After looking at Jeffrey Reddick’s resume, the creator of the Final Destination franchise, it’s safe to say he has proven himself to be an expert in the horror genre. His latest project being the action horror film, Til Death Do Us Part, directed by Timothy Woodward Jr. Til Death Do Us Part portrays the grim reality that not every romance story ends with happily ever after.
After running away on her wedding day, a bride-to-be must fight for survival against her former fiancé and his seven deadly groomsmen. In the ultimate horror showdown, the groomsmen soon discover that she has no intention of going back to the life she left behind. Markos Keyto, who is a frequent collaborator with Jeffrey & Timothy, served as the film’s production designer. To learn more about how the look of the film came together, we spoke to Markos below…
How did you first get into production design?
I’ve been doing this all my life. Since my childhood, I was the one who recreated the scenes for our battles with little soldiers and made dresses for my sisters’ dolls, which is why I became very popular among her friends. Later at school I was in charge of the sets and costumes for our plays and right there I began to play making short films with my friends and it was always me who was in charge of this. After high school I studied at the Academy of Arts, interior architecture, costume design and makeup. I was also lucky enough to train and share creative processes with great masters of “Italian Cinema” and that left an imprint on me of which I feel very proud. In parallel to my studies, I never stopped working directly in all kinds of productions, theater, opera, dance, television, live events or amusement parks.
What did preproduction look like for you on Til Death Do Us Part?
It was an express pre-production. We didn’t have much time really. It was important to find the right house since our budget and times would not allow us to build anything. We saw very interesting houses and following my crazy suggestions we found an ideal place.
I like to take my time to create my visual book and enjoy myself with the creative process, which is perhaps the part that I like the most, but this time that visual book was more in my head than anywhere else. Timothy, the director, likes that I share my ideas with him, but this time he had to trust me, something that was not difficult for him because the truth is that we have made many films together and he knows how to trust me a lot. In any case, it is evident that we did exchange our points of view to find just what we wanted.
One of the opening scenes takes place at a wedding. What are some of your secrets for creating that perfect wedding look?
We wanted to find a fresh and joyful place. Not just any church would serve this purpose. We looked for one that would allow us to work on it. I wanted to have light and the lighting budget was not enough, so it was important that it be bright per se and the side windows helped us a lot in that. I did not want to create a very baroque space in terms of decoration and flowers either, since I was looking for cleanliness to contrast with the sordid world that our bride’s escape would lead us to.
What would you say was the hardest part of creating the production design for Til Death Do Us Part?
Actually, this was not a complicated job in terms of execution. Reaching the creative concept at the very the beginning was something that came out of the first reading of the script. After that, finding the ideal house was what took us a little longer and getting down to work was something we did immediately. Where we had to pay a lot of attention was in all the elements and furniture that would interact directly with our actors and their fights. We didn’t want anyone to get hurt and it’s always good for them to feel safe so they can perform with maximum freedom.
Part of the film is supposed to take place in Puerto Ricoa. Did you all really film in Puerto Rico? If not, what did you do to make it look like you all were there?
We did not have the budget to travel there, but it is nice that you ask, it seems that we did not do such a bad jo if you can at least have the doubt. We shot everything in Los Angeles, the beach, the bar and our yacht trip. Obviously, the Caribbean water is very special and we couldn’t get that in the Pacific. We tried not to be too obvious and we took special care to not see anything that could disturb us. Some Puerto Rican friends helped me with props and elements from their own houses.
Do you have a favorite moment from the Til Death Do Us Part set?
The scene of the chainsaw was very crazy and fun. I don’t want to reveal too much for those who haven’t seen it, but if you have seen it, you can understand what I’m talking about. Pancho Moler is an excellent actor and a better person, and it was really fun working with him in that scene. All the fights were really exciting to watch, these guys were really fighting, but it was unbelievable how professional they were since they didn’t do any harm to each other. They were amused by our faces showing the fear that they would actually get hurt.
You have worked on a few horror films. Would you say that you get to experiment more with design in the horror genre?
I like the genre, but don’t think that I experiment more in these movies than in others. I usually take risks and invent in everything I do. Experimentation is something that should not be missing from the recipe for any new film. I like to stay away from what has already been done for the simple fact that it has already proven to work. I have a favorite phrase that I assume as one of my principles, “Without risk, there is no Art”, and I face all my films with the intention of creating art.
Is there a type of project that you haven’t gotten to work on yet, that you would like to?
I like practically all genres, and the truth is that my career has given me the opportunity to work in many of them, period, war, horror, drama, western, action, thriller, comedy or sci-fi. I couldn’t tell you which one I feel more comfortable with, I love history, documentation and I have a thousand hobbies, but in reality, what matters most to me is that we tell an interesting story and that it makes us think about things, but it is true that horror is something my friends say I’m good at, apparently thanks to my disturbing imagination. Dystopian movies or movies in other worlds are perhaps the ones that most attract my attention, right now I am designing for a production that will give me the opportunity to create one of these worlds.
Til Death Do Us Part is in theaters now.
Many thanks to Markos Keyto for this interview. You can learn more about him here.
