Monday 29 April 2013

REMEMBERING SLASHER HOUSE


7 years ago almost to the Day I had just sat down to rest after a day of pre production on my first 'professional' short film 'Before The Dawn'. Me and the producer had sat back and finally got round to watching Darren Lynn Bousman's Saw 2 on DVD. As we watched it I was reminded of an idea. The idea was a joke more than anything, but I though 'what if a bunch of serial killers were trapped in a house with one girl'. It seemed like a one note quip at the time and I doodled a few characters one day in class and then kind of forgot about it till that night.

After everyone left I couldn't sleep, and I started to think about how I could turn that little joke idea into something serious and feasible. The result of course was Slasher House and I sat and wrote the first draft in about 2 days. I didn't hold back and wrote something with the intention of selling it to a studio should the chance ever arise. I once again sat and did some character sketches, mostly for myself and then I left it. 

Over the next couple of years it came up in various conversations, and at one point I looked at involving a separate writer to Polish it up, but it just never really panned out. It wasn't till I sat down to make my first No Budget feature and was about to start shooting that our original writer/producer on Creepsville said, 

"Why are trying to make a 20 odd location, dim lit movie, shot at night, on location movie, when you have the perfect low budget script?" 

"Which one?" I asked

"Slasher House" He said and I thought, 'Shit I totally forgot about that'. 

Of course we were about to start shooting Creepsville at the time and so that was my full focus, but all the way through the shoot, the thought stuck with me. 'I'm gonna make Slasher House'. 

On January 1st 2010, much to everyones hung over dismay (One of the perks of being a workaholic is not having time for hangovers) I called the first pre production meeting on Slasher House, we went over the script and then over the next few months I went away and redrafted the whole thing, changed some characters around until I had what I felt to be a well rounded script that had all the Slasher conventions in it. 

At this point to tell the story in any detail would result in a kind of The Lord of the Rings epic which I simply don't want to go into for various reasons, so let me sum it up. 

In Mid July 2010 we landed on the Isle Of Mann and begin to shoot Slasher House, what began here was to be the single most simultaneously destructive and character building experience of my life. Friends were made, friends were lost, peoples loyalties were strained and everyone came out of it, for better or for worse, a different person. 

Almost 3 years since that day I now sit here writing this, to give me a chance to think about it all, because today sees the film out there in the world on DVD and this a testament to the people (all of them) who set foot onto the set of this film or supported it by donating money, time or something else. It would not have been the same film without you. 

So if you want to support a true grass roots indie production 

BUY IT :


And if you wish to see us make another.

DONATE HERE :

Thanks to everyone who supported us thus far. 

MJ

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