#AMFAD: All My Friends Are Dead – Interview with Film Director Marcus Dunstan

Listen to the interview and read the transcript below — edited and condensed for clarity:

Hi, Marcus. I'm Shaurya Thapa of Borrowing Tape. And I'm joined by Marcus Dunstan, who is the director of the 2024 American slasher comedy thriller AMFAD: All My Friends Are Dead. Welcome, Marcus.

Thank you for having me, Thapa.

Before I get into the technicalities of your film, I have a personal question. Your film includes a “Seven Deadly Sins Killer”. The killer targets people according to the seven sins of the Bible. If this killer was real, and if the killer would target you, what sin would you be killed for?

That’s a great question. Because aren't we all a medley of many things at different times? I have these long conversations in my head about, “Oh, do I commit to this particular project or seeing like the acreage of all this, I'll take a year” and whatnot. I would say in that case, I might be a bit too slothful. And then, my goodness, get me in front of the right movie and or the right binge season and all I want to do is eat popcorn with it. Well, then I'm a bit of a glutton. And I will say that I am damn proud of this movie. So perhaps I could be courting pride. “But it looks so great, look at this movie poster that my college roommate Evan Everman did.” And I say that because I want him to experience the vanity of feeling fabulous. And doggone it, anytime you make a movie, you are inviting wrath because someone may not enjoy it. Or you're depicting wrath, and someone may lust for it. There are all sorts of things at any given moment that I think can come our way. And really, based on today, I am all greed because I want everyone to see it. I want everyone to see #AMFAD. I want all the followers of JoJo Siwa to see it. I am greedy for their attention because I think this cast, this screenplay, this production — we fought like hell for something worth the 91 minutes we’re requesting. And so, we packed it with every twist we could think of, every turn that we conceived, every shocking moment we could imagine. And, it’s got a bit of heart in there too. And that’s what I’m hoping we will protect, project on this August 2nd on the silver screen, turn it red with AMFAD - All My Friends Are Dead.

Well, that was quite a mouthful of an answer! I probably would be going to hell for gluttony. That would be my sin.

[Laughs] Goodness, well, isn't it nice though, to have those moments? The thing is, I guess we're all just saying like no, not making each one a lifestyle. Just for a moment or two.

While making #AMFAD, what were your influences — films, literature, etc.?

What I really enjoyed about the cavalcade of different stimuli in this one was I wanted to see how one — our cast was depicting themselves in their own social media. And because that's a big part of it. We are now producers, directors, and studios of our own image through our phones, through what we wish people to believe is our absolute life. When I had this cast, I was like, alright, it's usually a bubble gum world that is being projected. It’s perfect. The perfect yacht. The perfect pool. The perfect party. The perfect look. The perfect outfit. The perfect vignette around life. And if our cast — our suspects —if you will, our group of friends, if they were to keep on going on this road trip, and it's succeeded and in the concert and whatnot, it might have been a late 90s, early aughts road trip sort of comedy where they learn about the frustrations, foibles, heartbreaks, heartaches and makeups and breakups of life. But no, someone else is watching them. Someone with the rules of the horror movie. At an unconventional point, our opening credits slam home and we say we're going to play by our rules and then the whole color dynamic and everything changes to the saturated and cold and vibrant nature of Italian horror cinema because I love the films of Dario Argento and Mario Bava where they had such a confident Technicolor matrix system. With AMFAD, I also wanted this pastiche for those with a social media attention span.

You know in such a quick amount of time. You almost know in the first scene, the first half hour, maybe you'll get a little bit of that time to really grab someone, so even thinking of our movie trailer while making this, what that trailer would be. And I would ask anyone with a consideration to see a movie to check the trailer out because it is a fair representation. This is a sugar rush. This is an adrenaline spike to the to the eyes, so they're like constantly bah bah bah bah and we want to grab your attention keep it in for 91 minutes, 'twisty' and 'turny' in the dark, tell you're delivered hopefully with a full heart and they're like, wow, I didn't see that coming.

