PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Marcus Dunstan is a true legend in the horror genre. He not only directed and helped write the phenomenal The Collector (2009) and its 2012 sequel, The Collection, but he also wrote all the Feast films, Piranha 3DD, Saw IV, V, VI, and 3D, but also the screen story for Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, plus so many more. Phew. That is A LOT of genre goodness and so many of my favorites. His latest directing project, the horror-slasher starring Jade Pettyjohn and JoJo Siwa, #AMFAD: All My Friends Are Dead, is a dark, loud, and brutal telling of the seven deadly sins.
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.
To celebrate the release of the film, I chatted with Marcus via Zoom about how the project came about and how he became attached to it, making horror with heart, the cast, and more!
PopHorror: I really enjoyed #AMFAD: All My Friends Are Dead. It was a lot of fun, a new take on the seven deadly sins. Very stylized, which I have found to be kind of your style a little bit. What intrigued you about the script and made you want to be a part of the project?
Marcus Dunstan: I’m courtesy on this project due to Kevin Greutert. So Kevin Greauter, director/collaborator of many years, he was attached to direct #AMFAD: All My Friends Are Dead. However, the production requirements of Saw X was going and #AMFAD: All My Friends Are Dead had to shift and well, that created a vacancy. I’m grateful to Kevin. He threw my name into the hat to audition for it. I read Josh Sims and Jessica Sarah Flaum’s screenplay and here were these exciting new voices. Here was a twist that not only functioned so very well as a “What!?” twist, but there also was something that was being created and integrated throughout and it was a heart. There was something to this that I thought, I’ve never done a murder-mystery. I have never had the opportunity to protect a twist like this. And if I am so lucky, and if I am so fortunate to have this cast and everything is in focus, we just might get the unexpected heart. Then you add Jade Pettyjohn, you add Jojo (Siwa), you add Jennifer Ens, you add Michaella Russell, Justin Derikson, Cardi Wong, Julian Haig, Ali Fumiko Whitney, Peter Giles, and Jack Doupe-Smith, and all of sudden, hell yeah you’ve got it. You can do whatever you want and even then some.
And courtesy of Kirk Shaw and Stephanie Rennie, we shot in order so we could know where we could push and go and go. Jennifer Ens, who plays Mona, we kept building arcs and layers. Every character could have a full arc no matter their screen time, run time in there, every character gets a full arc. That’s what I love about murder-mysteries in particular, if they’re a red herring – they’re a suspect – you need to spend just a little more time with them. We learned this on… Patrick and I worked on My Bloody Valentine, the remake in 2009, and there was a draft of the script that some production was pushing for that was, I’ll say, 90 pages. And then there was Patrick Lussier and Todd Farmer’s script that was 115-117 pages, and that was the critical difference. Some of the producers were like, “What are these moments? What are these scenes? We’ve just got to get to it.” It’s like, “No, no, no. You’re making a murder-mystery. You need these moments. These aren’t flat moments. These are detail moments.” Think of Scream. It’s the close-up of a boot. Ah! Killer has a boot! Wait, there’s a boot on that officer! Why are we stopping with this officer to see him take a drag of a cigarette? It’s about the boot! It’s not about that. It’s about puppeteering us. There’s a movie within the movie that scared the hell out of me and I wanted to be a part of that. I wanted to try.
PopHorror: I love that. Was there anything you were adamant about keeping in the film no matter what?
Marcus Dunstan: Everything. I wanted to keep the heart in this because it was an adaptation. There’s a lot of things you have to let go when the reality of a budget and a clock comes into play so if 12 days of shooting in Vancouver, one day domestically in the United States, so man, I gave salary back to add another five days. I wanted this to… If this was going to be my first murder-mystery, if this was going to have heart, if this was going to have twists, it was going to take everything I could. This movie was finished on an iPhone in my living room.
PopHorror: Wow!
Marcus Dunstan: I’m never going to stop working on this thing until it’s the best. Why? Because everybody associated with this movie gave their all. My college roommate did the poster. Michaella Russell, the actor, produced 33 original songs and helped with working on tech for the trailer. This thing, it’s the slickest grassroots I’ve ever seen on a lawn, and we’re looking to mow them down. Really, I want to share these moments because we hoped we had a chance to be on one movie theater screen, maybe for a premiere. And wouldn’t you know, in an era where you can finish a giant slick movie, and the major studio will be like, “Nah, delete.” In an era where you can spend 135 million dollars, make a great action movie, but they’ll be like, “Yeah, no theaters for you. We’ll put you on this box.” We’re going to be in theaters on August 2. We’re turning every silver screen they give us red.
PopHorror: That’s so awesome!
Marcus Dunstan: We’ve already seen it play for three sold out nights in Tribeca. It was awesome. And those actors, a lot of the cast, got themselves to Tribeca to see it because we hoped when we were in a kitchen, in a basement, on a stage, in a busted van, that we had a chance at it. And it was because everyone gave their all. I was inspired. I just didn’t want to let this child we were creating out into the world until it had all the education of our hearts, and maybe it could connect with someone else. That’s what’s happening. It just starts with you now. Now we’ve given it to you. And please stay through the credits! We have twists in the credits.
Thank you so much to Marcus for taking the time to speak with us. #AMFAD: All My Friends Are Dead is in theaters, On Demand, and Digital on August 2, 2024!
