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