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Interview

The Furies

The director and prosthetic effects artist from the new movie The Furies talk about making the slasher film and mention some favorite books...

It must be tough being an actor playing a psychopathic slasher in The Furies. They had four weeks to make The Furies. It was shot outdoors, at Bywong Town, an abandoned tourist attraction 15 kms outside Canberra. The shots were in daylight, mainly due to the cost of lighting for night shots. The actors had an hour to get dressed up on set. And they had to wear their creepy masks all day. They had to eat a liquid diet with a straw.
The Furies is a slasher film featuring eight slashers. Kayla is kidnapped and ends up in a deadly game where she and six other women are stalked by psychos in various weird masks. Kayla does whatever it takes to survive and get revenge on her abductors.
The director and writer Tony D’Aquino originally pitched the movie as Halloween meets Battle Royale. The movie Battle Royale was based on the 1999 novel by Koushun Takami: 42 ninth graders are sent to a deserted island, each wearing exploding collars. The last one alive gets to leave the island.
The killers’ masks in The Furies were based on what the creators thought would really creep people out, eg a mask made of human skin. A conceptual artist then tightened up these ideas and created drawings. Then the masks were sculpted in plasticine. The director and producers then looked at each mask and said if they wanted changes. Then a mold was taken. They cast it out in silicone. Then there was some art finishing. Hairs were punched in one at a time. There would be five or six people in the workshop at a time, creating masks.
Larry van Duynhoven was a prosthetics specialist who talked about making the masks for the movie. He also talked about creating effects like exploding heads: They used fake silicone glass such as special effects people use; they tainted it up to look like skin; poured it into a mold; hollowed the head out; put blood in; and had a compressed air tank inside it. “It’s a pretty special effect, actually,” he said.
He liked the Dean Koontz novel Watchers, which is a 1987 thriller.
Director and writer Tony D’Aquino liked the memoir Educated by Tara Westover, which is the author’s account of her experiences growing up in a strict Mormon family.
He also liked the movie Nekrotronic, by the makers of Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead.
The Furies has a general cinema release on November 7.
One of the best things about comic cons, is that it’s easy to ask the artists about their work, and to learn a lot in a short amount of time. The best comic cons are open to writers and artists from whatever political or other group they believe in: all they have to do is hire a table to show their work. And the talks are inspiring. It’s a good idea to go to sessions that aren’t exactly in the area you’re interested in. Like if you were a writer, it was worth seeing some of the animation voice actors from FUNimation at the Oz Comic Con. They gave insights on writing that you wouldn’t learn from writers.

-copyright Readersvoice.com