By Bethany Lake
By the late 1970s, slasher movies had been around for a while, originating in films such as Psycho, Peeping Tom, Blood Feast, Bay of Blood and Black Christmas. But the genre exploded in a whole new way following the release of John Carpenter’s Halloween in 1978. The following six years (1978-1984) saw an astronomical increase in the number of slasher films being produced, an era now known as the Slasher Boom. Some of these films became overnight successes (A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th), while countless others (Final Exam, The Slumber Party Massacre, The Prowler, Killer Party, Pieces) enjoyed an increase in popularity after they were released on Betamax and VHS due to the advent of video rental stores. THE MUTILATOR, one of the most memorable films produced during the Slasher Boom era, celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.
College kid Ed Jr. is at a loss as to how to spend his fall break. When he receives a surprise phone call from his estranged father asking him to close his father’s summer residence at the beach for the off-season, Ed and his friends take the opportunity to turn the mundane task into a beach party weekend. But once they arrive, the college kids get picked off faster than you can say, “Fall Break.”
Released in 1984, THE MUTILATOR was written and directed by Buddy Cooper (co-directed by John Douglas), and stars Jack Chatham, Matt Mitler, Ruth Martinez, Bill Hitchcock, Connie Rogers and Frances Raines (now Frances Sherman). RUE MORGUE sat down with writer and director Buddy Cooper to discuss the making of THE MUTILATOR and its hotly anticipated sequel, Mutilator 2.
It’s been 40 years since THE MUTILATOR was released. Are you at all surprised by the cult status the film has achieved all these years later?
Yes, I am – pleasantly surprised. When THE MUTILATOR was made, it was supposed to be the first step in my learning how to make a movie. Something to appeal to the gore fans, who were buying lots of tickets at the time. I never considered that it might live on for years. Vestron’s old VHS release and Arrow Video’s release of a DVD/Blu-ray package in 2016 had a lot to do with the movie’s longevity and popularity.
How did you get the idea for the script? How long did it take to write?
Slasher movies at the time all seemed to have a group of young people who became isolated somehow and were then picked off one by one. Atlantic Beach, where I live and where the movie was shot, is on Bogue Banks, one of North Carolina’s outer banks. It’s an island. It’s a popular beach. Labor Day weekend is a big weekend at the beach and it is crowded here, but the day after Labor Day, everybody goes home and it becomes desolate – or at least it was that
way back in 1982. There are more year ‘round folks here now. But the day after Labor Day in ‘82, I was walking on the beach with a pal and realized that we could see a mile or more in each direction. There was no one there. It just occurred to me that it would make a proper lonely setting for a slasher. It followed that since the setting was at the beach, the tools of death should be nautical implements.
It didn’t take long to write. I think three months or so. I was practicing law at the time. I would get to the office an hour early and dictate a few pages. During the day, my secretary would type the pages. At the end of the day, I would proofread those pages and make any needed corrections or changes. Next day: same thing. On a couple of days, we got ten pages done. That system worked well.
There are so many fun, surprising touches in several scenes throughout the film, such as Big Ed giving his dead wife a drink in the opening sequence and Ralph, in one scene, (played by Bill Hitchcock) being momentarily sped up with vaudeville music playing. Were those scenes scripted or were they improvised?
Those scenes are in the script. Big Ed was at a loss, losing his mind with grief and trying to hold onto his wife. Ralph was a joker and the speeded-up bit accompanied by Michael Minard’s music added to his character – and brought a chuckle.
Fall Break was the film’s original title. How did it come to be changed to THE MUTILATOR?
The school break in autumn around here at the time was called fall break – as opposed to spring break. I thought the words “fall” and “break” carried some ominous meaning. Since the kids were on fall break and they were to be placed in jeopardy, I thought the title was suggestive and appropriate. When Marvin Friedlander became the distributor, he said that we needed an ad campaign. I told him that we had one: poster, trailer, TV spots, radio spots and newspaper slicks. He said, “show it to me.” I did and he said, “Bud, I gotta tell you, it’s shit top to bottom.” Ha! He sent me to an advertising company around the corner on Times Square. Working with them we came up with the name (their idea) THE MUTILATOR.
The song, “Fall Break,” sung by Peter Yellen and The Breakers, is arguably one of the catchiest and most memorable theme songs in horror history. Is there a story as to how that song became the film’s opening theme?
