Directed by Juan Pablo Arias Muñoz, The Curse Of The Necklace follows the Davis family as they navigate through tough times in 1960. Laura Davis (Sarah Lind) has separated from her husband, Frank (Henry Thomas), due to his unpredictable temper fueled by alcohol. As Laura returns to work as a nurse, her daughters, 11-year-old Ellen (Violet McGraw) and 16-year-old Judy (Madeleine McGraw), grapple with the changes in their family dynamics. The plot thickens when Frank attempts to win Laura back with a beautiful antique necklace, which turns out to be a conduit for the tormented soul of an evil boy from long ago, putting Laura and her daughters in grave danger.
The project stars sisters, Madeleine and Violet McGraw. While the sisters have dominated the horror scene on screen with their lead roles in The Black Phone and M3GAN respectively, this is their first time working together. But that's not the only thing that makes this project a special endeavor. The McGraw sisters are also producing the upcoming horror feature.
And this is no vanity credit, the McGraws went all in on their first producing endeavor, getting their hands dirty and being as hands-on as possible. We sat down with Madeleine and Violet to discuss their experience as first-time producers, co-starring together for the first time, and more in this exclusive interview. When asked whether the titular piece of jewelry is a supernatural token, the sisters are careful to avoid any spoilers. Madeleine treads lightly, “I think I can say. The necklace is what causes…”
“Some trouble.“ Violet finishes.
The McGraw sisters have been eyeing a project to tackle together for quite some time. “We have never worked with each other before; this has been our dream for so long. Multiple times on red carpets, people ask us, ‘What's your goal for 2024?‘ And now we get to work with each other? It happened. It's like we manifested this.“ says Violet.
The project has allowed the sisters to be much more involved in the process than ever before. Madeleine explains, “When John Ducey was writing the script, we got to read it and give our input. We would have lunch meetings and talk about the script, which made me feel so, I don't know, mature, I guess. More of a boss on that side of things. We got to look at all the dailies and do so many things we would've never been able to as actors.”
The level of a producer's involvement was eye-opening for the young actors, “It made me realize that, oh my God, they must feel pressure all of the time. The stress levels! They must never get sleep. It's insane.“ says Madeleine. She adds: “I've always been nice to everyone on set, but it's making me realize that people who do props, background stuff, set design, and all that other stuff do not get the credit they deserve.”
But the biggest surprise of the whole endeavor? Madeleine shared,“ I knew how much work was put into getting everything together, but I didn't realize how many calls there are. There's just so much more work put into it that I didn't process at first.“ A sentiment echoed by Violet, “Yeah, there were so many calls, so many meetings. Maybe three or more every day.”
But the sisters didn't consider it an unwelcome surprise. In fact, Madeleine shared one of her favorite calls during pre-production: “There was this one call we had, this is something I didn't know. They read the entire script, and talked about every single scene, every detail, and how it would work. I don't even know how long the call was, but—”
“It was long.“ Violet offers.
Coming from a rich background in front of the camera, flipping the script, and being involved in the casting process was a particularly fascinating element of the production. “My favorite thing was getting to cast it and watch the self-tapes. I'm usually the one waiting and hoping that my self-tape gets approved, but I think that was probably my favorite part,“ explains Madeleine. “It was just so interesting being on the other side. It's so hard to make those decisions.”
A process made all the more difficult when you're sifting through tapes sent in by lots of talented individuals. Violet shared, “It was really hard. There were so many talented people.”
That talented cast includes Christina Moore (Claws) and Roma Maffia (Nip/Tuck), with frequent Mike Flanagan collaborator Henry Thomas playing their father and Sarah Lind (A Wounded Fawn) as their mom. Even though Lind is playing their on-screen mother, Madeleine admits, “I think of her as our big sister.“ They both light up when they talk about Lind, and it turns out they had some fun behind-the-scenes antics happening. Violet explains, “We were in a big scare-off; we tried to scare each other in the hotel we were staying in. I scared her coming out of her car and coming out of her hotel room. She scared me in the elevator, but we're just in a scare-off.”
Now that the sisters have crossed acting together off their bucket list and produced their first feature, are they interested in more behind-the-camera positions? Absolutely. They'd both jump at the chance to produce again, and we may see some features written and directed by the McGraws in the future. “I've always wanted to direct, and I feel like this is definitely a step in that direction,“ says Madeleine.
As for Violet, “I actually love to write. We've made up our own movies, kind of as we go, but I would still write things.“ But perhaps the most surprising answer to come out of this interview is their shared love and appreciation for stunt work! “My favorite thing ever is doing stunts. That's why I love this movie so much,” says Madeleine. With Violet enthusiastically adding, “I was just going to say that!“
After spending some time in the business, the sisters now realize more about what goes into stunt coordinating, Madeleine explains her stunt appreciation evolution: “I used to want to do stunts when I was younger. Now I realize it's a lot more dangerous than I thought it was when I was younger. I tried to do as many of my own stunts as possible, as many as they let me.”
If stunts weren't so dangerous, Violet says she would 100% pursue stunt coordinating. But now that their careers have given them an extensive behind-the-scenes look at the dangers of the stunt world, Madeleine has decided: “I'll let the professionals stick to that. They nail it every time and make it look so good. Yeah, I'll let them handle that.”
In addition to starring in and producing The Curse Of The Necklace, the sisters both have major sequels coming up. Violet was essentially taking a short break before heading straight into filming the M3GAN sequel, “I'm super pumped, I have been wanting this script for so long. It's going to be amazing. I'm so excited to film.“ Madeleine has The Black Phone 2 coming up but says she has “a solid amount of time“ leading up to it, though the excitement is palatable. “I've been reading The Black Phone script every single night. I'm so excited, I can't wait. All I can think about is Black Phone 2.”
As the McGraws prepare to shoot those sequels, you can watch their producing and co-starring debut, The Curse Of The Necklace, in theaters from ESX Entertainment and available to own on digital now.
