To Your Last Death (2019)
Director: Jason Axinn
Writers: Jim Cirile, Tanya C. Klein
Stars: Morena Baccarin, William Shatner, Ray Wise, Bill Moseley, Damien C. Haas
In order to save her siblings, a young woman takes on her father and the powerful entity known as Gamemaster, who ensnares humans into diabolical plots while her species gambles on the outcome.
With the groundbreaking 2-D, American animated horror feature To Your Last Death premiering at Arrow FrightFest on Friday 23rd August, I got a chance to ask director Jason Axinn a few questions about what we can expect from the film.
Q. How did you get into filmmaking originally?
A. My dad bought a video camera when I was a kid, which I immediately ‘stole’ to make goofy music videos with my sister. At some point I discovered that I could invite my friends over for a party and make a low budget horror film. That led to low budget horror film sequels, and eventually comedy. I grew up in New York, went to USC in California for film school, and have worked here in Los Angeles ever since.
Q. with the world premiere of To Your Last Death being held at Arrow FrightFest on August 23rd, can you tell us a little bit about what we can expect from the film?
A. Horror films usually end the same way – the main character survives, bloody and bruised, often landing in a hospital bed being interrogated by the police. To Your Last Death starts there and asks: what if you could go back and relive the entire horror movie, knowing what you know now? What would you do if you had that chance?
Q. How did you first get involved in – To Your Last Death and what attracted you to the film?
A. I grew up watching animation that was aimed at adults, like: Heavy Metal (1981), American Pop (1981), Fantastic Planet (1973) and Bakshi’s Lord of the Rings (1978), all of which were amazing and influential. I had always hoped to have a chance to direct an animated feature film, and one that combines sci-fi and horror was too good to turn down.
Q. What is the process for directing animation and how does it compare to directing a live action?
A. Directing animation is, of course, very different from live action. A live action film generally shoots actors on sets for a few months, followed by editing and post. Animation begins with editing – you plan the entire film, shot for shot, before going into production, and have a week or two to get the performance you need from the actors. Animation is about setting a foundation for an entire film and letting the actors and artists slowly add layers to it, that enrich the experience. Live action is about capturing lightning in a bottle, as fast as you can.
Q. The film has brought together an amazing cast including Morena Baccarin, William Shatner, Ray Wise and Bill Moseley. What were they like to work with?
A. The cast of To Your Last Death is stocked with amazing professionals that were a dream to work with, each bringing their own creative approach and sense of humor to their characters. They meshed so well as a group, it was hard to believe that this was the first project they had worked together on. William Shatner is very, very funny and we had a great time recording him.
Q. You can see some of the features of the actors in the film. How much of an influence did actors have on the look of the characters and were there any changes made from the original concept once you knew who was going to voice the role?
A. We designed the character that Ray Wise plays, Cyrus DeKalb, specifically to match his likeness. It was the best possible choice for us, because having Cyrus look like Ray is shorthand to the audience, evoking his past performance as Leland Palmer from Twin Peaks (1990-1991).
Q. Did you experience any issues bringing the film together?
A. To Your Last Death employed artists from all over the world, so of course we hit different bumps in the road than most productions do. We had a guy in Iran, one of our best animators, who suddenly was unable to upload work files because Iran turned off the internet for the entire country for three weeks. That was a long three weeks, waiting to see if Iran would turn the internet back on and let us finish our film. I’m not sure how often that happens to other productions.
Q. What were some of your favorite moments during filming?
A. I had a great time making To Your Last Death. We solved production problems in unusual ways, which was a lot of fun. There’s a scene where we see seven characters in the same location, so to work out each of their placements per shot, we built a tiny version of the set and used action figures to map it all out. Of course, the action figures were mostly made up from the casts of Star Trek (1996 – ) and Breaking Bad (2008-2013), Walter White substituting for Cyrus Dekalb.
Q. What makes To Your Last Death stand out as something different in the horror genre?
A. To Your Last Death is an R-rated animated feature film aimed at an adult audience. There is nothing like it in the horror genre.
Q. What is your favourite scene in the film?
A. There’s a scene late in the film where someone is strapped into a torture device, forced to do children’s math on a computer tablet, where the only thing they can use to select the answer is their tongue. The actor we used to voice the tablet starred in Avenue Q, so it’s this cute ‘clown’ voice innocently helping what it assumes is a 5 year old learn basic math. It’s both ridiculously funny and truly horrifying.
Q. If someone was looking to get into directing themselves what advice would you give them?
A. Invite your friends over for a party and make a low budget horror film. That’s what I did.
To Your Last Death will premier at Arrow FrightFest on 26th August 2019. You can purchase tickets for the film here
You can find out more about To Your Last Death on the Website – IMDB and the following social media pages Facebook – Twitter
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!