Musical genius Michael Minard created the score. He asked what sort of music I wanted for the theme song. Around coastal North Carolina and South Carolina there was – and still is – a popular dance known as the shag. The music that the shag is danced to is called beach music. Again, since we were at the beach, I asked Michael for a beach music theme song. I sent a couple of beach music records to him, and he picked up on the style and wrote the “Fall Break” theme song. He worked with a friend, Artie Resnick, who co-wrote “Under the Boardwalk,” a great beach music song, to come up with the lyrics. Using it over the opening credits while the kids drive to the beach just seemed natural. It made the driving sequence with the credits entertaining and at the same time told what was going on – the kids were headed to the beach and thought they were “gonna have a good time.”
Mark Shostrom (From Beyond, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, Evil Dead 2, Phantasm 2) worked on THE MUTILATOR as makeup supervisor/special makeup effects artist. How did he come to sign onto the film?
The special effects were a big part of the movie. I was looking for a special effects person. I put an ad in a trade rag in L.A. and heard from a few applicants. Mark was one. It was early in his career, so he didn’t have much to show, but he did show a few things he’d done, and his work was impressive. We talked, he seemed like he’d be good to work with and he just seemed like the one.
Out of all the kill scenes in THE MUTILATOR, do you have a personal favorite?
Ah, ask a parent which of their children is their favorite. I like them all! They work. On his way to Atlantic Beach, Mark Shostrom stopped to visit his idol, Dick Smith, who shared with Mark his recipe for movie blood. We had fun spilling a lot of that recipe. The cast and crew began calling me “Bloody Buddy.”
Jack Chatham was phenomenal in his role as Big Ed. What was it like working with him?
Working with Jack was great and easy. Jack is the nicest, kindest, most gentle person you could hope to meet. He was a high school teacher in Greensboro, NC. When he came on, he asked me what the Big Ed character was like. He wanted guidance in developing his character. I said to Jack, “He is one mean son-of-a-bitch.” That was all the guidance Jack needed. He created the menacing Big Ed character based on that.
Do you have a favorite story or memory from your time working on the film?
Again, there are many favorites. But one, which stands out in my mind, is about the pool scene in which Linda, played by Frances Raines, is drowned by Big Ed. Her death was supposed to be by being speared from below with a spear gun spear while she’s floating on her back in the pool. The bloody prongs of the spear were supposed to open and pull her under. This was a night scene. The crew was still set up at the pool – the skinny dipping sequence had been shot. Jack and Frances were standing by. Co-director John Douglas and AD Walker Pierce and I were sitting on the deck at a condo waiting for the special effects crew to come to the set with the prosthetic, spear, blood and whatever else was needed. We were also watching the clock and the eastern sky. As I said it was a night scene, but it was getting close to sunrise. We could not shoot another day for several reasons. It had to be shot at night – this night – right now. We were anxious. The special effects crew did not come. We looked at our watches and the sky. We were getting worried. Finally, the SFX crew came, hat in hand, toeing the ground and confessed that they could not make the effect work. “What do you mean, you can’t make it work?” “We can’t make it work.” We were out of time. The death had to be shot. Frustrated, I said, “Fuck it. We’ll just drown her.” And the damn drowning works well. Running it in slow motion and with Minard’s score, it really works well!
What can you tell us about the upcoming sequel, Mutilator 2?
Mutilator 2 is based on a film within a film. The setup is that THE MUTILATOR is being remade. It’s the last day of shooting. There’s a wrap party. Some of the cast of the original have been invited to attend the party. The talent in front of the camera and behind the camera is superb! It is well acted and well shot. It’s entertaining. I can’t say much more without giving too much away. I will add that it received a Hubbie Award from Joe Bob Briggs at his jamboree in Las Vegas back in October. It was screened on six drive-in screens simultaneously. There were about a thousand people in the audience, and they loved it. They laughed in the right places and ooh’d and ah’d in the right places. There is one bit suggested by the Soska Sisters, and when that bit played, the audience applauded and cheered.
In THE MUTILATOR, you made a cameo in a photograph of a man who was run over by a ski boat. Will there be any cameos from you or the original cast in Mutilator 2?
Well, yes. I make a brief appearance for the purpose of showing my cap. Something most viewers don’t get – they seem to think it’s pure ego. (Yeah, well, maybe a little.) There are more than cameos for Ruthie Martinez, who played Pam in the original and for Bill Hitchcock, who played Ralph in the original and for my daughter Hallock Howard, who played one of the cheerleaders walking by the dorm in the original. My son, who played Boy Ed in the original has a cameo, but he plays it back to the camera and is not recognizable. My former wife, Pam Cooper, who played the mom in the original, has a nice cameo.
Has a release date been set for Mutilator 2?
No. While I am currently talking with distributors, nothing has been agreed to. Here’s hoping.
THE MUTILATOR is available on Tubi and Shudder, as well as on Blu-Ray from Arrow Video.
