Interviews
Showrunner Talks the Kills and Killer of Netflix’s “Slasher: Solstice” [Interview]
We’ve been blessed as a horror community with a resurgence of the genre that has led to almost all forms and sub-genres coming out of the floodgates globally on screens both big and small. Due to the influx of content we are also getting to see other titles that have been around for a while getting new seasons and gaining new traction. One example is Netflix’s horror anthology Slasher, created by Aaron Martin (showrunner and writer for the greatest teen show of all time- Degrassi: The Next Generation. This fact is not up for debate.)
Each season of Slasher is a self-contained modern murder mystery with a unique killer on the loose seeking revenge- sound familiar? Season one centered around The Executioner and the aftermath of a blood-soaked Halloween night. Season two shifted gears to Friday the 13th in Winterland as The Camp Motega Killer stalked a group of former counselors and an off-grid community in the dead of winter. And now my patient readers- we have The Druid. A hooded figure with a neon mask picking off residents at an apartment complex over the course of twenty-four hours.
This season’s “Slasher: Solstice” was different not in just the narrative structure, but also in the fact it has a new showrunner and the same director for all episodes. Adam MacDonald, director of award winning Pyewacket, gets behind the camera with Ian Carpenter taking over show-running duties for twenty-four hours of pure hell.
I chat with Ian about season three, who shares some juicy sidebars and set tales.
Alex (BD): First- the obvious question. What are your favorite slasher movies, franchise, or what have you?
I grew up on Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2 and saw them a million times and wrote about them a lot for my PhD thesis on comedic violence. Friday the 13th was massive for me. Nightmare on Elm Street was huge too and probably the most inspiring. I loved Psycho, thought Scream was tons of fun. And then years later I got heavily into Dario Argento. I think my favourite horror is still his film, Opera – the overt direction for me is incredible there. The two I’ve watched the most would be Evil Dead and Nightmare. And three years ago Adam MacDonald hipped me to Korean horror. I love the mess and gravity and relentlessness of films like The Chaser.
Alex (BD): With “Slasher,” the kills get more brutal and wild in each new season- this season easily had some of the most FX-fueled kills. What were your inspirations for approaching the FX and infusing that slasher relentless and kill style into the story?
Lots of those films I’ve mentioned. The relentlessness of something like Evil Dead. But you can’t beat that first POV kill in the first Friday the 13th film. It seems so nothing now but if that’s your first horror film (it was mine), watching someone get their throat cut and not cutting away feels insane. I think you can see that with our ax kill. For me the tension is all in us sticking with it and not offering the audience an escape. You can feel that in the car abduction (and the music is absent leaving you squirming with the reality of what’s happening) and the biology room where most shows and movies would set you free. Any time we’re talking about kills we’re looking to previous movies and shockingly to Dr. Zinn, our medical advisor, who helps us make sure we’re doing something realistic. And then the relentlessness of that… in many ways is my hunger for plot and kills and intense scenes. Tense or loaded quiet is great but like fans I want as much of what I love as possible.
Alex (BD): This season touches on a lot more socially jarring topics that are pretty on the pulse of what is happening in the world today whereas season one was more about trauma and season two was more about bullying and misguided/bad intentions. How did you guys know you wanted to tackle such subjects and what sparked the idea that it could work in a slasher format?
In polar times it feels like something so many of us are talking about passionately. So, if this kind of thing is pissing off lots of people you know it’s going to piss people off enough to kill. I’ve loved the connections viewers and fans are making to what’s going on in their own lives. I think horror can accommodate almost any story and that’s just one more way it’s amazing. And the best part of it is you end up with people going crazy, over the top and acting out their worst impulses. It’s a shockingly honest route to the truths and darkness in all of us.
Alex (BD): A facet about this season was that almost everyone in the apartment building is a terrible person or has some sinister dark side. Was there a particular reason you guys wanted to play with characters who represent extreme measures of the spectrum? (You have a white nationalist, a narcissistic viral hungry fame monster, and a bi-sexual-drug-addict-rent-boy all living on the same floor…and that’s just some of the “quirky” neighbors.)
Ha! I think it’s just natural when you’re in a claustrophobic transitioning environment to find lots to hate about the neighbours you can’t choose. And gentrifying neighbourhoods really force people together that have nothing in common with each other but needing cheap rents. It brings the worst out in all of us. And, I hope when you dig behind the hatefulness of some of these bigger personalities you can see something relatable. I don’t much believe in “villains” and I think it’s a rare character in here that absolutely everyone would root to see die. But, I also think as much as we tune in to horror to get scared and freaked out… it’s also an expression of our dark impulses. And, who hasn’t had murderous thoughts around a smug as hell barista who’s our gateway to the morning fix?
