Photo courtesy of Peach Partners

The Neo Western is a new take on the wild west films that starred Clint Eastwood and John Wayne, with bad guys claiming their hold on territory and heroes with questionable morals. The go-to Neo Western filmmaker of today is Taylor Sheridan, but with the release of The Last Victim, director Naveen A. Chathapuram aims to put his stamp on the genre.

The Last Victim is a thriller with a small cast and grand western locations as a sheriff tries to solve a gruesome crime likely caused by a violent local gang who is led by a fearsome criminal. The idea is not new. Chathapuram has been sitting on the idea of this film since a friend brought it to him nearly 20 years ago. Back then, the original version of the script was a gritty thriller that took place in the rural southwest as an homage to films like Deliverance and Breakdown.

“I grew up all over the United States, but I had never been exposed to the rural desert southwest until I turned 22," Chathapuram shares. “That was a culture shock for me and l loved the setting.”

They were almost all set to go into production then but there was a forest fire that pushed the project and it was eventually shelved.

Chathapuram spent the next decade-and-a-half producing a lot and observing directors from the sidelines without having the responsibility of helming his own project. It wasn’t until 15 years after the initial push for The Last Victim that Chathapuram was going through scripts and re-read it.

He felt the structure was there but knew it had to bring the story up to the level of more recent neo-westerns like No Country for Old Men and Hell or High Water. Naveen went to the Blacklist to source the newest screenwriting talent on the scene and found Ashley James Louis whose voice resonated with him and he gave him a crack at the script.

“Ash read the script, gave me some notes and they were fantastic so I decided to go with him,” Chathapuram recalls. “He delivered it a couple [of] months later and took the original essence of the script and structure and made it his own.”

Creating compelling characters

From the first scene of the film, the audience is immediately engaged with the antagonist. Jake (Ralph Ineson) is a bad guy who we shouldn’t want to like. But there’s something about him that makes us want to follow him.

“From the get-go, our desire was to come up with great characters,” Chathapuram says, adding, “One of the characteristics of great villains is they have a philosophy that resonates with most of us whether it’s the Joker in Batman or Robert DeNiro in Cape Fear. Their logic or thought process resonates with us on some level so there’s a connection we feel with them, but at the same time the way they react to that knowledge is always the wrong way, that’s why they became the villain.”

For The Last Victim, isolation was one of the core themes in the film – what happens in isolation when you are separated from the rest of society? Chathapuram says, “You come up with these philosophies and ideologies but it’s also about disillusionment. You’re disillusioned by your family, society, and opportunity. What happens to a human being who grows up in these circumstances? What are the thought processes that he comes up with and what does he do with that philosophy now? That was Jake's origin story.

On the opposite side of the malicious villain is Deputy Gaboon (Camille Legg) whose dry, sarcastic wit plays well off of the curmudgeon Sheriff Hickey (Ron Perlman). At first, it seems the actress is the comic relief brought in to improvise a few lines and add levity to the dark tale.

However, the character was always part of the story. “When Ash Louis delivered that first script, Deputy Gaboon's humor was there. It was probably 95 percent there with the humor,” Chathapuram says. He adds that Louis, “had this way of diffusing humor into dialogue that was natural, that you could hear off the pages. My favorite films, even in their darkest moments, there is a touch of humor there. We wanted to bring that in.”

Having it on the page is one thing, but executing it on set is another. The match was a success. Chathapuram admits that it was a pleasure to watch both Ron and Camille interact. It even got to the point where there were times he would forget to call cut.

“There was a running joke on set that I didn’t know how to say ‘cut.’ I was just having so much fun watching these characters come to life,” Chathapuram shares.

How to create twists

Chathapuram’s approach is to recognize that the twist isn’t actually about the twist. He says, “It’s my belief that if you build moment-to-moment storytelling, the audience is engaged at that moment, and when a revelation happens at a particular point, it becomes a twist. Rather than focusing on the twist, it’s all about the setup and the storytelling so that when it organically shows up you interpret it as a twist.”

For the budding thriller writer, Chathapuram claims that it all boils down to three words: Focus on story.

Ultimately, what is the story you want to tell and how do you want to communicate it? And that can change depending on how long it takes to make a film. The Last Victim evolved over its lifetime because new genres entered the landscape and inspired a new direction. What remained true though, was the story that Chathapuram wanted to tell.

The Last Victim stars Ron Perlman, Ali Larter, and Ralph Ineson. This is Naveen A. Chathapuram’s directorial debut based on a story by Chathapuram and Doc Justin and written by Ashley James Louis.

The Last Victim is now available on digital and on-demand.