‘#AMFAD: All My Friends Are Dead’ Director Marcus Dunstan On His Neon-Soaked Influencer Horror
Marcus Dunstan is no stranger to gore, especially with his turn writing Saw IV, V, VI, and 3D, as well as writing and directing The Collector series. And he brings that love of viscera and storytelling to his new film #AMFAD: All My Friends Are Dead, which he directed from a script by Josh Sims and Jessica Sarah Flaum. This take on influencer culture is a blood-soaked rollercoaster ride starring a talented young cast and an interesting script that works to provide a new perspective on influencers and what we’ll do for views.
In the film:
A group of college friends rent an Airbnb for the biggest music festival of the year. A weekend of partying quickly takes a turn, as the group is murdered one by one, according to their sin
In honor of the film’s release, we’re sharing the full interview with Dunstan and star Jade Pettyjohn from the film’s world premiere at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival. We talked about the film’s twists and turns, crafting its nastiest kills, and more!
Dread Central: Congratulations to both of you for having #AMFAD go to Tribeca. It must feel awesome to have a gory influencer slasher at a film festival.
Marcus Dunstan: It really is such an honor because you do not know where your movie is going to end up. You could be making a $100 million movie and they may not even put it out. So we were off in Canada a little over a year ago hoping. But we invested our hope, I think in the best way possible where we prepared for luck. So Jade was acting like we were going to hit the A+ and get there. Even the lenses we chose, we went anamorphic so we could fill that screen and it was hope, hope, hope. When those two things coalesced, what an honor to be accepted at Tribeca and unleash this on a giant silver screen.
DC: Have either of you, Jade or Marcus, seen it yet on the big screen?
Jade Pettyjohn: I haven’t been able to see #AMFAD on a big screen yet, but that’s something that I’m really looking forward to at Tribeca. I do think that this film is sort of meant to be played on the big screen. It’s one of those amazing popcorn candy-coated horror films, and I think it just enhances all of the shock and gore and everything that Marcus created when seen on a big screen.
MD: I want to do that thing where the compliments instantly return. There is no movie without Jade because you have to have your North Star and we have our North Movie Star. That created something [where we] could be shocking, humorous, whatnot. We could throw any tone at it because I’ll repeat a phrase, the youngest old pro I’ve ever met would, adapt to that tone and respect that tone. There was no slip on the banana peel. No, the high wire was particularly high and that was the real energy of walking it, and to walk it with such a capable force. Thank you, Jade.
DC: Jade, you have to play straight a little bit because, I use this comparison a lot, it feels like you are the only person amongst a bunch of muppets. You’re just reacting and adapting. So what was that like for you as an actor to play this character?
JP: It was so interesting. It was so much fun. I mean, I think something that I really loved about the script was just how heightened all of the characters and the circumstances are. It is a story that is ridden with chaos in all directions, and I thought that was really fun. The way that Sarah was written gives the opportunity for an audience member to not necessarily feel alone. You’re almost like a fly on the wall in that space. And I think Sarah as a character serves that purpose where she is the grounding footing and you’re going along with her. She’s trying to understand this culture that she’s not a part of, which was a really interesting thing.
DC: So tackling influencers with directing, with working on the story, the script and everything, what was your goal in terms of creating an influencer movie that was different from other influencers in horror? It’s such a popular topic, so I was curious what that thought process was like and trying to stand out amongst, maybe not an influx, but the trend of influencer horror films.
MD: There were two things that I wanted to attempt to achieve that goal, and one was thinking about the entire movie from a post-production perspective. With the advent of the phone, we are posting ourselves, we are creating production, we are choosing the window, the framing, and putting it out there.
But then to go all the way back, the theme was this is modern voyeurism. And what voyeurism used to be was someone uninvited, staring, finding that dark place in the woods, watching you walk, watching you camp, watching you swim the peak in a shower, the invasions. Then all of a sudden social media was like, we’ll take all the voyeurism we can. We want to watch, and in doing so, we’re focusing on something that’s maybe four inches by three inches and then 99% of the world can sneak it up behind your back.
DC: I love the way you play with voyeurism here. Again, that is such a big part of social media and there’s a particular kill in this, and I don’t want to spoil too much, but it involves likes and I was so impressed with that kill sequence. Can you talk a little bit about creating that and tease it a little? It was really impressive to see that pulled off this way.
