Where You've Seen Jules From What Keeps You Alive Before

For those who think they've run out of interesting new flicks to watch on Netflix, the streaming giant's Top 10 rankings continue to be the gift that keeps on giving. That's particularly true for folks in search of overlooked movies that either never got a proper theatrical release or never found their audience. 

The latest movie to break unexpectedly into Netflix's vaunted Top 10 is an indie genre gem that should become essential viewing for the horror set. It's called What Keeps You Alive, and it follows the story of seemingly blissfully married couple Jackie (Hannah Emily Anderson) and Jules (Brittany Allen), who escape to a remote cabin in the woods to celebrate their first wedding anniversary. Once the happy couple arrives, things take a twist for the brutal. What follows is a harrowing game of cat and mouse that'll have your head spinning long after the credits roll.

Written and directed by Colin Minahan (It Stains the Sand Red), What Keeps You Alive is a frightfully clever delight that packs a surprising emotional wallop. Of the film's sparse cast, there's one face that will likely seem quite familiar, especially to moviegoers with a taste for fake blood and shocking jump scares. It belongs to Brittany Allen (Jules), and it's been blood-spattered in all manner of film and TV projects in recent years. Here's where you've seen Jules from What Keeps You Alive before.

It may come as a surprise, but Brittany Allen has been kicking around showbiz since the late '90s, earning her first screen credit as a teen in the 1999 Canadian made-for-TV movie Restless Spirits. It's far more likely, however, that you recognize Allen from her revealing turn in a certain ultraviolent Amazon streaming venture about super-powered people who are generally as far from heroic as imaginable.

That series is Amazon's caustically satirical, shamelessly nihilistic anti-superhero saga The Boys. If you're having a little trouble placing Brittany Allen's face in the series, you probably weren't paying close enough attention, because she appeared in a handful of the season's more memorable episodes as the mighty Popclaw. 

If you don't watch The Boys, we'll tell you Popclaw is essentially the story's version of Wolverine, as she has deadly claws that protrude from her arms when she's in for a fight, plus superhuman strength. That second gift is what gets the powerful Popclaw in trouble, as it popped up in a sex scene that instantly ranked among the most brutally memorable moments on a series that's made quite a name for itself in that regard. As for Allen's Popclaw, she was also a key member of the so-called Teenage Kicks super squad, and even called fellow super A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) her beau. Unfortunately, the character's ties to the less-than-noble A-Train eventually led to Allen's early exit from The Boys, so she will not be back for the incoming second season. 

Popclaw's tragic demise on The Boys is far from Brittany Allen's first on-screen death. In fact, the young actor is well on her way to challenging Sean Bean in terms of cinematic deaths after biting the big one in numerous projects in the past half-decade. As it happens, her drug-fueled departure from The Boys was one of the least bloody deaths Allen has endured to date.

Her character met a worse fate in 2019's crazy, murderous thriller The Prodigy. That film saw Taylor Schilling (Orange is the New Black) portraying the tormented mother of a budding wonder-kid (Jackson Robert Scott), who also happens to be a budding psychopath thanks to being unexpectedly possessed by the vengeful spirit of a serial killer. Matters get dicey when the kid starts leaving a trail of blood wherever he goes, with the spirit within forging a path towards a fateful reunion with his final victim, who managed to escape his violent wrath with her life.  

Fans of the flick no doubt recall Brittany Allen played the part of that "final" victim, Margaret St. James. You also likely recall she ended up in a pool of her own blood by the end of the film, and that her final moments onscreen were as tragic and unpredictable as they were brutal and all but inevitable. While Allen didn't have a ton of screen time in The Prodigy, she still managed to leave a lasting impact as St. James, delivering a soulful turn as the one-time victim who became a surviving hero, only to become a victim once again.     

We weren't kidding when we said Brittany Allen has been dying a lot on the screen in recent years. While she met decidedly unceremonious ends in The Boys and The Prodigy, neither of those offings were quite as brutal as what her character endured at the hands of a Jigsaw killer disciple in 2017's pseudo Saw franchise reboot Jigsaw.

As it happens, Jigsaw also saw Allen appearing with her What Keeps You Alive co-star Hannah Emily Anderson, though their characters never actually interact. The narrative of the film unfolds approximately a decade after the death of the original Jigsaw killer (Tobin Bell), and finds the new Jigsaw carrying on the devious work of his departed one-time tormenter turned spiritual leader and torture chamber trainer.

Brittany Allen was, of course, one of the players in the new Jigsaw's twisted game, portraying a pickpocket who inadvertently killed an asthma patient after boosting the woman's purse not knowing her inhaler was inside. As is the case in any of Jigsaw's games, lives depend on the ability of the players to: 1) Admit the wrong they's done in the world, and 2) try to become a better person and/or appreciate life if they survive the game. Unfortunately for Allen's Carly, she only did one of those things, which resulted in one of her co-players (on the verge of being killed for Carly's actions) injecting her with a handful of syringes, two of which contained acid that caused Carly to melt and bleed out from the inside.

Yes, the moment was every bit as grotesque as it sounds, even by Saw franchise standards.

Though it just wrapped its critically lauded six-season run, the Canadian Broadcasting Company's riotous north-of-the-border comedy Schitt's Creek is considered by many to be one of the funniest series to ever grace the airwaves. Starring comedic icons Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara (alongside Daniel Levy and Annie Murphy), the show told the tale of a once-fabulously-wealthy family who, after falling on seriously hard times, end up calling a ramshackle motel purchased as a joke their new home. All sorts of comedic hijinks naturally ensue.

While the family unit is understandably the focal point for most the comedy and drama throughout Schitt's Creek's run (with notable contributions from a steady cast of supporting players), the series took just as much joy in its rotating roster of non-regulars. Brittany Allen joined the ranks of those short-timers with a more than memorable one-off turn on season 1 of Schitt's Creek.

In the show's ninth episode, titled "Carl's Funeral," Allen played Bree, the former daughter-in-law of the deceased, who shows up in a whirlwind of verbal jousting with her booze-loving hubby (Aaron Poole). By no means would we claim Bree and Sean the stars of the show for even this single episode, but we will call Brittany Allen's turn as Bree the very definition of scene-stealing, with the actor pulling some of the episode's best laughs with an outlandish performance that genuinely left one wanting more. Sadly, there was no legit reason to ever bring the character back to the cozy confines of Schitt's Creek, so it was a one-and-done affair for the talented Brittany Allen.