Talking about your characters, personally, I've seen this trend in the new Scream films with Jenna Ortega and I watched Bodies, Bodies, Bodies, and in your film, whenever you have these lead characters who are influencers or addicted to social media — they are loud, obnoxious and annoying, just the real deal maybe. So now, considering the characters and the actors are very young when compared to you or even your writers, Josh and Jessica, how did you nail the Gen Z attitudes of these characters?

Hey, thank you, that was so annoying. That was high praise, that was high praise, thank you very much. Well, Josh and Jessica script already had the eavesdrop quality of it. But then the trick is, so in that first act, it is uppercase, everything working, everything is firing on the pistons of their choice. The reputations are what they've manufactured. It's when the rules of their genre start to fall away and the rules of the horror movie come up that we see each of these characters have another layer, many layers.

They're each capable of a moment of drama, dark humor, and acerbic wit. And when in a moment of terror, we see that really they are what they are, which is somewhat kind of shattered kids in adult bodies, where the secrets have now taken on a shape with a weapon. And that was critical to have a cast that was nimble with many tones. And if I may, I want to call them all out by name. You had Jennifer Ens playing Mona, who I recognized from an interaction in high school.. What was exciting about writing for that character was to then to make that character funny, tough, survival skills, like anger, all of that, the complexities of the person that that reminded me of. And then you have Justin Derickson, you have Julian Haig, you have Cardi Wong, Fiona O 'Higgins was awesome, we have Fumiko Whitney, and I had two ringers. I had two ringers in the form of Peter Giles, (who I had with before on Pilgram) and Slick Rick, who could be my voice if I wanted. This is the Slick agent representing these folks trying to talk their language, but kind of not getting it, But having such a, "Yeah, I just need this for the profit, I'm out.". That attitude. And I love his line, "Victims are so played out. Don't need their stories. No. Survivors, I can make something with that." Now, then you have Michaela Russell, who isn't simply the collaborator in acting but also a co-writer and producer of all 33 of our original songs, including the one you'll see in the trailer that we all put together ourselves on the side alongside Cineverse.

And I love that this is all in support of now two key players. Our North Star is Jade Pettyyohn. Jade Pettyjohn has 10 years of experience and is only still this young person. And in that 10 years, she also worked with JoJo Siwa. So they worked together on that show School of Rock way back when, and to see them resume a rhythm and dance right away was so inspiring. So now I knew, okay, we've got these wonderful collaborators.

We've got all the colors of the palette. Now we can try these tonal experiments. Now we can push and see if we can make these folks that are uppercase, hear, brash, loud, whatnot, underscore the sin they may be courting, and then reveal that there are more layers to these people. There's something in their secrets that tells us more about them. And they might become folks we recognize in our own lives.

Talking about — you mentioned JoJo Siwa. She is a major name in your film. My question is, was she always supposed to be a part of your film when you conceptualized it or did a whole casting process happen?

Oh, she was a vital part of putting the alchemy together. And that's courtesy of Jessica Schwartz of Roundtable. Roundtable is John Baldecchi, Sarah Donnelly, and Jessica. And it was her thought and really her follow through that allowed that to happen. Because the screenplay by Josh and Jessica really creates this heart in the character of Colette. And it was a marvelous experience to work with JoJo Siwa and see her bring that character to life, because there's a haunting quality to it. There's a heart to it. And there's unexpected layers that I didn't know of JoJo Siwa that came out in abundance. And it's going to surprise people. And I think it's going to surprise them in the very best way possible. While we're in here, I gotta beg anybody, please watch through the credits. We don't stop twisting and turning until the last image flickers out. Everybody that was a part of this gave all they had. So pound for pound, we would be entertaining, surprising, shocking, humorous. But you'll never see what's coming. That's the thing. You might guess one twist, but you won't guess all four.

Talking about the end credits. Is the sequel confirmed? Or are you just playing games at the moment?

