Millennial Killer (2020)
Director: Sam Mason-Bell
Writer: Sam Mason-Bell
Starring: Alice Mulholland, Simon Berry, Rishky Patel, Alexandra Robertshaw, Noah Butt
The step on the housing ladder becomes the first step on the path to hell
In a new interview in the series leading up to Horror-on-Sea Film Festival, I got a chance to ask Millennial Killer writer-director Sam Mason-Bell a few questions about what we can expect from the film.
Q. Your new film Millennial Killer has been selected to play at Horror-on-Sea. Can you tell us what we can expect from the film?
Millennial Killer demonstrates the nightmare option for any Millennial. You can finally afford to live alone, so you look to rent or buy your own property but then you are lured into false hopes. In this case, being led on by a maniacal Estate Agent (or Realtor as our US friends refer to him) who has only one agenda – to kill you.
Q. What were some of your inspirations when writing the script?
Millennial Killer basically looks at the chaos of right here, right now. The Estates Agent (Simon Berry) is, basically, a creation of the right wing media and the ‘truth’ they portray. I just wanted to write something where there are no logical actions to the killings, unless seen by a regular Daily Mail reader.
Q. What were some of your influences for the look and style of the film?
Using a variety of different lighting techniques, we wanted to give it a slight giallo feel to it, with each colour reflecting Naomi’s emotions. The flat we used as a location was so minimalistic and empty it hopefully makes you feel nothing, whereas the intensity of colours actually show the Estate Agent’s true, nightmarish, intentions.
Q. Where there any elements of the original script which were adapted during filming?
A lot of films we make are mostly improvised which means we can adapt to changes as we go. We know the scene content, the actors are able to react naturalistically and in character, and we can also have the opportunity of adding more elements as we work through the edit of the film. One major change from the original script was the late inclusion of the section with Suki Jones as the ’Old Woman’ character. We felt, during the edit, that we needed to explain a bit more clearly some of the thoughts in the Estate Agent’s mind – now I can’t see how the film could have worked without that section, without a full understanding of the Estate Agent’s mind and influences.
Q. You also appear in the film as Tony, can you tell us a little bit about the character you play?
Tony is essentially an arrogant, self-absorbed, condescending, irritating, selfish, idiot who thinks himself better than others.
Q. Did you always intend to play the character when writing the script?
No, not at all. Martin (W. Payne, Producer) and me were intended to be only used as stand-by actors in case of a problem with any of the cast actors. We were filming within such a tight timescale that we couldn’t afford any delays with late or non-arriving actors. And that is exactly what happened! Originally, we had planned for Rishky Patel to play Tony, and for him to be more crew than cast – until the actor due to play Daniel didn’t show at his call time, and we had actually swapped Rishky in to that character to start filming before the original actor finally made contact with us to say that he was unable to make the shoot. Having swapped Rishky out of Tony, I had to step in. I loved the character though – making annoying and ignorant so that, like any slasher film, the victims can’t be fully likeable!
Q. Are there any elements of the character which reflect some of your own personality?
I wouldn’t say so, I mean I have issues with looking people in the eye as does Tony, but the difference is that I am horribly shy whereas Tony is just horribly arrogant!
Q. Did you experience any issues during filming?
We shot the film in a total of about 20 hours, including the pickup shots, mainly over a weekend in February. Leading up to the shoot, Martin and I were planning things and, with a cast of 17, most of whom being victims and only required for a few hours at the main location, we realised we had an incredibly tight shoot and one that would need a lot of attention from the production side. So Martin actually stepped away from the Estate Agent role in favour of being able to continue to organise, and re-organise, as we progressed through the shoot as well as acting as a glorified taxi driver collecting actors from the railway stations nearby (hmm, there’s an idea for a film…). So Simon Berry stepped into the lead role and perfectly captured it, we had the loss of an actor at the start of the shoot, as mentioned, but it all worked well during the main shoot.
Afterwards, during the edit process, we felt there was a need for a bit more story, so I guess that was an issue we hadn’t foreseen. But the dedication of all those involved, understanding why we wanted to keep expanding the story, made it all work well.
Q. What were some of your favourite moments during filming?
I have to say seeing Simon Berry and Alice Mulholland (Naomi) working together – their chemistry was perfect. The one thing I wanted to achieve with this film was to have those two main characters being believable – for the Estate Agent to be seen as entertaining yet scarily crazy and for Naomi to offer empathy for the audience. Fingers crossed we achieved it!
Q. What makes Millennial Killer stand out as something different in the horror genre?
Hopefully it is the relationship between the final girl and the killer. I am hoping we have taken a unique angle letting the audience morality balance between empathy to her and enthralled by him. The question to ask is “Do you cheer for the killer or cry for the victims?”
Q. What do you hope people take away after watching the film?
That we currently identify people as Millennial, Boomers, Generation X and that those labels, and others, just lead to easier division and hatred. The Estate Agent represents the brain washed and right wing and only becomes angrier at every small action, rallying up his violence, that he reads in the papers. If we continue to divide and label people, we will only help encourage the greatest weapon they have, fear.
Q. Do you have any other projects which you are currently working on?
My production company, TrashArts Portsmouth, had a very fortunate 2019 with 8 films in post- production. And we have few more ready to shoot in 2020. I’m obviously happy with all of them but also really proud to have been able to produce Jackson Batchelor’s debut feature film called Monstrous (a Brexit related monster film) and also Ryan Carter’s directing debut of a docu-horror. Both of those films should be ready in Summer 2020.
Q. If someone was looking to write and direct their own film what advice would you give them?
My best advice is to make a horror movie. It’s the one genre that displays the rules, and then encourages you to go extreme with them. It’s a genre that relies on empathy more than any other. Horror is a gift to first timers to be creative, you can also say more about our current world state in horror than in any other genre.
Millennial Killer is a co-produced by HB Films Ltd / TrashArts Ltd and will be playing at Horror-on-Sea on Sunday 19th January at 17:30 hrs
You can find out more about Horror-on-Sea and purchase tickets for the festival here:
Published in various websites, Philip is a reviewer who is best known for his interviews and media coverage of independent projects including; films, books, theatre and live events. Always on the lookout for something different to cover!
