As Australian horror film The Furies hits cinemas today it is already shaping up to be one of the horror films of the year as it rides a great wave of momentum following its screening at Fangoria X Monster Fest 2019. Impressed by the movie HEAVY Cinema wanted to know more so sat down with screenwriter/director Tony D’Aquino to find out how the movie came into being.
“I’m a huge horror nerd,” says D’Aquino laughing when I ask him where the original idea for The Furies came from. “I just love horror films, book, comics anything to do with horror. I am also a big fan of what was happening in the genre in the 1970s and 1980s, especially the American independent and slasher films of that period. So I always wanted to make a film with that spirit and tone I guess – films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Burning, something like that. Also I am interested in the final girl trope that came out of the slasher films of that period where it always the lone girl facing off against the masked killer so I kind of wondered what would happen if you had a bunch of final women and a group of killers and they were forced to kill each other to see how it would play out… that was the spark of the idea.”
“Also there was something that I wanted to address,” he says continuing after a brief pause. “Even though I love slasher films they did get problematic in the end. They were accused of being misogynist and I wanted to address that and kind of update the slasher genre so I made it about the women and made sure that they didn’t have to rely on anybody coming to rescue them and not have them running around with their tops coming off as they scream for help. I wanted to address that and make it entirely about them.”
Part of that sees D’Aquino change the old-fashioned notion of just making the female characters sexual objects and instead giving them full characterisation and back stories. “To address that issue of women just being there as victims I did want to give each woman their own story arc,” he explains when we talk about how he went about changing things for the better. “With Kayla who is the main character I gave her a weakness which ended up being a strength which sees her come into her own and not only survive but get stronger as it goes along. I also wanted to have strong female relationships that didn’t involve men. There was no concern at all about men it was all about the women.”
You can listen to our full interview with Tony D’Aquino on our Spreaker channel.
The Furies is in cinemas now.
