Young starsignite creative steam in All Fun and Games, the new horror thriller from writer/directors Eren Celeboglu (Scrubs, The Internet Kills), Ari Costa (Avengers: Engame, Extraction), and the Russo brothers’ (of MCU acclaim) AGBO enterprise. Asa Butterfield and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth of Sex Education and Son of a Critch, respectively, chuck the good boy image aside — a bit — in All Fun and Games, while Ms. Marvel’s Laurel Marsden and Natalia Dyer of Stranger Things attempt to be the grounded forces of good in this twisty thrill fest.
The plot is enticing and perfect for Fall’s more ominous storytelling time: A group of innocent Salem teens discover a cursed knife which unleashes an evil demon that forces them to play gruesome, deadly versions of childhood games where there can be no winners, only survivors. Think of it as a close cousin to Talk to Me but with other inventive surprises. Writer/directors Eren Celeboglu and Ari Costa shared more about their new film in this exclusive MovieWeb interview. You can watch the full video interview above.
All Fun and Games is produced by Anton and AGBO through their Gozie AGBO banner, which is geared toward championing exciting visionaries in independent film; earlier co-productions of theirs include Everything Everywhere All at Once and Relic. This new film’s tale touches on the cruelty inherent in various children’s games like Flashlight Tag, Hangman, and Hide ’n’ Seek to illuminate what happens when the games just go too far — and someone gets hurt.
In the film, young Jo (Ainsworth) discovers an old knife in a bucolic Salem setting. He soon realizes that the knife has an inscription and, apparently, supernatural evil elements. Jo begins seeing disturbing images and hearing voices for him to recite what has been inscribed on the knife. A malevolent demon is soon unleashed, wreaking havoc on Ben’s posse — siblings Marcus and Billie (Butterfield and Dyer), their pal, Sophie (Marsden) and others. Annabeth Gish costars.
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“The script actually came to AGBO, Joe and Anthony Russo’s company, as a spec back in 2019,” noted Ari Costa, who’s worked with the Russo brothers for many years. “They saw our short film The Bride, a horror spaghetti western set in Iraq, and they encouraged Eren and I to find something we wanted to direct. This movie came in that J.J. Braider (Vampire Academy) wrote, with the initial hook of a demon that plays horrific, twisted versions of childhood games. But Eren wanted to humanize it, find a relatable end point.”
To that end, the duo worked extensively with the mythology in the story, but also the importance of establishing solid characters. “We wanted them to be relatable,” Costa added. “We looked at films like Lady Bird and Eighth Grade,and we were like, ‘Okay, what do teenagers sound like? What are the kinds of issues they deal with?”
That element filters throughout the film as these Salem kids come to realize that, according to legend, if you lose the evil demon’s games, you’re dead.
Amblin Meets Michael Meyers?
Another touchpoint for Costa and Celeboglu was the classic Steven Spielberg film E.T., especially as it related to establishing an authentic portrayal of a family. But Eren Celeboglu, who went from Scrubs to The Internet Kills and other dramas, was jazzed to explore a combination of genres and subgenres in All Fun and Games.
“Things like possession and also slasher movies to a certain degree,” he explained. “We love genre because we feel you can smuggle interesting and meaningful ideas into genre movies.”
We like to say [this film] is… Amblin meets John Carpenter. That was our tonal mantra — trying to keep this tension between something that’s very heartfelt and naturalistic, because now everybody says Amblin is idealistic.
One of Celeboglu’s more deeper observations is thought-provoking. “When you go back and watch E.T.through the lens of when it was released, it’s pretty real. You know, it’s really Halloween and this idea of just a relentless Michael Myers coming after everything you love. And so, those are really the two things that we were like, ‘Okay, this is what we’d like to play with as filmmakers, as well as the personal element of it.”
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How the Cast Surprised the Directors
When asked what he felt audiences might find most compelling about All Fun and Games and even be most surprised by, Ari Costa said: “Audiences may be most surprised about the heart of the movie… and that it’s a coming-of-age horror film. We tried to do that, but not a lot of movies necessarily do.”
He added that there is a parallel journey of the character of Jo, played by Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, who’s moving through the fire of trauma and the rift it created in his family after their abusive father left, and the demon and his traumatic journey. Shared Costa:
We really try to humanize our antagonist at the end, and I’m not trying to spoil anything, but ultimately what happens to him, you should feel conflicted about it as an audience.
As for working with the dynamic cast of young actors, Costa and Celeboglu felt they struck gold. They pointed out Ainsworth’s appeal. “We absolutely fell in love with Ben when we saw his tape,” Costa said. “He was funny. His performance was extremely emotional, and he hit every beat honestly. And ultimately, when we had a director session with him, we just found that he was like a little assassin when it came to acting. He just hit every emotional beat really well. Ben is extremely prepared.”
“We were so lucky that Natalia Dyer and Asa Butterflied responded to the script in the way they did,” added Celeboglu. He continued:
“We really wanted them both to take on parts that they had never really done before. Natalia is obviously famous for [playing] Nancy [on Stranger Things], but Nancy is sort of the girl next door and Billie [in this movie] is more of an acerbic, edgy, sometimes entitled young girl. Basically, working with the two of them, they were such different actors, but they both just brought so much in terms of collaboration.”
You can now see everything these young actors, and their two skilled directors, brought to the film, with All Fun and Games in theaters and VOD as of Sept. 1 courtesy of Vertical.
Eren Celeboglu and Ari Costa talked about their new horror thriller, which stars Asa Butterfield, Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, and Natalia Dyer. Read More