Interview: Writer/Director Martin Owen targets reality TV with “L.A. Slasher”

Reality TV often causes a visceral reaction amongst viewers. In director Martin Owen’s L.A. Slasher, that reaction is pushed to an extreme degree when a murderer begins taking out the shallow stars of various reality shows. Featuring actual reality TV stars, including Brooke Hogan (Hogan Knows Best) and Drake Bell (Drake and Josh), the film also stars a number of actors who have gone through the Hollywood celebrity ringer, including Mischa Barton (The O.C.) and Andy Dick (News Radio).

As much a satire of the current celebrity culture as it is an out-and-out horror film, L.A. Slasher is a throwback film in the best way, featuring a score filled with 80’s pop hits, and a new anti-hero in the masked Slasher.

We caught up with the film’s director Martin Owen to discuss the origins of L.A. Slasher, how he settled on the film’s satirical tone, and what it was like working with such a diverse cast of infamous stars. L.A. Slasher is playing in select cities now. For screening locations, visit laslashermovie.com.

How did the premise for L.A. Slasher come about? Apparently the film went through a number of iterations before you settled on this final version.

The film was definitely a journey like any other film. Obviously, the title L.A. Slasher suggests a horror movie, but the journey was getting the balance between the social satire and the horror correct.

How did you settle on the film’s tone, which is as much a satire as it is an out-and-out horror film?

Yeah, exactly. I think, inherently, I love 80’s movies, and it’s definitely a nod to 80’s movies in the fact that it’s unashamedly committed to what it is. It’s not really an out-and-out horror movie; it’s fun, and it’s committed to being fun. There’s a message in the movie, in that we’re trying to hold a mirror to celebrity culture, but ultimately, and probably selfishly, I wanted to make something that was fun.

What were some of the movies you looked to for inspiration in terms of nailing the tone down?

Hmm, that’s a good question. Because it flip-flops between genres—as a director, it’s a bit of a forbidden fruit to mix genres—but probably the works of John Carpenter as an example, because if you look at some of those movies, like Big Trouble in Little China, Escape from New York—those movies, through the space of an hour and a half, two hours, they go on a whole journey of genres. One minute you’re laughing, then you’re scared, then you’re tense, and that’s kind of what I wanted to do. I wanted the film to be fun, and I wanted it to be colourful, and inherently, it found stylistically what it was, in terms of the mixed kind of genre tone of the piece.

Initially LA Slasher was going to be a found-footage film; how did it progress from that stage to the final version?

Basically, when I came on-board, it was really a title and a kind of idea. In terms of the initial work, before I was involved with the project, it was kind of found footage, someone dressed in a boiler suit, tying people up in an abandoned house. Well, I’ve seen that movie a hundred times before. I said, “We can’t make something people have seen a hundred times before, what’s the point?” I’m fully aware that some people are going to hate this movie, and really not get it, and some people are going to love it. I think it’s better creating something that people are passionate about either way, than creating something that people shrug their shoulders at and go, “Well, that was OK. It was another run-of-the-mill horror movie.” I’ve actually been really—I don’t know if surprised it the right word—but impressed, that a lot of the horror community that have seen the movie have actually really embraced it, which is really refreshing. It’s been nice.

How did the casting for the film work? Does the cast have to have a sense of humour about themselves in order to play these roles?

Absolutely, absolutely. I think that besides the Dave Bautista and Dany Trejo characters, all the other characters are shallow and vacuous; there’s not your typical character arc, because I didn’t want the characters to go on a journey. It was really more about the Slasher, and the Slasher’s journey, to be honest. The characters were representing kind of broad stroke sections of celebrity society, if you like. So in terms of the casting and the people that were cast, absolutely, everyone was aware that potentially parodies could be made, and everyone was completely cool with that. Because they got the piece, and they got the fun nature of the piece was well.

The film really takes down reality show TV culture, but then you’ve got people like Brooke Hogan and Drake Bell in the film that have done their own reality shows; did you have to convince them to poke fun at their past?

I think both of them, and Brooke in particular, she’s a very sort of smart and savvy person, and is very self-aware. She’s very aware of the sort of negative preconceptions of reality TV, and she was happy to do it. She kind of embraced the fun side of it. She knows what people think of reality TV, she accepts that, and probably doesn’t disagree with most of it, you know?

How did you come to Mischa Barton for the starring role? Was there anything in her experience with fame that made you think she would be a good fit?

