Texas A&M students have risen to the challenge of making an independent, feature-length film. At 91 minutes long, “Maid to Kill” is a thriller/slasher film that follows a detective and his partner as they track down a serial killer that seems to have an obsession with cleaning. 

The filming took place almost entirely on campus and is one of the few feature-length films made in Aggieland. The film premieres  Friday from 6 to 10 p.m. at the Bethancourt Ballroom in the Memorial Student Center. It’s followed by a YouTube release on Dec. 1.

Management information systems junior Pranav Krishnan directed and wrote “Maid to Kill” alongside marketing junior Connor Field simply out of a desire to create.

“Me and Connor have always been film enthusiasts,” Krishnan said. “We always loved creating short films and criticizing movies. … Connor wanted to make a short film with me … and we decided we’re going to make a feature-length movie simply because we thought we had a bigger story to tell.”

To assist with accessibility and time management, the decision was made to film most of the movie on campus. Producer and actor Grayson Buehler, Class of 2024, said the environment resulted in interesting interactions. 

“We’re doing a chase sequence, and then we’re running throughout these apartments, and people are just walking by,” Buehler said. “It’s really funny. We’ll do like, six or seven takes of that, just going around campus … disguising A&M like a town or whatnot rather than the college campus.”

Urban and regional planning sophomore Aniket Mohapatra, who acted as an executive producer for the film, hopes to garner an audience among Aggies in particular. 

“Obviously, we wanted to make the film out of our own interest, but it’s for Aggies,”  Mohapatra said. “A lot of the film was shot here on campus, so I think it’s pretty fun to see, ‘Hey, I recognize that place.’ So I think seeing the final product is just really amazing from a standpoint of like, ‘My fellow Aggies made this, and I’m so proud of them.’”

Field and Krishnan served as the driving force behind the project as they wrote the script and planned its pre-production throughout the fall of 2023. In the following spring, they spent every weekend filming, and Field edited the movie over the summer while Krishnan provided the music. They worked with a small team of actors and film enthusiasts to enact their vision.

“That’s the beauty of student filmmaking,” Krishnan said. “It’s not like a big production. There’s people that want to be actors or filmmakers here, and they’re, like, ‘Finally, I have a platform to show my skills.’”

Every person involved in the film has a different source of inspiration shaping their filmmaking journey. For Mohapatra, his passion for the craft has permeated his entire life.

“I’ve just really liked making little projects,” Mohapatra said. “Even when I was a kid, I would make little videos on my phone. Most of my larger projects have evolved as like, ‘Hey, wouldn’t it be fun to make something together?’” 

On the acting side, Buehler’s interest in the performing arts began in middle school, but the passion took a back seat until his last year at A&M when he decided to step back into the spotlight.

“I just realized that it’s really not just something I want to do, but have to do in order to stretch and exercise that creative muscle,” Buehler said. “I wanted to be able to have a creative outlet.”

One of the largest challenges faced was scheduling filming paired with the limitation of only shooting on weekends. 

“We were really concerned …’What if people sign up to do this, they agree and then they cut out like they quit halfway?’” Field said. “It was awesome seeing all these A&M students come together understanding that this is a big project and committing to it and seeing it through. And I think, I don’t know if it’s luck or if it’s that the Aggie Spirit embodied everybody, but we were able to finish it because everybody did what they needed to do.”

While not officially affiliated, Aggie Screenwriting, Acting and Movie Production Club, or SWAMP, as well as MSC Aggie Cinema, were heavily involved in the creation of “Maid to Kill.” With many people being a part of one or both clubs, resources, actors and information were dispersed among these groups’ members.

“They really rallied around a bunch of their members who participated in filming,” Mohapatra said. “I know they lent a bunch of equipment and I think it’s really awesome that we have a community of filmmakers here who are able to help out with the film.”

The initial concept for the film was significantly different and pulled from a unique skill possessed by Krishnan.

“I have perfect pitch, which means that I can hear a song or a note and I can play it immediately,” Krishnan said. “I love to write characters that have a fatal flaw that they can’t escape. So I wrote a film called “A Killer With Perfect Pitch” to where a killer kills people, but every time he hears a sound, he has to figure out what it is. … I pitched the idea to Connor, and he really liked it and then we decided that cleaning was the best way to go about it.” 

Field hopes the audience can leave the screening feeling inspired.

“It’s a film about how someone can drive themselves and see gratification in their work.” Field said. It’s looking at how one person drives themselves to do what they do in their field despite the challenges that face them.”

Above all, however, the team hopes the film can inspire other student filmmakers and prove that young filmmakers don’t have to wait to start making their ideas a reality.

“I want to show that this is very possible,” Krishnan said. “There are so many people here that we’ve learned have such deep passions for filmmaking, acting, producing, but they just don’t have the platform, and they just don’t know how to go about doing something like this. … But I want them to know once they watch the movie, this is possible. They are Aggies. We are Aggies. We can do it just as much as they can.”