Thorn In The House

Game Of Thornes : Thorn from Slasher House

As I write this we are mere days away from having a completed version of our film Slasher House, which for the uninformed out there, is Mycho's first Feature outing to feature the masked killer Thorn. The reason for this post is really to talk about the character in regards to the SH franchise. Thorn was a great choice for the film and strangely wasn't in the first line up, it was only at the very late stages of development that I decided to add him to the roster, Before then I had planned to go and do a Thorn solo movie the year after we finished Slasher House.

Adding Thorn to the film, for me, added a familiarity that made the whole world seem bigger, which of course opened it up to ask the question. What is outside the house? What kind of world do these characters come from? And how did they get there in the first place?

I have been bearing all of this in mind during what has become a two year process of editing, sound mixing and coloring on Slasher House. But Thorn has remained a favorite of mine throughout and I made sure that the door was left open for him. Which in some regards is moot, as our movie takes place during the events that lead up to Slasher House. But still when it comes to Thorn I always like to keep my options open.

MJ

Dawning Of Thorn

It's the hardest of time in Process for me... The story is set and after a lot of work I can now trace the character back 500 years... and further if I'm honest, which has also opened a whole host of exciting opportunities for stories taking place in WW1, The Civil War and even the Discovery of America. But thats not what this film is... This film is the middle of our story and that has been a difficult way to start.

As always when it comes to these things, I have a plan, and a plan that will become ever clearer as time goes on. But the focus is of course THORN 2012 (Which in the chronology of the film series would actually be Thorn 4, but also kind of a reboot to the original 1984 Slasher) Don't worry, it gets way more complicated than this as we go on, but more will be revealed in time. 

The main problem I always have with writing is, that once I've structured the story, I sometimes take a while to make the intricate details work. This has been very true for the new opening that I've been crafting for the film. I wanted the idea of legacy to sit a little better with the films plot and of course that meant that the original opening I had written needed to be re-worked, from the top.

Of course there's a lot of story elements that need to fit in there, that will become relevant much later on in the films closing moments. It's difficult to talk about writing a film without giving away too much about the plot itself, but I will say that I truly feel that we have a story that the character deserves, and that will take us to new level as filmmakers.

Looking over the stuff that I shot for the second half of Slasher House, It become quite evident to me that in the 2 short years since principle photography I have grown as a Filmmaker, as a D.O.P and (through necessity) a Producer and all this will go back in Thorn, which to me has made this project that much more exciting.

MJ

Genesis Of Thorn

Its this week that I find myself stood in front of a huge white board and realize this, "It might have taken me nearly 15 years, But Thorn's story is finally out of my brain and in the real world", I have spent almost half of my life now figuring out what and who exactly this character is and what I want him to achieve. Now that its out of my head on various pieces of paper and white boards and designs and storyboards, it means I can start the hardest part of the process for me. Writing what will be the first part of the Thorn saga. 

I wrote a short film based on the character in 2007 and shot it in 2009, and that was the beginning of the evolution. When I came to making my second feature film I realized that it would be foolish not to include the character, But it was then I started to realize that there was a lot more to this character than I even first thought. I always knew I wanted to do a feature length version of his story, But I didn't ever have any idea how intricate and important his presence would become to Slasher House, and the events that lead to and come from that film.

During shooting on Slasher House I began to contemplate the idea of prequels to the story involving the many characters that populate the film. Although there were other characters who could carry their own film (and may still), obviously Thorn was the first that sprung to mind, I figured he was perfect to carry his own film.

The idea behind Thorn, at first, was to create a Classic (or at least potentially so) Slasher villain, a homage to my horror heroes that I had grown up with, But in 2007 Rob Zombie released the rebooted Michael Myers (My personal favorite) in a remake of Halloween and I saw that my heroes of childhood had had all their fear and dread taken away from them. Thorn would now become my answer to that. Thorn slowly developed into what he had always been a homage to, he would become the replacement. 

Of course setting out to write the definitive Slasher movie of our generation with the intention of shooting it on a miniscule budget is the biggest challenge I have ever faced. But I suppose I need something to get me out of bed in the morning and there's nothing better than a 6'5 serial killer with dual blades to do that.

MJ