Alex Henry's horror comedy Goin Green refreshes the coming-of-age genre

“The Breakfast Club” meets “Scream” in Alex Henry's upcoming film, “Goin' Green.”

While the fourth-year theater student is no stranger to finding himself in front of the camera, having starred in “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty” and the “Sex and the City” reboot, this will be the Henry's first time behind the camera. His first film, “Goin' Green,” centers on an environmental fraternity, the Green Team, whose creation goes awry when one of its new members disappears in a film he describes as a coming-of-age horror comedy. adulthood.

“It’s a coming-of-age horror comedy, … it has a certain twist to it,” Henry said. “'The Breakfast Club' but maybe a darker version, because they're all totally different characters, so that one thing brings them together.”

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This film is not only Henry's first time in the director's chair, he said, but it's also the first film made by UCLA's entertainment networking group, The Castel Collective . Established in the fall 2023 term, the club is divided into different houses of film, music, fashion and business after acquiring more members, he said. When the House of Film began developing its first project this winter, one of the first creative hurdles that shaped the film was its budget — or lack thereof, Henry said.

Without the funds for massive special effects, the writing team had to focus on telling a compelling story with quality, realistic acting, Henry said. With a limited budget and the reflection of real life being a key aspect of bringing “Goin' Green” to the screen, Henry said it was important for the House of Film to create something they could shoot on campus – a limitation that helped both. and harm the production process as a whole.

“We wanted to film at the Botanical Gardens, (but)… you can only film until 5 p.m., and our filming takes place at night,” Henry said. “We are filming (at) the Sculpture Garden. It’s really exciting.”

Although obtaining permits to film on campus posed some problems for the production, securing the other major filming location, the Theta Delta Chi house, was no problem, Henry said. Since some of Castel's members are fraternity brothers, he explained, getting permission to film there was a very simple process. The house also provided the production with a lively filming environment and the opportunity to use TDX's swimming pool to create a memorable scene for the film, Henry added.

Henry said another aspect of “Goin Green” influenced by its filming locations was determining the genre that would accommodate that space. The writers considered making only a comedy before opting to add mystery and dark twists, he said, ultimately deciding to incorporate all of those elements. That decision naturally led to the film's focus on fraternity initiations and the comedic situations that can arise from them, Henry said.

One of the film's comedy points is based on the premise of the environmental club, said Ella-Rose Hugo, a first-year political science student and one of the film's screenwriters. Wanting to create an atypical college experience, the Green Team is rooted in irony and satire, Hugo said. For example, she said that even though they wear pro-environment shirts, their clubhouse is not clean. When creating the Green Team, Henry said the writers wanted to have a group of funny people who twist a serious message.

Aside from the environmentally conscious fraternity brothers, the majority of the script's comedic moments come from one of the film's writers and actors, Santa Monica College sophomore theater student Ava Kitt. After hearing about her friends' experiences with LSD, Kitt said she was inspired to include a more in-depth interpretation of it in the film. Since first exposure to hard drugs is common during hazing for an initiation process, its inclusion complements the conventional college experience that “Goin' Green” aims for, Hugo said.

“We wanted to do it based on a stereotypical college experience, and we know that a lot of hazing can often involve (taking drugs), and that's also where we wanted to include comedy,” Hugo said. “That’s a lot of where the comedy of the storyline comes out, and it’s definitely heightened by their substance use.”

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Although the potential members of The Green Team's first exposure to psychedelics makes up the bulk of the film's early laughs, Hugo said it's also what shifts the tone from comedy to horror. Hugo said that after one of the characters was caught off guard by the effects of one of the substances, they had a panic attack that suddenly changed the mood of the entire film. This dramatic change in tone is used to show the drastic effects of the hazing process, Hugo added.

Even though production on the film is not yet complete, Henry said there are already many plans on how to communicate more with audiences. In addition to expanding “Goin’ Green” into a feature film or miniseries, The Castel Collective plans to branch out into creating content for TikTok and Instagram, Henry said. Already looking to the future, he said their next film would be set in 1999 and would be aimed at millennials while also being aesthetically pleasing to younger generations.

“I think it's very important that original stories and young people's stories are heard and created since we live in a time of constant remakes and stories that have been told a million times,” Henry said. “I think it’s very refreshing to have stories that young adults can relate to.”