Founders Day:Happy

The battle for the ballot box gets bloody in slasher movie Founders Day (out Jan. 19) when a masked killer embarks on his own campaign...of terror!

Director Erik Bloomquist explains that the film, for which EW can exclusively debut the trailer (shown above), takes place in a small town on the cusp of a heated mayoral election and the town’s 300th anniversary celebration. "On the eve of all of these things happening, one of the candidate’s children is killed and it becomes a hot-button political issue," he says.

The film's cast includes 13 Reasons Why actors Devin Druid and Amy Hargreaves, as well as Naomi Grace, who portrays the movie's high schooler heroine, Allison. The director describes Grace's character as "somebody who has a future outside of the borders of this town but also feels a kinship to it and who probably could affect change."

DAVID APUZZO AND MAINFRAME PICTURES

The film's most recognizable face probably belongs to Boy Meets World actor Willliam Russ, who who played Corey's dad Alan Matthews on the classic sitcom and now plays a teacher named Mr. Jackson, a longtime educator at the town's high school in Founders Day.

"[When] Erik and I grew up, we watched Boy Meets World religiously," says the director's brother and cowriter Carson Bloomquist. "There’s this tie and familiarity we have with him that just felt exactly right for this idea that he's been there for decades. In a way, he's been there for decades in our life." Carson continues that it's interesting to see Russ become this older, wiser figure. "It’s like the Feeny role in Boy Meets World, which is fun," he adds. "He was so excited to be there. He came to play every day, and he nailed it."

Mainframe Pictures

In the film, the killer wears a wig and also a red mask on which the Bloomquists collaborated with Alterian, the effects company founded by legendary makeup designer Tony Gardner (Zombieland, the Chucky franchise).

"It’s an uncannily fused-together half-comedy, half-tragedy mask," says Erik, who himself plays a political advisor in the film. "There is this political theater component to [the film] that we’re highlighting with the theatricality of the mask. If you look, sometimes you’ll see the frown, and then [the killer] will turn and it will be the smirk."

The killer's weapon of choice? A wooden gavel with a switchblade knife hidden in its handle. Erik says that he loves "a good Ghostface hunting knife for sure, but there was something very blunt about the gavel." He adds, "I’m very happy that we landed on that and found ways to adapt certain kills to utilize that."

DAVID APUZZO AND MAINFRAME PICTURES

Speaking of Ghostface, the pair admit that their desire to make a slasher film was initially inspired by Wes Craven's 1996 horror classic Scream. Carson explains that the Neve Campbell-starring film was "a huge movie" for the siblings when they were growing up and opened their eyes to so many other classic films.

"I’m sure some parallels will be drawn," adds Erik, who previously collaborated with his sibling on the horror films Ten Minutes to Midnight and She Came from the Woods. "We don’t want to be meta-referential or about movies, because that’s their thing and they do it so masterfully. I think the connection is this sense of mischief we felt when we first watched Scream. [It's] something that we wanted to conjure in our own way."

Founders Day costars Catherine Curtin, Emilia McCarthy, Jayce Bartok, Olivia Nikkanen, and Andrew Stewart-Jones. The film will be released in theaters this Jan. 19.

See an exclusive look at the movie above.

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