[Laughs] I love that phrasing. Do you know that the final arbiter of any of those hopes is the success of it? We could be absolutely ready to go and if this one disappears off the radar, then that wouldn't be a wise move, but we're ready should success extend the all our branch. So that's why I'm hoping. I really want folks to put this on its feet and give it a shot because that would be fun. That would be great.

You're used to sequels and franchises. So be it Feast, be it Collector, the Saw movies. Considering you have worked in gnarly gory horror before — you worked on Saw movies. So like that's like slasher royalty. How was All My Friends Are Dead different from your previous horror ventures? I mean, the obvious difference for me personally was that was more comical, it was darkly funny. But what kind of slasher tropes did you try to avoid while making this compared to your previous ventures?

So there was a lot, thank you for that question. There was a lot that was a nice challenge about this. And plus I was directing a script I hadn't written. I was entering the fray of a murder mystery with an ensemble. I had been a part of and a co -writer of movies where we know who done it and it's just, when's it gonna happen? This being a mystery really was leaning into learning more about these characters, understanding why they might be inclined to violence, why they may be a target of violence, and why we should be suspicious or root for these people. That was a great challenge. Now, when it comes to slasher elements to potentially avoid, I will tell you an exact story. We had a particular sequence. It was beautifully rendered, beautifully performed, and wouldn't you know, we're done, we're editing, and we see another movie has the exact same kill, the exact same blocking. Okay. Well, I'm going to turn this wound into a whip. So I went ahead and we were courtesy of Yolanda Macias and Brad Miska over at Cineverse. They helped match some funds, I threw some cash in. And we went back up to Vancouver and we shot an alternate version that no one will see coming. And it feels like it's organic to it. But it is something where every one of those moments I wanted to stand out from anything I'd seen before.

What was I trying to avoid? Repetition. What was I going for? Shocking awesome. Not shocking, Shocking. Awesome. Like, whoa, get to that point. And so when it came to this particular kill and the swap out, it required something I've never had in any set piece I've never seen. It required an intimacy coordinator.

All right, yeah. But yeah, I mean, your film did have some creatively innovative kills, if I may say.

Thank you.

Where was All My Friends Are Dead filmed, and how long did the principal of photography take you?

Oh, goodness. So I was in Vancouver for 12 days, and then I had one day in Los Angeles, and then courtesy again of the aforementioned Yolanda Macias, Brad Miska, and myself, we put together a pot and actually added another five days. And that allowed us to look at the movie and then keep building. There was just a lot. It was really cool to see this form and evolve. So the post-period was nice and extended. We didn't have a lot of pressure in that sense. We knew we had to get it done, but that time, we could do so much with time because the collaborators were so doggone adroit and so multi-hyphenated and skilled. This comes down to editor Andrew Coutt, who not only was this marvelous editor alongside Andrew Wesman, alongside Mel Kwan, but Andrew Coutts also was a special effects supermaven.

So we had a budget for maybe 50 special effects (visual effects), but we have over 365 because a phone screen does count as one, the interaction, the text, and whatnot. And Andrew Coutts is also a wonderful director in his own right of the Star Trek lineage, which is really freaking cool. So to have that collaborator, that was great. Post was almost not like a traditional post. It still felt like a vital part of production. And I kid you not when I say the last two shots of this movie were done on my iPhone in that living room to the last second we were coming up with ways to torque.

Yeah I mean that seems pretty apt for a film so fixated with social media, shooting a few scenes on an iPhone seems very suitable.

It worked like everything was holding hands. It was like thinking about how would the characters in this movie portray this movie? How would they, if it was a documentary for them it's a movie for us how do we bounce in and out of those worlds and make it feel homogenous to it's what we're trying to say. If you could turn the sound off, we're still telling the same story which is really cool. And that's thanks to a brilliant cast, awesome collaborators, producers, etc, across the line, all based on the script by Josh and Jessica. This August 2nd, we're so lucky to turn the silver screen red with All My Friends Are Dead.

Watch #AMFAD: All My Friends Are Dead