Bella Thorne, Chloe Cherry, Izabel Pakzad Talk Shudder’s Find Your Friends: Podcast

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What begins as a getaway quickly spirals into something far more dangerous in Find Your Friends, the new Shudder thriller from writer-director Izabel Pakzad. Inspired by a real-life incident Pakzad experienced during a girls trip to Joshua Tree, the film follows a group of friends whose vacation unravels amid mounting hostility, buried resentments, and escalating threats. Speaking with Kyle Meredith, Pakzad joins stars Bella Thorne and Chloe Cherry to discuss the movie’s origins, the complicated dynamics between its characters, and how the film uses horror to explore the ways women are watched, dismissed, and endangered. Listen above or wherever you get your podcasts.

Pakzad traces the story back to a terrifying experience she and her friends endured in Joshua Tree, including a late-night car chase that left a lasting mark. “That really kind of shook me in some way,†she says. “I wanted to show that real brush with danger and how women have that real brush with danger all the time.†Rather than relying on traditional horror tropes, Find Your Friends slowly transforms from a chaotic party movie into something far darker, with Pakzad noting that the film is rooted in “what’s fucking scary for women and how a party can turn into danger so fucking quickly.â€

For Cherry and Thorne, the appeal was also in how openly the script approached female sexuality and friendship. “I just loved the fact that this movie had zero slut-shaming to it,†Cherry explains, praising the way the characters are allowed to be messy, impulsive, and fully human. Thorne was equally drawn to the film’s portrayal of women supporting one another, saying, “Women are scared of each other because we’ve been told to be scared of each other.†The conversation also touches on the film’s unforgettable climactic revenge sequence, which Pakzad and Thorne describe with a surprising amount of laughter behind the scenes, even as it delivers one of the movie’s most shocking moments on screen.

Listen to Bella Thorne, Chloe Cherry, and Izabel Pakzad talk about Find Your Friends in the new episode above or by watching the video below. Keep up on all the latest episodes by following Kyle Meredith With… on your favorite podcast platform; plus, check out all the series on the Consequence Podcast Network.