Billy O’Brien & Max Records on ‘I Am Not A Serial Killer’

I Am Not A Serial Killer interview: Actor Max Records and director Bill O’Brien talk up their new movie, based on the thriller novel of the same name.

Read our I Am Not A Serial Killer interview below.

We first set eyes on I am not a Serial Killer during our Fantasia Festival coverage. The film stars Max Records as John, a teenager dealing with dark tendencies as he tries to solve a spate of local murders. Alongside Records is screen icon Christopher Lloyd. Lloyd plays John’s elderly neighbour Mr. Crowley who may know more about the murders than he’s letting on.

It’s an inspired story, one that started life as a novel by author Dan Wells. The first book (there are now several), also titled I am not a Serial Killer, was released in 2009. It was then that director Billy O’Brien stumbled across the story and decided it was perfect for the cinema screen. Production would go on to last six years, proof that life in indie film-making is hard.

The film arrives in selected UK and Ireland cinemas on Friday 9th December. Ahead of the release we were able to catch some time with both director Billy O’Brien and lead actor Max Records. The pair had been in town attending the BIFA awards where I am not a Serial Killer had several nominations, including Best Actor for Records. The young actor has come a long way since his time on Where the Wild Things Are and, despite not winning the BIFA award, clearly has a strong career ahead of him. When we spoke to the duo they were in high spirits and were very excited to unleash the movie. In our exclusive interview we talk adapting books, the potential franchise future of the project as well the importance of vetting your mortician.

How would you describe I am not a Serial Killer to people who haven’t seen it?

MAX RECORDS: I try not to.

BILLY O’BRIEN: Good Answer… The way we used to pitch it was: a boy who can’t love, hunts a killer who is killing for love. It has taken six years to get this film made, I’m all out of easy little descriptions, thank God I don’t have to pitch it anymore.

Max you’ve had some time off what have you been up to?

MR: School and just life mostly. The film world is such a huge disruption from the real one.
What was it about this film that drew you back?

MR: I think I loved the script and I love these folks. I think part of the big attraction for me was working on something which had as little budget as we did. Everybody wears all the hats all the time. You’re making a film on your own terms.

BO’B: There’s a lot of freedom. You haven’t got the ‘overs’ dictating anything. Plus with Max it wasn’t really a few years off because I met him when Max was thirteen and he’d done a short film with Nick [Ryan] our producer a couple of years before that, so you have been doing some stuff.

MR: Kinda but not really.

BO’B: Definitely nothing on the scale of Where the Wild Things Are.

How did you get into John’s mindset?

BO’B: A handy zip at the back.

MR: I don’t know, I guess just living. Talking with Billy, talking with Chris Lloyd, talking with our puppeteer Todd who is more than just our puppeteer. Just talking with the people who understand what as a collective we want to do.

BO’B: You’re very instinctive. I don’t tend to intellectualise things too much either. We had this Bible of course, Dan Wells’ book which is fantastic. We had that and the script to go from. Because we all knew each other so well by the time we were shooting, it was a really friendly and open atmosphere on set. We’d all be suggesting things. Because Robbie [Ryan] and Nick, producer and camera… I was in film school with them and they’re cousins. It was like three loud Irish people. When I say friendly, I mean friendly in Irish terms where we’re all shouting at each other. Max was probably sat there thinking ‘come on lads we’ve got a film to make’. It was a tiny crew in a tiny town up near the Canadian border just playing and having fun. Max had the hard deal because apart from acting in minus 20 degrees everyday in thin clothes whilst we were all like Michelin men, he also had to get inside John’s head every single day.

Were there any qualities in John that you admired?

MR: Yeah, I think just his genuine desire to be a good person.

BO’B:  I think it’s that clarity, because he’s not clouded by emotions. That’s sometimes a very handy thing to have. I think as well from the book onwards, he’s so bright. He’s brighter than even his therapist. It’s like he’s got this straightforward thing. He just doesn’t have the road-map of how you communicate or get out of that space.

MR: I think that’s also just anybody whose within that age window possesses some degree of that. He’s experiencing some degree of that. Learning to be a person.

This film, more then any other, really made me confront death in a way that I’ve never experienced.

MR: That’s so wonderful.

All the mortuary scenes really hit home. You never really think about what happens physically to you after… You’re suddenly seeing what happens

BO’B: We went and saw about eight to ten different mortuaries, seven or eight different bodies, because you walk in and they have no shame in showing you. They’d say – we’ll just see if the prep room is ‘occupied’. The joke I kind of made is that you’re always told when you go to a restaurant you should check the kitchen. Well all of the mortuaries have this marble front, piano in the corner and the soft music, but when you go downstairs to the basement it can be quite a different scene. I would advise people that, before the big day, maybe check out the behind the scenes bit. The ones we shot in were run by a guy called Gray Anderson, he was lovely. His place was great. He helped Max and Laura Fraser learn to embalm – not on a real corpse I should add, that would have been too method. That was great. It was such a fascinating journey. That’s the thing about films, I didn’t have a clue about mortuaries and what happens. It was a real eye opener in that sense. I’m not too thrilled about being embalmed, I might skip that phase.

There was a debate in our house during the film about being buried or cremated.

BO’B: I don’t really go for tattoos because I always think if I want a tattoo now I might not want one next week. It’s stupid but I always thought that getting cremated was a bit final. What if they find a way years to come to bring you back and you’re just ash, (laughs)? Mind you, you’d be rotted in the ground so it doesn’t matter. But I just thought it was strange.

If a zombie virus breaks out you’ll miss out on coming back.

BO’B: Has anyone ever done zombie ash?

This is a very different role for Christopher Lloyd. How did he get involved?

By happy accident after a lot of frustrating years not getting very far with the gatekeepers to the top actors, it’s quite difficult. It just turned out in Chris’ case it was someone we’d always wanted to work with but just didn’t know how we’d get to him, and we kinda gave up. Then it turns out that Robbie… he was with the same agency that represents Christopher. With him being a producer on the film he passed it onto them, who gave it to Chris. Next thing, I get a call from Christopher who has read the script and loved the character, loved the script, but also the character of Crowley. The duality and strangeness of him. On the call I realised that this wasn’t a call about maybe doing the project, he was talking about when we were doing it. He was asking me all of the director questions. He was a delight to work with. He’s shy and normal, with no ego, and just wants to do good work.

Max, you have a lot of scenes with him, did he pass on any of his wisdom?

BO’B: Give up Max.

MR: Get out while you can, (laughs).

BO’B: He’s not that kind of guy.

MR:  No not really. Not in the mentor-mentee sense.

BO’B: It’d be more of a twinkle in the eye and a non-verbal thing that you’d just feel comfortable with.

MR:  Totally.

BO’B: The relationship with everyone is very interesting for Max playing John. John is very abrupt. I remember the Head Master day, there’s different ways of interacting, and Christopher loved that. It was a challenge and it meant good drama. I think that good actors like it when it’s really powerful stuff.

I am not a Serial Killer is based on a novel, how difficult is it adapting a book?

BO’B: I’ve done a couple now. This was good in that it wasn’t too long and it had a quite straightforward structure about it. It had great characters, great dialogue, you really believe in these people. They leapt off the page so immediately that you know you’re onto something.There was a lot of stuff that I didn’t change from book to script to film. There were a few changes, some things that work in books don’t work on screen. Little things like all the meetings in the book are in Doctor Neblin’s office. That’s a bit dull to have endless scenes in an office. So we made him a bird-watcher so they get out. That fitted nicely in with the plot and also I think it’s something that a good therapist would do with a character like John. A character that already feels caged, get him to relax by going out and walking. Somebody tweeted or wrote a blog saying ‘that’s a terrible therapist, you would not do that’ (laughs); for God’s sake it’s fiction!

The main change is that the book is first person, you’re in John’s head the whole time. The natural way to do that would be to have a voice-over, but when Chris Hyde, my co-writer and I, when we tried a voice-over it just felt too safe. It felt that if you’re hearing John’s thoughts all the time you don’t suspect him of doing anything. He’s just someone who says he might kill. When we stripped it off, immediately there was this question mark. Every scene was a will he or won’t he? Is this real or isn’t it? I think we sustained that through the film with Max’s help. You never know where this kid is or what he could do. Then you’re having to lean in and be slightly nervous.

I guess with a voice-over as well you’d risk getting into teenage American Psycho territory.

BO’B: Yeah. At the time we started adapting I think Submarine had just come out and that was very much a voice-over film. It’s a different type of thing. Ferris Bueller was on TV recently and I thought wouldn’t it have been hilarious to have Max doing that in this.

There are a series of books, would you be interesting in developing the character further?

BO’B: Yeah there is from us, but then it was a hard struggle to get this one funded and it’s still a small film. With film financing, if you’re a huge hit they’ll always find a way to make a sequel. Even if you kill off all your characters, they’ll still find a way. In this case there’s a very natural way, it’s not like just making a sequel for the money, because the second book picks up literally weeks after the first one. It continues on. We’re talking about television maybe, it’s all very much – let’s see what happens.

A Netflix series maybe?

BO’B: You never know. I must admit I’m a bit inexperienced in television. I’ve always just done films so we’d have to see. I’m not ruling anything out. Dan has written wonderful books. The teenage and family dialogue; I read the first three, but not the second three because they were published whilst we were shooting and in case he did some dramatic sideways turn for the character that changed things for me. But certainly the first three, John and Brooke, who’s in the first one, and there’s another girl. All those relationships all the way through are wonderfully written, really beautiful.

What is next then? Billy I read that you’ve got an interesting take on Lorna Doone…

BO’B: It’s a folk, musical, horror with cannibals in Dartmoor.

MR: (Laughs) It’s so cool.

BO’B: Just trying to write that. I get bored writing films that fit into neat boxes. I always like to, not deliberately, but I always find myself making something strange. If you’d have told me a few years ago that I’d be doing a musical, I’d have laughed. But with this one I was listening to a lot of contemporary British folk music. It’s very old school and almost medieval. It’s very edgy, dark and interesting. I was listening to a lot of that, and writing, and then thought why don’t I do more with this and it has evolved that way. Yeah, so just working on that and a couple of other things, just hoping it won’t be six years for that to come out. But doesn’t it sound like an easy one to finance? Folk musical horror that’s based on a nineteenth century Gothic horror.

Well La La Land is coming out so you never know…

BO’B: Trust me I’ve been selling it on that (Laughs). I don’t think there’s many cannibals in that, but you never know.

And you Max?

MR: Just living. I don’t think it’s a super healthy thing to do films back to back to back. It’ll break your brain pretty quick.

I am not a Serial Killer arrives in select cinemas in the UK and Ireland on Friday 9th December. Read our review here.