The Grueling Process of Making the Horror Movie ‘Beaten to Death’

From “Slumber Party Massacre” to “It Follows,” some of the most memorable horror movie titles double as pint-size plot summaries. That’s the case for Sam Curtain’s “Beaten to Death,” a mercilessly violent new movie that has critics dog-earing their thesauruses for superlatives to describe its savagery. So far, there’s “gauntlet of extreme horror” and “non-stop nightmare.”

Now in theaters, “Beaten to Death” is high on depravity and low on plot. It’s about a man, Jack (Thomas Roach), who travels to a desolate stretch of Tasmania and encounters deranged locals who kick, punch, slice and, in the film’s most horrific scene, blind him and leave him to roam the landscape alone. In an interview, Roach said the role’s physical demands were “very challenging”; near the end of the 30-day shoot, he was hospitalized overnight for an inflamed kidney.

Roach said he would consider it a badge of honor if there were walkouts at American theaters. “Hopefully we’re going to make a few people squeamish,” he said.

Curtain and Roach recently spoke over Zoom from Tasmania about their love of gross-out horror and what’s so Australian about extreme cinema. (The film is a nonunion Australian project, and not impacted by the SAG-AFTRA strike.) The interview has been edited and condensed.

Sam, why did you make this film?

SAM CURTAIN Horror’s just fun. Even if it’s the most disturbing thing, it’s still enjoyable.

Would you describe this film as enjoyable?

CURTAIN [Laughs] No. Even though it’s shockingly violent, there’s a bit of playfulness to it. This onslaught that Jack receives, it’s like oh no, not again. Oh no, not again. Because it’s our friend, Tom, playing the role, it’s like, what could we do to Tom?

That blinding scene is tough to watch.

CURTAIN It was a lot of fun. What excited us was what we referred to as “the black” — after Jack has had his eyes gouged out, you get his blinded point of view, and what you hear can be creepier than what you see. In a cinema, that’s the one I’ve been waiting for, to see how people respond to that couple of minutes of pure black on the screen with just sound design. The sound you hear in that scene is Thomas vomiting. Our poor sound guy listening to [makes a retching sound] is hard to forget.

Why make it so violent?

CURTAIN We thought it was an opportunity to create a scene that’s really quite shocking. We were being strategic as well. If we can create a scene that gets people talking, that can only help the movie.

Was there a film that inspired you?

CURTAIN The “Hills Have Eyes” remake. That’s a really nasty little movie, but also it’s quite beautifully shot. It’s out in the desert and the gore is really good and there’s action to it. Besides that, it was classics like “Texas Chain Saw Massacre” — what I think they call hicksploitation.

Thomas, why did you take this role?

THOMAS ROACH Sam and I were out having drinks when he pitched me the idea. As soon as he said “lead,” he had me. [Laughs] I was concerned with the extreme nature of the role and what it would take to get it done. I probably did underestimate that, because it was quite demanding in the end, physically and emotionally.

It was as grueling as it looks?

ROACH Yeah. I spent a large portion of the shoot with these big, heavy appliances over my eyes and I couldn’t see at all. That was quite isolating. Between takes you’re just sitting in darkness and you don’t know what’s going on around you. It’s strange how quickly you withdraw into yourself. I found myself not really contributing to conversations around me because I didn’t know where anyone was. I just sat there. I had to be taken like a toddler to the toilet.

I wanted to spend the movie acting like I was in a state of shock. I was shivering and tensed up and hyperventilating for a lot of it. Before we’d start rolling, to the chagrin of everyone on set, I’d go into a coughing fit and get to the edge of where I would vomit and then be like, ready to roll. You end the day sore all over.

Is there something uniquely Australian about the film?

CURTAIN The Australian characters, these big burly blokey-blokes with thick Aussie accents.

ROACH The whole “Crocodile Dundee” bloke — maybe outside of Australia they think everybody’s like that. We wanted to turn that on its head. The archetypal characters we have in our movie are quite toxic. The landscape is also a character. The real antagonists are the elements, specifically Tasmanian.

Thomas, would you be in a movie like this again?

ROACH Would I do it tomorrow? No. I’m either a glutton for punishment or an idiot, but I would do it again.