Alex (BD): As a massive fan of Degrassi I have to ask this so work with me- there are so many alumnis from the show throughout the series and I spotted three this season. Is there a reason for this?
Ha! Yes. Aaron Martin the creator of the show was the showrunner of Degrassi Next Gen for the first four years. So, he’s given many people their first acting gigs and has a great eye for talent that he wants to work with down the line.
Alex (BD): As a showrunner- what was the most important aspect to maintain and flesh out for the audience that you focused the most on?
Structurally: The nuances of the mystery. I know hardcore fans are going to watch the show more than once and so I was very focused on the various secrets going on in the show and how many scenes had double meanings for the repeat viewer. And keeping track of who was where is obvious super important for our killer’s plan.
Scripts: The emotional journey of the characters. There’s so much crying in Slasher and it’s because the deaths mean something to lots of people.
Production and Post: Pace and making sure those kills are amazing. We cared so much about that and spent tons of time making sure those kills were something people would be talking about for a long time.
Alex (BD): Additionally, this round of episodes has more POC characters and many LGBTQ+ characters than seasons before…. They play into and subvert classic slasher characters like “The Mean Girl”, “The Best Friend”, etc. etc. How did this alter casting and whom you choose as writers?
It meant you were discovering lots of great talent outside of the usual suspects casting list. I love our cast and think they’re incredible actors. And then it also means you need writers and advisors (and actors) who can speak to the worlds and people you’re talking about.
Alex (BD): What movies or shows specifically inspired this season or your kills, structure, and color pallette?
Spring Breakers was my model for look and colour palette. With a little Moonlight thrown in for some of the darker stuff. I was thinking a little of the first two seasons of Fargo as I was writing it and putting it all together character and structure wise. And then for kills… really it’s just what’s in the sick heads of Aaron and I or the other writers.
Me: “Hey, I’d like to see a sword be jerked up and down in someone’s throat.”
Him: “I’d like to turn an asshole barista into a human coffee machine.”
I was thinking of The Human Centipede for the two people who get attached in the show. And a little bit of Korean Horror for some of the messier, blood-soaked fights toward the end of the season. But really, it starts with a sick impulse and then later we’re studying previous horror films for how they achieved it and how we can try to top it.
Alex (BD): When it came to showrunning- what was something unexpected or new that you had to learn or adjust to? Any advice to others interested in the realm of show running?
Advice: Writers need to become managers to run a show so if that’s something a writer wants to do they need to learn those social skills in a big way. I think a respectful, healthy work environment creates a space where all the incredible artists working on a show can thrive and produce amazing work. I wanted to hear their voices, I wanted them to surprise me and I wanted them to step outside of expectations creatively. I believe we achieved it and it’s probably partly why there’s such great work from all the departments on the show.
The surprise: Theme is the answer to most problems on a show, especially plotting.
Alex (BD): Describe the process and experience of working with Adam MacDonald and getting him on the ship for this wild ride.
Aaron Martin was pursuing Adam to direct the show before I was involved. The weird thing is Adam and I have been really good friends for a long time. He’s my big horror friend. We were close before, we’re super close now. We see eye to eye on just about everything. We disagree and talk things out in a really healthy way. He was very happy to deliver my vision and obviously he brought so much of himself to the show. His enthusiasm and love for horror can’t be matched. He lives and breathes it every day. And he is just so incredible at what he does. I am in awe of his work with the camera and with actors and I couldn’t be happier. We will be working together for a long time on lots of stuff and I look forward to helping deliver on his visions too. I couldn’t have been luckier there.
Alex (BD): Any personal experiences that you or members worked into the script and characters?
That’s happening constantly. The biggest would be Kit. I really get Kit and I lived my version of that life so there’s so much of me in him and his place and those parties. Because I was a big partier I set a high standard for what those things looked like. I’m in there dancing with everyone (under a different mask in each party) and going crazy.
Alex (BD): And If I may ask- why The Druid? What does he represent- also his machete/Final Fantasy XII buster sword is mad perfect.
The naming of the killer isn’t in the show but the Druid’s connected to the whole Solstice theme. Because of the costumes of the first party (angels, fairies, sprites, pagan imagery) it’s what people called the killer. The sword hunt was long and tough. I wanted something that would be the absolute worst for that victim’s throat. Glad you approve! (and have you clocked where the sword came from? It’s visible in one setting and suspiciously gone later…)
Alex (BD): For fans of the show or newbies go ahead and give some shoutout to social media they can follow for more updates or news from you guys!
