Murder Loves Killers Too: An Interview With Director Drew Barnhardt

Drew Barnhardt is co-partner with Chris Mckinley on the Radar Dog horror production "Murder Loves Killers Too," which is slated for a June 16, 2009 release. Already reviewed on this site director and writer Barnhardt fills me in on some of the details that went into the filmmaking process for "Murder Loves Killers Too." As well, this "Death Wish," movie fan talks about other productions from Radar Dog and difficulties of shooting under budget. Have a look at this in-depth interview with Barnhardt inside.

(Mike Allen) Radar Dog Productions has several projects in the works besides "Murder Loves Killers Too," including "Discombobulated," which is currently in pre-production. Can you update fans and myself on the current status of "Discombobulated?" Are you currently looking for financing?

(Barnhardt) "Things have actually played out in reverse order in terms of the projects you mention. Radar Dog Productions started with my partner Chris McKinley, who is the producer and editor of MLKT, and I trying to make a feature called 'Discombobulated.' We thought a way to drum up interest, and ultimately find financing, was to shoot a few scenes from the script and cut them into both a trailer and a short film. The short film was 'Herbie!' The short played festivals, won some awards, and gave us any personal validation we needed to tell ourselves that we could make a feature that people would enjoy. However, it still didn’t get us any closer to the money we thought we needed. Unfortunately, Chris and I don’t travel in the big money social circles I guess. We finally lost patience with fund raising and decided to take what little cash we had in our pockets and make what we could on our own terms. And that was how Murder Loves Killers Too got started.

As far as upcoming projects are concerned, I have written something new that we are currently putting our energy behind. Hopefully, having made and sold Murder Loves Killers Too will be helpful in getting the next one made, fingers crossed.

(Mike Allen) Now, your most recent production "Murder Loves Killers Too," has been picked up by distributors Well Go USA for a June 16th release. Can you tell fans a little about what to expect from the DVD? Will there be a director's commentary included on the disc?

(Barnhardt) "The MLKT DVD is loaded with features; a making-of featurette, a featurette devoted to the films musical score, by composer Ryan Franks, a fun featurette about how the flicks kooky title came to be, a gallery of the badass artwork by Stephen Romano, and a couple other featurettes. But no commentary. It’s way too easy to sound like a jerk in those things. And I make an ass of myself enough in the featurette interviews. That is plenty of Drew, I’m sure."

(Mike Allen) What was filming like in Big Bear, San Bernardino National Park? What challenges came up for you during filming?

(Barnhardt) "Big Bear Lake was a charming place to film. I had tailored the script to the house where we shot which was invaluable in avoiding a lot of the logistical problems that pop up in the course of shooting. One of the challenges was that it was not our house, so we couldn’t mess it up too bad. Which is a constant struggle when you’re trying to make a movie with lots of blood, axe-hacking, and mayhem. The other big challenge was that, since it was such a small group of friends working together to make it, everyone had to do everything all the time. Lots of heavy lifting, lots of sweat, some blood, a few scars."

(Mike Allen) Also, early in the film why was there narration in the first scene only and then without during the rest of the film? Was your intention to have narration again later in the film? For some reason I was expecting the British narrator to kick back in during the middle portion of the film to offer some more thoughts for some reason. I think this is one of the first films I have seen where there is early narration and then not again later in the film. The format seems like a Shakespearean play to me not that I have seen many.

(Barnhardt) "The opening narration was one of my silly film-geek self-indulgences. It was never a thought to use it again beyond the opening. I figure you can get away with something ‘out-there,’ like that at the very beginning of the movie, but using it again later would take the viewer out of the films action, and be a distraction. It was meant as a spin on the ‘incident in the past’ convention that begins so many slasher movies (young Michael Myers killing his sister, the first stabbings at Camp Blood, etc.).

My thought was to cover that cliché by using the Barry Lyndon-style narration. Barry Lyndon, which is one of my favorite movies, uses a detached ironic narrator who often tells you major plot developments long before they occur on screen. I have always gotten a kick out of it, and the narration in MLKT is straight out of Barry Lyndon. And, as far as I know, MLKT is one of the only slashers with Barry Lyndon references. So there is that, just sayin'."

(Mike Allen) And is that one continuous opening shot overlooking the road?

(Barnhardt) "Yes, that was all done in one. I thought it would be fun, or interesting at least, to start in the past, with the title card 'Some Years Ago,' have the first carload of kids come around the bend, followed by the narration. Then pop up the title card 'Now,' and have the second carload of kids come around the bed, so you’ve jump ahead in time many years to the present action, but you are still in the same shot. Making that shot, we were holding up traffic around that bend, trying to time it out with the narration in between cars, and got ourselves kicked out of that location for our efforts."

(Mike Allen) Also, why the number 7 on the birthday cake for Stevie? There are six candles and a big number 7, but there is no way Stevie is 67. Is there any significance to the numbers?

(Barnhardt) "There are six candles, plus the big number 7, which is actually a candle itself, so seven total. The thought that Big Stevie was celebrating his seventh birthday amused me. No real significance beyond that. Of course, you could also say that it is possibly his seventh little weekend massacre, which very well could be the case. But I like to think it is for his seventh birthday. It makes no sense, but it makes me chuckle."

(Mike Allen) And is Stevie obsessive-compulsive he seems to be cleaning things up a lot i.e drinks, pool table cover, blood?

(Barnhardt) "I don’t think he is a diagnosed OCD guy, but Big Stevie is certainly a tidy massacre-maker. And it is his house, after all, so any mess that is made in the course of his massacre he would just have to clean up later anyway. So, he figures, he will straighten up as he goes and save himself a little spring cleaning later on. And killing these kids is also another manner of taking out the trash, I suppose.

Also, for pure practicality's sake, a tidy massacre-maker is a big help to a low budget filmmaker. Since we cannot cover the walls of a house that we don’t own in blood and guts, we can just say 'Big Stevie cleaned it up.'”

(Mike Allen) The biggest question I have about the film is the scene with Stevie in the bathroom staring at the dead bee with a buzzing sound. I have watched this scene a couple times and still I am perplexed. The closest I can come to some kind of interpretation is that Stevie sees the dead bee and is reminded of all the people he has killed and the buzzing is their voices screaming in his memory/conscience. I think the scene is open to interpretation, but I am curious to what the scene means to you.

(Barnhardt) "I tried to keep the Bee thing ambiguous. For sure I have my own interpretation, but mine is not any more or less valid than your own. So, I would not think of spoiling anyone else's thoughts on the matter by blabbing about my intentions. I will say that an early childhood memory of mine is of growing up in a house that had bees living in the walls. At night you could hear them buzzing. And if you ever saw one who got out from the walls, it was an ominous sign of bad shit to come."

For more information on "Murder Loves Killers Too," visit the distributors webpage:

Murder Loves Killers Too at Well Go USA

And for ordering information visit the "Murder Loves Killers Too," official homepage here:

Murder Loves Killers Too at Radar Dog

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