Directed by Conor Boru and written by Boru and Ed Hartland,When The Screaming Startsis a mockumentary about a man who inspires to be a serial killer, Aidan Mendle (Hartland). The comedy-horror is filled with twist-and-turns, introducing a struggling journalist named Norman (Jared Rogers) and his journey documenting Aidan and his odd group of peers.
Prior to its screening at the2022 Panic Festival, the movie played the London Independent Film Festival where it won Best Sci-Fi/Horror Feature. In this interview, Game Rant speaks with Boru and Hartland about the creation of the movie, their biggest production challenges, and pulling the cast together.
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Game Rant: What inspired you to make this movie?
Ed Hartland:The initial idea for the film came when I was reviewingThe Ted Bundy Tapeson Netflix for London Horror Society. I found myself completely fascinated and horrified by what I was watching. I thought, “What does it say about me that this is something I can’t look away from? What does it say about us as a society given that this is such a popular series, when it’s about something as horrendous as Ted Bundy.” We developed it from there and started to think about what theultimate fanboy of serial killersand what that would look like.
GR: From a director’s perspective, what was the biggest challenge that you faced pulling everything together?
Conor Boru:It was my first feature film. There was just so much coming out of me from every angle, and it’s arelatively low budget film. We had to wear many hats, all of us. We also produced as well, which is challenging. Apart from that, I guess the struggles that every independent filmmaker goes through has to be COVID. We did the first shoot before everything kicked off with COVID. We had to wait for about eight months before we could reshoot. Then we had to work on a set in this COVID environment. Which was a scary thing to work around.
GR: Have you been able to witness any in-person screenings yet?
Boru:We had our premiere at Riot Fest, which was in person. We couldn’t actually make it to international festivals because of travel restrictions. But luckily, some of our team is based in the U.S., like Jared Rogers, who plays Norman. Luckily, he could go and represent us at a couple of festivals. We actually just played in the London Independent Film Festival here in the U.K., that was a lot of fun.
GR: Throughout this movie, we follow two different stories: the journalist Norman and the aspiring serial killer Aidan. Whose journey was the most fun to plan?
Hartland:It’s a bit weird when you’re writing something, knowing that you’re going to be playing one of those characters. For me, it was always much more interesting to throw things at Norman, knowing that it’d be Jared playing him. We’ve both worked with Jared for a very, very long time. 10 years or something like that. We know what he’s capable of and what he can bring to the table.
Boru:So, you’re saying that you were just completely playing yourself, then?
Hartland:I’ve now put myself into a horrible position. Thank you for highlighting that. Just to say, I am not the same as Aidan. Yes, we were wearing the same clothes because you know, it’s low budget.
GR: What was it like balancing these different roles?
Hartland:It was a juggling act that we had to do. Connor, Jared and me, we’d be talking through something to do with the production side of things, and then we’d have to quickly shift out of that headspace, and get thrown into the scene. In a way, it was quite useful, because at no point was I ever worrying about playing a character that I’d written because there was no time to think about it. You just had to get on and do it. Jared had some of the trickiest shifting of hats. He had to pick up members of the cast in a camper-van that’s used in the film, while dressed as his character. So the first time some of these people met him, he was suited and booted as Norman, which I think made introductions tricky for him. But yeah, we just had to roll with it.
GR: Do you have a favorite on-set memory?
Boru:There’s a party scene that happens in the film. It had been a tough few days, and we incorporated a lot of improvisation into this film- and that scene, more than most. It felt like it became a real party. I was working with a DP and these guys were just having a lot of fun that we were just going around. It felt like a real documentary experience. We got so much gold from that. In the script, it was like half a page. Or it may have even just been a couple of lines, but it became this huge thing, and we just made loads of discoveries.
GR: How did the cast come together?
Boru:It was pretty smooth. Most of it was pretty straightforward for us, because myself, Ed, and Jared, we all went to the same drama school. We met there. Most of the cast was from our wider network. We’ve all been in the industry a long time, and you do plays and short films and feature films, and meet these really talented people. We had that luxury of being able to write with certain people in mind. But there were a few challenges, like with the twins, for example. It felt like a really good idea initially to writeidentical twinsinto a script, but then you realize, okay, right now we have to actually find identical twins.
GR: Did you ever consider having one person play both twins?
Boru:I think that would have made our lives very tricky. We didn’t quite have the budget of aTom Hardyfilm. We did discuss it at one point though, when they were smaller characters. But I’m glad we found the real deal.
Hartland:We discussed many things that never made their way onto the film.
Boru:Yeah, like finding two actors that looked vaguely similar. We were like, Oh, if we dress them the same, maybe we’ll get away with it.
GR: What you hope audiences take away from the movie?
Boru:First and foremost, I hope people come away having had a wild time. We created this pretty bonkers film and I hope they enjoy that and enjoy the comedy side. We were keen to make sure that people did come away with a little message, and a lot of that comes down to what Ed alluded to earlier, our perceptions of ambition, fame, and trying to be someone at any cost.
Hartland:That was exactly what I was going to say. You took the words right out of my mouth. This question that it all comes back to is “What does it say about us as a society and as individuals that we are fascinated by serial killers.” But to emphasize, we still want to make you laugh.
When the Screaming Startsis set to virtually screen at Panic Festival July 31, 2025.
