Graduate student channels classic horror in thesis film

Article By: Emily Green
Published: April 11, 2008

What would happen if a slasher met Count Dracula? That’s the question Kevin Treadway, a Savannah College of Art and Design graduate film and television student, answers in his thesis film “The Monster.”

A background in history helped prepare Treadway to fuse classic and contemporary ideas in “The Monster.” By the time he completed a bachelor’s degree in public history from East Carolina University, he had become interested in pursuing a filmmaking career instead.

“I had become a filmmaker whose hobby was history,” he explained. “I still love history, but it’s not my passion.”

A stint dressed in period garb at Colonial Williamsburg confirmed Treadway’s desire not to work in public history, and he and his wife subsequently moved to Savannah so he could attend SCAD, where he finds himself chasing a directing career with gusto.

“Being stuck in the 18th century is fun for about a year, and then after that you want to do something else,” he said.

His dual devotion to history and filmmaking has resulted in “The Monster.” He is quick to disclose his preference of classic horror movies — particularly Béla Lugosi’s iconic portrayal of Count Dracula in 1931 — over the gruesome films of the last few decades.

“I’m making a statement that modern horror has, in my opinion, gone off track a little bit,” said Treadway. “If the genre had been created around modern movies, it would be called the ‘terror’ genre, whereas if you look at Dracula in the 1930s it’s really horrifying.

“You’ve got this undead corpse that walks around … and this guy’s not out to just dismember you, he’s out to take your soul and corrupt you. [‘The Monster’ villain] the Tenderizer — oh, he’ll kill you and it will be nasty — but Dracula will destroy you utterly, body and soul.”

The opening sequence of “The Monster” shows the Tenderizer (graduate film and television student Jaysin Osterkamp), a deranged, sledgehammer-wielding murderer, hot on the heels of young, beautiful Cindy (undergraduate sound design student Chelsea Frirsz). When she dashes into an abandoned warehouse trying to escape her beastly assailant, it appears Cindy has found help — until a plot twist unveils the shadowed man facing a cabinet as Dracula (Will Bellais) dusting off his coffin.

“She becomes a prize in a showdown between an old horror icon and this new ‘slasher’ character,” Treadway said. “Suffice it to say that I completely show my colors because Dracula wins; it’s not even a contest.”

Treadway avoided gory visual effects and instead opted for subtle clues to convey the fates of each character. Audiences see only the flailing legs of the Tenderizer behind Dracula’s ominous cape as the vampire slurps up his mediocre appetizer. Then, just as he’s about to enjoy the main course, police sirens foil the attempt, and Dracula exits a window as a bat.

Treadway shot the film at the Meddin Evolving Artist Theater on Louisville Road, an old building that formerly housed the Meddin meatpacking company. “The Monster” setting was one of the old butchering rooms, complete with deserted dismembering equipment and a still-chilled, cement-block meat locker.

Treadway’s modest production budget of $2,000 received a $500 boost when a panel of professors selected his artist statement for the winter quarter SCAD Thesis Grant. He said he appreciates the fact that SCAD allows all film and television students to make their own films, and supplies equipment such as the Panther Dolly and Super 16 camera at no cost to students.

He said making “The Monster” has been a test to see if he is cut out for filmmaking. “If you can have your shots rained out, camera fail, people not show up on time, all sorts of technical problems go on … if you can go through all of that, and at the conclusion of every day you say to yourself, ‘This is the best job in the world,’ then you know you’re a filmmaker born and bred,” he said.

Treadway’s old-horror-meets-new-horror film is evidence of his thorough understanding of the genre, which includes an element of fun. In his artist statement, he wrote, “‘The Monster’ is fun. It’s as simple as that. To me movies are a kind of magic, and magic should always be fun.”