By Matthew Sorrento.
In so many films, heroes have this unlimited, almost inhuman stamina, but anyone who’s done any sparring knows just how fast you get totally exhausted during physical combat. I think being mindful of something like that when directing a fight scene both humanizes a character….”
–Killer-Ex Director Jim Towns
Writer-director Jim Towns made a mark in revisionist genre cinema with his 2005 debut, Promethus Triumpant, an expressionist riff on the Frankenstein mythos that he co-directed with Mike McKown from his own script. He soon moved to hybrid genre pieces, with the hoods-on-the-lam-meets-supernatural House of Bad, while martial arts later became a focus, with his 2019 documentary Ninjapocalypse and the 2021 miniseries Immortal Hands. Towns has now teamed up with debuting producer/actor Jose Luis Torres II, for the martial arts revenge thriller Killer Ex, shot in South Jersey.
I spoke with Towns and Torres after their local premiere, which stars, in addition to Torres, Elena Churinova, Amanda Schoonover, Rommel Gargoles, and Mohammed Qissi, with Shannon Boggan and Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) Straw Weight Champion Britain Hart in standout minor roles.
Jim, I know of your strong interest in genre cinema and revising it through new approaches. Did your interest in martial arts come when interest in other genres did?
Jim Towns: Along with old horror films, as a kid I was always psyched when Bruce Lee or Chuck Norris films would come on TV, and I’ve studied karate and a few other martial arts over the years. In the 90s when I was in college and after, we had that Eastern action renaissance when Hong Kong cinema just inundated American filmmaking and pop culture, and along with my peers I got all into Jackie Chan and John Woo flicks, as well as the horror stuff, too, like Bride with White Hair and Seven Golden Vampires. So it definitely formed a core part of my filmmaker DNA.
Jose, how has teaching martial arts inspired you to be a storyteller about it on film?
Jose Luis Torres II: I have been blessed to be a school owner for almost 25 years, and the industry has changed very much. As school owners you have to wear many hats, especially to maintain your student base. As an instructor, we have to perform every day to inspire our students and motivate them. I relied on that experience to bring to life my character of Victor Reyes in Killer Ex. I teach with passion so I had to convey that passion through my acting and movements on the screen so the viewers could relate. I feel it’s hand in hand with what we do as martial arts instructors.
Jose, I’m curious if you’ve been interested in martial arts in the movies as long as you have been practicing it. The two seem closely connected, especially since the 1980s.
JLT: Absolutely! I feel it’s like every martial artist dream. I started martial arts in 1982, during the golden era of Cannon Films: Chuck Norris, American Ninja, Bloodsport was my era. Those movies amazed me; they were like real life super heroes. I wanted to be like them and move like them. I always dreamed in being in an action movie.
Jim and Jose, are there any scenes in lesser-known martial arts films that have inspired your filmmaking?
JT: It’s not exactly obscure, and it’s not really martial arts, but the finale scene in Stray Dog, when Toshiro Mifune is fighting with the criminal in the field in the heat, and it goes on and on and they’re getting more and more tired and clumsy: I think about that a lot when I’m directing action. In so many films, heroes have this unlimited, almost inhuman stamina, but anyone who’s done any sparring knows just how fast you get totally exhausted during physical combat. I think being mindful of something like that when directing a fight scene both humanizes a character and also makes things more dramatic for the audience.
JLT: I’ve always been inspired by the old school 80’s films. One film that has always stood out to me is the lesser known Bruce Superhero. It was made during the Brucesploitation era after Lee’s death and the lead was Bruce Le who was born as Wong Kin-Lung, directing as well as starring in this film. He sold what he was doing on screen because he allowed his passion and energy to show in his action scenes. It made you feel like you were watching the original Bruce Lee even though it wasn’t him. I was always impressed with the actors performance.
As an instructor, we have to perform every day to inspire our students and motivate them. I relied on that experience to bring to life my character of Victor Reyes in Killer Ex. I teach with passion so I had to convey that passion through my acting and movements on the screen so the viewers could relate.”
–Actor-Producer Jose Luis Torres II
Jim, as director/cinematographer, can you discuss how shooting this film was different from your earlier entries in the genre?
