Checking into ‘The Lodge’
Jaeden Martell pivots from mystery to horror
Jaeden Martell, fresh off a $300 million global hit with “Knives Out,” goes from dorky weird to creepy and worse in Friday’s blood-splattered horror entry, “The Lodge.”
Martell was the oddball teenager Jacob Thrombey in the Agatha Christie-inspired “Knives Out,’ mocked by Daniel Craig’s private investigator for playing with himself in the baronial mansion’s bathroom.
In “The Lodge” he’s Aidan, a quiet kid, the protective older brother to baby sister Mia (Lia McHugh). Their divorced dad (Richard Armitage) leaves them in a remote snow-bound hunting lodge with their soon-to-be stepmom (Riley Keough, “It Comes at Night”).
As strange, disturbing events unfold, the trio feel trapped.
“Our dad pushed us into a situation, six months after the death of our mother,” Martell, 17, said.
“They’re both feeling a lot of pain with the loss of their mother (Alicia Silverstone). Aidan’s not overly evil or creepy. He resents the stepmother Grace and doesn’t know who to take it out on.
“They do harsh things but it’s understandable.”
Filming — “We were two hours outside Montreal” — on an icy lake and inside the snow-covered retreat wasn’t easy.
“That was a real lodge in the middle of nowhere. There was school in-between and time to mess around,” Martell revealed.
“We were really in the elements — it was bitter, very intense cold but we had fun and goofed around for sure.”
There’s a truly hair-raising “Lodge” sequence on the icy lake that looks terrifying.
“We too were terrified,” he said, his voice rising. “We had 100 crew members on the ice with heaters and equipment and I didn’t feel safe. But it supposedly was.”
More recently Martell completed filming “Defending Jacob” as the titular character. It’s an eight-episode Apple TV+ series with Chris Evans, his “Knives Out” cohort, and Michelle Dockery.
“We’ve finished six months in Boston and that should be coming out soonish.”
How did he find Boston? “It was a long time to be away from home so I did miss my family and friends. But we got all the seasons and stayed in Cambridge right by Harvard Square.
“Then we shot outside of Boston in the studios by Fort Devens.”
As for the future, “I’m still in high school, a junior. We’ll see about college. I’m interested in filmmaking and if I were to study, it would be film.”