Game of Death (2017)
Directors: Sebastien Landry, Laurence Morais-Lagace
Writers: Edouard H. Bond, Philip Kalin-Hajdu, Sebastien Landry, Laurence Morais-Lagace
Stars: Sam Earle, Victoria Diamond, Emelia Hellman, Catherine Saindon, Erniel Baez Duenas
Kill or be killed is the golden rule of the Game of Death. Sucks for seven millennial’s who ignored that rule. Now each one’s head will explode unless they kill someone.Will they turn on each other to survive, or will this sunny day be the last for the innocent people of their middle-of-nowhere town?
Date & Venue: 20th January 2019 at 10:00 am
Park Inn by Radisson Palace Southend-on-Sea, Church Rd, Southend-on-Sea SS1 2AL, UK
Game of Death is a new horror from co-writer and director Laurence Morais-Lagace which has been selected to play at Horror-on-Sea.I got a chance to ask Laurence Morais-Lagacea few questions about what we can expect from the film.
Q. The thriller Game of Death has been selected to play at the Horror-on-Sea Film Festival, what can people expect from the film?
A film Seb (Sebastien Landry) and I made without any compromise and I think you can tell we had fun creating. A fun bloody ride.
Q. Where did the original concept for the film come about?
After our short CAGED (La Chienne) (2013) won some awards we got asked for another horror project but in a longer format. This short was our first horror movie so we asked ourselves, what would we do if we had to do another horror movie? We didn’t want to make a movie just to make a movie, so we gather everything we like in one concept: Youth, video games and existential questions about life and death.
Q. What were the influences for the look and style of the film?
There were so many influences that I couldn’t really say. For sure Scanners (1981) was an influence for the head explosions. Funny Games (1997) for the look of Tom. Natural Born Killers (1994) for the animated sequence. We also do a lot of music video so this tainted a lot of the aesthetic of Game of Death.
Q. What makes Game of Death stand out at something different in the horror genre
We did this movie without trying to fit in any genre. We didn’t think about respecting the “horror codes” or whatever. We wanted to create a fun story with a very strong visual style. We now look at this movie almost more like a painting than just a movie.
Q. Were there any change made to the original script during filming?
Yep, Seb and I were constantly revisiting the script almost every day making some minor changes. The biggest one thought is we switched the ending 48hrs before shooting. *Spoiler* In one Tom was killing Tyler, but we realise it was more powerful to have Ashley turn against Tyler for the final kill.
Q. Did you experience any issues whilst making the film?
Not really. It was really a blast from start to finish. For sure every day there’s been some challenges, its normal. But we were so prepared that the thing you can’t predict are all good because everything else flows just fine.
Q. What were some of your favourite moments whilst making the film?
Every day making this movie has been great! Everyone became a really tight group. I would say that splashing the actors with blood every morning was kind of cool because they hated it. They got their revenge at the end of the movie when Seb and I got bloodied with a blood canon in front of the whole crew. Besides that, seeing Kenny’s head explode onset was incredible. Most of our SFX were practical so the actors really lived the death of their friends.
Q. Do you have any other projects which you are working on?
Seb and I are working on different project at this time. Two of them almost have finals cript. Hopefully we’ll shoot in 2019.
Q. What advice would you give to someone who is looking to write and direct their own film?
Be confident, never let go, don’t be afraid of errors and believe in your ideas even if others don’t. You are the one making this film and that has the project on his shoulders. It’s easy to lose faith because cinema is such an expensive art and sometimes it can take a lot of time before you get the money to do your movie…. But NEVER LET GO! You only have one life. DO IT!
You can find out more about the feature films playing at Horror-on-Sea Film Festival and details of tickets on the website.
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!