MD: I guess even more so when it had to be done in six hours. That was tough.
DC: No way!
MD: Yeah, that was one of those days where we had to do two big sequences like that on the first week, and that wasn’t easy, but thank goodness, the safety net of knowing what could be accomplished in post. So I want to bring two names of two key collaborators, especially for that sequence, and that is Andrew Coutts, who is not only our editor but has such a vast knowledge of graphics. So we knew some incorporated things we could hope for, but [we also knew] Andrew could also deliver.
The other Andrew was Andrew Wesman, an editor I’ve worked with in the past. He edited like the Unfriended films where they’re doing screen, screen, screen storytelling. So just by proxy of having those two minds and then in really just shaping, shaping, shaping. Then all the way through post, Michaella Russell, who’s not only an actor in the movie, was producing music and whatnot.
And it was an awesome alchemy that really wasn’t finished to the way you saw it until several seconds beyond the last second. We were trying to hit the feeling that I hope that it gave you, which was “Whoa.” And then ultimately putting my hat on, I thought, okay, this feels like it could be something in a Saw-niverse in a way. And I thought, “Well, if I’m going to tiptoe towards it, I want to step on top of it.”
DC: That’s what I was thinking! You could have cut away and heard her screaming, but you have it all on screen.
MD: Thank you. Goodness, that’s [Ali Fumiko] Whitney. Nothing happens without the performance.
DC: Yeah, I mean, that was incredible. But Jade, I wanted to hear about your experience working with the whole cast. This is such a cool quirky cast. And we kind of already touched on this a little bit by talking about you playing a more grounded character, but what was it like to collaborate with the rest of this cast?
JP: This cast was a perfect storm because you never really know when you get into a project how the chemistry is going to be and how we’re going to work together, especially under such short notice. We didn’t really have much time to rehearse for #AMFAD or get to know each other beforehand. And it was amazing. I remember the first day we were filming all of the van sequences in the beginning, so it was really like we were entering this adventure together at the beginning of the shoot. But it was also the first time you established these characters and it was perfect. I mean, these guys are so incredible. There was a certain energy that came together when you had all of us in a room that was exactly what you needed. It was chaos. It was hilarious.
These guys are amazing at improv. I mean, we just had so much fun and it was just so seamless. It was everything that you could hope and imagine in scene partners, and that only enhanced as we moved along in the story and things started getting more intense. Those actors were incredible to work with and really, really generous in being a true scene partner.
DC: Was there a lot of improv in #AMFAD?
JP: I mean, Marcus, you can totally speak on this, but yeah, absolutely. I think, again, it was like you put all of us in a room and we were so loud and rambunctious, and you put enough takes in there and we’re going to start saying the most ridiculous things. And then Marcus also really was a very collaborative director, and he allowed all of us to play with things and just throw these ideas at the wall and see what sticks.
MD: Also, we don’t often get the option to do that just by nature of [having to] shoot out of order. But for #AMFAD, a lot was shot in script order. So let’s say we found a new angle on a character, or we wanted to adapt a certain sequence. As long as those moments that tied together were shot in order, yeah, let’s do it.
DC: Well, and it felt very much like young people talking. I feel like we think we know what young people sound like, but this felt more authentic to what conversations, at least some conversations might sound like. So I think that improv probably helped, too.
MD: Hey, that’s high praise. Thank you for saying that. And that’s a testament to the cast and to the writing because it’s mercurial and a new language will be adapted by the time something you’ve worked on two years ago. I think we’re getting in under the wire where hopefully it’s enough where it doesn’t sound foreign to anybody, but thank you. That’s a very kind compliment.
JP: And that also was something that drew me to the project. I felt like this film definitely is an ode to these incredible slasher films that came before us, specifically in the 1980s and 1990s. #AMFAD is an homage to that in a way, but when I read the script, I felt like it did a really good job, even within the heightened circumstances that occur within this film, of representing what Gen Z is experiencing today. Even as heightened as these areas are and as extreme as we take it, I do actually feel like from my point of view, at least when I was reading the script, that I was like, “Wow, there’s some truth here.” That was something that definitely drew me to the project.
#AMFAD: All My Friends Are Dead is out now on VOD.
Categorized:Interviews