JT: I shot some of my early short films, and have run a B-camera or done pickup shots on my other features, but otherwise I’ve always worked with a Director of Photography. Killer Ex was the first time I committed and said, “Okay, I’m shooting this entire film myself.” I’m at a point where I’m relatively confident of my directing abilities, but this was a whole new challenge, and one I was a bit intimidated by: I didn’t want the “LA filmmaker” to be the one to screw things up. But in the end it worked out wonderfully.
I decided to shoot the film at least 80% handheld and built a very lightweight cinema rig that would allow me to get in close on the action and pull my own focus, etc. while still shooting full 4K, 12-bit RAW video. That’s when doing it this way really clicked, was when I could be basically in the fight as well, catching the intensity, rather than off to the side, staring at a director’s monitor. I shot a lot of the film wide open on fast lenses, which is challenging because it decreases the depth of field, but it also adds a lot of cinematic feel and a bit of graininess that I think helps connect this modern digitally-shot film to a lot of the 80s action flicks Jose and I both grew up watching and enjoying.
Jim, can you discuss how you went about writing the script and how you collaborated on it with Jose? I’d love to hear Jose’s take, as well.
JT: Jose and I first met in person at Dragonfest, which is the big martial arts convention in LA that was started by Gerald Okamura, and is now run by the Martial Arts History Museum’s Michael Matsuda. William Christopher Ford kind of paired us up, knowing Jose wanted to make a film, and this was the kind of moviemaking I like to do. We talked for a good hour or two, and Jose had a lot of questions and a few ideas for what he wanted to do. I went home that night and came up with a couple concepts for a first film to see what he responded to, and the idea of this retired former assassin who’s now a suburban soccer dad, whose life is totally upset when his past shows up, was something that he really liked. From there I wrote the first draft, and we began having discussions about casting, locations, etc. When you’re doing something like this for not a lot of money, the availability of certain types of fighters, or a great location, really have to factor in. Those kinds of assets really give a smaller film a bigger look. Jose has been a fantastic creative partner during this entire process, and is a really great producer to work with.
JLT: Dragonsfest was absolutely the jump off point for Killer Ex. Our mutual friend William Christopher Ford put us in contact together. I really wanted this opportunity to happened with Jim, so I really tried to sell myself and tell him about my martial arts career. I remember I told Jim I could sell myself as a Puerto Rican version of Liam Neeson (laughs). Jim’s wrote the story and script for Killer Ex really encompassed some of the things we discussed in that first meeting. From there we worked together on casting and locations to make it happen.
I imagine that a film like this is built around key martial arts scenes. Were one or two concepts launching points for you two? Or did you take another approach in developing the story?
JLT: Once Jim did the initial story and draft, I basically took a look at what and who I had access to in order to pull this off. I think my karate school played a great start point for my first fight scene. I mean, who doesn’t want to perform their first fight scene in their own karate school? Jim was amazing building the idea of this almost Game of Death feel as my character Victor has to move from one location to the next to get to the final battle. I don’t think it was initially intentional, but that played homage to that film.
I wonder if certain performers encouraged you to shape scenes in a certain way. Did any lead to redirecting approaches on set?
JT: For me, it starts with what their style is, and that informs how I conceive the character. Are they an old-school, disciplined formalist? Or more of a mixed martial arts streetfighter? Are they big or compact, young or more mature? All that factors into the fight, of course, but also how I want to get into and out of the fight, story-wise: because those bits are just as important as the fight itself. I like to talk to the fighter ahead of time, or watch audition footage to get an idea of what their acting chops are in addition to their physical abilities, and see if I can try to add more character into whoever they’re playing, like Rommel Gargoles, who’s a great fighter but also turned out to be a really funny actor. That made the interrogation scene with him work so much better.
I know the physicality of martial arts can make filmmaking tricky. Did you two find any scenes especially challenging to make?
JT: I did a couple months of physical training leading up to shooting Killer Ex, knowing that I’d be on my feet holding the camera pretty much all day every day of the shoot. There were still several times I gave the camera over to my assistant Kaila Talavera to shoot a reverse shot, to give my arms a few minute’s rest. The warehouse fights were challenging because we were shooting in a very hot environment in the middle of summer, and also it wasn’t the cleanest or safest environment for doing a lot of physical work. But I have a lot of practice shooting in tough locations like that. Some of the scenes with Shannon Boggan were tricky because he and Jose were in front of these large glass windows, so worrying about reflections was a constant issue. Kaila was a huge help, always moving lights around to keep them from being visible in the glass. The fight in the bathhouse required a lot of caution, of course, as well as protecting the camera from the water.
