{"id":13210,"date":"2025-06-04T08:45:24","date_gmt":"2025-06-04T12:45:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=13210"},"modified":"2025-06-04T09:18:27","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T13:18:27","slug":"the-horror-of-it-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=13210","title":{"rendered":"The horror of it all"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Times calls your film Bloody Axe Wound a \u201cgross-out yet tender slasher film.\u201d We need to know more.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a coming-of-age story about a teen girl whose dad just happens to be a legendary slasher villain. Think Lady Bird meets Friday the 13th, with a dash of punk rock and buckets of blood.<\/span><\/p>\n

What drew you to writing horror?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I grew up during the VHS boom, and the horror section at the local video store had the most grabbing cover images. I love scary, unnerving films, but that\u2019s not the genre that I like to write. I actually started out writing comedy. My horror films are more in the pocket of comedic than scary.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s star power in Bloody Axe Wound. How did you get connected?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Walking Dead) was instrumental in getting the movie made. He rented my self-funded feature, Uncle Peckerhead, on a night he couldn\u2019t sleep, and he loved it. He messaged me on Twitter to ask what other scripts I had. He shopped Bloody Axe Wound around and agreed to do an extended cameo.<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s your writing process like?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I keep a notebook for each idea that I think has legs. It\u2019s just the writings of a madman \u2014 anything from a line of dialogue to an extensive character breakdown. Once I fill the notebook, I know I have something.<\/span><\/p>\n

How did you prepare to direct Bloody Axe Wound?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I met with all the department heads: production design, cinematography, makeup and effects, and wardrobe. We mapped out the look and feel of the world and its characters. I built reference <\/span>folders for each character and pulled images, textures, and colors that would help to define personalities. I created a full shot list of how each scene would play out visually. And casting was key \u2014 I needed actors who could ground the more absurd or heightened moments in something real.<\/span><\/p>\n

Filmmaking is known to be a tough business. Any tips for others looking for their first break?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is endless rejection. I\u2019ve only had this one movie greenlit, and I\u2019ve pitched dozens of times. You have to learn that failure is just feedback.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An insomniac celebrity, a sink full of dishes, and lots of notes helped film professor Matthew Lawrence \u201905 land his first scary movie deal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":298,"featured_media":13213,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-back-story"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/298"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13210"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13305,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13210\/revisions\/13305"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}