Slasher: Flesh and Blood post-mortem interview with creator Aaron Martin and showrunner Ian Carpenter

Spoiler warning: The following article contains heavy spoilers for Slasher: Flesh and Blood and the last two episodes. Turn back now if you haven’t watched it yet!

Slasher: Flesh and Blood is officially all out now on Shudder, and once you’ve caught up on the final episode and all of those final jaw-dropping twists and turns, we’ve got an interview for you to read with the executive producers of the series!

We chatted with creator Aaron Martin and showrunner Ian Carpenter about the show’s characters, the most gruesome deaths, the potential for future seasons, and much more.

Slasher: Flesh and Blood: Unveiling The Gentleman Killer

1428 Elm: Was Trinn always planned to be the killer? Or did that change at all during the genesis of the season?

Aaron Martin: No, she was always the killer.

Ian Carpenter: I wonder if some people think we get somewhere along the way and then think, “Oh my god, what if we did this?” I mean, I guess if we thought of the most brilliant switcheroo ever, but no, it’s always, we know that first of all out of everything.

1428 Elm: Speaking of that, why does Trinn kill Spencer with acid instead of the way he had planned?

Aaron Martin: Because she’s psycho. [Laughs] We tried to show in that flashback that she really really enjoys hurting people, and once Spencer gave her the keys to the kingdom, she was like, “Well I’m going to have some fun if I’m going to do this.”

1428 Elm: It was his fault for trusting someone like that.

Ian Carpenter: I always felt it was almost like a weird—given the nature of their relationship—way of honoring him or something, like super perverse.

Slasher: Flesh and Blood: Discussing the characters

1428 Elm: I know many people throughout this season talked about how much they hated Florence. I think she might be one of the most hated characters in this entire show; she’s got to be up there anyway. I’m curious how you came up with O’Keefe’s death in relation to Florence’s character?

Aaron Martin: Everything was about Florence to Florence. Even her own children were about her as opposed to them being themselves. That’s why she named them all those ridiculous names. We wanted to show just how deeply selfish she was to the point she would let her own child die over herself.

Ian Carpenter: Lots of people have talked about this, and still maintain the trickle-down of this horrible parenting, and this sort of “might is right” and “survival of the fittest.” She’s profoundly selfish, but does she think this is the move? She does, right? Like she said in the forest, “I blame myself for not teaching you how to use a gun.” Well, in her hierarchy of adeptness to take over the family, it’s certainly not O’Keefe.

1428 Elm: And in the end, Liv ends up being the final girl. Where do you guys see her going from here? Do you see her becoming just like the Galloways?

Aaron Martin: Totally, she’s going to keep repeating the same family history that’s been going on for generations.

1428 Elm: That was the vibe I got from that final shot.

Aaron Martin: I feel sorry for that poor baby.

1428 Elm: I talked to Sydney [Meyer] yesterday, and she said she was very worried about Liv’s future.

Ian Carpenter: I think she is well-equipped to handle it. I love that moment—and I’m happy saying that because it wasn’t my idea, it was Aaron’s great idea—of the image of everyone who has passed and Spencer acknowledging her with a bow of the head like clearly pleased about the rightness of her being the person to carry on his bloodline and all of the values that come with it. She demonstrates it all the way through the show.

1428 Elm: She is also sitting in his chair too, which is pretty symbolic. Do you guys ever read the fan theories while the show is running to see if people are predicting what will happen or if they’re totally off base?

Ian Carpenter: Oh, yeah. Are we supposed to pretend that we don’t?

Slasher: Flesh and Blood: Online theories

1428 Elm: I know some people don’t do it at all. They stay off social media altogether.

Aaron Martin: People sometimes send tweets to us. There is that Reddit that we look at.

Ian Carpenter: It’s really good, and it’s impressive. I think the great value of Shudder deciding to put these out week after week is it’s clear that the Shudder audience is really smart and very focused on the mystery side of it.

