WHO NEEDS ENEMIES?
ALL MY FRIENDS HATE ME A weekender gone wrong… or is it all in the birthday boy’s head?
Making a film about the feeling of social anxiety played as horror felt exciting to me,” says TV veteran Andrew Gaynord (Stath Lets Flats) of his feature directorial debut. To avoid spoilers as to whether the threat really is ultimately all just in the mind of its protagonist, let’s call All My Friends Hate Me a quasi-horror-comedy.
Written by Tom Palmer and Tom Stourton, the film sees early thirty something Pete (Stourton) keen to show his privileged old university mates, who’ve organised a rural getaway for his birthday weekend, how much he’s changed. But upon arrival, the words and actions of his estranged pals suggest considerable malice.
A creepy reunion where once-familiar hosts have seemingly sinister motives might bring to mind films like Karyn Kusama’s The Invitation, though Gaynord confesses to not being much of a “horror nerd” when it comes to influences, bar The Shining’s use of a big, isolated building with distinctive rooms being a natural point of reference. “Force Majeure would’ve been one of the biggest ones,” he says. “It’s a movie where there’s a single incident that’s exploded [and] is milked, and it feels psychological and really funny in a subtle way.” Gaynord also appreciates Whiplash as an example of a thriller about a subject that “maybe shouldn’t be a thriller”.
“That reassures me,” he continues. “This is an oversimplification of our film, but it’s just a guy who wants a nice birthday going back to hang out with his friends. But then because it’s not going right for him, that’s exploded into this psychological mystery horror. That’s funny. And I think that’s what it feels like when you are socially anxious or paranoid. Something small just makes you spiral.”
‘When you are socially anxious… something small just makes you spiral’ ANDREW GAYNORD
ALL MY FRIENDS HATE ME OPENS IN CINEMAS ON 10 JUNE.