Sam Trammell Talks ‘Totally Brutal’ New Western-Horror Movie ‘Organ Trail’ (Exclusive)

True Blood alum Sam Trammell has a brand new movie out, Organ Trail, a western-horror flick that he praises as “totally brutal.” In the film, a young woman named Abigale (Zoé De Grand Maison) and her family “fall victim to a ruthless gang while making their way across the Oregon Trail. As the only survivor, she will do whatever it takes to retrieve her one earthly possession, her family’s horse, from the clutches of the bloodthirsty bandits.”

Organ Trail was directed by Michael Patrick Jann from a script by writer Meg Turner. Additional cast members include Nicholas Logan, Olivia Applegate, Michael Abbott Jr., Jessica Frances Dukes, and Clé Bennett. PopCulture.com had a chance to sit down with Trammell to talk about the film, in which he plays the “gentleman” bad guy, Logan, and he dished on what it was like to film the movie. Scroll down to read our conversation!

PopCulture.com: Organ Trail is described as a Western horror and I didn’t know what that meant until I watched it and I was like, ‘Oh… yeah.’ The vibe I got is it is a Western horror in the most real sense of Old West, just lawlessness and outlaws and all that.

Trammell: It is. It’s a totally brutal world that they live in. I mean, not just with the horror aspect, but just the elements. It starts off and just living back in those days and having to drive a stagecoach through the winter storms, through this Oregon Trail. Oregon Trail was, I mean, this is all based on history and they literally changed it from Oregon to Organ because it was so dangerous. There were stagecoach robberies all the time and you just took your chances. There weren’t a number of different routes to go. You just had that route if you wanted to go west.

But yeah it’s very real. It’s, first of all, a real western with great characters, two women leads and it’s kind of their story and I’m one of the villains. It’s cool. I’ve never done a Western horror… but this one ends up going there.

PC: In my mind I was like, ‘Okay, well, Western horror, so this is going to be something like Ravenous or Bone Tomahawk, and there are similarities for sure. But as you said, the elements that you’re working with, your character is pretty nasty. Do you like playing a nasty villain kind of guy? Is it fun to get to do that?

Trammell: Oh yeah. I mean, it’s so good. Yeah, it’s usually more fun to play a bad guy, at least for me. And this guy was so delicious. My character is kind of, he’s a real gentleman, real gentleman, and he wants to create this sort of utopian society. He fancies himself an artist. And this kind of stagecoach robbery business he’s in is kind of an alternate lifestyle. It’s a choice. I kind of imagine him having been from a wealthy family in England and rather than going into the conservative import-export business of his father, he’s like, I’m going to go to America and go to the West and see what happens and try to create a society.

So he’s a fascinating character because he really, he’s not out for, he’s vicious, but it’s not that he enjoys the killing. It’s just that sometimes it has to happen and it has to happen a lot. Their little society in the town, the town of Logan, which is my character, is really brilliant. He does charcoals and he plays the guitar and it’s great.

PC: He’s a very continental gentleman.

Trammell: He’s a gentleman. He tries to teach his compatriots about fine wines because they’re always stealing the great stuff. Furniture, sometimes not great stuff, but a lot of times great furniture that’s being stage coached across the country. Great European furniture and fine wines. So he knows about all that stuff and he’s trying to teach his compatriots.

PC: I wanted to ask you about working with Michael Patrick Jan, the director, who is a very accomplished director and has done a lot of comedy and there are very, sort of, funny elements here occasionally, but this film really wouldn’t be considered a comedy.

Trammell: Yeah, it’s funny, I’ve actually known Michael for many years because he went to NYU and I knew a lot of those guys in New York. We were all in New York a while back and I’m a huge fan of all the stuff that he’s directed. And he was with the state and he’s so funny, but he’s really, he’s super smart and just so smart and so well-read and so him going into doing a drama like this is kind of perfect. I would think he would almost be suited better to this than comedy. 

I mean, obviously, he’s established comedy, but he’s so sort of intellectual and it was so fun working with someone that I knew and he’s so smart and they went out there early. We had incredible locations in Montana. We were shooting just outside of Yellowstone. Within a stone’s throw of Yellowstone in those foothills. I mean, it was really a bucket list [moment].

It’s funny, we had… I’m getting off-topic, but we’re just talking about stuff. We actually had, if you think of Montana, you think of horses, but we actually had horses from South Dakota. A rancher, a wrangler from South Dakota with his horses. So we had South Dakota horses in Montana. But it was so cool to ride horses in those foothills. It’s a gorgeous area. And Michael, he was great to work with. He’s so just really smart.

PC: It’s funny that you mentioned the location setting. Because that was something I was wondering about was because God, it’s beautiful where you guys filmed and I was like, there’s no, this is all, they’re really shooting on location, wherever. I mean, they’re really in the snow and ice and all of that.

Trammell: We were. There’s a scene, I don’t want to give too much away, but on a frozen lake, and that lake was like, we had to cut some ice out and it was, well, it like that, it was two feet thick, this reservoir, right near Big Sky. And stunning. I mean just, and two feet of snow, very cold, but just really beautiful country.

Organ Trail is now available to purchase digitally. It will be available to rent on May 26. Keep it locked to PopCulture.com for more movie news, reviews, and interviews!