The cast and creative teams are all using the #slasherseries #slashersolstice hashtags on IG and Twitter and our Twitter is pumping out all those posts. And our cast is very active. We love our fans. I can’t believe how many people have binged twice already. And I love the fans that are posting their reactions as they go along – the OMGs, the gore freakouts, the killer speculations and most of all… the tweets about puking.
Slasher: Solstice is now streaming on Netflix.
Of all the places to find a coven of witches, the attic above a Christian youth camp is probably the last place you’d think to look. But that’s just what we find in Camp, a surrealist nightmare of feminist empowerment from Canadian filmmaker Avalon Fast.
Emily (Zola Grimmer) is still reckoning with her involvement in a horrific tragedy when she accidentally contributes to the death of her best friend, Charlie (Giselle Morison). Unable to move on, the traumatized teen takes a job at a rural summer camp, hoping to forget her own sorrows by looking after at-risk kids. She quickly connects with a counselor named Clara (Alice Wordsworth) and finds comfort in her close-knit group of female friends. But a mysterious whisper from deep in the woods warns that they may be leading her down a darker path.
Fast burst onto the scene in 2022 with Honeycomb, a psychological horror film that follows a burgeoning matriarchy. Known for their focus on “Girl Horror” stories, the talented young filmmaker tackles similar themes in Camp as Emily leaves the modern world behind to embrace a dark vision of self-discovery through magic.
Ahead of the film’s U.S. release on June 26, Bloody Disgusting sat down with Fast to chat about the nebulous nature of good vs. evil and the intoxicating power of female-driven horror.
Bloody Disgusting: What inspired this unique story? Did you go to religious summer camps when you were young?
Avalon Fast: I did. I went to lots of different summer camps, but all of them were primarily Bible camps. The memory I have of camp is kind of strange. I was very homesick as a kid, and I didn’t necessarily enjoy all my time there. I definitely remember meeting some interesting girls at camp and having that presence of religion hovering around the whole experience.
BD: I really love the film’s gorgeous natural setting. Camp is the kind of surrealist nightmare that you don’t just watch. You feel it too. How did you approach creating this world?
AF: Well, a huge part of it was working with my cinematographer Eily Sprungman, who’s a very close friend. We spent years prepping, shot listing, storyboarding, and mood boarding. She’d had a similar experience to mine. We grew up around the same place, and so we understood each other’s visions from the get-go. But there are so many other pieces that came together. The costuming, the art, and the animated sequences were done by Sofiya Iurkevych. One of our producers, Taylor Nodrick, was obsessed with shooting on Super 8 film. I’ve always wanted to as well, so all the memory sequences were shot on Super 8. It was just a lot of people with an understanding and a vision for what this project was. I’m really happy with the way it turned out.
To the extent that you’re comfortable sharing, what’s your relationship to witchcraft, and what does Camp have to say about modern witches?
Well, that’s the question of Camp. It’s not that I don’t resonate with any of these things, but I specifically wanted Camp to be a little bit ambiguous around what witchcraft looks like. Is this witchcraft? Are these girls witches? Emily explicitly asks if that’s what’s happening here, and the answer isn’t yes. The film isn’t going to answer that question for you. My relationship to magic and witchcraft? It’s tough. I feel like there’s so much magic, connection, and spirituality that comes from these friendships, the closeness of these women, and what’s happening around them. A lot of what Camp is trying to say or show is just that magic can come out of friendship.
I loved watching these female friendships develop. And you’re right. No one ever says the word “coven,” but you can feel that connection, and you can see a change in Emily as those relationships grow. I’m also really fascinated with the way Camp plays with the idea of good and evil. At one point, Clara says, “Maybe God drew us to the devil,” which stopped me in my tracks. How do you view witchcraft or the magic these girls are experiencing in regard to good and evil?
That was such a huge part of the script’s construction. The story is really trying to keep a balance between those two things. I like asking people if they think these girls are good or bad, because I feel like a lot of people come out of the film thinking one or the other. They’ll say things like “thank God Emily found her people” or “God, I really wish she’d gone home.” I just don’t think there’s ever an answer. I wanted to explore the idea of going down the wrong path, especially coming out of grief. What makes you a bad person, and does healing mean you’re looking to become a better person? I don’t have an answer, but I do feel like that’s a huge part of what Camp is asking. What is good? What is bad? Why did God bring me to the devil?
Yes, because this is all happening at “God camp” in Emily’s words. So how can both of those things exist at the same time? Along those lines, I’m also fascinated by the voice Emily hears in the woods. Without spoiling too much, what is this voice asking, and what is required in return?
