Sep 21, 2026 · 20 min · 8 segments
*The Squirrel* writer/director Markus Lehmusruusu and star Mimosa Willamo join The Fear Review following the film’s Fantastic Fest international premiere. Markus explains why the most frightening…
Markus LehmusruusuGuest
Mimosa WillamoGuestWilliamHost
That was like when I was writing, was already i think like on maybe first draft or second draft where i realized that it is actually like the biggest kind of antagonism in this film to me is actually indifference and this was like that relation realization to me kind of like made everything uh come together when i realized that yeah kind of the most scary thing is that when people have actually freedom of choice and they choose this and this was like that I kind of like well it's based on like observation of myself because that's how I do do it also you know and it's like I'm kind of like I feel that even if my intentions were kind of good still my indifference or whatever it is can lead to like like things that I didn't actually want.
But that's just how it goes if I'm kind of optimizing my own happiness and safety and comfort.
Do you think that's what makes it a little more unsettling is that you can understand how people got there, right? Like seeing that in yourself? Yeah, I mean, I hope so.
We kept...
It's given everything someone thinks it should need, but there's still something kind of fundamentally missing.
Was that parallel deliberately built into the story?
I think it was more about... looking at kind of like human beings and our kind of basic needs.
And then the main character, Pasi, and basically every character in this world have kind of like became like isolated from their own emotions and kind of like whatever it is, like connection.
And when the scroll comes there, I think that was the kind of like, point to me that Pasi is kind of trying the same tools that he happily believes work on himself also when the story begins that basically all of the characters there kind of believe that this world is okay and nice and of course there are like a lot of good things there also but I think that was kind of the the thing that the squirrel is is kind of bringing in something real and that relationship is actually kind of forcing Pasi to realize his own needs at the same
time.
So it's kind of... making him recognize something in his own life that's missing, right?
I think, to me, something that interested me was this kind of thought of basic needs.
Like, what do we actually need? And thinking about this kind of artificiality versus something real, to me, was in this film a lot about thinking about, can we...
where are we going as a species? We are kind of coming up with all kinds of artificial technology that makes our life easier and at the same time gives us pleasure or whatever.
And then the question to me was like, are we so omnipotent as a species that we can do that, you know? Can we like kind of create anything? And
would
there still be something missing, you know? Is there like something in us that we just cannot like artificially replace? I
That was like when I was writing, was already i think like on maybe first draft or second draft where i realized that it is actually like the biggest kind of antagonism in this film to me is actually indifference and this was like that relation realization to me kind of like made everything uh come together when i realized that yeah kind of the most scary thing is that when people have actually freedom of choice and they choose this and this was like that I kind of like well it's based on like observation of myself because that's how I do do it also you know and it's like I'm kind of like I feel that even if my intentions were kind of good still my indifference or whatever it is can lead to like like things that I didn't actually want.
But that's just how it goes if I'm kind of optimizing my own happiness and safety and comfort.
Do you think that's what makes it a little more unsettling is that you can understand how people got there, right? Like seeing that in yourself? Yeah, I mean, I hope so.
We kept...
It's given everything someone thinks it should need, but there's still something kind of fundamentally missing.
Was that parallel deliberately built into the story?
I think it was more about... looking at kind of like human beings and our kind of basic needs.
And then the main character, Pasi, and basically every character in this world have kind of like became like isolated from their own emotions and kind of like whatever it is, like connection.
And when the scroll comes there, I think that was the kind of like, point to me that Pasi is kind of trying the same tools that he happily believes work on himself also when the story begins that basically all of the characters there kind of believe that this world is okay and nice and of course there are like a lot of good things there also but I think that was kind of the the thing that the squirrel is is kind of bringing in something real and that relationship is actually kind of forcing Pasi to realize his own needs at the same
time.
So it's kind of... making him recognize something in his own life that's missing, right?
I think, to me, something that interested me was this kind of thought of basic needs.
Like, what do we actually need? And thinking about this kind of artificiality versus something real, to me, was in this film a lot about thinking about, can we...
where are we going as a species? We are kind of coming up with all kinds of artificial technology that makes our life easier and at the same time gives us pleasure or whatever.
And then the question to me was like, are we so omnipotent as a species that we can do that, you know? Can we like kind of create anything? And
would
there still be something missing, you know? Is there like something in us that we just cannot like artificially replace? I
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