Hulu’s ‘Pilgrim’ Is So Finger-Lickin’ Outrageous It Will Make You Thankful for Streaming History
On Friday nights, IndieWire After Dark takes a feature-length beat to honor fringe cinema in the streaming age.
First, read the BAIT: a weird and wonderful pick from any time in film. Then, try the BITE: a breakdown of the movie’s ending, impact, and any other spoilers you’d want.
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For November 2024, we’ve been eating light (read: on vacation) but did recommend a full Six-Course Midnight Movie Meal in the video above. In honor of Thanksgiving, we also dug deep into our favorite pick with Marcus Dunstan and “Pilgrim.”
The Bait: The Scariest Historical Hobbyists in Hulu History
Hulu’s “Pilgrim” is about inviting a source of entertainment to live in your home — and then facing weird penalties when you ask it to leave. Sound familiar to you, subscriber?
From the gone-too-soon horror anthology “Into the Dark,” this seasonal scary movie from 2019 follows a group of historical re-enactors who take their roles at a suburban Thanksgiving very seriously. It’s directed by Marcus Dunstan (who you might know from “The Collector” or as a screenwriter on the “Saw” sequels) and it debuted way before the streaming bubble burst in 2022. Still, this gnarly spin on dinner theater reflects a bittersweet memory for the creatives who found opportunity during peak TV.
“I had one phrase that I said to myself along the way: ‘I know what our potential outcome is, but we’re going to sneak a movie in there,’” Dunstan told IndieWire. “And ‘Into the Dark’ produced an efficient machine of a set — one where in between takes, we always had time to laugh, we always had time to adjust, we always had time to find and protect the tone.”
A Blumhouse Television production, “Into the Dark” was just finding its groove when it came to an end. The holiday horror collection released 24 stand-alone films between 2018 and 2021. The chapters celebrate various special occasions, from the Fourth of July to Halloween and even Pet Appreciation Week. One of two “Into the Dark” Thanksgivings (the other is Patrick Lussier’s “Flesh & Blood”), “Pilgrim” found its way to Dunstan after editor Andrew Westman put him up for the job.
“Andrew and I had collaborated on a little thriller that had a very tight schedule and a very tight budget before,” said Dunstan. “With this particular ‘Into the Dark’ installment, I think it needed help because they didn’t have the material that could fit into that framework. So I just went in and pitched my wares.” The rest, as they say, is history.
Starring Peter Giles and Elyse Levesque as its main antagonists, “Pilgrim” presents a simple idea with a vengeance. When a stressed-out family can’t seem to appreciate what they already have — or stop bickering about the dark origins of the Thanksgiving holiday — a troupe of god-fearing “pilgrims” already staying with them for the season turns their planned celebration into a violent moral lesson. Reign Edwards stars as our final girl and, even knowing what happens to the actor in “Final Destination,” Kerr Smith’s head has never been used like this.
Compared to other “Into the Dark” outings and even indie horror writ large, Dunstan did well with “Pilgrim.” The puritanical nightmare finally earned him member status in the directors’ union (“That was a big moment for me,” Dunstan said) and it helped advance others’ careers too. Months before shooting began, when “Into the Dark” itself was in a kind of pre-production phase for Season 2, the need for a November movie helped a young writer at Blumhouse get his first “story by” credit.
“That ‘based on a true story’ slate is no joke,” said Dunstan. “That came from Noah Feinberg. He works for Blumhouse Television now but at the time he was on a desk and just paying attention. He heard they needed Thanksgiving and he wrote a draft over a weekend.”
Dunstan and his long-time collaborator Patrick Melton worked with Feinberg to make a stronger script from his bizarre childhood memory — one of a period actor who didn’t torture people (as far as we know!) but wouldn’t break character even while briefly living in Feinberg’s house off the clock. The themes and a monthly release schedule helped “Into the Dark” create chances to work on strange stories like that.
“Pilgrim” also benefited from being part of Season 2, Dunstan said. Many resources ran throughout the multi-film operation and streamlining that made the process smoother. Not only was there already an existing shorthand between “Into the Dark” departments, but the production pipeline and editing facilities in Los Angeles encouraged directors to collaborate with each other.
