya Allan has established herself as a major TV star, but until now she\u2019s been seen relatively little on the big screen (a small role in the 2021 film Gunpowder Milkshake is her only film credit to date).<\/p>\n But that\u2019s all changing in 2024. In a few months, she\u2019ll have a main part in the fourth instalment of the rebooted Planet of the Apes franchise<\/a>, and before then, she is the lead in new horror film Baghead \u2013 which arrives in UK cinemas this weekend.<\/p>\n Adapted by screenwriter Lorcan Reilly and director Alberto Corredor from their 2017 short film of the same name, the movie stars Allan as a young woman named Iris, who in the opening scenes learns she has inherited a Berlin pub from her estranged, recently dead father.<\/p>\n Naturally, she travels out to investigate, and quickly learns that the boozer is hiding a deeply sinister secret: In the basement, there lives an ancient shape-shifting monster known as Baghead, who possesses the ability to conjure up a dead person of your choosing for a two-minute conversation.<\/p>\n This being a horror film, it\u2019s no spoiler to say that things don\u2019t exactly go well for Iris when she puts this morbid possibility into practice.<\/p> Allan was sent the script and the original short film by Corredor before she was cast in the role, and was instantly interested in the concept, noting during an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com<\/a> that the idea fits into \u201ca realm that intrigues everyone\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s that kind of question of death and where people go and whether you would want to speak to people that have died,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Although Allan is well-versed in the world of fantasy, the horror space is something that is quite new to her \u2013 but starring in the film has helped her to appreciate it more as a genre, both for its escapist qualities and its ability to explore serious topics and themes in such a different way to more traditional dramas.<\/p>\n \u201cIt seems like an odd concept to say you go to see a horror film to escape,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s not like you\u2019re escaping to a fantasy world where it\u2019s beautiful or anything \u2013 it\u2019s kind of like you\u2019re being terrified or disturbed or whatever. So it seems like an odd thing to say.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I guess there\u2019s an escapism in being distracted by all of that, and watching something which is disturbing or scary, and there\u2019s something to that which, like, distracts from everyday life, because it\u2019s creating a reaction or there\u2019s a survival instinct in people.<\/p>\n \u201cI think there is fun in scaring yourself. I mean, that\u2019s why people ride rollercoasters \u2013 it\u2019s a similar kind of thing. And I think there\u2019s definitely a place for that \u2013 and they can open up questions.\u201d<\/p>\n