\u201canti-cult\u201d leader<\/a>. The film is directed by Emmy Award winner Erik Bloomquist and co-written with his brother Carson, whose previous credits include \u201cFounders Day\u201d and \u201cShe Came from the Woods.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cI think people have always had this deep need for community, and it\u2019s interesting to see how that evolves or the way it manifests with the internet and even internet cults,\u201d said Erik Bloomquist. \u201cThe way we engage with each other shifts in a way that the things that are supposed to bring people together can become increasingly impersonal and anti-social.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jake Weber (\u201cDawn of the Dead\u201d and TV\u2019s \u201cMedium) plays the charismatic leader, and it also features Madison Lintz (TV\u2019s \u201cBosch\u201d and \u201cThe Walking Dead\u201d) as a friend to Bender\u2019s character.<\/p>\n
Bloomquist said the story’s setup was a breeding ground for conflict.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s something about the fractured family relationship,\u201d Bloomquist said. \u201cIt\u2019s a classic thing against that backdrop, too. Being able to explore the kids saving the parents, as opposed to the parents saving their kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hargreaves, who began her career in a couple of after-school specials and played Claire Danes\u2019 mother in \u201cHomeland,\u201d said that the script was \u201cfascinating\u201d for her. She became \u201cobsessed\u201d with the Netflix documentaries about cults, and her mother was a victim of a recent fraud.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t like a romantic catfishing thing, not exactly like that, but something similar, where she really got taken down the garden path,\u201d Hargreaves said. \u201cIt was so upsetting to see that happen to someone so close to me. I know women of a certain age can be lonely. We can have lonely times in our lives, and we\u2019re looking for connection and community. My character is a flawed person. She\u2019s not the best mother, but in the end, she really is just looking to connect and repair the relationship with her daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bloomquist jumped in, \u201cIt may be a little spoiler territory, there\u2019s a moment where we take away the music and all the other sound away, and it\u2019s just them talking to each other for the first time, and that really exposes the root underneath all of it, and they play it so, so beautifully. That\u2019s really the most devastating scene in the movie to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bender said she loved how the elements came together and how it had grounded moments.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was super fun to do a movie with a Halloween backdrop,\u201d said Bender. \u201cI loved playing a character who was sort of the moral compass of the film. She countered everyone else\u2019s perspective, and it was really thrilling to be the eyes of the people watching the film.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bender added that playing such an intense role was taxing, but she found solace when she needed to, including taking a long rest back at the hotel.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s interesting when the heroes and villains are using the same languages, so it becomes more obfuscated,\u201d Bloomquist said. \u201cWho\u2019s the good guy? Who\u2019s the bad guy? When this guy is very clearly manipulating people using this language, or the same terms as somebody who might be able to help.\u201d<\/p>\n
The previous projects for Bloomquist were ensemble movies, and \u201cSelf-Help\u201d zooms in on one relationship while keeping the scope of an ensemble piece in other ways.<\/p>\n
While the movie does have a Halloween component, they said it\u2019s much more than that.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a fun and fabulous movie and a great Halloween flick, but it\u2019s psychological as well,\u201d said Hargreaves. \u201cIt\u2019s a movie to see with others, and you\u2019ll be talking about it long afterwards.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will be the perfect movie to see with friends or with a date\u2026 get some popcorn\u2026,\u201d Bender said. \u201cThe characters are going to remind you of someone you know, or self-reflect, or find someone relatable in it.\u201d<\/p>\n
This article originally appeared on Fort Smith Times Record: ‘Self-Help’ explores fear, family and the lure of belonging this Halloween<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brothers Erik and Carson Bloomquist bring a new psychological story, \u201cSelf-Help,\u201d in time for the Halloween season. The movie has a sneak peek on Oct. 30, followed by a nationwide release on Oct. 31, including at Pinnacle Hills Cinema in Rogers. A digital release is set for early 2026. \u201cSelf-Help\u201d follows a college student (played […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2124461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[403512,403516,354618,403514,403513,403515],"class_list":["post-2124460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-amy-hargreaves","tag-bloomquist","tag-charismatic-leader","tag-erik-bloomquist","tag-landry-bender","tag-self-help"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/What-happens-when-finding-yourself-becomes-the-real-nightmare.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2124460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2124460"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2124460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2124462,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2124460\/revisions\/2124462"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2124461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2124460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2124460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2124460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}