Kevin Mosley, in this season's must-have Survival Wear.
Photo: Rachel Lando

The Interview
CB: So let's get the simple stuff out of the way first. How did "Savage Island" come about?
KM: About five years ago, I was approached by Jeffery Lando, a film maker who had worked in the indie film scene in New York. He wanted to do a no budget horror film shot on DV. But he needed a writer since he was'nt that familiar with the horror genre. He comes from more of an art film background. I met Jeffery at a good time, since I was becoming frustrated with trying to get my work produced in Hollywood and I was ready to do something, anything. Jeffery and I hit it off and he took me to this island off the coast of BC to come up with a story. He wanted to set the story on an island, since his family owned a house there which would serve as our main location. Plus we could house all the actors there. So here we were on this island trying to come up with a story. At first we talked about doing a zombie movie, but that would have proved too complicated for what our intentions were. I wanted to do something edgy, something like the horror films from the early seventies. I had been very frustrated with the shit that Hollywood was pumping out. I wanted to see something intense like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Last House On The Left. One of my favorites from that time is The Hills Have Eyes and I pitched Jeffery the idea to do something like that. Two families locked in conflict, story and character driven. He liked the idea and I wrote the first draft in something like eight days. It just sort of poured out. Once we had the first draft, Jeffery and I worked for over a year developing the characters and story. Jeffery is a great story teller and he was amazing to work with, always looking for new angles. I eventually did twenty re-writes and yeah my brain was a little fried by the end. Writing Savage Island was an intense process, I felt like I had spent a year on an island watching all these disfunctional people go at each other.

CB: The film is like a "Nuclear Family Deathmatch": the civilized, prosperous family who bickers endlessly and resorts to extreme violence vs. the primitive, rural family whose home is actually quite peaceful and formal, and who strive to bring things back to peace. Horror films have a long history of demonizing rural families, and here you almost do the opposite -- why the choice to reverse the roles of the two opposing clans?
KM: As the script developed, what began to emerge was this theme of who is really evil? That was interesting to Jeffery and I and we decided to make the Savage Family more 'normal', in a traditional family sense. I mean we live in a world that seems so out of control at times, it is hard to tell who the 'evil' ones really are. It was a challenge to the story because you don't really have a clear picture of who the villian is, because both families are evil in their own way and they both resort to extreme violence. That for me makes a much more interesting dynamic between the two familes. The Young family wants to kick the Savage family off the island and will do whatever it takes to accomplish that. They are motivated by power and greed and have no respect for what they consider to be 'trash'. The don't look at the Savage family as human beings, they look at them as roadblocks that are in the way of progress. The Savage family just wants to be left alone, to live their lives the way they want to. But when that is threatened, they will do whatever it takes to protect their family.

CB: How did your family like the film?
KM: My family loves the movie. They saw early versions of the film when Jeffery was editing and were really supportive. Plus my dad is a real outdoorsman and he gets a kick out of the Savage family. The character of Eliah was inspired by my brother who would be perfectly happy to live in a shack in the woods and hunt and fish all day. He also use to do taxidermy for a hobby. So yeah, there are some aspects of my family in the script. Now that's scary...

CB: Some of your characters suffer fairly brutal deaths. Does the "punishment fit the crime"?
KM: The deaths in Savage Island are brutal and yeah they all deserved it! It is a horror film after all. Maybe it's a 'shock and awe' kind of thing...

CB: Much has been written about queer artists deconstructing the heterocentric nuclear family. Do you feel that your being a gay man affects your views on the traditional family unit?
KM: Do you really want to know my views on the traditional family unit?? Being gay certainly affects my views. I grew up feeling like an outsider, so I was able to look at things from a different perspective. I think the traditional family unit is slowly changing. I mean gay people are now allowed to get married in Canada! People are always afraid of something they don't understand and until people get over their misguided and ignorant notions, then maybe we can all live in a society where no one gives a shit who you're doing in the bedroom. The character of Joe Savage is a good example of how a member of the family feels disconnected and can't seem to find his own way. All the charactes in Savage Island suffer with some sort of disfunction. Julia and Steven are having marital problems. She is unsatisfied and looking for some adventure. Steven is boring and wimpy, not living up to Julia's expectations of what a real man should be. As the story unfolds, both families begin to unravel and fall apart and when all the dust settles a new family unit is born. There is alot going on in the story that deals with family dynamics, probably more than I realise.

CB: Many writers write themselves, or a version of themselves, into their scripts. My gaydar went off when the character of Peter appeared -- is he your 'voice' in the film? Mere you compelled to introduce any gay themes into the story?
KM: When I write a script, part of my personality will end up somewhere in a character. The character of Peter is similar to myself in the way of his happy go lucky attitude. I'm the first one to venture down a path in the woods, just to see where it goes. I like the unknown... not quite sure what is around the corner but looking anyway. There was a point in the writing process when Jeffery and I talked about Peter being gay. I didn't really want to make a point of it, so we just left it which I am glad we did. Plus I hate sometimes in a movie where they make it so obvious and overstated that a character is gay. Sometimes I think it is better to not say anything and let the viewer decide. Brendan Beiser, the actor who played Peter, took the character and ran with it. He added his own flamboyancy to the character which really worked well. I have written gay characters in other scripts but I don't make a point of slamming people over the head with it.

CB: I definitely understand. Any more horror projects in the works?
KM: At the moment I am in re-write hell with a script I had written seven years ago called The Haunting Of Laura Rhodes. It's about a woman who confronts her past through the ghost of a murdered child. After that I want to spend the winter writing another spec. I never know what is around the next corner, so I just kind of roll with it. I think that's why I love doing this work because you don't know what is around the corner and I like that. It's all about the unknown.

Fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants kinda guy, this Kevin Mosley! And a pleasure to correspond with as well -- thanks again, Kevin, and best of luck with "Savage Island" and other projects!