Posted in: Exclusive, Horror, Interview, Movies | Tagged: ade Pettyjohn, Ali Fumiko Whitney, All My Friends Are Dead, AMFAD, Cardi Wong, Cineverse, exclusive, interview, Jack Doupe-Smith, Jennifer Ens, Jojo Siwa, Julian Haig, Justin Derickson, marcus dunstan, Michaella Russell

AMFAD: All My Friends Are Dead Director on Why Horror Film Has "Heart"

Director Marcus Dunstan (Unhuman) spoke to Bleeding Cool about his latest Cineverse horror film AMFAD: All My Friends Are Dead.

Marcus Dunstan has firmly established himself in the world of horror as a writer and director working on the Feast, Saw, and The Collector franchises. While he's more accomplished on the writing side, he's directed both The Collector (2009) and its sequel, The Collection (2012), The Neighbor (2016), Unhuman (2022), and an episode of Hulu's Into the Dark. His latest is the social media-inspired #AMFAD: All My Friends Are Dead, which follows a group of college friends renting an Airbnb for the year's biggest music festival. A weekend of partying quickly takes a turn, as the group is murdered one by one, according to their sin. Dunstan spoke to Bleeding Cool about jumping on the project after the original director left, the challenges during production, and cast chemistry.

#AMFAD: All My Friends Are Dead: Director Marcus Dunstan on Why Horror Journey with Heart

Bleeding Cool: What intrigued you about 'All My Friends Are Dead?'
Kevin Greutert was the original director, and the production timeline on 'Saw X' (2023) advanced, leaving a vacancy as 'All My Friends Are Dead' was still coming together. Gratefully, Kevin nominated me for consideration. I auditioned, read the script from Josh Simms and Jessica Sarah Flaum, and thought, "Whoa! This is special." I'm eavesdropping on a group of people I don't know but can recognize from real life. Suddenly, this twist happens; some I've been a part of before, and I've seen a bunch. This one took me by total surprise, and then it had something I found critical: it had a heart. Then I got scared because I loved it. I was jumping into the deep end and seeing what I could do to protect this feeling. That's how the journey began.

It became a moment of recruiting like-minded people, including a stellar cast, marvelous crew, and awesome producers to make it so. It reminded me of a moment way back when John Gulager, who was the director of the first screenplay that Patrick Melton, my co-writing partner and, in this case, executive producer partner of over 20 years, looked at our script for 'Feast' (2005) and said, "Okay, kids, I'll protect you. I got it." I wanted to have the same for Josh, Jessica, and us. That is the origin story of 'All My Friends Are Dead.'

What unique challenges did the film present, setting itself apart from your previous work?
Here's the deal on this one. First, it's a murder mystery, and by design and structure, it allows us to know these characters all the better. This is a window where I hope I can name them: Cardi Wong, an award-winning actor; Justin Derickson; Fiona O'Higgins. You have Jennifer Ens, who plays Mona, who was so damn good and nimble with tone. We expanded these roles so Cardi, Justin, Julian [Haig], Jack Doupe-Smith, and Ali Fumiko Whitney began to evolve and create these other layers.

Why? Because here comes our big North star, Jade Pettyjohn, our lead, who was so awesome and acted as a camera amongst the cast. I want to slow my roll down because I thundered tons of names, but this only succeeds if you're making a murder mystery and everybody is captivating. Everybody has a full arc. There are more layers to them, and it can't be one note because we've got a symphony of suspicion, death, terror, humor, humor-based because this cast is so doggone nimble. With Jade Pettyjohn, you have an actor with over ten years of experience who is only in her early 20s. Guess what? The biggest surprise is how awesome JoJo Siwa is as a catalyst as Colette for all the events in this twisty, turny, macabre, humorous, horrifying, heart-packed ride. I was then fortunate to get a couple of ringers in there. Ringers? This means that I trust people I've worked with before with anything. Peter Giles has such an acerbic line of dialog I'm so proud of. It's a voice from outside the realm of these characters, and I love him for it.

Michaela Russell, who I've worked with four times, not only gave a stunning performance but also produced all 33 of our original needle drops and had a hand in creating our trailer, poster, and everything. Everybody came together to answer your question with the best effort to create a quality, awesome, hard-packed, horrifying, humorous, adrenalized ride in the realm of the murder mystery. [When we release it on] August 2nd, thank goodness we get to see theater screens for it. We want to turn every silver screen red, and here's our other goal. The script has a heart because the performances elicit a heart. We're at a shocking time every day, and wouldn't it be nice to go for 91 minutes? That window in the dark allows us to give all that fear, trepidation, and anxiety. Be surprised with humor and twist and be engaged with a plot that sounds like another voice from within you, and then that heart, whenever you jump, you're not jumping further apart. We're starting to jump closer together. That is the goal and the execution of 'All My Friends Are Dead.' That's what we want to do.

Did the cast build rapport beforehand to get a sense of chemistry, or was it something that organically flowed?
It's something you hope for; try to reach into the stars and see it for the audacity to hope for that. In this case, acting as arbiter of that result is Julian Haig, who plays L.B., the character who lusts for life. Julian gathered the Vancouver "friends" core group, who may be friends or frenemies, suspects, and perhaps more. They began to rehearse and find their characters, voices, different tones, and shades of that group dynamic.

By the time Jade, Michaela, and I came in from the United States to Vancouver, Ali Fumiko Whitney shared soil where she was doing a couple of projects up in Vancouver, so she was already there but hailed from New York. You had this group where Jade came in because Jade plays a character outside this cabal group of friends who might have a dark secret.

When Julian gathered those friends, he created all the subtext, and I loved that it brought all the walls down. These young performers and wonderful actors were strangers. Now, they are old friends. I can't tell you how much it means to see. There was a post of Justin Derickson on social media. He was in another project, and the foreground of the selfie before the screen was playing, and the 'All My Friends Are Dead' cast was supporting him. These are legit folks, and when we had our premiere in Tribeca, it sold out. That room was also packed with the cast with family from Canada and brought friends. Guess what? We sold out the second and third nights, and we cheered. It was awesome. This is a special group, and we get one opportunity to grab attention, but this is a segment of a year and a half of our lives we've crafted into these 91 minutes we wish to entertain you with.

AMFAD is playing in select theaters and is available on digital and on-demand.

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