Film Name: Cleaver 3: Maximum Cleavage
Director: Mj Dixon
Writer: Mj Dixon
Starring: Holly-Anne Dodkins, William Marshall, David Hon Ma Chu, Lewis Cooper, Adam Lezemore
Locked away in a Maximum security prison, the infamous Killer Clown, Mary Beth Layton, aka Lil Miss Cleaver, is about to make a prison break that no one will forget.
In a first new exclusive interview on Blazing Minds, I got a chance to ask Writer-Director Mj Dixon a few questions about his film ‘Cleaver 3: Maximum Cleavage‘, which has been selected to play at Horror-on-Sea on Friday, 16th January at 8:00pm.
Q. Your film Cleaver 3: Maximum Cleavage has been selected to play at the Horror-on-Sea Film Festival. Can you tell us what we can expect?
A. You can expect the maximum amount of cleavage allowed in a movie without being arrested. Its a pretty wild romp, A killer clown, prison break movie with a comedy vibe and lots of action, violence and… well… cleavage. But probably not the kind you’re expecting.
Q. What were your inspirations when writing the script?
A. I spent months watching any prison break movies I could find. There are some inspirations that the film wears on its sleeve. But the main inspiration was the 1995 Christopher Lambert classic Fortress. The last two Cleaver movies were inspired by Halloween (1978) and then The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and so people were expecting us to follow the pattern for the 3rd and we decided to zig, and just do something different.
I also watched a lot of team movies, lots of things like Oceans 11 (2001), Borderlands (2024), Suicide Squad (2016), The Suicide Squad (2021) , Monster Squad, (1987), Monster Squid, Suicide Squid and Oceans Full of Squids to get a good idea of how I wanted the team up aspect of the movie to work.
Q. Did you have any of the cast in mind for the characters when writing the script?
A. A lot of the cast are made up of returning Mycho favourites and Adam. So the cast were really already picked as soon as the roster were chosen. It was the easiest movie I think we’ve ever cast because all the characters had previous incarnations, except Adam.
I knew it would be fun to see them all interacting and it made it easy, knowing who would be there to pull the script together. So it was great to bring back and whole load of great actors and Adam.
Q. What were some of your influences for the look and style of the film?
A. I really wanted the film to keep a warm orange hue, that fit with the previous movies and also felt like it fit with the hot southern state setting and the prison attire. The colours for the costumes and the sets and props were all picked very carefully and then the light scene was figured out around that.
The film also has a Fourth of July setting and so we wanted to get those all American colours in throughout the movie, So that was often incorporated into the design of each set up. Also fourth of July stuff was really cheap on the Fifth of July and saved us loads of money.
Q. Did you make any changes from the original script during filming?
A. Yeah there were quite a lot of changes. Mostly that one of our main protagonists dropped out on day one and the script had to be completely reworked to add a new character and actor. Outside of that some of the prisoners were expanded out a bit from the original script.
There was a first draft a few years ago that focused much more on the original Cleaver, but switching the focus to his daughter Mary Beth (Holly-Anne Dodkins) was an interested way to go and added some much needed female representation to the line up.
Q. What were some of your favourite moments during filming?
A. I had a blast almost the whole time. But I guess my favourite shoot was working with Molly Brown and Mark Gibbons on the clown break in, so much fun in what was a tough night, but the levity of the whole thing just made it feel like it was worth the effort.
Shooting the scene with the Prison bus was also fun. We didn’t have the biscuit for long and we were just trying to blast through and the pace was really fun and nice and everyone just seemed to be having a good time. Although the could have all just been delirious from the 30 degree heat, I dunno.
Q. Did you experience any issues during filming?
A. Loads, its always something. The mainline for me was cutting my hand open whilst preparing a prop and then trying to hold it together so we could keep shooting because I knew if we didn’t keep going we would completely fall behind. Our Producers came and took care of me whilst we continued to work and it came out ok. But it was nice to add some actual real blood to the movie. Outside of that it was a never-ending stream of breaking props, cast dropouts, disgruntled studio members smashing our sets up, nob head painters and malfunctioning mutant clown arms. Just the usual stuff really.
Q. What makes Cleaver 3: Maximum Cleavage stand out as something different in the horror genre?
A. Mostly I think its just our usual unique blend of fourth wall breaking, farce that people either love or hate. It has serious messages and meaningful moments but it s just not afraid to be fun, even when I didn’t want it to be. I think its a very strange blend of a bunch of different tropes and cliches that you’d find in this kind of movie, but with a little twist added to each ingredient.
Also its called Maximum Cleavage, so I’m kind of hoping that gets the punters through the door.
Q. What do you hope people take away after watching the film?
A. Me. To an institution.
Photos by Asher Chan
Cleavers 3: Maximum Cleavage which will have its World Premiere at Horror- on-Sea on Friday 16th January at 20:00hrs.
You can find out more about Cleavers 3: Maximum Cleavage and purchase tickets for the film here
Published in various websites, Philip is a reviewer who is best known for his interviews and media coverage of independent projects including; films, books, theatre and live events. Always on the lookout for something different to cover!
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