By Maria Lewis
Any true horror fan knows that sequels have depreciating value. Sure, there are the rare exceptions to the rule. But for every Aliens, Halloween II or Blade II there’s Jason X, Bride Of Chucky or Leprechaun: Back 2 da Hood (let us never speak of it again). Usually those filmmakers who take on horror sequels have a career that’s heading in a specific direction. With notable exemptions being folks like Wes Craven and John Carpenter, who have returned to the franchises they created and improved later installments. For Aussie filmmakers the Spierig Brothers – the duo behind Undead, Daybreakers, Predestinaton, and the upcoming Winchester – they live for horror sequels. Having grown up on a diet that consisted of them, among other cult classics and underground favourites, now they get to fulfill a lifelong dream of their own: making one.
“Writing your own stuff takes a long time,” says Michael Spierig. He would know, having spent the entirety of his impressive filmmaking career making only original projects with his brother, Peter. “Peter and I, our real passion is directing and we kind of got a little tired when we were writing and directing everything,” he says. “It took about five years to get anything made. Particularly if you’re going down the Aussie route where you need to get a lot of independent financing and try to get money out of the Australian government. It becomes a very lengthy process.” Cutting their teeth with student films in Brisbane, the Spierig Brothers built up a promising career in commercials before deciding to take a risk – a big one. Pooling their life savings, they made their debut film, zombie-comedy Undead, back in 2003. Since then they have balanced directing, writing, producing, scoring and editing their own projects in a feat of multitasking that would impress the likes of Robert Rodriguez. “We’ve always taken on a lot of roles out of necessity,” says Michael. “When we did our first film we made our own visual effects and cut the thing and did so much on the movie ourselves.”
Yet with their latest film, Jigsaw, the brothers leaped at the opportunity to focus on one role and one role only: directing. With the ninth installment in the juggernaut Saw franchise, the Spierigs continue on what has become somewhat of an Aussie legacy thanks to the original creators Leigh Whannell and James Wan. As both fans of the first eight films and horror movie sequels in general, the chance to helm Jigsaw was something both brothers were excited about. “I’ve been revisiting a lot of horror sequels lately,” says Michael, in the lead-up to Jigsaw’s global release this week. “Growing up in the eighties, I love so many. I think Nightmare on Elm Street 3 is awesome and Evil Dead 2 is better than the original.” For Peter, he’s a fan of Ozploitation gem The Howling III: The Marsupials, which is “awesome”. “What tends to happen with a lot of sequels is the attitude is just ‘let’s make it bigger, make it bloodier’ and the story gets lost along the way,” says Peter.
The Spierigs have studied sequels, eager to learn from mistakes that are often made and add something of their own. They’ve also studied the Saw sequels, with Michael listing Saw 6 as a movie of note. “It’s one of the best of the later films,” he says. With their take, they wanted to strip the story back to the elements that audiences first fell in love with. There’s the central mystery, the prospect of the original Jigsaw having returned from the dead and terrifying traps: very, very terrifying traps. “There’s still going to be plenty of gore,” Peter says with assurance.
Jigsaw is the first sequel for the Spierig Brothers and it might be their last for a while, given that their focus will now shift to putting the finishing touches on Winchester (out in early 2018). Yet if they have it their way, both Peter and Michael want to have a crack at another well-known horror property. The problems is, there’s too many they love to choose from.
Maria Lewis is a journalist and author previously seen on SBS Viceland’s The Feed. She’s the presenter and producer of the Eff Yeah Film & Feminism podcast. Her debut novel Who’s Afraid? was released in 2016 with the sequel – Who’s Afraid Too? – out now. Her new book It Came From The Deep is available now. You can find her on Twitter @MovieMazz
