Film Name: Chainsaws Were Singing
Director: Sander Maran
Writers: Sander Maran, Karl Ilves
Starring: Karl Ilves, Laura Niils, Martin Ruus, Janno Puusepp, Rita Rätsepp
Monty Python meets Texas Chainsaw Massacre meets… Les Misérables.
Chainsaws Were Singing is an absolutely bonkers action-horror-musical-comedy B-movie epic from
Estonia. Shot guerilla-style in 2013, this true love letter to crowd-pleasing exploitation cinema then
spent a modest 10 years in postproduction and is finally out in 2024.
In a new interview on Blazing Minds, I got a chance to ask Co-Writer/Director Sander Maran a few questions about his musical, horror-comedy Chainsaws Were Singing.
Q. Your film has been selected to play at the Horror-on-Sea Film Festival. Can you tell us what we can expect?
A. Well, there’s a chainsaw solo during a musical number if it’s something you’d be into. I mean, I’ve hugely been influenced by the early works of my favourite directors, so if Bad Taste, Braindead, Cannibal the Musical, Texas Chainsaw, Holy Grail and Little Shop of Horrors are something you like, definitely check this one out!
Q. You co-wrote the script with Karl Ilves. What were some of your influences when writing the script and what was your process for writing together?
A. Well, with Karl we developed the storyline together for a couple of months, pitching all sorts of crazy ideas we’d want to have in this thing and what songs could work and developed the characters. Once we sort of had a thru-line, I did write the script myself. Didn’t have any influences regarding the writing process, but kinda of a fun fact… I had written all my short films during high school’s math or physics classes. The boring monotone voice of a boring subject matter being discussed by the teacher made me escape into my notebooks and made me write stuff. With Chainsaws, I was no longer in school and suffered massive writers block trying to write at home. So the only way I finally managed to focus, was, every day for 2 months straight, I crashed into public lectures at a university and pretended to be a student there with a laptop. Once again, the ever so soothing voice of the lecturer was boring enough that it was way better to escape into my laptop and that and where is how I wrote the script and the lyrics to the songs.
Q. What were some of your influences for the look and style of the film?
A. Robert Rodrigues’ El Mariachi, Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead 2, Peter Jackson’s Bad Taste and Braindead, as well as John Woo’s stuff back in Hong Kong. Basically, the cool gritty look with a wide-angle lens came from all them. Fun fact – Chainsaws was shot on the crappies digital cameras you could buy back in the day – Canon 60D, 550D and the likes (Canon Rebel) – the footage looked so horrendous and digital at first, which is why I ended up spending 2 years on colour correction. There’s about 3500 edits in the film and each and every single one had to be restored and overlaid with some 25-40 adjustments and grain and distortion levels to achieve that vintage look.
Q. Did you make any changes from the original script during filming?
A. There were definitely changes made during the day, but for most the screenplay was precise enough so that we would shoot from that. The actors ad-libbed some of the dialogue and some stuff, due to the guerrilla nature of the shoot, we were forces to sacrifice and not film at all. But mostly, all the changes from the original script were made during the harrowing editing process, spanning about 2 and a half years.
Q. What were some of your favourite moments during filming?
A. Back in 2013, drones weren’t a thing, so it was way cool that during a car chase shoot, our gore effects guy Jan, disappeared for a moment and came back saying: “Dude, you want an aerial shot?” He had spoken to some motor-deltaplane pilots nearby and so I was put in a motor-deltaplane with the pilot up front and me behind him, and that’s the way I shot some of the actual aerial shots in the film. Kind of a bummer, years later, when drones took over and none of that is special anymore. But still, I got to fly!
Q. Did you experience any issues during filming?
A. Only issues. So many that it’s hard to list even. They say the first step to take is the hardest, so… our first day of shooting (28th of June, 2013) was harrowing – we didn’t have our stuff in order, it was like 40 degrees Celsius out, plus we had to shoot lip syncing material for a song which also involved live flames and new blood squirting techniques we hadn’t tested before. It was rough but we survived the day, only to find out the next morning that 75% of the material had been deleted during copying. For our 64 days of shoots during 2013, it was nothing but battle to get all the shots done, but it was very fun as well.
Q. What makes stand out as something different in the horror genre?
A. To quote Ice Cube – “Whatever new field you get into, you gotta respect the game.” So I say this as a horror fan – there’s kills and gore and situations in here that will be well worth your while. Also, horror-musical-comedies are a rare breed and are seldom done well, so I wanted to be extra thorough to deliver the goods. The songs are pretty catchy if I dare say so and I promise you some genuine laughs.
Q. What do you hope people take away after watching the film?
A. An experience they’ve never felt at a movie theatre, really.
Q. Do you have any other projects which you are currently working on?
A. Nope, Chainsaws is still running my life, as it has for the past 11 years and I don’t see any openings soon. Currently on the last legs on our Estonian cinematic run, almost breaking even from some debt I’d collected on Chainsaws. By the way, I may end up working together with Jakob Skrzypa, the very funny Canadian writer/producer/actor behind “Vampire Zombies… From Space!” as we met in July and have become good friends with frightfully similar humour and sensibilities. Check out Vampire Zombies, wherever you get a chance!
Q. If someone was looking to write and direct their own film what advice would you give them?
A. I believe I’m in an extremely poor position to hand out solid advice, given it took me 11 years to finish a damn film but… PRE-PRODUCTION – DO IT, more than less!! Other than that, yeah, just know that you’re capable of way more than you think you are. Decide up front if you wanna be completely free in your creative choices, which means way more burden on your shoulders, or if you wanna work together as a team and involve a budget, which will make things easier but there’s trade-offs for both approaches.
Also, as there’s so many boring first films being made today – just keep it fun!
I gotta quote Frank Capra here: “The are no rules in filmmaking. Only sins. And the cardinal sin is dullness.” Your job as a director is to direct the viewer through the film. So it’s less about you and more about their experience.
And also, don’t make a near 2 hour-long horror-musical-comedy in a foreign language!
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!
