[Warning: Spoilers for episodes 1 and 2.]
Episode three of Hell Motel drops Tuesday in Canada on Hollywood Suite and Shudder/AMC+ in the US. In the second part of our conversation with showrunners and series creators Aaron Martin and Ian Carpenter, they talk about playing with the format, bringing back Eric McCormack, and having Adam MacDonald direct himself and the series and the movie within the series.
As we’ve discovered, there’s more than one killer in the mix at the motel, and two of them are returnees, which gives them both a unique POV and an opportunity to critique the kills — something Slasher decidedly did not do. “What we’re excited about with Hell Motel and hopefully other seasons, is that we’re actually gonna start playing with the format more, now that we can, because we’re not as, as tied to the rules that I set up in season one [of Slasher],” explains Martin. “This is an interesting way to break one of those rules by letting it be known early on.”
Both series have allowed Martin and Carpenter to both bring in returning cast members and do a little wish fulfillment by having long-admired performers and previous collaborators join the ranks (and then killing them off). “I think every season there’s maybe one or two characters that we think of from the get go being, ‘Oh, that would be great for so and so actor.’ I know that we try to keep ourselves open-minded to not only returning actors, but bringing new actors into the fold,” shares Martin.
“There are a few characters that I think we would probably say we thought of them early on. But there’s also, there’s also actors that we love and have always wanted to work with or have worked with before on other shows. Yanna McIntosh, I worked with years ago on a university show I did called The Best Years, where I met Ian.
“And then Michelle Nolden I worked with more than 10 years ago on a medical show called Saving Hope. And those are just two actors who I’ve always loved and think they’re amazing actors, and was so excited to bring them into the show.”
Since the show is block shot, all eight episodes have been written by the time they get to casting, so there’s no wiggle room to tweak things to suit the performers inhabiting their characters. “When you’re writing three episodes ahead of what’s being shot [for a typical series], you can sit there and say, ‘Ooh, these two together are amazing. You have so much chemistry, or this person’s a star for this kind of material.’ But here [having the whole season already written] makes casting that much more loaded,” says Carpenter.
“At times, we’re watching, [and thinking], ‘Oh my God, we need to bring so and so back in another season to do this kind of thing.’ There’s a lot of new blood [this season] and I think that’s exciting to watch them interact with the core gang.”
Hell Motel was a mix of location filming and a studio shoot. “We built the interiors of the motel and some other things that are coming [on a sound stage], and then we shot in a new town for us to shoot in called Coburg, which was fantastic,” explains Carpenter. “I could see us going back there. We were at a cool retreat center that let us sort of do everything. It was a lovely, lovely spa, but they had a ball. Their big question was, ‘Can we come watch?'”
Following his diabolic turn in Slasher: Ripper, Eric McCormack gleefully returned to play the doomed prick chef hired for the themed meals. “We love Eric. And I’m thrilled to say Eric loves all of us and loves working on the show, and loves that we give him parts that he doesn’t get to do. And I really felt that last season when we were shooting. Before the scenes, he’d say, ‘Oh, I’ve been, I’ve been waiting to say this for so long,’ Carpenter laughs.
“And last season when he read it [before he was cast], he said, ‘I got to the point in the script where his right hand man goes, What do you want me to do Mr. Garvey? Did you want me to go talk to her? And he says, I want you to go break her fucking neck.’ And he was like, ‘I was in, I called my agents.’
“It was a similar thing when we laid this on him. He was busy and we were lucky that it was a sized part that would work for him. He is one of the absolute best. And he sees the meat in these things and just loves strutting his stuff in it. And it was a delight.”
Martin points out that they didn’t write the accent for his character, that was McCormack’s doing. “He said, ‘I think this guy should have an accent.’ I was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s a great idea.’ And I said, ‘I don’t know where you’re gonna go, but if his accent is great and legit, that totally works,'” shares Carpenter. “‘And if we can tell that he’s faking it, that also works.’ And then later too, he suggested, ‘When I’m in the sauna, how about the accent falls off right there when I am so scared I’m gonna die?'”
“That’s what I love about bringing back other cast, not just Eric, because they never play the same part. A lot of times, actors get typecast, so they get this little break where they’re allowed to do whatever craziness we throw their way, which is often not what people think they are,” adds Martin.
Adam MacDonald directed four seasons of Slasher and returns for Hell Motel. This time around, he gets to be onscreen as well, as the director of the Doom Service films within the series. “It was amazing to do that. And actually shooting, it was insane. Because there were background actors coming in who weren’t yet aware of what we’re doing,” recalls Carpenter.
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“And of course they haven’t really seen the scripts or anything like that. So they’re sitting on set behind Adam and then he’s shooting, and he’s shooting and directing and then he goes, ‘Cut,’ and then he walks on scene and does the lines and he goes, ‘Cut’ again, and you can see a bunch of the background performers wondering what’s happening. That was so much fun.”
“I first worked with Adam as an actor years ago on the show called Being Erica. He played Erica’s real jerk of a brother-in-law — a jerk that you actually cared about, which is a hard thing to do.” shares Martin.
“He’s such a good actor. I mean, I say that to him,” adds Carpenter. “I’m glad he is most of all directing, but there’s a loss there because I always found he would get cast in some predictable parts in what he did. This is while I was just sort of getting to know him. What he did [with that] was always surprising.”
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Hell Motel airs Tuesdays at 9 pm ET on Hollywood Suite in Canada and is available to stream on Hollywood Suite On Demand. In the US new episodes drop each Tuesday on Shudder and AMC+.
As a reminder, you can catch Slasher: Ripper and Slasher: Flesh and Blood on Hollywood Suite and Shudder. The first three seasons of Slasher are still on Netflix. And all our coverage of previous seasons is here.
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Photos courtesy of Shaftesbury TV/Shudder and Aaron Martin.
