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Your new movie Son - in
a few words, what's it about? A prominent couple are murdered. Detectives start investigating their
only son. As they do, more murders occur including his friend group.
But when he’s murdered, it throws their whole theory out. Now they
have to find the real killer but who is it?
With Son being both a
slasher and a police procedural of sorts, are these genres especially dear
to you, and some of your genre favourites? And what do you think makes
your film stick out of the crowd?
Yes! Very much a tribute to late 90’s slashers like
Scream, I Know What
You Did Last Summer & Urban Legend, slashers that had a murder mystery
element to them mixed with some humor. However I love crime thrillers like
Seven and
Silence of the Lambs that have a little horror element to them. (Other) your
sources of inspiration when writing Son?
Definitely the late 90’s slashers. We wanted to go further with the
kill scenes but being a very micro budget movie we made it work!
A
few words about Son's
approach to horror? Horror for me means a story that is
horrifying. There’s a few elements. Not just the kills but think about if
there was a killer loose in your town? Terrifying! Or if you’re the
detective and your own daughter was a suspect? As a father of 2 daughters
that’s terrifying. So for me not just the kills but also the psychological
horror as well. What can you tell us about your
overall directorial approach to your story at hand? My directing approach is all about picking a point of view of the main
character so the audience can go on the journey with them. So from
script to shots, I look at it that way. Editing is all about following
either the emotional feel of the scene or living with the performances
to create the pacing. From a production standpoint because our films
are micro budget, it’s about a minimal approach. We had 2 crew people
on set, DP & sound recordist except for the kill scenes. Then we added
a stunt coordinator & SFX make up artist. That’s it! Shot the entire
movie with available light which gives us more time to focus on the
actors and performances.
Do
talk about Son's key
cast, and why exactly these people? Caitlin Drance who is a
friend of mine helped produce so I wrote the role for her. Jonathan Troyer
and I have been friends for years and he’s willing to jump in and do about
anything lol. He just loves it. Our high school kids were cast more
traditionally through auditions in the Cincinnati region. They all molded
their characters to themselves to a certain extent which is what I
normally do. Told them to play a version of yourself because no one else
can play you. That allows them to be as natural as possible. In my opinion
that gives off the most realistic performance. A few words about
the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere? We had a lot of
fun on set. My sets and shoots are first very organized. We shot the
entire movie in 12 days over about 6-7 weekends. I know exactly what we
need to get and we move very fast. Heavily influenced by a Robert
Rodriguez and Christopher Nolan approach. I also rehearse each scene like
a play, all the way through before we shoot. This really helps the actors.
That’s where I do my most directing for the actors. Then when we shoot we
move from shot to shot very quickly keeping the energy high for the actors
until we’re done. There’s also always a lot of joking around on our sets!
We’re making movies! It’s supposed to be fun!
Anything you can tell us about audience and
critical reception of Son?
We’ve been accepted to both the Horror Hotel Film Festival in
Cleveland and the Lakeland Horror Film Festival in Florida. We
had a nice turnout and response at both. For the most part if you like
these kinds of movies I think it’s fun and people will like it. If it’s
not your kind of movie then you probably won’t lol. Any future projects you'd like to share?
Yes! I’m shooting a new movie spring ‘26. It’s a crime thriller called
Divide. It’s about a
detective that goes undercover to take down a robbery crime ring. While
undercover his wife is murdered. Now he has two crimes to solve! Deals
with classic film noir themes like betrayal, double crosses, murder
mystery, all the stuff we’ve come to love in thrillers! Your/your movie's
website, social media, whatever else?
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This is my Twitter profile, main place I post:
https://x.com/billychaffin23 Anything else
you're dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask? That
covers it. Hope people enjoy the movie! Thanks
for the interview!
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