Yes, there's a new country music horror film. Here's how this rhinestone ripper came to life

A country music ... horror film? Yes, it's a thing.

"Torn Hearts" — a 97-minute bloody suspense flick from Epix and A-list Hollywood scare factory Blumhouse — takes viewers to a fictional Nashville, where a duo of bright-eyed women hoping to make a splash on Music Row need a leg up in an industry dominated by men slinging stories about back roads and beer drinking (sounds familiar, eh?).

The group — called Torn Hearts — features Jordan, a curly-haired songwriting who puts art above fame (she would totally be from East Nashville) and Leigh, the frontwoman with a piercing smile and superstardom ambitions (Midtown all the way for her, right?).

Looking to boost the band out of midsize local clubs, they take a shot in the dark on enlisting help from Harper Dutch, a star-turned-recluse who once ruled the charts (and '90s country hairdos) as one-half of family duo The Dutchess Sisters. The duo take a trip down Tennessee backroads to surprise Dutch at her crumbling estate.

Spoiler alert: Suspense unfolds.

"Torn Hearts" hit streaming services last month to mostly positive reviews in horror circles, scoring an 89% "certified fresh" score on critic aggregator and cinema tastemaker Rotten Tomatoes.

In a Tennessean interview, "Torn Hearts" screenwriter Rachel Koller Croft discusses setting the film in Nashville, writing complex women in horror and cutting original music for the film.

Wait, why Nashville?

Croft grew up on country music with a self-described appreciation that runs from Dolly Parton to Jake Owen.

A Midwesterner who now lives in Los Angeles, she filled her 20s with weekend trips to Music City that included honky-tonk hopping, songwriting rounds and open mic sessions. On these trips, Croft said, she loved watching songwriters workshop three-chord stories.

For "Torn Hearts," she teamed her Nashville experience with horror, comedic relief and layered characters.

"What I love about country music," Croft said, "is people are telling stories. That's something I've always loved to do whether I'm writing a song or writing a script or writing a book. And I think of all the music genres ... country music tells the most compelling story. I've always been attracted to that."

She doesn't shy from issues

Women in country music continue to fight an uphill battle to gain ground on radio and the road when compared to male counterparts. From Leigh dating a manager old enough to be her father to Jordan struggling to accept the group lost a tour slot to a man, Croft doesn't cut corners in illustrating those struggles.

"It's no secret that the entertainment industry at large, including music, is notoriously hard on women," Croft said, adding: "I wanted [the women] to be the focus. The men in the story have their moment in the sun, so to speak, but it is the women's story. And they go for it. I didn't want to write passive characters. I wanted to write women that take big swings."

And she wrote characters with depth

Horror fans don't often see a film led by three nuanced women, such as "Torn Hearts." Layers of Leigh (played by Alexxis Lemire), Jordan (Abby Quinn) and Harper Dutch (Katey Sagal) unfold as the film progresses, giving insight into what motivates each plot twist — for better or worse.

None may be more compelling than Dutch, who Sagal plays with an off-kilter grit fueled by the untimely death of the character's sister, Hope Dutch.

"I think Harper feels discarded and betrayed by something and some people that she loved very much," Croft said. "Her motivation when she sees these girls is a mix of wanting to help but also help herself."

The songs are Croft's, too

Lyrics penned by Croft — including a song she began writing years ago on her weekend trips to Nashville — made the film as fully-produced songs performed by Torn Hearts and Harper Dutch.

Writing the film and contributing to the soundtrack? A pretty cool one-two punch, Croft said.

"The songs all belong to the artists in the story and their production totally reflected that," she said, adding: "I was really pleased that Brea [Grant, director] and the producers [in] Nashville captured the essence of what the songs were meant to do for the characters and the story."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: All about 'Torn Hearts,' a new country music horror film