By Rodney Appleyard for Smoke & Mirrors
No matter what you think of the title, the fact that this film can be scheduled for general release without a fuss (so far) shows that we are definitely living in more tolerant times.
Director Phil Claydon says the film is just a bit of fun and should not be taken too seriously.
“If you are not enjoying yourself at something called Lesbian Vampire Killers, then you should probably go and watch The English Patient instead," he says.
"The film doesn’t really need to be debated. It should just be enjoyed. If it’s going to offend you, then don’t watch it. We had a lot of fun making the movie. Basically, if you can’t have fun making a movie like this, then I think we all need to go and work in a bank."
Admittedly, when you first hear the name of the movie, you expect it to have low production values and a weak script. But the film is full of quick fire humour, is slick and polished, and includes a number of fun old school effects, mixed with CGI.
The make-up effects were of the highest standard, thanks to the expertise of award winning effects artist – Neil Gorton. In the past, he has worked on Dr Who, Torchwood, Little Britain, Saving Private Ryan and many other high profile movies and TV series. The VFX was completed by Rushes, based in the UK.
The movie stars James Corden and Matthew Horne, who have already carved a sucessful comedy show for themselves in the UK. In the film, Jimmy Fletchen (Corden) and his friend Fletch (Horne) decide to escape their problems and head to the country for a weekend of debauchery. Things do not quite go according to plan and they find themselves stuck in a village where all of the women have been enslaved by a legendary vampire curse. As the night unfolds, the boys have to put all of their fears (and dreams) behind them in order to rise to the challenge of becoming lesbian vampire killers.
Claydon says that he drew on a lot of influences from a wide variety of some of his favourite movies.
“I wrote it with a lot of fun and juvenile energy. I drew on influences from 80s movies, such as Ghostbusters, Weird Science, The Lost Boys, Gremlins and those kind of films. And then I amalgamated those ideas with Hammer House sensibilities and films like The Prince of Evil, The Howling, and The Horrors of Dracula."
"I also wanted to put my own stamp on it too. I threw in lots of different elements to keep it interesting, such as slapstick comedy, sexual vamp scenes and great SFX. But at the end of the day, the core of the story all the way through is about this great relationship between two guys who bumble along, trying to work out how they can get laid when every girl that is really good looking wants to kill them.”
Despite the director saying that it’s not influenced by Shaun of The Dead, it is similar in style and humour.
In total, the film used 260 VFX shots, when they originally budgeted for 50. One of the best special effects scenes features Maclaren’s ex-girlfriend getting an axe through her head before her body is completely sliced in half. For this effect, Gorton used an application that was placed on top of the actresses head, as Claydon recalls.
“It was a classic old school gag. The make-up took fours hours to put on and it involved a prosthetic that was wrapped around her head to make it look like the axe had really gone through it. And then a fake torso was made out of prosthetics and an axe was attached to a rig in this latex. Jimmy just had to push down on the axe to make the torso split apart," he explains.
"We also had to coordinate carefully with the stunt guys to make sure the comedy was the right tone for this scene, with her spinning around with the axe in her head, almost whacking Jimmy in the face. On top of that, we filmed some vampiric fluid elements that were later comped into the scene in post. So that was a good combination of prosthetics and VFX merged together. In other scenes, we had guys off camera squirting gunk and slime into the scenes.”
The film is full of fun effects like this, including swords going through people and wrap around stakes being pierced through people’s bodies. Many of the techniques were based on effects ideas used in the past, as a tribute to old movies. But the combined vision of Clayton with Gorton’s expertise and the polished VFX of Rushes made them look unique, sophisticated and extremely realistic.
Lesbian Vampire Killers will be released in Australia on May 21. Smoke & Mirrors is the VFX sister magazine to Inside Film.