Screened at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, ‘Son of Sara: Volume 1’ is a bold Canadian horror-comedy that blends supernatural terror with dark humour. Written and directed by Houston Bone, the independent feature stars Chloe Van Landschoot as Sara, a heavily pregnant woman whose already difficult pregnancy takes a nightmarish turn after reconnecting with her estranged ex-boyfriend. As unsettling cravings, disturbing visions, and shocking revelations blur the line between body horror and psychological horror, ‘Son of Sara’ offers a fresh, queer take on the classic demonic pregnancy narrative. In this article, Shwayta chats with Chloe Van Landschoot to discuss the physical and emotional demands of portraying Sara, trusting instinct over intellect, and how surrendering to both the filmmaking process and her character’s unraveling shaped one of her most visceral performances to date.

You’ve previously described Sara’s deteriorating pregnancy in ‘Son of Sara: Volume 1’ as a situation where “the baby starts making decisions for her”. As an actor, how did you mentally map out that terrifying progression of losing bodily autonomy, especially within the context of a horror film?

The original script didn’t have a defined progression of when the baby was influencing Sara versus when Sara was making her own decisions. That was something I brought up with Houston early on. Even if the audience never consciously notices it, I needed to know where those shifts were happening as an actor. I also just think that’s also just the nature of filmmaking. You do all this work to build a character with intention, and then at some point you have to surrender to the process. The edit becomes another storyteller. As an actor, there’s something kind of beautiful about that because you’re constantly giving up control, which is ironically exactly what Sara is experiencing throughout the film.

How did your real-life experience as an ER nurse in Toronto influence the way you approached and physically embodied the raw, biological body horror of Sara’s pregnancy?

Working in medicine definitely changes your relationship with the human body. For better or for worse (ha). Bodies are messy. They’re weird. They’re unpredictable. They’re fascinating. And they are FULL of fluids, and I guess I never wanted to play the horror of it. I just wanted to play the reality of what her body was going through. The more truthful we made it, the more visceral it all actually became because that’s what bodies are!

You’ve mentioned in the past that you have typically played very contained characters. What was the most liberating part of unleashing what you called the “metaphorical beast” inside you for this role?

I think what I loved most about Sara is that she’s incredibly avoidant, but she’s also being so aggressively confronted by her body. She spends so much of the film trying not to look directly at what’s happening, but her body always knows before her mind does, which feels so classically human. She’s constantly negotiating with herself, while her body is screaming that something is wrong. I found that tension really fun to play with. There’s also something really freeing about not worrying whether your character looks composed or even likable. I’ve played a lot of characters who are incredibly competent, who are constantly trying to manage the situation or hold everything together. Sara reaches a point where she just can’t anymore, which is quite freeing as an actor

As an actor, what was the biggest emotional challenge in playing someone who is in such a vulnerable position and is continuing to feel increasingly isolated?

Honestly, the emotional side wasn’t the hardest part for me. I actually found it incredibly liberating. Sara gets to completely unravel, let all this insanity happen to her, and then eventually find something worth fighting for. As an actor, there’s something really satisfying about being given permission to make a complete mess… and then be…applauded for it.

‘Son of Sara’ writer/director Houston Bone leaves a lot open to interpretation within the film. Since so much of the film was built on real-time discoveries, how much of Sara’s background did you map out versus letting it reveal itself in the moment?

How I prep a character really varies from project to project. For Sara, the role demanded a relationship to sensation, the body, and this kind of subterranean conjuring of spirit. It felt less intellectual than a lot of characters I’ve played. Once I understood those things, and made some decisions about her upbringing and self-esteem, I found the rest tended to take care of itself. I mostly wanted to leave room for instinct, especially with such an embodied role. I had that baby belly with me for a week before we shot, so I walked around Toronto wearing it and just paid attention. How did I move? How did people look at me? What assumptions were they making? I spent time with my coaches exploring labour sounds, breath, and the physicality of pregnancy. By the time we got to set, I didn’t feel like I had to think about Sara anymore – she was just in my body.

The relationship between Sara and Carol feels incredibly warm, charged, and lived-in. Which specific moments with Tymika Tafari did you feel helped to ground the film’s wilder horror elements the most?

Tymika is such a gifted actor, and honestly, we had chemistry right off the bat. She brings so much humour, warmth, strength, and care to Carol that she naturally became an anchor, playing a very 3-dimensional voice of reason. Because I trusted her so much as a scene partner, it was really easy for the relationship to feel lived-in. We didn’t have to work very hard to manufacture intimacy; it was just there. If the relationship didn’t feel real, I don’t think the horror would hit nearly as hard. 

Unlike traditional pregnancy horror films that prioritize the psychological psyche, ‘Son of Sara’ demands full sensorial imagery of the sweating, trembling pregnant body. How was the experience of bringing this visceral level of physical reality to the screen, and why do you think it was a deliberate choice within the script?

I loved bringing that type of visceral physicality.  It meant I wasn’t trying to intellectualize or perform fear or panic. I was trying to inhabit a body that was constantly giving me information and at the same time absolutely turning on me. I also think it’s a really honest way to talk about pregnancy. It’s such an embodied experience. It’s beautiful, strange, uncomfortable, miraculous, terrifying… sometimes all in the same hour (I’ve never been pregnant myself, those are just my field notes from my pregnant pals). So it made sense to me that the horror would live in the body rather than just in the mind.

The film’s wild, unscripted “scream-off” scene near the end of the film came out of pure impulse. What was it like when Houston Bone kept the camera rolling on that chaotic, improvisational moment, and how did it lend to an elevated performance on your end?

I think we were on hour thirteen of day four in that barn when we shot that scene?  At a certain point, the line between acting and collective delirium gets QUITE blurred, and you end up with a satanic scream off!

So what’s next on the horizon?

I can confirm Season 5 Kristi is firmly in her sad boi era. As for SOS 2. I’ll dive into whatever wet, goopy mess Houston dreams up next.

Photo Credits: Vortex Media.