Chainsaw Maid 2!!!

Ever wonder what happened to the Dad we met in the original  Chainsaw Maid? Well, we have a sequel! If you need a refresher on the original (and our chat with its creator Takena Nagao) you can read it here. You will, of course, notice the Dad has been chewed on-- and we all know what that means. But nothing will prepare you for the mayhem that follows, in this wonderful, fan-made, gorefest sequel.  This video has been created by the very talented Lee Hardcastle.

If you want the full effect, here is PART 1-- Chainsaw Maid, and PART 2 -- Chainsaw Maid 2. Watch 'em back to back...

Here is "Chainsaw Maid 1".  Check further down for "Chainsaw Maid 2."


Takena's Youtube channel:  HERE

Member Spotlight: Lee Hardcastle’s “Chainsaw Maid 2″ + Interview
Originally published On 10.26.10, In People, Projects, Video & Rich Media, Wooshii, by Ricardo

"With the upcoming Halloween fast approaching, here’s one Halloween treat for you: a gory claimation from Lee Hardcastle, in a fan-made sequel to Takena Nagao’s Chainsaw Maid.

Remember, Lee made the awesome “Evil Dead in 60 Seconds” video, also in the same claymation style. Now he made this unofficial sequel/remake, just in time for Halloween! Zombies and clay, a powerful and #win mix.

And we’ve got an interview with him to get some details about the video, but before, enjoy “Chainsaw Maid 2″:


The video was done over 13 days and with 130 hours of animating, in a total of 3888 photographs taken (with no digital effects, all shot on-camera). And it was all done for 50£, who says filmmaking as to be expensive?


When did you first saw the original Chainsaw Maid and what was your reaction to it?
I saw Chainsaw Maid for the first time about 5 months ago, at first, I thought I was watching a childrens programme. The colours, sets, characters ect just really tricked me, and when the woman enters the room and spews her guts all over the table I stood up and clapped because it was the last thing I expected to happen. It was a real power trip to watch, I wanted to see the maid take on the world by the end of the video. It’s not often I am surprised in a good way by a video/film these days. I’ve junked out on so much video, if something takes me happy by surprise, life feels good once again.

What made you do a fan made sequel (or tribute)?
Many reasons, I day dreamt the idea of a sequel in my head and thought ‘that would be cool’, typical geek brain cells ticking away that mean nothing. The more I thought about it, the more I realised it would be a good idea. The original has 2 and a half million hits, so, I know there’s an audience out there for it if I did make a sequel. Then there is all these other questions, like, chainsaw maid isn’t my idea ect but after talking to a few friends they were like, shut up and do it. And with Halloween coming up I just thought, f##k it, I am gonna do it. I’m still not sure if it was a good idea or not.

It seems like even more work than a regular stop-motion animation due to the gore, was it?
If so, did you know the trouble you were going for when you first set up to do it? I have been using fake blood and stop frame animation together for the last 5 years, illustrating gory stuff is a natural gift I can easy express without any research or problems or effort! The hardest animating is when everything is calm and steady, because, there’s more at stake with the shot. When there’s a lot of action, it’s no problem if something goes wrong-like, I knock the camera or a puppet falls over, I easily cover up the mistake because everything is moving about fast in the shot, it’s fun, crazy stuff to shoot.

The slower stuff… kills me!! I am an amateur animator still, I have none of this pro equipment, it’s the equivalent to building a house-of-cards, sometimes things go wrong and all I can do is say ‘oh well, start again’

About the gore, can you tell us a bit how you planned it, what was the methodology, design etc?
I did storyboard the whole thing and made an animatic from it for timing. Apart from that, I just, throw clay together and paint and say, okay, that’s disgusting; next frame what should I do? Okay, add more blood. That’s the general train of thought.

How about the splatter blood, how did you do it?
Before I could afford a camera in my late teens, I made comicbooks and again, expressed a lot of blood splatter. I learnt from a ‘how to ink for comics’ book a tip of using a toothbrush dipped in ink, and then, you pull back the thistles with your thumb to cause the paint to ‘spray’. When I begin animating in 2005, it was a natural choice to do blood splatter using a toothbrush.

From storyboard to shooting, many changes? Any scene you wanted to do but didn’t?
Not too many, apart from the ending. Because the maid is bitten, she’s gonna come back as a zombie- big plot hole right? The little girl was gonna kill her by jabbing the screwdriver up her nose but when I reached that scene I was on the 13th day of shooting 10 hours a day and I just said ‘Yeah, I can get away without filming that… that’s a wrap’ – I talk to myself.

In regards to the original Chainsaw, there’s some improvements here in the lighting, the sound effects are much more visceral (which add a lot to the ambience of the piece), was that something you set out to improve, or that goes with your style of filmmaking?
When I first started out in animation 5 years ago I did all the sound myself, I moved to London 3 years ago and met people who were FANATICAL about working on sound for films, and they wanted to do the sound for my films! I was happy about this, and they did a bloody good job of it too. Over the years, Tim Atkins – who used to work in Soho and has worked with the likes of Wes Anderson and other massively huge movie people names – has became my sound man, the guy I can rely on. I ask for a lot from him. So, all credit goes to him for sound, I have a little input here and there when I must. The original was gonna be a tough one to beat. I’m terrified the fans of the first will hate mine, so, I gave it everything I got… it pushed me to keep the standards high and the blood running. I COULD have imitated the first one in style and timing ect but, I wanted to kinda keep it the same but improve it, yeah. That’s what a sequel is, a revisit of the first one but everything has more bang for it’s buck- which if it is a good thing or not, is one thing but That’s the whole fun to a sequel that the filmmakers try to out-do the original by feeding it steroids. Whatever franchise, people always say the original is the best. I find sequels more fun, another reason why I wanted to make this animation. I love sequels.

Finally, I get a sense of great respect from the original, have you talked to Takena Nagao in regards to his work?
No and I’ve no doubt gone about this whole thing the wrong way but I’m a ‘happy surprise’ kind of guy and I hope he finds it a happy surprise. I know he has a chainsaw maid DVD coming out which I’ve plugged on my YouTube video, so, I hope my hi-jacking of his baby will bring him some DVD sales? I hope nothing bad comes of it! Am I in trouble?

Oh, and what are you planning to do after this? Plans for the future?
I’m animating full time, competitions, projects for youtube. I had some success with a short this year, Evil Dead in 60 seconds. So, Over 2011, I will be releasing a claymation 60” remake of cool films people know and love- once every month starting January 2011 on YouTube. I’m pumping out as much stop motion animation as possible ‘til I die or until someone gives me a low paid job as tea boy. I did write a feature length script over Summer but I’m gonna throw it in the bin and try again next Summer. Writing is a Summer activity.”

For Website Video Production and Rich Media visit – wooshii.com

Well that’s it, fascinating insight over the mind of Lee in the making of this awesome video. Keep up the good work Lee and please don’t trash that script, we never know!
Now imagine a feature length film with this, how awesome would it be?

ZergNet