By JASON R WALLACH
In an ever-growing horror sub-genre, the Slasher film doesn’t seem to be losing any of its momentum or potency. With the recent success of Terrifier 2, and subsequent franchises such as Halloween, Friday the 13th, Child’s Play, Hellraiser, etc., the slasher film isn’t going away! Normally with said franchises, which usually start out great and end up losing steam due to basic repetition of formulaic tropes, I find myself bored and uninterested. That brings me to a new fan-made film called THE SAWYER MASSACRE from director Steve Merlo who, with his own time and financing, delivers a pretty solid and more thoughtful take on a somewhat younger version of the Sawyer family from Tobe Hooper’s 1973 masterpiece, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
Whether you like the film or not, here we have an individual with the testes to tap into a major slasher franchise and submit his own take and perspective on it – as far as I’m concerned, that deserves some attention! Rue Morgue recently sat down with Director Steve Merlo to discuss the inspiration and motivation behind this recent endeavor that is now available to watch on YouTube.
RM: Can you tell me about the genesis of your project? Please give the basic premise and how you came to it… what inspired you to delve into a possible history of the Sawyer family from Tobe Hooper’s 1973 classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre?
SM: It all started in the fall of 2003 when I saw the remake in theatres. I was very excited for that film and had very high expectations. Although it delivered on some levels it also fell very short for me on others and it got my brain working! Eventually, I had a story outline, then a script came, and then a pretty decent script. It was just something that slowly evolved until I finally got this amazing opportunity to film it. Ultimately, I felt that I needed to create something incredibly disturbing in my film that wasn’t completely copying the original. The original had that cannibal aspect that was slowly and subtly revealed as the movie progressed. I didn’t want to ignore the cannibalism in my film but I knew that I couldn’t have that as the prime motive of The Sawyers. It needed to be disturbing and I think we achieved that
RM: Do you feel going back into the earlier years of this family will set your film apart from the films that have already been done?
SM: I think it does although make no mistake, this is not an origin story type of prequel. I knew that I didn’t want to do that because it had more or less been done before and I think that a certain amount of mystique really adds to the scary factor. Instead I just really focused on who the characters were 8 years prior to the original. For example, I thought it would be very interesting if Grandpa had a bigger speaking role. Grandpa really provides a lot of context in a subtle way in our film.
RM: That’s interesting that you went for context from the patriarch of the family rather than being interpreted by later generations. What do you feel the differences are in adding that perspective?
SM: I think that Grandpa can give better insight as he has lived through a lot. He’s seen a lot and the world he grew up in is very different than the world he is living in. There was a lot of social context to work with that just felt right to deliver through Grandpa. I think that a lot of the social issues we touched on have a lot of relevance today too, so it feels relevant to younger viewers.
RM: So that having been said, I’m getting the impression that your film tackles more of the family dealing with the life and societal changes as opposed to just killing off a group of youngsters. Would you say that is accurate?
SM: That could be up to interpretation but make no mistake, there are lots of victims in our film. The Sawyer family does have their motives and a lot of this film deals with their struggles but it’s done in a very subtle way so that hopefully viewers might take a 2nd or 3rd watch to fully understand. I didn’t want to spoon-feed every little thing and keep as much mystique as possible
RM: That’s great! I prefer films that not only deliver the gore but that make me think and interpret. Speaking of gore… being a film in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre canon, are you going more for implied violence or more graphic violence?
SM: There’s a mix of both. I definitely didn’t want to go over the top with gore but we did have some that works pretty well. There are also some great off-camera kills that are still very powerful due to the performances given. I would say that we probably have more gore than the original but not much more and I think it’s important to remember that people thought that film was actually much gorier than it was. I think we captured something similar in our film
RM: As far as story goes, is this going to be more a character study of the family with a hapless group of kids thrown in to deliver the goods for horror and franchise fans? How are you presenting your project to differ from others that have been done to this point? It seems like you have more reason to make your film than just the usual slasher film template.
SM: Our film actually focuses more on the protagonist and his friends. It was my goal to create very three-dimensional characters so that you can feel for them as they go through hell. Also, not all of the victims are young kids. I thought it would be a great dynamic if there were different groups of people that were lured to Grandpa’s house so that we could show that horror can happen to anyone. Our main group are all high school graduates but we also have an engaged couple and a family of four as well as an older local resident. Our protagonist, Jimmy, has a good arch and I think audiences will really identify with him as well as many other characters in the film
The author would like to thank Steve Merlo for his time and his insight regarding his new film.
THE SAWYER MASSACRE is available for viewing, in its entirety, here:
