Director Toby Meakins explains the process of making Choose Or Die’s video game antagonist.
Netflixs Choose Or Die is better than expected.
Game-based movies that arent tied to an existing property, like Choose or Die, are problematic as well.
The main issue being the believability of an interactive experience.
Put simply, they usually dont look or feel like the real thing.
The films “villain” is the game CURS>R.
As one would expect, making the game wasn’t easy.
Partly because creating something that resembles such an old experience is tough.
But also, because Meakins isn’t a big gamer.
“He’d be on there for hours and hours, and you just couldn’t get him off.
And so like, my share of the computer at that stage was completely gone.”
Thankfully, Meakins was surrounded by gamers when making the movie.
The goal for everyone was to make something as authentic as possible.
“It was a fascinating thing [to create the game].
The simplistic nature of the text-based game was indeed a gift and a curse.
It’s easier to replicate the sensation of playing a text-based game than it is something more modern.
That said, the process of creating CURS>R to be an antagonist was somewhat difficult.
For instance, the crew had to juggle shooting different types of screens.
CURS>R looked different on an old CRT monitor than it did on a cell phone.
“We had screens from different eras,” explained Meakins.
So naturally, you’d get that kind of ’80s [feel].”
That wasn’t the case with an iPhone which made the game look clean/ageless.
“So, we went through a process where we were like, ‘Ok.
The crew had to essentially remake the game for each bang out of screen on set.
Having to manipulate the different screens is one thing.
Actually, having the game react in real time is another.
“You need the actors to play off something,” said Meakins.
“We had a tech op, a cool kid named Ted, who basically acted the game.
So, when he typed something [it would appear on screen] in the game.”
This process helped to make the onscreen happenings feel real.
“Ted had his own kind of pinhole spy camera on the actor to see what they were doing.
It became this incredibly complicated process.”
All of the effort that went into creating CURS>R is readily evident.
It seems like a fully realized and functional adventure game.
That doesn’t mean that Meakins didn’t spice things up when he had the chance.
There’s a voice for the game to use.
But that wasn’t the goal at first.
“There was a lot of debate on whether we should have used Robert Englunds voice there.
And it just felt so cool that we couldnt not use it for that.”
What was at first a marketing tool (within the movie itself) became something more.
Choose Or Die is Meakins first feature film.
He and everyone involved with the writing, production, etc.
had an uphill battle on their hands.
Thankfully, due to some smart moves, they were able to create a solid game-based horror/thriller.
When asked what he planned on doing next, Meakins expressed his desire to make more horror films.
“I made a film called Breathe, which is one of my shorts.
And [some] ghost stories, he said.
Choose Or Die arrives on Netflix on Friday, April 15.
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