Who is the Satanic Slasher? Meet 'Psycho Killer' James Preston Rogers

We're discussing minor spoilers for the horror movie “Psycho Killer” (in theaters now), so beware if you want to go in totally cold.

Monologues or moonsaults? That was the choice facing James Preston Rogers two decades ago.

He did pick acting over pro wrestling as a career, so it was a full-circle moment sitting ringside promoting “Psycho Killer” on WWE’s NXT TV show, albeit wearing the mask of Hollywood’s latest horror villain.

“I see some of the guys that I used to work with, I'm shaking some of the hands," says Rogers, rocking his old Ohio Valley Wrestling T-shirt during a video chat. "I was like, yeah, it took me like 20 years to get back here."

Playing the Satanic Slasher is the biggest role yet for the muscular 6-foot-6, 260-pound Canadian native, whose diverse resume includes “Mayans M.C.,” “The Righteous Gemstones” and “Pixels.” (He also didn’t escape wrestling, cameoing as Hulk Hogan in “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.”) Rogers joins an iconic canon of actors including Robert Englund ("A Nightmare on Elm Street"), Kane Hodder (“Friday the 13th”), Nick Castle (“Halloween”) and David Howard Thornton ("Terrifer") who make a killing hidden under creepy facewear or makeup.

Rogers, 53, admittedly was "a little miffed" at first about being behind an eerie radioactive mask for much of the movie. (There are times he doesn't wear it, but you still can't see him because of the angle or his long hair.) “That was my vanity. One of the seven deadly sins,” he quips. Ultimately, not seeing his face is “going to add to the character,” the actor adds. “If I'm a viewer, I wouldn't want to see it. You want that mystique. You want your monster to be a monster.”

“Psycho Killer” takes the unconventional tack of showing much of the movie from the serial killer’s perspective. The Satanic Slasher's got a heck of a body count already when he’s pulled over by cops for a routine traffic stop, and Kansas highway patrol officer Jane Archer (Georgina Campbell) watches her husband get gunned down in cold blood in front of her. After the Slasher speeds off, Jane begins a multistate hunt to bring him to justice while her new foe is on his own path to a destructive endgame.

While the Slasher leaves a gore-filled path behind him, Rogers played the baddie like a human instead of a monster. The character is haunted by childhood trauma and addicted to painkillers, and in one early scene, the masked man takes his shotgun and hides in a motel room closet, lying down and seeking comfort.

“I want you to realize that he is a person, but I don't want you to forgive him,” Rogers says. “This guy’s just made some bad choices. And no one believes they're evil. Everyone believes they're doing right.”

Rogers has one of his favorite scenes with Malcolm McDowell, where the Slasher unleashes a gory massacre with his axe during an orgy at the Maryland mansion of a wealthy Satanist (McDowell). Yet as a “man of faith,” Rogers says he initially wasn’t sure about taking on this opportunity. “I just started thinking, man, is this from the guy upstairs, or is this from the guy in the red leotard?”

He brought his Bible to the set every day because the 16- to 18-hour days were so intense, and he’d read verses after work “to make sure I balance the scale here,” Rogers says. He also asked that the tattoos of devil horns, pentagrams and other sinister images covering the Slasher be washed off every day, which meant an extra hour in the makeup chair: “I’m like, ‘Guys, get used to it because I'm not bringing that home.’ ”

The Slasher’s mask, though, was a massive help in finding Rogers’ character. He couldn’t hear or see well out of it. Plus, the airholes were small, so breathing was also a challenge, as he’d sometimes get a little lightheaded. Oh, yeah, he’d also get tinnitus in his ears.

“It’s like running a race with your shoelaces tied,” Rogers says. “But putting the mask on, I was like, ‘OK, now this is him. This is where he's safe.’ ”

As a Slasher who doesn't talk much, Rogers was even able to utilize the knowledge he gained years ago in the ring. “In wrestling, the good guys and bad guys tell a story by just different moves and what sequence you use them. So I knew how I could move and tell the story without any words,” says Rogers, who came up in WWE’s development system just after fellow future thespians Dave Bautista and John Cena.

Rogers was into sports growing up in Toronto, and after working with his dad in elevator construction, he started wrestling. At 30, though, he went fully into acting. “I found what I wanted to do with my life, and then I couldn't get enough of it,” he says. “God's got a plan. And I could never have seen this plan coming this way.”

Without saying too much, the end of “Psycho Killer” hints at another round someday for the Satanic Slasher. Already, the villain is a favorite in the Rogers household: The actor has two sons, and his 6-year-old will say, “That’s Daddy!” when he sees the Slasher.

“We watch ‘Back to the Future.’ I'm like, ‘Michael J. Fox,’ he's like, ‘Marty!’ ” Rogers says. “So I'm kind of getting them ready.” And if they see “Psycho Killer” with all that blood, “it’s just ketchup.”