Murder in the Woods Filmmaker Luis Iga Garza could not be prouder as his film is finally getting a release date. After a few years of delays, the slasher flick hits digital and video-on-demand September 18 and he phoned The Movie Mensch for an exclusive chat to celebrate that fact.
Movie making is a collective endeavor that sometimes can involve hundreds of artisans coming together with the same goal. Garza spoke to his strength of fostering creativity. In this case, he collaborated with the screenwriter Yelyna De Leon to figure out the plot and then she crafted a slasher flick centered around Latinx characters, a familial cabin, and a mysterious killer. For a helmer who is truly directing his first full-length film, scoring a legend like Danny Trejo (From Dusk Till Dawn, Heat, Machete) is a huge coup. Garza dishes to us exclusively how that came to be!
The Movie Mensch: When you first read the script that first time through, what was your biggest takeaway?
Luis Iga Garza: I actually developed the script from the beginning with Yelyna. I brought the project to the writer to write from the get-go. I usually work in projects that I bring to writers. I’m really good with structure and I know what I want, but I’m not good with the dialogue. I also love the collaboration that happens when more than one head works on something. That is why I love filmmaking because it’s a collaboration of many people.
The Movie Mensch: How did you two meet?
Luis Iga Garza: I met her at USC. We were one of the only Latinos in the USC [film program]. That is how we bonded. So, I went to Yelyna and we literally sat down and just broke it down and started the idea. We both grew up loving slashers from the horror genre. They’re fun. They are great movies to just escape. That is why I love slashers because it is like a good popcorn movie that you go have fun to disconnect. So that is why I decided to do this movie. So Yelyna and I got together literally—sounds like a cliche, but we went to a coffee shop and on a napkin, we started putting down the beats and what was going to be the movie about. Then she went ahead and wrote it.
The Movie Mensch: From a filmmaking standpoint after seeing your film, there are many scenes that I think would be like “Okay, this is going to be a tough one to shoot.” What moment in the film, for you, was the toughest to plan and execute? Of course, without giving away too much.
Luis Iga Garza: We’re a very small movie. We only shot this in 15 days. Every day was a challenge, especially because we were in a fire-prone area. We had to have fire safety advisors and every day they would make us do something different with the power lines and things. For example, the first day out from the get-go—we lost four hours just complying with them. That was very challenging. I literally had to throw away my plans to shoot this movie with a lot of the camera movements. I had to figure out a way to make it happen. If I had to decide on one scene,
The Movie Mensch: How did getting Danny Trejo come about and what was that like working with such a legend?
Luis Iga Garza: Danny Trejo is an amazing actor, but even a more amazing human being. When Yelyna and I sat down and we were thinking about the story and we came up with Sheriff Lorenzo, we said it has to be Danny Trejo. We wrote that role for him. I met Danny’s assistant—who actually ended up helping us a lot because he does art direction and set dressing. I built a relationship with him and they introduced me to Danny’s agent. Danny is a very, very busy man. I sent an offer to his people and we were waiting to hear. We needed Danny in three days to show up on set.
The Movie Mensch: Talk about pressure!
Luis Iga Garza: I know! We still hadn’t had a response. Again, he’s a very busy man. If he’s not shooting five movies at a time, he’s traveling and giving talks to empower people or doing a food drive. Luckily by miracle, Yelyna—our writer/producer—ran into him in a restaurant. She approached him and was like, “Hey, Danny, I was checking that if you got the offer and everything” and he was like “Oh yeah, what’s going on? When do you need me?” He was like, ” I’ll get back to you today.” Later that day I received a call and we were on! It was nerve-wracking because we didn’t have a plan B.
The Movie Mensch: Great story! Murder in the Woods will certainly inspire future filmmakers, much like Halloween and Friday the 13th did for others. What film or films inspired you coming up? I know you said you like slasher movies. Which ones really pushed your buttons?
Luis Iga Garza: I go back to the classics. The ones that are fun and flashy, like Friday the 13th. I think that’s probably the first one that caught my attention. And then, Then, Wes Craven movies like Scream. I also loved I Know What You Did Last Summer and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre—I really love that movie too. The whole one location thing from Saw—I love that movie. A lot of things on how to figure out how to do a movie in one location [like Murder in the Woods] was inspired by that movie. Also, a lot of Robert Rodriguez’s do it yourself attitude is also what drove this movie. Saw is one of those movies that you’re like, “I wish I would’ve had that idea!”
The Movie Mensch: We all learn something about ourselves after a huge challenge. What do you think you learned about yourself after making this movie?
Luis Iga Garza: I learned a lot. I learned about collaboration. I learned not to give up. We shot this movie in 2015. We’ve been developing since 2014. It’s almost going to be a six-year journey. There was a lot of sweat and tears. So many times, you think you just want to throw in the towel. That perseverance and pushing—that’s the struggle of independent filmmaking. I learned that I have the tenacity and the ability not to give up.