***I'm not saying this movie is cursed, I'm just saying I have never locked myself out of my apartment and the day I was set to conduct this interview my dog Watson locked me out during a rainstorm.
"I Am Going To Kill Someone This Friday" is a psychological thriller shot in Jacksonville by two Jacksonville (basically) natives and it will premiere August 9 at the Downtown Jacksonville Library presented by the Jacksonville Film Festival.
Jared Rush, executive producer/writer, and Durden Godfrey, writer/director, sat down to talk about what they call the "Kill Curse" what it takes to make a movie in a town like Jacksonville and why they settled on a movie that might warp your brain a little.
It follows the life of a man named Robert Partridge and what makes him the psychopath he is.
Let’s talk now about the meat of the film, maybe that’s a poor choice of words for a horror film, but do tell me straight horror film? Slasher film? Psychological thriller? What can people expect?
JARED: Bring the kids. It’s fun. No. “I Am Going To Kill Someone This Friday,” psychological thriller, is a mixture of “American Psycho” meets “American Beauty.” A lot of movies especially like “American Psycho” you see this character who is a psychopath murdering and killing, this movie actually exposes the reality of what makes a psychopath: Unchecked anger, lack of parenting, abuse. It really explains it in a story that is inspired by a lot of Stanley Kubrick and Alfred Hitchcock. That’s kind of like the whole vision of how we shot it. Every time I watch trailers of my own film of what this master right here [Durden] has done, I am blown away by what’s coming.
What did it take to get this film accomplished?
JARED: Filmmaking is kind of like this: most people see a film, whether it be a big blockbuster, independent, a short, a feature, whatever it is and they go ‘Oh this would be awesome to do.’ Everybody wants to be an actor until they have to act, everybody wants to be on a set until they have to be on set. It’s pretty much like this: I love sushi, I know they have those kits where you can make your own sushi, but I don’t make my own sushi because it would not be like what I paid for. That’s the reality of making a film. It is a lot of effort and a lot of time, but in all honesty, most of the work, and you have a lot of work making a film, but the real work really begins is after it, promoting it, marketing it, getting people to understand the interest of it because there is so much competition out there, so many movies.
But to me, this isn’t about competition, my whole thing is about setting a tone of what we’re going to do in movies but also in life. So the aspect of filmmaking, it is not an easy thing to do but everybody wants to be a part of it until it’s time to be a part of it, but the ultimate thing is when you find the right crew and the right cast, like what happened with “Kill” it changes your life.
So did it all fall into place or was it difficult?
JARED: It fell into place but it was also being proactive. We were one of the very first in a long time, at least that we know, that we actually had auditions. Where we had the camera, people signed up, we had a schedule and we know people who came to it who were so impressed, who had been in the industry for years who had never seen anything like that. Then when we actually got our cast and crew… we had a table read at Wonderland Jax with 40 people who showed up, we did pictures we did promotional stuff and we said ‘We’re going to end at 10 p.m.’ At 10 p.m. we’re still reading and Durden stands up and is like ‘Okay I said 10 p.m. so if you have to go, go,’ and that’s the most important thing of any film or anything you do in business is: be organized, be committed to your people because they are committed to you.
The moment everybody showed up, it was golden.
What was the most challenging (besides the curse) thing in trying to accomplish this film?
JARED: The most? Well, I will pick it, but I will tell you this: obviously you need money to make a film. You need money to make a good film. We had a goal, we had a budget, we did not meet that goal or budget but because we had the crew and the people on board and the connections and the different locations we made this. I would say the hardest thing for me personally was not having money to say ‘boom’ to everybody because of what they gave, the effort, for the time and their craft.
Everybody just gave their all, I’m talking 15 hour days, 17 hour days. We accomplished a full feature film in Jacksonville, Florida in under 14 production days with not much money.
But the reason why we did that is to show people you can do it. One of the other creative producers said and this is one of my favorite statements about that, he said ‘We did not make a Jacksonville film, we made a film in Jacksonville’ we’re trying to change the level of understanding and what it means to not just grab a camera from Walmart and be a hobby filmmaker or the fact that you get a lot of friends together and you make something you play at SunRay and you all laugh, we really wanted to show you can do something great. If somebody comes after us and does greater or better, that’s the purpose.
The hardest thing was that you couldn’t give what you wanted to give, but if anything, it’s the fact that it wasn’t that difficult. The long hours, the lack of sleep, but that can be in any job, but once you find what you love you never work again and this is not a job.
For people who aren’t super ingrained in the psychological thriller genre, why the choice in genre also how did you come to the title? It’s very gripping.
JARED: The name itself, this genius right here [Durden], obviously the main creator, that’s exactly why [because it’s gripping]. When Hitchcock did “Psycho” people wrapped around theaters especially in that day and time because nobody did things like that.
The content, or why it happened was with Durden and his film “never go back” which is a phenomenal movie about a father and son and… check it out, I won’t say any more… but it’s just a beautiful movie. I saw that movie and that’s how everything happened with this collaboration and friendship and everything. I was watching his style and reading the things he writes and I thought ‘Man he would be incredible to do a psychological thriller’ so I messaged him and said ‘Hey, you should do a psychological thriller for your next project’ and he said ‘Uh, no, I’m working on this documentary.’
So, we were working on this documentary together and in the research of this person who has some tendencies, he dug very deep about stuff and then he [Durden] responded back weeks or months later and was like ‘Yeah, I’m going to do a psychological thriller.’
He wrote the script in 22 days. I had this whole time frame in my mind… and I read the script and I messaged him and said ‘We’re not going to do this like I thought we were going to do this’ because it had over 40 characters, the detail, but the most insane thing to me what it exposes of humanity. It’s not just a psychological thriller, yes there is blood, there’s gore, but there is a reality of humanity but never more in the time of our generation do we need to have someone slap us in the face and this movie slaps you in the face.
I know this movie is not for everybody, but everybody who watches it will get something out of it.
My goal as executive producer, co-writer, co-creator, is that some people will have to go to counseling after this, not because of blood and gore but because of all the unchecked anger, issues that you’ve put down in your vault. So this isn’t just a regular movie, this is something that if you open your eyes, you can see something that might, emotionally upset you because of something you haven’t’ dealt with.
What do you want people to get out of it?
JARED: My hope personally, is that when those credits come through, whether there is applause or silence that they go ‘Holy cow this movie, I know them, I know him, I know her, I know that place,’ and it was filmed in Jacksonville. To be able to start something to be able to show we can do this. You have to be creative, you have to maneuver things, you have to open your eyes to stuff. This movie itself, when we did the first edit, I mean this is a movie I helped create, but I mean I wept. I think that’s something I want, to be in awe of our actors.
Tom Siedle, he’s been in this city for a long time and this guy, he is Robert Partridge. This guy threw himself into a part that Durden even, as we were doing pre-production, apologized to his friends and family, and there were days on set where I had to say a few words to him because he was Robert Partridge. When you have an actor of that ability in this city, that no one realizes what they have, that’s something that needs to change and to me, I feel that is the beginning of this change.
We’re not looking at making this movie, sending it out, getting deals, making money and going to LA. No, this is my city, this is our city and we’re going to continue doing stuff here. My goal is to bring people here. We exposed the beauty of Jacksonville and we want people to see that, the landscape here, the people, the sceneries and this is the beginning of something beautiful for all of us in Jacksonville.
Destiny Johnson is a digital reporter at First Coast News who writes movie reviews sometimes, also does a true crime podcast and reviews comic books. She hopes this movie doesn't give her nightmares. You can follow her on twitter @hello_destiny.