I love watching everyone work that out. And you’ve probably seen that there were people who sniffed aspects of it out very early. Then there are also other theories that I sit there and go, “Oh, that’s good, that’s a cool story.”

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Aaron Martin: The one that had Aphra’s Eastern European boyfriend, Yorgi. I thought that was a good idea.

Ian Carpenter: And some people were like, Vincent is not Vincent, Vincent is Yorgi. I love that.

1428 Elm: I was proud of myself for figuring out that Aphra was older than she was because of that line in the first episode about her “having the mind of a 20-year-old.” I was like, “Oh, she’s doing the Orphan thing!”

But can we talk a little bit about Aphra as a character? Because wow, she’s crazy! And poor Christy! Even the cast was saying that Christy’s death was one of the most gruesome on the show. Not only do we see that scene in the bunker, but then she comes back and begs to die, and knowing that Paula [Brancati] doesn’t like horror! I thought that it was funny that she got such a brutal death.

Aaron Martin: She gets brutalized every season. Like Season 2, she’s lying in a lake of blood, Season 3, she has that horrible eye thing that happens. This, though, is the worst thing she’s ever had to go through.

Ian Carpenter: It’s interesting, too, because I saw a lot of people posting—people love her, for a good reason, she’s a phenomenal actor and the person who has been on the show the most, I think, and people were saying, “She better not die, she can’t die, she has to be a final girl, this is the only person I care about now,” and all that.

And I got a lot of messages from people who were like, “I can’t believe you did that,” angry at me, in pain and suffering. It’s so interesting with this genre what we do to ourselves. We want to feel this terrible stuff. And to bring it back to Aphra, Aphra was an amazing way to do that. She’s such a clear expression of certain needs and drives and so much fun to write for. And Nataliya [Rodina] has a deeply poetic connection to that character as she built her.

Aaron Martin: And we put hints about Aphra right from the start. Like that line, but also every time we saw her, she was putting something in her mouth.

Slasher: Flesh and Blood: The future of the series

1428 Elm: I know this season just wrapped, but have you guys started thinking about a potential fifth season?

Aaron Martin: We’re always thinking about things. We have general ideas but nothing concrete yet.

1428 Elm: It feels like this show has become the unkillable slasher figure since it has gone from Chiller to Netflix and now Shudder. Shudder feels like the right home for it, so I hope it gets to keep going.

Ian Carpenter: I really hope so. We’d love to keep doing it.

Slasher: Flesh and Blood: Most gruesome deaths

1428 Elm: To wrap up, what was the top death from this season that you felt was the most gruesome and most intense?

Ian Carpenter: Jayden, for sure, insane, crazy, while we were shooting it: crazy, moving, the first actor, it was like a summer camp feel. His death mirrored by that actor then leaving that night, so it felt extra real and having everyone there on a brutal and long, troubled shoot day, it was just like everything about it was ripe and raw, and the way Adam [MacDonald] directed it and Scott [McClellan] shot it, it just was so visceral and affecting. I love it. I feel like it’s really special.

Aaron Martin: And I also love Christy’s face getting eaten off because it’s so over the top in a great way.

1428 Elm: I think those two and O’Keefe’s death were the most intense.

Aaron Martin: I think O’Keefe’s is the most tragic death, not the most gruesome but the most tragic.

1428 Elm: I also felt like Birgit’s death was pretty terrifying, especially if you’re afraid of being buried alive or suffocated.

Ian Carpenter: When we shot that, of course, everything is worked out like crazy, so we must have said this and I mustn’t have registered it, but as we shot it, I was like, “Oh, so we’re just burying her.” Like there are safeties all over the place, and she’s going to give us a signal, as she did when she’s had enough, but to sit there and look at it and go, we’re burying her! We’re burying this poor actress. It felt crazy.

Aaron Martin: She’s such a trooper.

1428 Elm: Right because hers and O’Keefe’s were mostly practical effects while everyone else had the blood.

Ian Carpenter: It was just their great acting.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Slasher: Flesh and Blood is now streaming exclusively on Shudder.