Horror-on-Sea Interview with ‘The Final Ride’ writer-director Mike McMurran

The Final Ride (2019)

Director: Mike McMurran

Writer: Mike McMurran

Starring: Keegan Chambers, Annette Wozniak, Matthew Chisholm, Brent Baird, Nicole Kawalez

An Anthology with three tales including the ghost of an 80’s fitness guru, a Tattoo that won’t stop spreading, and an Uber Driver that picks up her final customer for the night, not knowing that she’s in for the ride of her life.

In a new interview in the series leading up to Horror-on-Sea Film Festival, I got a chance to ask  The Final Ride writer-Director  Mike McMurran a few questions about what we can expect from the film.

Q. Your latest horror film The Final Ride has been selected to play at Horror-on-Sea. Can you tell us what we can expect from the film?

It’s such a pleasure to be back for Horror-On-Sea! The Final Ride is a really fun anthology film. Audiences can expect to have a lot of laughs and a few scares, overall it’s a beer and popcorn movie. The film consists of three stories and we’re bound to get you with one of them. It’s filled with gore, action, comedy, and most of all heart. The Final Ride wasn’t made with a lot of money but it was made with a lot of heart.

Q. Why did you decide to create an anthology film and what were you influences when writing the script?

After finishing Secret Santa (2015), I knew I wanted to try something drastically different. The first segment; The Workout, I had written before Secret Santa and always thought it would be great for a horror anthology. The Tattoo was a fun idea that I came up with while touring around a horror convention that had a tattoo artist as a vendor. I had a hard time coming up with a third story to bring the segments together. That’s when the star of The Workout and Secret Santa; Matt Chisholm, came up with the idea of the Uber Driver in the last segment. It was a brilliant idea and I was able to make the stories come full circle. I think it flows really well.

Anthology films like Creepshow (1982), Body Bags (1993), and Trick R’ Treat (2007) were an inspiration to me. I always felt those films flowed really well and each story had a solid beginning, middle, and end. Which I feel a lot of anthologies don’t have. Bringing back the majority of the cast from Secret Santa also inspired me to write to the actors strengths, and I could picture the characters in my mind when writing the screenplay.

Q. What were some of your influences for the look and style of the film?

We had the most fun with The Tattoo segment in terms of the look. We used a lot of devilish red light in scenes and filming in that old tattoo parlour really gave us some gritty production value.

In the Driver segment, we used the Sony A7sii for our A camera and it was monumental in getting the shots we needed due to it’s low light power. We were shooting remotely for most of that segment so the night scenes needed to have a quick setup. We also had to do poor man’s process for the driving scenes, which was a lot of fun to create but also very gruelling. We shot in a tiny garage and pipe and draped the whole garage and black out the windows. We shot on the hottest weekend of the year in August, in a sealed garage, and with no air conditioning. I’m really proud with how it turned out.

Q. Where there any elements of the original script which were adapted for any of the stories during filming?

We stuck to the script for the most part but I also loved to have the actors riff and improv when we’re shooting. Steve Kasan who played Richard; the creepy Uber passenger, and Ry Barrett who played Jimmy; The 80’s fitness guru ghost, loved to improv. We never got the same take from Steve who switched up lines and delivery. Barrett improved at least half of his lines, all of which were brilliant. It really is a collaborative effort when making a movie. Sometimes the dialogue on the page doesn’t work and as a director, you have to let your actors be comfortable changing it up.

Q. Did you experience any issues during filming?

How much time do you have Phil? Haha. Our budget was even lower than Secret Santa, so we had to be very creative with our resources. We have less SFX in this film than in Secret Santa but the effects that we do have are awesome! I tried my best to contain the stories in one to two locations, tops.

Filming the poor man’s process in the garage saved us from doing elaborate green screen filming or trying to get a trailer to shoot on the streets. We used a GoPro for a lot of the driving shots and they really turned out great.

We shot this film in 14 days, which was pretty gruelling but the filming was spread out, so it was difficult to get a rhythm with shooting. We shot in snow storms and heat waves, there was a lot of braving the elements.

Q. What were some of your favourite moments during filming?

I always love filming SFX gags. There’s a lot of anticipation in filming those sequences and for the most part, we would only have one take to pull it off. Its always so exhilarating to see the gag work and even more so when the audience sees the gag at a screening and winces or turns away in disgust, or applauds. Since most of the cast and crew are returning from Secret Santa, my favourite moments are catching up with them in between takes and watching them grow as artists. We’ve made a little film family and it’s such a treat to be able to work with these amazing talents again.

Q. What makes The Final Ride stand out as something different in the horror genre?

I think that the blend of humour and horror in both The Final Ride and Secret Santa is truly unique. At least I hope it is. I tried to write really enjoyable, fun movies. The vast majority of Horror movies are pretty dark, so trying to bring a lighter tone to the subject matter is something I really enjoy writing.

Q. What do you hope people take away after watching the film?

I hope they have fun. That’s all.

Q. Do you have any other projects which you are currently working on?

Not at the moment. I have baby boy that was born before we completed post production on The Final Ride, so I’m taking some time to be a good Dad. I have a couple ideas brewing, so hopefully I can start writing the next screenplay soon.

Q. If someone was looking to write and direct their own film what advice would you give them?

Not to steal Nike’s tagline but “Just do it.” I have heard every excuse in the book to not make a movie, including “I don’t have the budget to pull this off” or “I’m too busy with my day job.” Shoot on weekends or your days off. You can take a whole year to film your movie if you have to. Adapt your screenplay to your budget. Combine characters in your script so that you only need a couple actors. Keep you locations minimal. One or two tops if you can. Get as many volunteers as you can. You would be surprised at how many people just want to get a start in the industry and are willing to do work for free. You can spend years coming up with reasons why you can’t, but if you can find a crew and cast crazy enough to go into battle with you, it can be done.

The Final Ride will be playing at Horror-on-Sea on Friday 17th January at 15:00 hrs

You can find out more about Horror-on-Sea and purchase tickets for the festival here: