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Your new movie Meathook Massacre II - in a few words, what is
it about?
Meathook Massacre II
picks up "10 years" after the events of
the original film. We follow the final girl's twin brother as he tracks
the killer down at a new hide-out and comes face-to-face with the meathook
wielding maniac and his entire sadistic family! Meathook Massacre II
is of course a
sequel to your own Meathook Massacre - so give us a quick rundown
what that one's about, and what prompted you to make a sequel? And how
closely related are first and second part, narratively?
The
original film takes place in 1989 and was shot on S-VHS. It follows a
group of 3 girls traveling to a Dragonsclaw concert only to encounter car
trouble along the way. One by bloody one they each wander to a secluded
old farmhouse containing a meathook-obsessed Killer. Needless to say,
things get a little gory and no one really survives. The whole film was
sort of a love letter to the original The
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974).
I wanted to make a serious but also "sleazy" slasher film that
had a dated look, allowing me to create a "period piece". All my
films are big throwbacks to the horror I grew up with, but this one in
particular was a movie for "fans". At the time, I didn't
anticipate doing a sequel, but it was left open-ended so once the film was
released and started to grow a cult following it became obvious we should
do another, only this time "bigger". It's a direct sequel, but
picking up a decade later so this time around we shot it on HD and gave it
a more "updated" late 90s/early 2000s look. It's since spawned
an entire franchise with T-shirts, posters, a comic, a Nintendo game and a
prequel film planned for next year!
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(Other)
sources of inspiration when dreaming up Meathook Massacre II? Like
how the original Meathook Massacre was inspired by The
Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the 2nd film was
inspired by its sequel. Like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, we also
feature a crazy, cannibalistic family living in an underground cavern. The
film also draws elements from American Gothic (1989) with the "adult
children" aspect and even House of 1000 Corpses (2003) as
Mother Dawna's character is an homage to the late Karen Black as Mother
Firefly. Also, the character of "Justin" was molded after
Matthew McConaughey in Return of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
(1994). It's a giant hodgepodge of camp and terror and I think fans of the
original are going to be pleasantly surprised by the new direction of this
film. Do
talk about your movie's approach to horror for a bit! I'm
known for my "campy horror" approach and this is no exception.
In fact, it may be one of my wildest films to date. The original movie was
more serious and I wanted to keep that aspect of it, but I also wanted a
more "cult horror" film approach, with campy one-liners,
memorable characters and some really fitting music. I wanted something
scary, but something fun and would make you want to watch it again when
it's over. I think I achieved that. We got music by Velvet Acid Christ,
Leaether Strip, Dragonsclaw and Rob Robinson did the score. What's a good
horror film without a KILLER soundtrack?
Now
the "massacre" part in your movie title implies quite some
bloody nastiness - so what can you tell us about the gore effects in your
movie?
There
are some decent kills for sure. The original movie had all female victims
with one male victim. This time, the tables are turned. It's all male
victims with only one female. As Joe Bob Briggs likes to put it, here's
the "Drive-In Totals":
1.
Bloody Car Attack
2.
Hook to the face
3.
Meathook Hanging
4.
Grandma's Rotted Corpse
5.
Hook to the throat
6.
Sexual Torture
7.
Cannibal chow
8.
Beartrap brutality
9.
Caged human animal
10.
Bloody Body Parts galore
11.
Chest Stabbing
12.
Body dragging
A few words about your overall directorial
approach to your story at hand? I just wanted to have fun.
During production of part 1 I had a lot of things happening in my personal
life that was making me depressed. The overall production experience felt
rushed and stressful. I made the film I wanted to make, but felt it could
use so much more story. That's what I wanted with part 2. I wanted to
recreate the simpleness of the original while amping up the camp, gore and
background of the characters. As far as I know, Meathook Massacre II
does feature a couple of genre favourites - so do talk
about them for a bit, and how did you get them and what was working with
them like?
Deborah Dutch [Deborah Dutch
interview - click here] plays "Aunty Deb". I've
been a big fan of her since Hard To Die (1990) and she's
pretty much a staple in early Jim Wynorski flicks [Jim
Wynorski interview - click here]. Dawna Lee Heising [Dawna
Lee Heising interview - click here] plays
"Mother Dawna", both of them were introducted to me via mutual
actor friend Luc Bernier [Luc
Bernier interview - click here]. I needed a couple B-movie actresses for the
parts (and to have "names" to help sell the film) so he hooked
me up with them. They both flew in from California and we had a big 3-day
slumber party at my house while filming. It was a lot of fun getting to
hear old stories of Hollywood in the 80s and 90s and getting to be
personable with them. I had a great time and they both did so wonderful in
the film! What can you tell us about the rest of your
cast, and why exactly these people? My own "Scream
Queens" Jennii Caroline [Jennii
Caroline interview - click here] and Breana Mitchell [Breana
Mitchell interview - click here] both appear. Jennii plays
the daughter in the crazied family and Breana is actually a surviving
victim from part 1, now Jennii's brainwashed playmate. Daniel Stier plays
the lead, who goes to the cave and attempts to "rescue" Breana
or anyone else he can find. Nebraska Senator Colby Coash plays
"Pa" and Robert Lankford returns as "Bubba The
Killer". There's also newcomer Justin Milani as a brother in the
family. Everyone else plays victims: Lucas Schmidt, Jake Bockoven, Edwin
Garcia, Jason Bracht, Clint Beaver, Donna Hamblin [Donna
Hamblin interview - click here] and Luc Bernier. Almost
everyone I've worked with at least once in the past. It was a very
"family"-like production for sure. Do talk about the
shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere?
In
typical Dustin Ferguson fashion, it was a fast and crazy shoot. But a
total blast! Shooting in Robber's Cave was amazing and it was a perfect
set. Adds so much production value to the movie! Everyone had a lot of fun
working together and just "camping it up" with their roles. As
usual in Nebraska, the weather didn't want to agree with us and seemed to
want to thunderstorm ONLY when we were out filming. We worked around it
and it all is good in the end, but it wouldn't be a low budget indie
production without a few stressful elements. We filmed the whole movie in
a total of 4 days plus one brief "pick up" day.
The
$64-question of course, when and where will your movie be released onto
the general public? It was originally announced to be
released in February of next year, but we may bump it closer and release
in January. There is a lot of interest in the film and there's no point
keeping the fans waiting! Any future projects you'd like to
share? Yes! We start filming Tales For The Campfire
2 next week, I'm wrapping up my documentary Mondo Shock
now, then in 2017 I have a documentary called Penny Pinchers
about no-budget filmmaking coming out, a webseries called Tales From
The Grave, a sequel to The Amityville Legacy
called Amityville
2017: Evil Never Dies and finally the launch of my international
production company with Tony Newton called Reaper International
Pictures (R.I.P.) just happened last week! Your/your movie's website, Facebook, whatever
else?
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Feeling lucky?
Want to
search
any of my partnershops yourself
for more, better results?
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The links below
will take you
just there!!!
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Sinister Studios: https://sinisterstudiosblog.wordpress.com/
Sinister
Studios store: http://sinisterstudiosvod.storenvy.com/
R.I.P.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ReaperInternationalPictures
Personal
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dustin.ferguson.18
Anything else you're dying to mention and I have
merely forgotten to ask? Indie horror filmmakers should
watch my Facebook page for announcements soon regarding submitting short
films for several of our anthology films R.I.P. will be producing. If you
have a short you've made you'd like to see released, or are willing to
make one, we can get it distributed for you! More information on my
Facebook in the next several days. Thanks for the interview!
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