The science fiction horror comedy flick from director Joseph Kahn, Ick, comes to theaters everywhere starting Sunday. For almost twenty years, a tentacle-like organism known simply as “The Ick” has been gradually creeping into the lives of those in the small down of Eastbrook who have become apathetic and complacent to its presence. The exception is Hank Wallace (Brandon Routh), whose promising football career ended after being injured by The Ick, which led to his dream girl Staci (Mena Suvari) leaving him. Now, two decades later, Hank is an unfulfilled science teacher struggling with disappointment and alcoholism. As the alien Ick starts slowly spreading and infecting the townspeople, Hank must join forces with Staci’s daughter Grace (Malinda Pauli Weissman), who he strongly suspects to be his own daughter. Together, they confront the escalating crisis as the creature possesses and mutates the residents of the town.

Stars Routh and Suvari spoke with SciFi Vision earlier in the week about working on the unique film, which is now in select cities, with a nationwide release via Fathom on 7/27.

Watch the interview and read the transcript below.

SCIFI VISION:   To start out, for people who haven't seen it, why don't you just both talk about your characters and kind of why you wanted to be a part of it?

BRANDON ROUTH:   Yeah, well, Ick takes place in the small town of Eastbrook, and Mena, lovely Mena and I play a high school boyfriend-girlfriend in a portion at the beginning of the movie. And it's kind of our relationship trajectory and our own characters kind of fast forward through 20 years post-graduation where we find them for most of the movie in the current day of Ick. And the Ick has been growing for 20 years, kind of causing no harm, just kind of becoming more populous around the globe. And Hank simply could have been the next great NFL quarterback, but is injured in high school and then never makes anything of himself and becomes a high school science teacher.

SCIFI VISION:   All right, Mena.

MENA SUVARI:   Yeah, and I play Staci. Yes, I like to refer to her as an opportunist. She's definitely the type of person who is really just out for herself and what she thinks she can obtain. And they are high school sweethearts, Staci and Hank in high school, prom queen and prom king. And when Hank is injured in a football game, I think she quickly realizes that she's not going to have the future that she always hoped for. So, she quickly dumps him and moves on to the not as cool guy in school, but definitely the one who's on the path to success, Ted Kim.

And, you know, I see her really there's sort of moments of their paths crossing throughout these different vignettes where you see Staci sort of like on the incline and Hank like on the decline. And there's a moment of interaction where Staci's purchasing a pregnancy test and we sort of wonder, you know, who's the father? And, yeah, Staci, years later, is a mother to Grace, played by Malina Weissman, who's incredible.

It was an honor playing her mama, and they sort of live in opulence. Staci's, again, just, you know, focused on what's best for her and herself and not really, I think, attuned to the effect that she has on others. And, you know, she sort of gets what's coming to her in the end.

SCIFI VISION:   …And why did you want to be a part of it for each of you? What was it that drew you to it?

BRANDON ROUTH:   Oh, well, I'm not the biggest horror fan, but I like horror comedy a lot, and I like monster movies. And the PG-13-ish genre is right about the right tone for me, usually about what I can take, because I think you can tell a fun story that is both scary and the stakes are very high. But we can laugh at it and try to find some humanity in the terror that's happening in the way that we can with Ick.

So, I like that about it. And I was excited to work with Joseph once I became more aware of how skilled and fantastic and kind of genius of a filmmaker that he is. And, you know, I learned a lot as an actor from being on this movie also.

SCIFI VISION:   Why did you want to be a part of it? What drew you to it?

MENA SUVARI:   Well, for me, I mean, I felt really honored to be thought of by someone like Joseph. I've been a fan of his for a really, really long time. So, I feel like off the bat, just him thinking of me, I was on board.

But then I really liked the story, and I really liked the character. I felt like she'd be a lot of fun to play. And for me also, I've always loved the horror genre, but whenever there was the idea of having a comedic element into the mix was really exciting for me, too. So, yeah, I was just really, really happy to come on board.

SCIFI VISION:   Both of you talk about the physical element of it. I know, Brandon, you had a lot more physical scenes, but you had one, too, towards the end. What was that part like? Do you guys enjoy that kind of thing?

MENA SUVARI:   You mean like effects?

SCIFI VISION:   No, like physical stunts and jumping around. Because I know, like I said, you kind of have one scene at the end that's sort of got that in it, nut Brandon's running around through a lot of it. Well, trying to run around, maybe limping around.

BRANDON ROUTH:   Limping around. The limping was a challenge. Thank you for noticing. I tried to make it a challenge, but not real, but not too real. It's like how much limping? No, I mean, listen, it helps. It's fun sometimes. Take three, four, five hot Houston, the humid heat, you know, not as exciting, but it's the job.

I don't think - we didn't overshoot with Joseph's style of filmmaking. We kind of get to see every take. And he knows if he's got the shot or not, so we don't tend to overshoot. There're just a lot of setups. So, there's a lot of shooting. We just don't overshoot the shot.

So, I like it to a degree. But I'm also happy sometimes to let the stunt people do amazing work at the thing that they excel in. When it's not my face.

SCIFI VISION:   That's fair.

BRANDON ROUTH:   Because I like to stay healthy too.

SCIFI VISION:   Let me ask you though, and then I want to hear from you. But was it hard limping so much? I mean, does that start to hurt your leg after a while? I would wonder that that would start to irritate it for a while.

BRANDON ROUTH:   It did get my back worked up a little bit. But I found a great chiropractic team there in Houston for me, actually. So, it was good.

SCIFI VISION:   Sorry, Meena, go ahead.

BRANDON ROUTH:   Oh, sorry. Oh, you're talking to Meena.

MENA SUVARI:   No, Brandon gave it his all and beyond. Like you said, I mean, we were shooting around this time in Texas, in Houston. And really our entire cast and crew was in for the ride.

I mean, for me, I love trying to do as much as I can. I loved being able to play with the effects on this. I think, you know, towards the end when I get sort of ickified, it was like a little over four hours in hair and makeup.

But I love doing that kind of stuff. I think that was also part of what was exciting for me, is it wasn't just playing this really fun character and having all these great moments with her and her strange personality, but it was also being able to play like my younger self, which was really wild. You know, I think technologically, there were a lot of things that I experienced that I never thought that I ever would really in my career. So, that was really cool. And then moving full spectrum into that whole space of becoming part of that horror. I mean, for me, I just love that kind of stuff.

But then with any type of stunts or anything like that, I always try to offer myself up in being able to do as much as I can that the producers will let me do that's safe. Because I really care about - I'm just sort of a stickler about it looking a particular way. Obviously, there's certain things that I haven't been able to do, and you work with incredible stunt people to do those things. But if there's any way that you're going to see any of my face or any type of thing, I always try to offer myself up as game, if it's something that's reasonable for me to be able to do, just because I also enjoy that too.

But I’m getting older now, I don't know how much I'm capable of. So, we'll see.