Film: Southern Nightmare
Director: Charlie Steeds
Writer: Charlie Steeds
Starring: Faith McCoy, Scot Scurlock, Gloria Lynne Henry, Oscar Rockwell, Madison Pankey, Paul Ogletree
Synopsis – Sherri and Anna Beth are two best friends on a road trip to Texas, but a brief stop in rural Georgia has horrifying consequences when the girls find themselves imprisoned and enslaved by a trio of deranged rednecks. Chained, drugged, and forced to give up their bodies, their southern nightmare
begins…
Southern Nightmare will be playing at Dead and Sudburied on Sunday 19th October at 10:20AM.
Q. Your film Southern Nightmare has been selected for Dead and Sudburied, can you tell us a bit about what we can expect from the film?
A. Its a throwback to 70s Grindhouse and exploitation movies, so expect a mix of backwoods horror, women-in-prison and blaxploitation type carnage. These films were often sleazy, silly, over the top, but almost always more entertaining than the very serious (boring) mainstream movies of today. So I hope I captured the Grindhouse spirit and can entertain folks for 90 minutes!
Q. How did the idea for the film come about and what were your inspirations when writing the script?
A. I’d had this idea for a few years, a sort of women-in-prison movie but set within an old farmhouse. Women in chains, vile rednecks with guns, keeping them captive… I took inspiration from many films that I love (Foxy Brown (1974) , Nightmare in Badham County (1976), Drum (1976), The Big Bird Cage (1972), the list goes on) and just wrote something I would personally enjoy watching. I tried putting myself in a headspace where nothing should be taboo, nothing should be too bad taste to leave out, the 70s didn’t stop to censor itself, so I had fun writing some truly despicable evil characters.
Q. What were some of your influences for the look and style of the film?
A. These old exploitation films rarely had money behind them, so there’s a look that comes with emulating that style, a lot of handheld, shooting in daylight and natural light…. which works great for me, as I’m also on a budget and had no time! But there are many examples of this cheap, unpolished style achieving an amazing raw beauty like in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) or The Devils Rejects (2005).
The anamorphic lenses also give a particular style, I love Lucio Fulci’s horror films and I go back again and
again to study those beautiful shots by cinematographer Sergio Salvati (he sadly passed away last month). Who would’ve thought Zombie Flesh Eaters (1972) in 4K could look so utterly stunning? So that’s where I aim for with my style, I’ll take rough and raw video nasties over the dull, flat studio horror film look of today. Also John Carpenter movies, like Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), the use of the anamorphic lenses is a major part of his style. And old westerns like Death Rides a Horse (1967), anything with that
dusty, worn-out look was an inspiration for me here.
Q. Did you make any changes from the original script during filming?
A. Generally we stick to the script. A couple of things can lead to changes, the good changes are collaborating with my incredible cast (every actor on this film really went the extra mile and did brilliant work) if they have ideas to help bring their characters to life then I encourage them totally, I love seeing what they do! The bad changes are simply from the budget limitations… There are parts of this script that didn’t make it to the screen, naturally, but that’s just the way of indie filmmaking.
Q. What were some of your favourite memories of making the Film?
A. Working with this cast! Many of them are returning from my previous films, some of them even play two characters, which was so fun. Prepping the film (it’s usually exhausting and stressful, especially under extreme time restraints, as we had here) but it was so exciting here. Actress Faith McCoy agreed to co-produce the movie with me (without her I don’t think the movie could’ve been made at all) and we visited
the locations together, all around Tennessee, and prepped everything in the lead-up to the shoot, which was just a wonderful happy experience. We knew we were so lucky to have great locations and actors and vintage vehicles, all lined up for the film.
And I had no boss, this was my script, my funding, my dream project that I’d worked up to for years, so it was really an opportunity to do my best work and enjoy every day of it.
Q. Did you experience any issues during filming?
A. The old vehicles, they would break down, we had a minor crash one day, a minor injury another day (sorry Scot!). Before filming even began it was unusually difficult to get actors to agree to be in the movie… I knew it would be, because by some standards the script is quite extreme, there’s sex slaves, a lot of torment and torture, there’s racist, homophobic and misogynistic dialogue throughout (from the villains).
I know it’s a lot to ask of the cast, but it’s horror filmmaking, it’s transgressive, so everyone who came to act in this movie gained a huge amount of respect from me. They believed in my script and had the guts to perform it, these are the types of actors I want to work with. Everyone was so friendly and sensitive with the material too, so we had loads of fun, lots of laughter! It was a trouble free shoot.
Q. What makes Southern Nightmare stand out as something different in the horror genre?
A. It has horror, action, comedy, I’ve tried to make a satisfying film all round. I’m not sure it’s even a horror film, it’s a mix of exploitation genres. Maybe I’m jaded but I watch one modern horror film after the other and generally I’m bored of it all (some major exceptions of course, Jimmy and Stiggs (2024), Terrifier (2016), etc). Everything in the mainstream is so serious, there’s no personality, no risks… I like to think that doesn’t apply to Southern Nightmare. By drawing inspiration from some fairly obscure favourite films I love, and making this 100% independently with no rules, also distributing it myself uncensored, I hope this stands way out from the norm.
Q. What do you hope people take away after watching the film?
A. I hope they can see that Grindhouse filmmaking is still alive and they enjoy it enough to watch the next film I make! And buy a copy of my collector’s edition Blu Ray, I hope collector’s would have it on their shelves.
Q. Do you have any other projects which you are currently working on?
A. This film is the first of a new production company I’m launching, called Destructo International Pictures, and the focus of this brand is for me to make the movies I truly want to make (generally inspired by exploitation films). Meanwhile, my company Dark Temple Motion Pictures, which is nearly 10 years old and now 20 films in, is where I’ll continue to make my work-for-hire movies, for now, and nothing
encapsulates that better than the three killer snake creature-features I have coming out next! They are Snake Creek, Snake Infestation and Snake Manor, three radically different movies (where you’ll also see many of the cast from Southern Nightmare) and we just had an absolute blast making them.
Q. If someone was looking to get into filmmaking film what advice would you give them?
A. Make the film however you want to make it! Nobody knows anything, seriously, this whole article refers only to me and my filmmaking sensibilities… yours should be completely unique. Get yourself a cheap camera and make cheap films! I shot my film Death Ranch (2020) on a Blackmagic Cinema Camera from ebay, you can buy one for £310 in CEX now, that film is streaming on Peacock had the DVD out in Walmart, what a great time to be a low-budget filmmaker! Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, take the time to really think about what you want to make and why. To go and make a film just to say you’ve made a film, that isn’t enough. Why would you possibly want to put yourself (and possibly your audience) through the immense suffering and stress of making a low-budget movie? Really think about why, and
what you aim to achieve. These are questions I went over and over in my head for 2 years before making Southern Nightmare, and it has taken me 20 films to reach a point where I feel I know what’s worth my time to make and why I must be the filmmaker to do it.
Southern Nightmare will be playing at Dead and Sudburied on Sunday 19th October at 10:20AM.
Find out more about the festival and purchase tickets for Southern Nightmare 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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