MurderDrome has everything you could ask for in a film – a roller derby rivalry, a meat hook wielding demon on skates, and romance. Oh, and some pretty kick-ass local music. Louise Monnington was the roller derby consultant and one of the actors in the first ever roller derby slasher extravaganza, and she took five minutes to tell us all about it.
Why roller derby?
I trained for three years, bouting for two. I’ve been retired for about a year now. I decided I wanted to play a sport on skates. I found a link to roller derby on the Skate Victoria website and when I saw it was played on quads I was like, ‘Yep, that’s the one. I’ll do that sport.’ I didn’t even know what it was. Within two days I was doing boot camp.
What’s the Australian roller derby scene like?
When I started, girls who weren’t into sport were coming together and having fun learning to skate, bashing the crap out of each other, and getting fit and healthy. I remember after one boot camp session, I looked around at the weird bunch of tattooed and candy haired freaks and thinking, ‘I’ve finally found my friends.’ One of the reasons I retired is because it is becoming more about scoring points playing only your best players rather than just doing your best and giving everyone a go.
How did you get involved in MurderDrome?
A call for auditions came up on my Facebook newsfeed. After I nailed the audition, I told Daniel about my past in film and TV production and that I was studying screenwriting. I became the liaison between the skaters and Daniel and eventually contributed to the script and producing.
What’s it about?
By giving Cherry Skye a necklace as a good luck present, Brad Blunt accidentally awakens the soul of a serial killer on skates Momma Skate, as well as upsetting his ex-girlfriend and captain of the opposing roller derby team, Hell Grazer. Now Cherry and her Alamos team mates Trans Em, Daisy Duke Nuke ‘Em, Thrusty P Elvis and Psychlone are being chased down and picked off by Momma Skate and Hell Grazer’s Dirty Harriets: Clit Eastwards and Princess Bitchface. Skye has to get the necklace back from Hell, the crazy bitch on skates, then send it back to Hell, the pit of fire, before dawn when Momma Skate will take Skye’s soul in place of hers.
What’s the highlight of the film?
It’s actually really funny. Brad and Squids in their first dialogue scene are hilarious. It was completely ad-libbed. I had the best time working on this film. I think it had a lot to do with Daniel’s generous nature as a director. He isn’t precious and really rolled with the ideas we were throwing at him.
MurderDrome is released onDVD March 19.
