Driven to extremes
Ali Larter embraces survival mode for ‘Last Victim’ thriller
“The Last Victim” twists traditional thriller expectations with Ali Larter’s Susan suddenly prey to a murderous outlaw trio in the Southwest.
It’s every tourist’s nightmare: Visit a vast “empty” wilderness and discover gunmen are also here, hoping to exterminate you.
“I describe it as a woman in survival mode thriller,” said Larter, 46 and a veteran of horrortinged scenarios (“Final Destination,” “Resident Evil: Extinction”) where life and death race side by side.
“One of the things I loved about this was you take someone like my character Susan. She’s very Type A, likes to control things, is OCD. She’s on antidepressants, Klonopin and all that. She’s just trying to function in this world by controlling everything.
“Then you put her outside her comfort zone, in the wilderness where she’s being hunted by these men — and you watch this warrior in her come out! You see her emerge through this trauma. That was the core of why I was excited to do this and tell this story.
“Susan was battling to control herself — and then all control is taken away from her. And that’s the reality of life and where I connected with it: It’s impossible to control life. You’ve got to live in a present and let it go and deal with whatever’s happening in that moment.”
In trying to stay alive, without food or even water, hiding in bushes like a rabbit hunted by hawks, Susan seizes the opportunity to wrestle and kill one very large animal. Really?
“I absolutely think it’s a real possibility,” Larter declared. “You can never underestimate the power within yourself. You hear those stories of a mother being able to lift the car up (to save her child). So I think in that situation anything is possible and I would never doubt the power of a woman.”
It took a lot of power to film almost entirely outdoors in Canada in 30 days. The pretty scenery was pretty chill.
“I love all that. I’ve worked with enough soundstages where I prefer being in extreme environments, especially if it’s in the context of the scene.
“It was freezing cold at night and I’m really shaking and shivering. That’s real. We’re shooting,” she added, “at a fast pace. I need with my training to know I have the stamina to be able to work through the night in freezing cold and do these takes over and over again. To let it come alive.
“Especially for a movie like this, you want to portray the rawness of it. It really gets you there.”