Beck Kubrick's "Dead Girls"

Beck Kubrick is an award-winning writer and cartoonist living in Manchester, UK. They like stories about terrible girls and thinking about the apocalypse. They have worked with Cartoon Network, Mad Cave Studios, Oni Press, and more.

Here Kubrick dreamcasts an adaptation of Dead Girls, their debut graphic novel as author-illustrator:

Dead Girls is a comedy-horror that plays with tropes and conventions and is obviously, very inspired by teen screams, slashers and the rise of good-for-her and coming of rage films. There are so many directors and filmmakers who inspire my work; I love any story that plays with the mundane, hyperreality and genre.

In anything and everything I make, I just want to put David Lynch, Bong Joon Ho, Katie Dippold, John Carpenter and Diablo Cody in a blender. Add a dash of Sofia Coppola, just for the scene in The Virgin Suicides (1999) in which Hanna Hall’s character says ‘Obviously, Doctor, you've never been a thirteen-year-old girl.’. Add a healthy dose of The Simpsons (1989), too. Also I want a Wilhelm scream, that’s non-negotiable.

There’s so many more filmmakers off the top of my head who I love and was inspired by when creating the book: The Kates, The Daniels, Jonathan Entwistle, Greg Jardin, Bill Watterson (not that one), Bronwen Hughes, Jane Schoenbrun and so many more.

Since I use lots of mediums for the art: ink, pencil, oil paint etc. so I think there’d have to be some animation. Pendleton Ward and Joe Bennet make great, animated shows. I’d also love for the fursuits to be done by the team behind Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared (2014) as they’d be perfectly unsettling.

For actors, I generally like the Heartstopper (2022) approach of casting real teens and relative unknowns but I don’t know many unknowns…because they’re unknown.

Ash, my protagonist, is grunge-y with bleached, fried hair she cut in herself. She’s angsty and a fighter but is hurting deep down and trapped in other people’s expectations; so someone who can play a detached, cool girl like Sophie Thatcher (Yellowjackets) or Lizzie Broadway (Gen V). Maybe even a Lachlan Watson (Chuckie) or Jack Haven (I saw the TV Glow) for the way they play with expectations and identity.

Cassie is Ash’s hyper femme, terminally delightful foster sister. She’s all rainbow and fairies but will save the day with a mascara wand and a dream, like Elle Woods. Amy Lou Wood (White Lotus) would be great.

Jamie, Ash’s best friend is Korean-American and has hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (like me!). I’m not sure of many actresses with the condition, but I think Aubrey Anderson- Emmons (Modern Family) or Ella Jay Baso (Bird of Prey) would do a great job with Jamie’s usually dry, sarcastic wit and delivery.

Ernie, Ash’s-inherited-from-her-mum-friend/ surrogate-uncle, falls somewhere between Harvey Guillén and Colman Domino. Does such a man exist?

Amandla Stenberg would be perfect as Heather, the girl Ash is sort-of seeing, who is sort-of missing. Pariah Ferguson would be great as Naomi, super smart, but socially oblivious, true crime streamer investigating the murders who’s willing to do whatever it takes to get the truth.

I don’t have specific actors in mind, but Ash’s Filipino foster (grand)parents have the energy of Jeff Goldblum and Dale Dickey. Helen, Heather’s mum who hates Ash, would be played perfectly by Kate O'Flynn or Tilda Swinton. Mostly, because I want to see Tilda Swinton in a brown, bob wig.

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--Marshal Zeringue