Abhiroop Das
Helmed by Austin Vesely, ‘Slice’ follows the strange happenings in the town of Kingfisher, where 40,000 ghosts once lived alongside humans until they were segregated into one specific neighborhood, the Ghost Town. Though things are never quite in the Ghost Town, when several pizza-deliverymen are killed in the neighborhood in quick succession, the usual level of chaos shots up a notch. With the main suspect a man believed to be a werewolf and a woman soon embarking on a revenge streak for her dead boyfriend, the horror-comedy begins to warp the very landscape of Kingfisher as its residents know it. Soon, though, the haunting history of the town seems to become the present, and all idea of space and boundaries collapses, and all the while the truth behind the mystery hides in the shadows.
Kingfisher is a Fictional Town Designed to be Reminiscent of Chicagoland
The town of Kingfisher serves as the fictional setting of ‘Slice,’ where 40,000 ghosts live alongside humans. While the extraordinary premise alone helps explain why the writing team invented the town in every detail, the crew also went above and beyond in making Kingfisher. When working on the story, writer-director Austin Vesely drew inspiration from a short story penned by George Saunders, titled ‘CivilWarLand in Bad Decline,’ which follows a struggling employee working at a Civil War-themed amusement park where actual ghosts haunt the grounds. The idea of turning something that is typically considered scary, such as ghosts, and turning them into a part of everyday life is felt in both works, which makes the connection more charged.
Given that the town of Kingfisher is set on the outskirts of Chicago, it makes sense for the filming crew to take over the city of Joliet, Illinois, for filming. Vesely chose the city partly because he wanted a setting that felt close to a major urban center without losing its small-town character, and Joliet fits the bill. The film even makes references to the iconic Old Joliet Prison, which is not only a famous tourist destination, but is also featured in titles like ‘The Blues Brothers,’ ‘Natural Born Killers,’ ‘Public Enemies,’ and the show ‘Prison Break.’
The Neighborhood of Ghost Town Draws Out the Socio-political Commentary of Slice
Much like Kingfisher, the neighborhood of Ghost Town is also invented in nature, and serves as the zone where most of the action takes place. In-universe, it is the place where all the ghostly residents of the town are forced to move in, and this forced migration has sociopolitical effects of its own. Thus, Austin Vesely uses the neighborhood for his larger commentary on segregation and the marginalization of an entire community. While it’s unlikely that he was influenced by any specific neighborhood in or around Chicago, it should be noted that he came to the city to study film and has developed a close relationship with it over the years.
The attention to detail put in by Wesley and his team is reflected in how the film balances its on-site filming process. Many of the locations we see in Ghost Town are brought to life in real locations, with existing businesses and stores being transformed into their fictional counterparts. In his conversation with SlashFilm, Vesely talked about how his understanding of the setting helped him shape the story. He noted, “What it started doing for me was giving me this political look at the town that it takes place in.” In doing so, he also likened the story to ‘Twin Peaks,’ and just as the viewers become fully familiarized with specific corners of the town in the classic TV show, the same can be said about Ghost Town in the film.
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