ComingSoon Senior Editor Brandon Schreur spoke to Hilarie Burton Morgan about Bloody Axe Wound. She discussed her experiences producing the Shudder/RLJE Films horror movie, creating practical gore, and more.
“Abbie Bladecut is a teenager torn between the macabre traditions of her family’s bloody trade and the tender stirrings of her first crush. In the small town of Clover Falls, Abbie’s father, Roger Bladecut, has built an infamous legacy by capturing real-life killings on tape and selling them to eager customers, but as Abbie delves deeper into the grisly family business, she begins to wonder if it’s time to take the family tradition in a new direction,” the synopsis reads.
Bloody Axe Wound will be released in select United States theaters on December 27, 2024.
Brandon Schreur: Can you tell me a little bit about the origins of this project? It’s a really wild movie, in a good way. There’s a lot of twists.
Hilarie Burton Morgan: It’s weird!
It’s weird! And there’s a lot of dark comedy, but there’s also a lot of heart to it, like I really like the relationship between Sam and Abbie that develops. What can you tell me about how you got involved with this project and what your reaction was when you were going through all of this for the first time?
My husband [Jeffrey Dean Morgan] and I have been producing things separately for about a decade. It was the pandemic, we were watching movies. We had kind of gone through all the things that everyone else was watching. Then there was this weird, little independent movie called Uncle Peckerhead by a writer/director named Matthew John Lawrence. We watched it and were like, ‘What the f— did we just watch?’ Right? Like it was so weird and so funny, the practical effects were so appealing to me because the CGI thing is a lot for me.
Jeff is like, ‘I’m not used to you liking this genre, this is special.’ We reached out to Matthew on Twitter and were just like, ‘What else do you have?’ He sent us a stack of scripts. We read this one and it really was the perfect marriage of all of Jeffrey’s horror genre, blood and guts, killing zombies, gross stuff. And my teen drama years, where I was in high school for like a decade! Being able to do a project that appealed to both of us, our histories, and our fanbases was exciting. We signed on and just hit the ground running, trying to call up all our friends that cared about it as much as we did.
Sure, definitely. That makes total sense. And the results are great, it seems like you had a great team that was working on it, it turned out so good. The effects were something I wanted to talk to you about, too, just because I thought the gore was so cool. Even beyond that, there’s not much CGI, if any, it seems. I loved the look of the Roger Bladecut character. And just the wolf mask and everything. I’m curious how you guys went about that approach. Did you know from the beginning that you wanted to do all practical like this?
Yeah. That was something that was important to me because that’s what I liked about Uncle Peckerhead. That’s what I like about vintage slasher movies. I like a practical effect because it’s artistry, right? I like knowing there’s a person mixing blood behind the scenes. I just like the backstory of a practical effect. With this, we were really lucky. Our head special effects artist came from The Walking Dead world, he works on Dead City with Jeffrey. He’s just incredible. Having someone from within the family come in and take the lead on this movie was great.
There were certain parts of the script where we were like, ‘How is this going to work? We don’t know!’ Our team was so great. We teamed with Mary Stuart Masterson, who is a very dear friend of ours in the Hudson Valley. In terms of telling the story about cool, leather jacket-wearing girls, she’s the OG from Some Kind of Wonderful. I got to do it on One Tree Hill, and now we’ve got this new crop of cool girls that we got to bring in. So Mary Stuart was also incredibly important to understanding our budget, what we could do, and how to shoot it so that it made sense. I think we ended up with a really fun story that’s kind of gross.
It is kind of gross, in the best possible way. The girls is something I wanted to ask you about, too, because I just talked to Sari and Molly this morning. They are so cool.
Aren’t they?
I mean, they’re great in the movie, but just in real-life they seem so perfectly cast. Sari told me a really funny story about how she didn’t know anything about this project and then she got a phone call and three days later she was off filming it.
We play fast and loose, man, that’s us!
Oh, I’m sure. I’m curious how the casting process worked from your point of view and how you felt they worked their way into these characters.
Sari and Molly were names that were floated very, very early on. We knew that we wanted them, but we didn’t know if we could get them. So a lot of the casting process was kind of working on contingencies — like, if we can’t get them because they’re so great, what else can we do? We had a great casting agent, here, in the Hudson Valley. And we got to incorporate some lovely actors. It was a great opportunity for me to meet them and see what they’re capable of. Molly is working with Christian Slater right now on Dexter, and his son is one of the kills in this movie.
Oh, really?
Yeah, he’s the guy who is killed at the lake. That’s Christian Slater’s son. So it was cool to have this small little world where everyone was playing nice in the sandbox. You’d hang out on set and everyone was so happy to be there. So the casting process was pretty easy. Once we had Billy Burke in place and Sari and Molly, like, what a dream. Because Sari has such a great friendship with Eddie [Leavy], having Eddie join was also like, this was our wish-list. We really felt very lucky that, as one person signed on, it opened the door for another person, and then another person. It speaks to the reputations of all the people involved, you know? When you read all those names, you’re like, ‘Oh yeah. I want that.’
Oh, sure. Everybody is going to want to see it once they see all those names on there. And I’m so excited for people to see it, too, because I feel like this is so unique and going to be such a hit when it gets out there. Super exciting. Another thing I wanted to talk to you about regarding this movie is the actual location of the video store rental place. I thought that was really cool. It seemed really specific. I mean, I was born in the 90s so before my time, but it made me think of stuff like Video Nasties and stuff in that whole realm. I’m curious how that all came to be. Obviously, I’m assuming there’s not a video rental place giving out videos of real murders or anything, but…
I mean, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was, the world is a f—ed up place. But as someone who was not born in the 90s, there were certain video rental places we could go to in high school that weren’t Blockbuster. Erol’s was also another one that predates your lifespan. They weren’t chains. They were just independent, mom-and-pop rental places. That’s really what this space was based on.
And I liked that Matthew grew up in the same world that I did, where you’re a kid in the suburbs and those video rental places are your escape. That’s your one outlet to see what it looks like on the outside. We found the sh—iest little corner, strip mall place. And it’s great! It’s a place that I would have hung out in high school.
Yeah, I mean it looks cool, it looks fun. It just looks so real, I wanted to be there. Maybe not for the murder video part.
It might be! Who knows?
Exactly. I loved how funny this movie is. It’s a horror movie, you sometimes expect that, but the dark comedy in here just seems so specific, again, with what it’s heading. Did you have to walk on eggshells or anything? I mean, it’s a movie about high schoolers being murdered. Were there a lot of conversations about what you can do as far as the comedy goes, what’s too far, and how to find the right line? Because, in the end, I think you nailed it, I’m just curious what that process looked like.
Yeah, no, for me, the social and political undertones of the story were really important. Because if we’re telling the story of misogyny in the genre, but also violence against young people in our country, yeah, you’re right, super touchy issues. When people have asked, ‘Oh, this is a fictional world?’ I’m like, ‘No, this sh— is happening every day.’ Crazy, awful things are happening every day. So we’re going to address it and we’re going to have a sense of humor about it so you guys see how ridiculous it is that it keeps happening.
It wasn’t the comedy that I was worried about. It was the violence against women that I was worried about. We needed our kills against the boys to be every bit as grotesque as the kills against women are. So, no, make sick jokes all day. Just be careful about how you cut someone on screen, that was my concern.
Sure. And you have that great kill right at the beginning with the trophy. That one is so much fun to watch.
Everyone needs a trophy. I wish we could just send trophies to everyone in a gift box who is watching this movie, like the screeners.
Thanks to Hilarie Burton Morgan for discussing Bloody Axe Wound.
