“It’s not every day you get to kill someone for a living,” laughed Ewan Bourne, C.E.O. of Gearstone Pictures, as we sat inside a quiet classroom complete with a frog in formaldehyde. Bourne, however, is not a mad scientist, but the Executive Producer/Director of Photography/Writer of the upcoming feature film The Final.

After the recent influx of over-the-top blood and guts, 3D death, and paranormal topics in movie theaters, Bourne was motivated to bring back simplicity to the horror genre.

“Instead of playing on special effects or trying to shock people with gore, I thought, ‘Let’s get the next generation of Jason. Let’s go back to the roots and bring out that classic stereotypical horror film,’” Bourne continued, “And that’s what we’re going to do.”

Director David Hewitt summarized The Final:

“Several students are failing a class, geology actually, and their teacher, Mr. Lee, sends them out on a final project, to do with trees and stuff out in this factory. They’ve got to do this or else they’re all going to fail. At this factory they all go to, is a killer who has a welding mask… and he is stalking them one by one.”

The idea of a masked killer is chilling in itself, but a seven foot, four inch, masked killer is, well, terrifying. The Final must have known this when they cast Steven Woods. “I never really did anything where I had to be the scary guy,” admitted the towering actor, who also does security work on the side. “Y­­­ou’d think it’d be easy, but everyone who knows me knows I’m just a nice guy.”

Although being “the scary guy” is out of his nature, Woods is making the most out of his role, “It’s lots of fun having done security work and martial arts all my life. We’re doing a lot of still-picture work for promo photos… I get to play with the axe,” he smiled, “Lotsa fun.”

It would seem easy for the imagination to run wild inside the horror-worthy building, found in Bay City, Michigan. The factory was initially spotted when Bourne, Hewitt, and Co-Producer/Actor Johnny Lechner (who is also the real-life inspiration for National Lampoon’s Van Wilder) were driving around, searching for locations. “The city had called and said we should go there,” said Bourne. “We went there, and fell in love with it.”

Hewitt further described shooting at the location, “[It’s] an old abandoned factory, which is cool looking, but you have no power. So you have to get lots of lights, lots of generators, which can make things complicated - but it’s an endurance shoot.”

The inspiring setting and the fact that many cast members have previously worked together, aid in the chemistry of The Final. Actress Niki Haze explained, “I love playing off the other characters in the movie. It’s amazing; it feels like everyone fills their shoes in the movie.”

Actor/Comedian Tony Tale agreed, “It’s the best cast I’ve worked with… On different films, even comedy, you get divas, you get people who go about things one way and don’t want to feed off the other ideas, but everybody [in The Final] is just open minded. We’re helping each other out, and just feeding off each other and I’m having a blast.”

From the cast to the classroom, all of the elements found in The Final are that of the classic horror film. “There are laughs, there’s comedy, and then… there’s death,” Bourne observed. “We’ve stuck to those roots… There’s a good story line so people will be wanting sequels. I think we’ve got an amazing product.”

The Final is mainly comprised of cast and crew members from Michigan, along with incorporating local production company, Global Pictures. This community effort is something Bourne, and many others, hope to integrate into the future of the state’s film industry. “[That’s] one big thing I really want in Michigan. If the tax incentive leaves, it’s going to be the production companies that stay here and work together in collaboration that make it all work.”

Bourne smiled and turned to the camera, “If you’re a production company in Michigan...  call me!”