#AMFAD: ALL MY FRIENDS ARE DEAD the latest by Marcus Dunstan, premiered at Tribeca and was just released in select Theaters and On Demand. Dunstan not only wrote/directed the excellent Collector duology, but wrote the Feast trilogy and a bunch of the Saw films. Here with a script by John Baldecchi, Jessica Sarah Flaum and Josh Sims, Dunstan is tackling a film premise that is fast becoming a genre unto itself in indie horror, the social media slasher.
In a meta take on the current obsession with true crime and dark nostalgia. The film takes place two decades after Karmapalooza, a fictitious music festival that was tragically marked by the deaths of seven college students that spawned a podcast, a netflix true crime series and a feature film. In a morose cash grab the notorious fest is back to cash in on that notoriety and #AMFAD follows 7 friends who book an airbnb in the woods on their way to the fest.
We, the audience, are then paired off with the final girl-esque Sarah (Jade Pettyjohn), the newcomer to the group of long time friends who harbor a terrible secret. Jade was in the School of Rock TV show and will no doubt be more in demand after this film.
I really dug #AMFAD and got to chat with both Marcus and the film’s lead about not only this film, but Jojo Siwa who has a surprising role to play and also got some great news The Collector 3, spoiler alert, I might be FINALLY happening. Enjoy!
First off congrats on the film, Marcus you’re a pretty prolific writer and director with some of my favorite franchises under your belt. Normally you write your own films, so what drew you to this script and its take on the toxicity of social media?
Marcus Dunstan: Well, I had never been able to take the helm of a murder mystery, and I love that. We were ghost writers on the reboot of My Bloody Valentine, and I loved the architecture of it, because what I found is if it was a straight, “we know who the evil person is and we’re watching bodies pile up” okay? Those movies, you can cut ’em down to about 80 minutes and you get it.
But the murder mysteries had character development, it had suspicion, it had the closeup of, is that the same boot as the killer? It had the characters, and layers. And often I found them to be just more engaging and more realistic to watch. That’s what was really fun. So that was the inspiration to get into that.
And in terms of social media, it’s kinda like the mantra of this that I was keeping in my head is, well, this is modern voyeurism. Voyeurism used to be on the shoulders of the person standing far away. And with social media, we’ve invited the voyeur in.
The influencer slasher is starting to become a subgenre unto itself in horror, why do you think we enjoy watching bad things happen to influencers?
Marcus Dunstan: I think that there’s wish fulfillment and there’s nightmare fulfillment. (laughs), I would say the wish fulfillment is when you’re driving your beloved puppy to a doctor’s appointment and someone broadcasting on their phone, nearly t-bones, you. That’s when you want something to happen. We want a karmic hand to come down and well bam, wake up (laughs).
Then the wish fulfillment is, well, don’t we all want to create the best version of ourselves? Don’t we wanna hide our vulnerabilities and keep them in the dark? But what if someone knew about them? What if someone wanted to exploit them? What would we do to keep fake living, in order to hide and revel in our inner bats (laughs)?
Jade, I love Sara’s journey in the film as an actor that has to be a great script to get, what kind of prep did you do for the role, physically or emotionally and where do you find the tools to play a character like that?
Jade Pettyjohn: So my prep for this particular project was a little bit different than my normal sort of prep when it comes to a project. Sarah is a really interesting character. She’s very nuanced, and I think within the first two acts of the film, you really explore how she is this outsider in a group of friends and she’s trying to find her footing in this world. And she acts as sort of the fly on the wall, as all of these extreme things are happening and she’s just sort of trying to discover her place in that.
I think that is a very sort of quiet rooted moment that Sarah gets to have. And then when everything hits the fan and the chaos ensues in the third act. How Sarah breaks and how what she turns into and evolves into under very heightened intense circumstances, was very physical.
So my prep work was a lot more physical and primal than it had been in the past, and it was so much fun to collaborate with Marcus too. I mean, we had so much fun on set discovering all of the highs and lows and volumes that we could turn up and down for the character of Sara, because her journey is very interesting and erratic, and not something that is easily predictable, you know?
So I have to ask both of you about Jojo Siwa. I am honestly a low key fan. How did she come to the project? I know Jade, you’ve worked with her before. I honestly have to say, I didn’t know she was in the film when I first saw it and I was really surprised at how great she is here.
Marcus Dunstan: I want to give a shout out to Jessica Schwartz and I believe Jessica Schwartz started the ball rolling to even approach the team representing Jojo. From that, I would just have to fast forward to the result of all those efforts. I am not privy to how it happened, but I’ll tell you who showed up for us as an outgoing, soulful, caring, dedicated, wonderful collaborative entity that just said, push me. I’m here to win and let’s go.
Thank goodness, because we could have done what was just on the pages with that character, but because it was her, because of Jade, because of everyone really just giving beyond the norm, there’s so much more there.
Jade Pettyjohn: I think what she did really was the haunting heart and throughline of the story, and she is so dedicated. I mean, there’s really something to say about someone who comes in and, and does this performance and she’s never done a project like this before or a role like this before. There was a lot that was required of her to be able to do something like that and she didn’t complain once.
And not only did she not complain, she loved it and was such a joy to work with, she was so warm. She was so game. She was like, bring on the fake blood, bring on the tears, bring on all of it, and was such a team player. I think her performance gives such a heart to the story. For me also personally, because I worked with her when we were kiddos back in the day, to work with her as an adult now was really fun. To reunite in that sense with a completely different story and such a full circle moment with, for the both of us.
Jade, the film sort of digs into how we’re all sort of playing a role rather it be on social media or with our friends and family, being not only a celebrity, but a woman, what do you think this film has to say that maybe some folks aren’t ready to hear?
Jade Pettyjohn: Yeah. It can be a hard pill to swallow, but I think that we can fall into the trap of feeling like we need to play a role or to be something, other than ourselves. Obviously we’re saying this within a horror film and the horror genre, so it’s a lot more fun, bloody and colorful.
But there’s some real dangers I think in trying to feel like you need to fulfill a certain role or stereotype or identity in order to exist in this space. I think ultimately at the end of the day, people are people and social media is a hard thing for a lot of people, but particularly young people to navigate.
I think it’s an important thing to know, that we’re a lot more nuanced and dynamic than what we feel like we need to portray on a screen with people that you don’t know. We wanted to highlight how toxic and dangerous it can get if you’re stuck trying to be interesting rather than being interested in life.
Marcus – Any Sequel Plans for #AMFAD, I know that post credits scene definitely got me?
And speaking of sequels…
I also have to ask any update on The Collector 3 I am a huge fan of that series?
Marcus Dunstan: Bless your heart for asking.
When it comes to the universe of All My Friends are Dead, we’re gonna satiate the appetite, if the appetite’s there and we’re ready to launch.
When it comes to The Collector there’s a Gordian knot of things to untie, and I wanna say, the last hurdle was just jumped. So what I’m hoping to do, if I’m so fortunate, Josh Stewart (the star of the Collector series), and I are intending to hang out and watch this movie together in New York this Saturday. I want nothing more than to just send out a thumbs up at some point and be like, guess what? Miracles can happen twice in one night, but we’ll see <laughs>. Sometimes the legalese of stuff moves a little bit slower than the optimism <laughs>
