A
few months ago, I was playing the lead in Moliere’s “The
Imaginary Invalid”. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience, but
it proved to me what I’ve always known: I am a director, not an
actor. Around the same time, I was preparing “Haz-Mat Harry”, a
film you might remember from a few posts back. But even the dirt
cheap budget of this existential monster movie proved to be outside
our capacity. It was then that I opted to write something
significantly scaled back.
Looking at independent films in the past,
I picked out a few that I admired. The first was “Clerks”, the
indy classic that made me want to make movies in the first place.
Then there was “The Evil Dead”, and other movies of that ilk:
Ultra low budgets, unnecessary violence, and art direction that made
everything look wonderfully lived in and dirty. In addition to these
were the “Teenage Apocalypse” films of Gregg Araki.
So, the idea
was to write a slasher movie with teen angst and (hopefully) snappy
dialogue. This turned into a story that would ultimately be the final
segment in TCD’s three story structure. Unfortunately, on it’s
own, it proved to be “boring”. This led me to scour my stack of
notebooks for ideas. Two floated to the surface: A story about a
redneck psychopath with a heart of gold trying to make amends by
breaking out of jail. The second: The story of a bratty teenager
hitchhiking across the country with a drug dealer to get revenge on
the salesman that tore out her eye after knocking her up. At first
glance, these stories didn’t form a cohesive trifecta. But after
what must have added up to five pots of coffee, I built them around
something personal: The hurricanes that ravaged Florida in my youth.
While a real, relatable tragedy would give my story some depth, I
decided the hurricane in the story would be my own fictional one.
This would remove me from accusations about bad taste and
exploitation and free me to do just about whatever the fuck I wanted.
As I began to sculpt my ultra low budget, magnum opus, I had to find
people. First and foremost was Sam, my producer and most loyal actor.
We’ve been making movies since our early teens. Next was Maria, a
beautiful and almost frighteningly efficient actress. She’s been in
two of my films (in addition to a role in a film that was never
finished) and played my daughter in the play I was in. Next came
Nick. I met him while doing the sound work for a children’s
theatre. He immediately proved to be a welcome member of the group,
not just as an actor but as a friend. He, in addition to Christoff
(both of whom starred in our recent short “Creeps, Critters, and
Croations”, were assured roles from day one. One role, the most
psychologically complex, proved tricky. Until Nick suggested
Anderson. Anderson is a wonderful actor and a good friend. We met
while working on the play. As a war veteran and an actor, Anderson
presented an interesting personality to bring into the role. The rest
of the roles, as I’ve mentioned in previous posts, had to be
assembled through a (still ongoing) audition process. This got us a
few good actors. Doris, who has embraced the role of the pregnant
avenging angel. Patrick came on board for the role of Harry. This was
tricky (though, there isn’t a single role in this movie that isn’t)
because we needed someone who could pull off an older character
(Harry is in his thirties) and bring sympathy to a role that begs for
our contempt (he does partially blind a pregnant teenager). Next we
had Matt and Mohammad, who had to fill out a pair of similarly small,
but vital roles. Then came the money. We had none, and agreed this
was the perfect budget for our film. After all, if it fails, all
we’ve wasted is time, right? What little money we do have comes
from my job as a Chinese delivery man. Making movies is all I’ve
wanted to do since I was twelve. So, who knows? I’ll make this
film, come hell or high water. Expect a teaser trailer by May.
-Chris Krider, director and writer of "The Chainsaw Diaries"