Yeah, definitely, I think that Mischa was the first person I thought of for the role. And like you said, she’s lived life in the spotlight, she’s lived with a mirror being held up to her life, and because of that, she was the right casting. And the same for Andy Dick, you know? Andy Dick has certainly lived the highs and lows of Hollywood, for sure.

Did any of their experiences with Hollywood find their way into the film?
I think because we were treading such a fine line, I think that potentially might have been overstepping the mark. I might have felt like I was exploiting people then. That might have felt too close to home I think.

How did Andy Dick voicing the Slasher come about?

Casting the voice of the Slasher was kind of the final thing we had to do. We nailed down the identity of the movie, and obviously the Slasher itself, and Andy Dick’s name was actually mentioned to me really early on during production, and I was like, “Why would someone suggest that to me, that’s ludicrous.” But once the Slasher’s identity was there, suddenly Andy Dick’s voice and his personality then suddenly made sense, and made it interesting and unique in creating this weird, bizarre kind of anti-hero that the Slasher turned out to be.

Did you always intend to leave the identity of the Slasher a mystery?

The reason we did that is because we didn’t want the focus of the audience to be on “Who is the Slasher?” The movie isn’t Scream, it’s more about what the Slasher was doing than who was behind the mask. That being said, that came on the journey of the production and the post-production, where we really solidified those ideas. At one point, there was definitely an idea to hint very, very strongly without directly pointing the finger, of the Slasher actually being revealed, and who it was going to be. Maybe one day some of that footage will be allowed to be put onto a disc. I’d like it to be, but I don’t think anyone else does [laughs].

What’s the audience response to the Slasher been like? Do people tell you they relate to his plight in any way?

It’s really weird, but people seem to be—it’s awful, but people are responding to the negative connotations towards reality stars. I personally don’t have any secret anger or hatred towards reality stars. I’m not this person who sits late in the evening and you know, combs through celebrity magazines and like, cuts the people’s heads out of the pictures, and draws crosses through their eyes. I don’t personally have the anger towards them, but what is interesting, is that it seems like quite a few people do, which is slightly terrifying. We’ve had contact with some pretty intense people who intensely, intensely hate reality TV. But what’s really interesting, I think, is that most people seem to have this thing where they’ll say, “I feel guilty.” And I’ll ask why, and they’ll say, “I kind of feel bad that I’m cheering the Slasher on in the last half of the movie. Should I be doing that?” The movie is set in a slightly removed kind of pseudo-reality, and that’s kind of the idea—he’s an anti-hero, and the people within the movie get behind him, and we want the audience to get behind the Slasher, but the Slasher is certainly compromised, and probably aware that things are going a bit too far.

Do you think you’d revisit the Slasher again?

We’ve definitely got ideas for how the Slasher’s journey could travel. I’d love to re-visit the Slasher again, to be honest. There are a lot of things I’d love to do, but we’ll see, you know. Watch this space.

He’s almost like a blank slate; you could put the Slasher into almost any situation.

That’s it, that’s exactly what I want to do. I’d quite like to put the Slasher in a time machine, and send him back to the 80’s, that would be kind of cool!

What vibe were you going for with the film’s score?

We wanted some big 80’s marquee tracks in there, which we ended up getting. I was really happy with all the existing songs we got in there, I think they all worked really well. It took us a lot of time. And then the score itself, Mac Quayle, who was the composer, did an incredible job. There is a lot of music in that movie, the guy really had his work cut out. That wasn’t someone’s workload that I envied, I’ll be completely honest. I tip my hat to that guy; he’s just a beast. I think he must be a music-making robot or something, he doesn’t sleep. He did a really great job of creating a sound that’s both fun and 80’s, but when it needs to be, it lends itself to the kind of tense horror elements of the movie.

Do you have any guilty pleasure reality TV shows that you watch?

Actually, I do! There’s this one UK show where they take all these celebrities and put them in a jungle for like, a month, and make them do all these horrendous things [I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!]. They basically torture these celebrities, and make them eat the most horrendous things, and sleep out in the Australian bush. These people lose like, half their body weight, and I quite like that. As I’m saying this out loud, it sounds slightly perverse and morose, so perhaps I’m not as different from the Slasher as I thought I was [laughs].

L.A. Slasher is playing in select cities now. For screening locations, visit laslashermovie.com.