Emily comes to camp with a shout into the void, asking can anyone hear me? Does anyone want to? And it’s answered so clearly by these girls, specifically responding only with love, care, support, and trust. It’s like her prayers were answered. It doesn’t mean that everything is going to be alright, but Emily is looking for peace. She’s looking for a moment where she feels pure good. And I think, even at its surface level, she does get that experience.
Personally, I don’t really think people are good or bad. I think we all exist somewhere in the middle. Camp centers traditionally villainized characters, but that’s where Emily seems to find her peace, however you choose to define it.
I also wanted to show the experience of having decided that you are a bad person, you’ve made mistakes, and you feel cursed. Then when you meet other people who have done things that you would consider worse, you can actually feel good in their presence. You feel like less of a bad person. I think that’s a huge part of the story as well. Emily’s finding her version of other fucked up people, and she feels less fucked up around them. I’ve found that in my own life. It’s a cool thing. I don’t think it’s bad.
I don’t think it’s bad either. It’s finding your home, your people. We meet Emily in the aftermath of unthinkable trauma. Is this a story about mental health and healing?
Witnessing it myself. witnessing other people experience tragedy and then move through grief, you hear a lot of talk about healing or coming out the other side. There’s so much conversation around what that looks like, with self-care and showing up for yourself. I always felt really averse to it. It annoyed me. I think the beginning of the film speaks to that. The therapeutic version of what getting help looks like is obviously very different from what Camp is showing. And again, I don’t have an answer for what you’re supposed to do. But I think that’s another question I was asking: how do you heal? Do you heal at all? Is that the end goal, or are we just trying to get better? It’s something I experienced in my own grief. And the answer, for me, at least now, is just that I’m not looking to get better. So I felt like I hadn’t. I found it hard to find people to have those conversations with. And I think that’s what I ultimately wanted to make a film about.
I love that unanswered question. In my own experience, I’ve had to reframe what healing actually looks like. There’s not really an endpoint. It’s just finding a way to keep going. There’s also an element of sacrifice in this story, particularly regarding another counselor named Jo (Sophie Bawks-Smith). What role does she play in Emily’s journey?
For me, Jo is this human embodiment of Charlie, Emily’s friend. As Jo, she had a life at this camp before meeting Emily, and then was kind of taken over by Charlie’s spirit. I think a lot of people view Emily’s final choice as horrendous and tragic. In a way it is, but for me, if Jo becomes her angel, it’s almost like a self-sacrifice. Jo knows that by sacrificing herself, she’ll be giving Emily power to move forward. In the original script, the girls were supposed to bring out another counselor, JB (Aidan Laudersmith), and burn his body. But I just thought, there’s no way sacrificing this guy could give the girls enough power. There’s just no way, right? Logically, that just didn’t line up for me.
I’m glad you mentioned JB, because he has his own tragic arc. How do men factor into the world of Camp?
The way men factor into my world is so bizarre. I have such little respect for them in my films, which is something I’ve been called on. I think I have to challenge myself in the future to make a movie about a boy because, these boys … It’s not that the men in my films aren’t redeemable, but there’s no depth to these characters. They’re just treated with such disrespect. I don’t know why I do that, actually. That’s something for me to look into. It was the same with Honeycomb. They’re just such peripheral characters. I’ve had people ask about Kayne (Henri Gillespi), the scary guy at the fire, what happens to him? I just think, I don’t know. I don’t care. That’s not the point of the story.
Well, I can say after a lifetime of watching women on the periphery of the story, the course correction feels nice. In a similar vein, I’m in love with your homepage, avalonfast.com. There’s an image of girls on a film set and then a still from Honeycomb in which a blood-covered girl is screaming at the sky. And in the middle, it just says Girl Horror. It’s a really powerful statement that gives me chills. How do you define Girl Horror, and what draws you to these types of stories?
I was obsessed with the term when I started making my movies. It was something I’d come up with to kind of brand myself and describe what I was doing. Then I went through a period where I felt like it was a bit gender exclusive and didn’t interest me as much. But now I’ve come full circle on the term. I think it’s a bit of a commentary on youth and the horror of growing up female. But I think everybody can relate to that experience. I don’t want it to feel like this exclusive thing, that I make movies exclusively for girls, because I don’t think I do. I’m interested in exploring what Girl Horror means. Originally, it was just a title, something I came up with, and now it’s become something that resonates with people. You said it gave you chills. That’s cool for me to hear because there’s obviously some depth there.
Are you working on anything new?
Yes. I am actually making a movie about a boy. That’s the next thing.
That’s exciting! The more I think about feminism, the more I end up coming back to men and boys, because they have a place in the world of Girl Horror too.
Absolutely. It’s all just part of being human.
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