'Pretty Little Liars' cast discusses new killer, old traumas

LOS ANGELES, May 9 (UPI) -- The cast of Pretty Little Liars: Summer School, premiering Thursday on Max, said the new season features an even more intense killer, while the characters continue to cope with the traumas they endured in Season 1, Original Sin.

In Season 1, the girls of Millwood -- Imogen (Bailee Madison), Tabby (Chandler Kinney), Faran (Zaria), Mouse (Malia Pyles), Noa (Maia Reffico) and Kelly (Mallory Bechtel) -- discovered their stalker, A, was the secret sibling of a girl their mothers had bullied in high school.

Though A has been apprehended, a new killer, Bloody Rose, presents herself. She wraps her head in bloody bandages before attacking her victims.

"Obviously, a psycho human who wants to kill is going to naturally wake up and hand dip the gauze in blood," Madison, 24, told UPI in a recent Zoom interview. "This villain is committed."

Madison's co-stars said the actors taking turns playing Bloody Rose legitimately frightened them once artists fully applied their makeup.

"I remember the first time walking out of her trailer and I audibly screamed," said Reffico, 23. "It was just truly a jump scare."

Zaria, 28, called Bloody Rose "genuinely scary" and Bechtel, 24, said she felt "revulsion" upon seeing the completed visage. Bechtel, however, empathized with the actors wearing the costume.

"Putting on that mask is a nightmare in itself," Bechtel said. "That thing's air-tight. She's sipping through a straw."

Jordan Gonzalez, who plays Mouse's boyfriend, Ash, said the Bloody Rose actors made scary movements, too.

"Her gait is so creepy and just very scary and very inhuman," Gonzalez said.

For co-creator Lindsay Calhoon Bring, it was important that the new villain be as scary as A.

"Visually, aesthetically, but also storywise, our new villain we were ushering in was going to be absolutely terrifying, spine chilling and just unsettling," Calhoon Bring said.

Inspired by the Sara Shepard books, which became a long-running Freeform series, Pretty Little Liars also takes a cue from teen horror movies. Tabby, for example, is a horror fan who works at a movie theater.

Co-creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa said Tabby represents himself and Calhoon Bring, who are "beyond horror fanatics." Aguirre-Sacasa teased an upcoming episode with a Scream homage.

"The characters talk us through all of the suspects, all of the tropes, and all of the reasons why so and so could be the killer," Aguirre-Sacasa said. "[Tabby] is a love letter to those characters and the show is a love letter to horror movies, as well.

As a new killer attacks the Pretty Little Liars, they are still reeling from the events of Season 1. Imogen became pregnant as the result of a rape and put the baby up for adoption at the end of the season.

"She has let go of something again and had to lose something again," Madison said. "Now she's questioning,' Was that a selfish choice of mine?'"

Imogen also lost her mother in Season 1, dying by suicide after A contacted her. The apprehension of A does not lessen Imogen's pain of losing her mother, Madison said.

"I think loss affects you for your entire life, especially the loss of a parent," Madison said. "[Imogen] was the one who found her and she was the one who had to deal with the aftermath at 16 years old. That's going to scar you for life."

Imogen sees a psychologist, Dr. Sullivan (Annabeth Gish), reprising her role from the original series. Gish said Pretty Little Liars grounds the horror in "very deep issues, very relevant issues, and they're honestly, authentically working to heal them."

Madison said she hopes that Pretty Little Liars featuring characters who speak openly about issues like rape, sexual assault and suicide helps viewers.

"I think now more than ever we're all searching for ways to feel seen or validated or heard," Madison said, adding that Pretty Little Liars is first and foremost entertainment "but also possibly heal someone who's watching it at the same time or give visibility to people."

Bechtel said addressing such issues makes Pretty Little Liars stand out from teen romance shows.

"It feels very special to be on a teen show that doesn't gloss over those topics and is willing to really dive into them," she said.

Zaria said characters like A and Bloody Rose are fictional horrors, but the underlying themes are real to women everywhere.

"Lindsay was saying there are horrors that women have to go through that aren't as jarring per se as someone wrapped in bloody bandages," Zaria said. "{They are] not as obvious, but they're still jarring in their own right."

Reffico said that if Season 1 of Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin really happened, it would be too much for a person to handle. So, Season 2 devotes at least some of the plot to the characters trying to recover.

"My favorite thing about this season is watching all of us individually trying to find ourselves," Reffico said, adding that all the characters are "trying to rebuild whatever we perceive as home, what makes us happy and what makes us feel safe."

Portraying traumatic issues, even in fiction, still can be difficult for the cast and crew, Pyles said. Pyles said the scenes sometimes provoke personal dialogues behind the scenes.

"We also have to check in with everyone around us," Pyles said. "You're constantly listening and talking to those around you because you have no idea what anyone's gone through."

Calhoon Bring said she intended to imbue a fun, young adult horror show with role models that could provide answers for "young people who've maybe endured a trauma and don't understand how to vocalize that, don't know how to use their language, don't know how to reach out for help, don't know who to lean on."

New episodes of Pretty Little Liars: Summer School stream Thursdays on Max.