About this time last year, the internet bestowed upon us the gift of two writers improvising a silly, trope-slashing horror story entirely via Twitter for 11,000 people to enjoy. But, as with all great horror narratives, it didn’t end there! Chuck Wendig shared on his website the wild news that his and Sam Sykes’ bonkers thread about a camp counselor wearing a creepy mask and holding a machete has become a horror movie, appropriately titled You Might Be the Killer.
With Sykes and Wendig as producers, director Brett Simmons (Chilling Visions: 5 States of Fear, The Monkey’s Paw) has turned their slasher tweets into a bonafide slasher film—starring Alyson Hannigan and Fran Kranz, no less! The plot looks to be about the same: Counselors are getting murdered at summer camp, with Sam (Kranz) caught in the middle. Rather than call the cops, he decides to ring up his slasher-film-expert buddy Chuck (Hannigan)—note the mug quoting Scream quoting Psycho—for help.
There is a trailer, and it looks like bloody good fun:
You Might Be the Killer will have its world premiere at Fantastic Fest in Austin September 21. A longer description from the Fantastic Fest site:
You Might Be the Killer opens with a bang. Screams, gore, and slasher mayhem tear across the screen with vibrant title cards counting out the total number of dead counselors (current score: A LOT). Sam (Fran Kranz), the head counselor at this remote camp, is safely cooped up in a cabin with a working cell phone, but instead of contacting the police, he calls his friend Chuck (the always-delightful Alyson Hannigan) in a panic.
Chuck is well-versed in slasher movie tropes and leads Sam through all the necessary steps to survive the night while also helping him remember each step that has led to this point. Told from the perspective of the third act looking back upon the horrors and plot twists through flashback, it’s a full reversal of the beats one expects in this subgenre. Rather than endearing us to the characters slowly so we fear for their deaths, we’re shown their deaths almost immediately upon meeting them. Ultimately, instead of being about one-dimensional sexy teens meeting their demise, it’s about the joys of both the kill and the genre itself. Similarly, the film’s secrets are unveiled in an unexpected order: we learn the killer’s identity before we’re told who’s dead. But really, this reveal is just the start of the fun.
Hopefully the film will eventually make its way to wider release.
I love this. I love this so much.
At least it’s trying to be a new take on an old classic.
That thread was funny.