“We could do a lunch order in the middle of the day all together and we’d sit outside — all these people who have been living in the dark just wearing the biggest sunglasses and eating chips,” said Dunstan. He recalled working next to the team from the Christmas-themed “A Nasty Piece Work” (another IndieWire After Dark favorite!) and regularly asking them to serve as a test audience for his film’s trickier turns.
“I had folks asking me later, ‘Boy, that was a tight schedule. Looks like a tough shoot. Was it hard?’” Dunstan said. “And I was like, ‘It was actually the easiest one I’ve ever been a part of because it was done so well.’” Even while filming on set, the director said, “Pilgrim” finished early most days.
“Everyone treated it like a movie, which you always felt from top to bottom,” said Dunstan, again acknowledging the stigma carried by TV movies, “You had people enjoying it and really being there with their whole hearts. I absolutely loved it. I really loved how much we laughed every day. Every single day.”
Learning from his colleagues about the challenges other installments faced — and shooting the slow-burn “Pilgrim” chronologically — helped Dunstan shake things up creatively too. If you’re familiar with his body of work, then you know that the “Feast” director has a thing for blood and guts. You’ll get that and then some watching one of the most nauseating sequences Hulu has ever produced. But Dunstan sets the table slowly and die-hard genre fans should revel in the wait.
“My goal was too much,” he said, beaming with pride over the ending. “It isn’t aiming to traumatize but almost satirize where we’re going with the violence. I get real joy if people are shocked into laughing.”
“Pilgrim” is streaming with the rest of “Into the Dark” on Hulu.
The Bite: Are You Sure You Want to Unsubscribe from Pilgrim+?
So… how ya feeling? From all that poison-berry vomit to the forced familial cannibalism, “Pilgrim” cleans its plate by doing a lot. When the movie screened at the Austin Film Festival, Dunstan remembers seeing at least one woman leave the theater.
“It was an older person,” he said. “She shot up and was shaking her head. I could tell because I saw the gray hair swaying like this and at a certain point, when she had just had it, she got up and walked right out. So I said, ‘OK.’ Raised an eyebrow. ‘Let’s see if anybody else does.’”
The remaining movie-goers stayed in their seats and generally enjoyed what “Pilgrim” served, from what Dunstan recalls. It’s against the communal spirit of midnight movies to point out that watching this particular “Into the Dark” chapter might have been easier for that one woman at home. But behind the scenes, “Pilgrim” seems like it’s a better movie because it came through a special time in streaming.
“Along with the challenges of the budget and delivering on time, you were also given the freedom to do what you could within that framework,” Dunstan said. “That’s what I thought was so galvanizing about the whole thing. When our ending goes way off the rails, jumps onto a whole other track entirely, it was nice for that to be totally supported.”
Because “Pilgrim” was shooting for just over two weeks, the director said he had to cover “an acreage of pages a day.” That encouraged Dunstan to make the movie in order, which not only helped him keep track of its bonkers tone (that freakin’ music?!) but also helped his team go big with their final scenes.
“By the time it got to the end, it was like, ‘Here comes some cathartic release for all of us,’” said Dunstan. “We don’t have to worry about getting red on the costumes or running over time. We are good.”
This November marks five years since “Pilgrim” came to Hulu. The holiday branding helps it reach the streamer’s homepage every fall, but a lot about the entertainment landscape has changed since “Into the Dark” ended. Fewer projects are getting made and good movies are still being missed. With Dunstan’s most recent directing gig, for “#AMFAD: All My Friends Are Dead,” the film had a small theatrical release before it was mostly pushed online. (You’d think more TikTokers would have seen the slasher featuring JoJo Siwa by now, but at least it’s free on Tubi.)
“There will be a whole new era of those things that slipped through the cracks,” Dunstan said about the future of the TV movie in streaming. “Movies that were either [removed] or got missed by people who were just too inundated at the time will get lost. But maybe there will be a way to bring those back and we’ll find wonderful surprises.” For that, every cinephile can be grateful.
IndieWire After Dark publishes midnight movie recommendations every Friday night. Read more of our deranged suggestions…
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