“Chainsaws Were Singing” was one of the films that opened the 47th annual Denver Film Festival on Nov. 1 with a second screening on Nov. 9. The movie was packed with a sold-out audience, who laughed, cheered and gasped their way through.

The film solidified itself as a future cult classic as a comedy-horror-musical genre blender coming in at a 118-minute run time. It’s a love letter to exploitation and grindhouse cinema, being able to emulate the feeling of that era so seamlessly. 

“Chainsaws Were Singing” follows Tom and Maria, who were down on their luck, but miraculously fall in love. When Maria is kidnapped by Killer, a chainsaw-wielding maniac, Tom enlists the help of Jaan to save his beloved and take down the killer. The story of the film is told in multiple chapters from each character’s perspective, to better help understand motive and reason. 

Believe it or not, “Chainsaws Were Singing” took over ten years to make from pre-production to distribution and festival circuits. Filming was no easy feat as production was mainly done guerilla style. 

Guerilla filmmaking is a style that is often seen in low-budget independent productions. They utilize skeleton crews, which are the essential crew members utilized on set: the director of photography, director, producer, boom operator and the cast. They also film in locations that don’t require permits or film as quickly as they can without paying for permits. It’s a high-risk high-reward style of filmmaking.

The team was in what they like to call “survival mode” for the duration of principal photography. The principal photography took place in the years 2013 and 2014 with the shooting of some extra scenes in 2021. 

This year, “Chainsaws Were Singing” was the recipient of Best Horror Picture at Fantastic Fest, the largest genre film festival.

I was able to sit down with writer/director Sander Maran, and actor/producer Peeter Maran over Zoom to discuss the filmmaking process, experience and major takeaways from the film.

Going back in time, Sander and Peeter started the interview by talking about how young they were when this all started. They were very young, hopeful and full of filmmaking dreams.

“I was about 22 or 23 years old during pre-production. Peeter was only 12. He’s now about 23,” Sander recalled. “Chainsaws Were Singing” literally grew up with all members of the cast and crew, every step of the way. 

Peeter was also cast in the film when he was 12, playing the role of Pelle, a young boy raised by Killer’s deranged family to become a cannibal killer himself. Outside of Pelle, Peeter came back to play some of the victims when they filmed in 2021.

“It was kind of just a part of my life. I would sometimes go over to Sander’s when I was in middle school, high school, college,” Peeter said.

Peeter didn’t become a part of the production team though until a few months ago, before festival circuits started.

When addressing other characters from the movie, Sander was asked if any of them were inspired by people in his personal life.

“No. Characters like Jaan fit the dynamic we wanted. He’s the goofball that plays off of the grumpy main character. An annoying sidekick of sorts, like in Harold and Kumar,” Sander said.

One of the big draws to a character like Jaan is the bits that come along with it. Throughout the movie, Jaan is probably attached to the most bits, ones that the audience will have to rewatch over and over to see. 

There’s a particularly funny bit from Jaan that got riotous laughter from the crowd. Anytime he and Tom would have to get out of the car for any reason, it would subsequently explode. These little moments definitely kept the momentum of the plot and the kills consistent. But not all of these jokes that were in the script initially made it. Comedy is a game of trial and error. 

“There were bits and jokes we played with that we ended up just cutting out. We shot it and realized it didn’t really work, and had to figure it out. We knew though we wanted to populate the film with as much crazy stuff as possible,” Sander said. 

Kills are obviously important to the horror genre, and the slasher subgenre too. There are some wacky, bizarre and hilariously gory deaths that pay homage to their predecessors of the 80s. 

Sander had a huge role in producing most of this film as the main voice behind the entire project. He was in the post-production space just as much as he was in the pre-production and principal photography phases. 

He knew he wanted to have it be a musical from the beginning so it was imperative he understand sound mixing.

“I ended up learning how to compose music for this movie because I knew I wanted it to be a musical. I worked on sound a lot in my free time. The first couple years,” Sander said.

Wrapping up the conversation, Sander talked a little bit about what they wanted out of this movie. He understood that there was a difference in the types of audiences that would consume this movie. For Estonian audiences, “there is going to be specific meanings and jokes that will not translate to other audiences, a nostalgia baked into the movie.” 

With American audiences, Sander also noted this will be for a niche crowd, but a crowd that will really appreciate and embrace the passion of the film. 

As of this publication, Chainsaws Are Singing does not have any distributor. For more information about the film, follow their official Instagram @Chainsaws.Were.Singing

This interview has been shortened and modified for reader clarity.