On Wednesday night, San Diegans can attend the one and only public screening of the new, locally made horror comedy “Slaughterhouse 2: Death Metal,” which won’t hit the national cinema circuit until next year.
But on Monday evening, the filmmakers held a private screening exclusively for the residents of Campo, the East County border town where “Slaughterhouse 2” was filmed in its entirety last year. Not only were the town’s Motor Transport Museum and many other buildings featured in the film, but also dozens of the town’s residents.
Encinitas filmmaker Rick Roessler, who has been making movies with his filmmaking partner Jerry Encoe of San Diego for nearly 40 years, said the people of Campo happily opened their homes and businesses to the film crew last year and turned out in big numbers to play background actors. In fact, one of the movie’s key roles is played by Bryan Butler, who owns Campo’s Motor Transport Museum.
“Wherever we went, they just opened their arms to us. And wherever we filmed, they just wanted to hang out and watch,” Roessler said, adding that at the screening for more than 100 people on Monday, he was gratified to hear Campo residents laughing and getting scared in all the right places of the film.
“Slaughterhouse 2” is the sequel to the duo’s original movie “Slaughterhouse,” which was filmed in Lakeside and the Tijuana Slough. It became an international cult classic after its release in 1987.
In that movie, the owner of a financially struggling slaughterhouse in Lakeside enlists his deranged son to kill anyone who tries to shut down their business. In the film, actress Sherry Leigh played the 18-year-old daughter of the Lakeside sheriff. In the sequel, Leigh returns as the same character, but now she’s the sheriff overseeing the community of Campo.
The plot of “Slaughterhouse 2: Death Metal” involves the deranged owner of the Motor Transport Museum, who is boosting the property’s income by selling house-made “Wonder Jerky,” which he supplements with the flesh of hikers he kidnaps from the Pacific Crest Trail, which starts in Campo.
Roessler said when he and Encoe were looking for locations for their sequel years ago, they fell in love with the Motor Transport Museum, which has more than 200 vintage vehicles dating to the 1920s parked in and around the historic 100-foot-tall Old Feldspar Mill, which was built to process the mineral in 1925.
After a few years of writing, planning and inquiries, they scheduled their movie shoot for June of last year. Excessive summer heat caused production to shut down for a while, but the filming was completed with a crew of about 20 in about three months, with some follow-up pickup shots done by a crew of eight in the following months.
Because the filming took longer than expected, the movie wasn’t finished in time for release in cinemas during this Halloween season, so Roessler and Encoe will begin promoting it for national and international distribution in 2025.
“Slaughterhouse 2: Death Metal” will be screened at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 23, at Regal Edwards Mira Mesa Cinema at 10733 Westview Parkway, San Diego.
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