ShareThisAs Art Linkletter never said, kids say the darnedest things about body parts.
"There was a brown fake arm and a lot of tan fake arms," commented 6-year-old stoic Julia Comes, unfazed after her recent discovery of a table of bloody severed limbs in her upscale Memphis, Tenn., neighborhood, where the cast and crew of the MTV horror production "Savage County" was in residency this week.
Inspired by the successful Memphis production of "$5 Cover" -- the music-themed MTV serial drama from director Craig Brewer ("Hustle & Flow") -- "Savage County" has united local and Hollywood talent to create a multi-"webisode" online series that will eschew bumpin' beats to focus on things that go bump in the night.
A long-empty 19th-century home in an elegant neighborhood is serving as host for a few days to rampaging rustics, lethal yokels and bloodthirsty bumpkins. Or "killer hillbillies," in the playfully exaggerated and less alliterative phrase of writer-director David Harris. (The story is set in the flatlands of Texas, not the hills of Tennessee.)
One of the homicidal hayseeds, a sort of perverted Boo Radley played by Jeff Pope of Memphis, was killed in front of the high-definition cameras.
"I'm looking forward to it," said Pope, 33, as he was fitted by makeup designer Sandy Andrle with a neck injury attached to a tube through which blood was pumped after Memphis actress Ivy McLemore, 19, "slashed" the actor's throat with a rubber knife.
Covered in stage blood ("We buy K.D. Extra Dark -- it's the best!" Andrle enthused), McLemore sported a branding-iron "burn," courtesy of the crazed Hardell clan of "Savage County": a stylized blend of the letter "H" with some Texas-style hook-'em horns. Said Pope: "I thought it was the Van Halen logo."
"FX (the special-effects field) is heavy with people who love gore and Goth, but you really need to know your chemicals and your compounds, especially if you're working in the South, with all the humidity," said Andrle, 26, whose credits include the TV miniseries "John Adams," which she said was "really good for smallpox and yellow fever."
A tale of Texas teen-agers whose prank-gone-wrong inspires the murderous vengeance of a rural tribe that proudly traces its "We Show No Mercy" family motto to the Confederacy, "Savage County" is a follow-up in production strategy if not theme to Brewer's 15-part "$5 Cover," which made its debut on the Music Television network.
"$5 Cover" demonstrated that a Memphis-based project with a local cast and crew could be produced with a New York or California level of professionalism. Plus, Memphis is cheap: The "Savage County" budget is a tight $250,000, about $50,000 less than "$5 Cover." Both are productions of Brewer's BR2 company, with a longtime Brewer collaborator, Memphian Erin Hagee, 32, as producer.
"Savage County" likely will premiere online early next year. Like "$5 Cover," it will consist of 15 seven- to nine-minute episodes that will form a coherent feature film when viewed in sequence.
Harris, 33, a Texas-raised, West Hollywood-based horror fan with MTV New Media who was a producer on "$5 Cover," has gathered a mix of Memphis and Hollywood cast and crew members for his "Savage" brainchild. Well-known artist, musician, puppeteer and eccentric Jimmy Crosthwait plays Wilbur Hardell, head of the killer clan.
"Wilbur runs up and down stairs, at one point with an ax, at one point with a shotgun, and chases teen-age girls through the boonies," said Crosthwait, 63. "I haven't had this much fun since sliding down a steel cable from the balcony to the floor in my clown suit at the Electric Circus in New York City in the summer of love, 1967. Forty years later, I'm getting another crack at fame."
(John Beifuss is a reporter for The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn. His movie blog is www.thebloodshoteye.com. E-mail him at beifuss(at)commercialappeal.com.)