JLT: From a physical standpoint for me, the warehouse scenes were the toughest. My wardrobe was a tactical collared shirt and pants and boots. It was close to 95-plus degrees on those shoot days. So hydration and fatigue were a definite factor. It was very challenging like almost fighting a 10-round bout. The biggest thing was to keep the tempo and energy of the fights up but not letting it get too crazy. Because of the heat and exhaustion, some of the techniques could become sloppy and someone could get hurt. I actually got punched in face during one of the takes in the initial warehouse fight scene (laughs).
It’s great to see your interest in featuring women and diversity, in general, in martial arts. I imagine this focus stems from your teaching, Jose.
JLT: Thank you, Matt. In my opinion I felt it was so important to feature different characters, fighters and non-fighters to include in this story. Especially the kids. It was so cool that we were able to include my real students and my actual travel soccer team I coach. That was very special and important to me to have those ingredients in the film. This was really a true community effort
One of the best things about martial arts is that each style is rooted in its culture, so they can serve as global ambassadors for that culture, open to be learned and embraced by people of totally different nationalities or languages or races as a way to better themselves, but also break down the barriers between.”
–Jim Towns
Which films that you have seen encouraged a diverse approach? How are they inspiring?
JT: My first thought is Mortal Kombat, where you had a collection of heroes of all different ethnicities and genders teaming up together, but of course Enter the Dragon did that way back, pairing Bruce with John Saxon and Jim Kelly. I remember an entire theater being absolutely stunned by Michelle Yeoh in Supercop: it blew all our minds and challenged the stereotype of what a female action star could be. One of the best things about martial arts is that each style is rooted in its culture, so they can serve as global ambassadors for that culture, open to be learned and embraced by people of totally different nationalities or languages or races as a way to better themselves, but also break down the barriers between.
As a father of a child with cerebral palsy, I’m curious if the martial arts community has worked on approaches for the disabled population. I think of documentaries like Murderball which detail the hard work and determination to include the differently abled in sports, even contact ones.
JLT: The modern-day martial arts school is much different than the original ones from the 50’s to 90’s. There are many different populations that train with multitude of disabilities. There are specific classes for wheelchair-bound students that just did not exist in the early years. In my own school we offer a special needs class once a week for students to train and specifically work on basic motor skills that the individual student can do not what the masses can do. Students don’t fight but are pushed to develop their motor skill to a high level than before they first entered the school. This is not the norm of every school, but there are a lot of schools trying to provide services for the disabled population.
What would be the reach film for you both featuring martial arts – a storyline that seems especially challenging, but one you really want to do one day?
JLT: We’ve discussed working on a horror film with a martial arts background. We have a few others we have discussed as well including the sequel to Killer Ex. My hope is to build a Killer Ex Universe.
JT: As for the concept of mixing martial arts and horror in a future project, I’m 100% on board with it.
Have the actors in this film inspired future projects? You have some standout scenes featuring minor roles.
JT: There’s nobody in this film I wouldn’t want to work with again – everyone delivered 100%. For me it was really fun to get to direct Amanda Schoonover and Allen Radway, both of whom I’ve known since college, before I even became a filmmaker. Both of them have gone on to do great work on the stage, and both are wonderful to work with.
JLT: We had an absolutely blast working with all the talent. I hoping myself to get a chance to get to work with Britain Hart and the legend Mohammed Qissi who played Tong Po in the iconic Kickboxer with Jean Claude Van Damme in other projects. Honestly, all of the actors I had the pleasure of acting with were amazing, and I would love to work with them all again.
Britain Hart is electrifying in her scenes. I’d really like to see a vehicle for her. Anything else you’d like to share regarding Killer Ex and future Towns-Torres collaborations?
JLT: I just want to thank all of the fans and community that came out to support our first screener on February 22, where we sold over 500 tickets. It’s was truly amazing. I also want to thank Jim to for taking chance on me and giving me this opportunity. It was a dream come true, and I’m looking forward to what the future holds for us.
Killer Ex will have VIP screenings on April 19th in York, P.A. and April 26 in Burlington N.J. Its domestic distributor will be officially announced in June 2024 with release dates and VOD platforms.
Matthew Sorrento is editor-in-chief of Film International. He teaches film studies at Rutgers University-Camden, N.J.
