German director Simon Verhoeven, highly acclaimed for his work in the comedy film Men in the City, shares how he came up with the idea for this supernatural-psychological horror film. “A distant acquaintance of mine had died. Weeks later, I noticed that his Facebook profile was still available online, unchanged. I shuddered at the idea that I might suddenly receive a message from him. Friend Request was born in that moment.”
Based in Germany, Verhoeven and his producer friend Quirin Berg felt right away that Friend Request is the kind of material that would work internationally. Berg says, “Classic horror is usually set in what Americans call the ‘comfort zone,’ often in a home—in other words, precisely the place where you want to feel most safe. The ‘comfort zone’ of our times is our social network, which is the digital extension of our home.”
“On Facebook it’s so simple to gather hordes of ‘friends,’ because these hundreds of people are not real friends in so many ways...(This) particular film is about a so-called ‘best friend’ who is anything but that. This leads to catastrophe as, in a flash, the ‘friendship’ transforms into the total opposite, to disappointment and rage,” the director explains.
But it is not intention of this movie to be overly critical of social media. Co-producer Max Wiedemann says, “It’s much more that we’re using a theme that will be deeply familiar to everyone as the engine for our film. Simon is always an extremely accurate observer—not just in his comedies. His great achievement here is showing us the real moments of life on the Internet and discovering that a social life online also has its dark side.”
In casting the characters, Verhoeven says that they chose actors who are still emerging stars. They found a gem in Alycia Debnam-Carey, who plays Laura.
Playing Olivia, Laura’s best friend, is American actress Brit Morgan (known for her role in the series True Blood).
The film is set in California but the majority of the film was shot in Cape Town, South Africa.
As for the film’s execution, Verhoeven favored images he could film in reality over computer animated visual effects to stay true to the horror genre. But he made an exception with the wasps that serve as the symbols of the Marina’s undead apparitions, which was created through CGI. The special effects contribute significantly to the disturbing atmosphere of the movie.
Qiron Berg proudly assures that Friend Request “has a few additional layers, with a clever, psychologically interesting dimension” that viewers, especially horror movie fans will surely appreciate.
Friend Request is in cinemas now from Viva International Pictures.
