Christina Milian said producing Body Language, which premiered Monday at the Screamfest horror film festival, reminded her how scary movies could be empowering.
Milian, 43, recalled getting nightmares after watching Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th movies as a kid. She turned those nightmares into empowering fantasies.
"Plot twist, Freddy Krueger ended up being my boyfriend in the dream and that's when I was able to get over the fear," Milian said at a Q&A after the film's Hollywood, Calif. premiere.
"I took control, I took my power and I understood hey, this is a dream but you can turn this around," she said.
Body Language is Christina Milian's first movie as a producer and her first thriller as an actor. She plays Mariana Cruz, a body language expert working for a security company.
When Mariana's husband, Nick (Gregg Wayans) invites his college classmate, Dylan (Steven Strait) for dinner, Mariana suspects Dylan is not really who he says he is. While awaiting Nick's arrival, Mariana questions Dylan.
"I've been in the game for a while and I've been seeking for a very long time to be able to produce a project," Milian said. "I love that the character felt strong. She felt very present."
Milian has been acting since she was a teenager in the '90s and released her first album in 2001. Her only prior producing credit was her 2015 reality series Christina Milian Turned Up.
While looking for film projects, Milian saw director Cory Miller's 2018 short film, Dylan, in which screenwriter Rob Belushi played Dylan. Miller and Belushi expanded the short into the Body Language screenplay and Belushi plays one of Mariana's friends.
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Miller said he and Belushi were apprehensive about sustaining the premise for an entire film. Miller credited producers Chad and Cary Hayes - - who wrote The Conjuring, House of Wax and other horror movies - - with guiding them in the writing.
"They saw the path right away in terms of this ebb and flow of this cat and mouse game," Miller said. "We all have the fight or flight instinct. When does that kick in and when do we ignore it? Do we ignore it at our peril?"
Chad Hayes said the real-world scenario appealed to him and his brother as producers. Dylan earns enough trust to be welcomed into Mariana's home.
"We're trying to move into films like that, that are genre but with a twist," Chad said. "This could happen to any of us, literally."
Mariana notices Dylan displaying some apprehensive body language, physical cues she explained earlier in the film when questioning an executive accused of sexual misconduct.
Yet, Mariana keeps entertaining Dylan, expecting Nick to come home any time. Milian said she related to Mariana questioning her own judgment as she tries to give her husband's friend the benefit of the doubt.
"Women, in a lot of cases, we have this intuition about us that tells us what's right, what's wrong," Milian said. "Then usually it's revealed that we were right."
She also acknowledged men have instincts too. Milian lamented that often hopefulness leads people to ignore red flags.
"I think we want to wish for the best," Milian said. "We're hoping that whatever that bad feeling is is not what it is."
Social media offers Mariana some clues that Dylan is not, in fact, Nick's classmate. She checks Dylan's Instagram feed and catches inconsistencies, but also realizes much of what Dylan knows comes from her own accounts.
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"I've even learned in my actual real life, they're watching," Milian said. "You have to be very careful what you post sometimes. But hey, live your life."
Miller said that as cautionary as Body Language is, it is still extreme fiction. Body Language represents the worst-case scenario.
"The guiding light of this entire project was to make a grounded thriller that's potentially believable," Miller said. "It's unlikely to happen but it's that one in a million situation where it absolutely could."
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