Tina Kakadelis
Director Jill Gevargizian has loved horror for as long as she can remember. It’s only been recently that she’s found herself in the director’s chair getting to tell horror stories of her own. Her upcoming film, Ghost Game, focuses on Laura (Kia Dorsey) and Vin (Zaen Haidar). They’re a new couple whose relationship turns a little rocky when Vin discovers Laura’s odd hobby. She is an avid participant in an internet “challenge” known as ghost game. Players will break into the house of an unsuspecting family and see how long they can hide in the home without being noticed. While in the house, they will pull pranks to make the family believe they’re being haunted. When Vin tags along on Laura’s latest adventure, they both get more than they bargained for.
Jill Gevargizian sat down with Film Obsessive’s News Editor Tina Kakadelis about her journey from hair stylist to director, the logistics of making a haunted house, and how well she’d thrive in a ghost game of her own. This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
Film Obsessive: Hey, Jill, nice to chat with you today! You started as a hairstylist, and so I’m very curious how you made the jump to filmmaking. What did that transition feel like?
Jill Gevargizian: I’m actually still a hairstylist. That’s still my main gig. That connects to my first horror movie, The Stylist. I was always a huge fan of horror movies and just films in general, but especially a nerd for horror. I made silly stuff as a kid with my friends with my dad’s giant camcorder, but I didn’t think it was anything I could even maybe consider seriously in any way till I was way older. I did photography and was involved in a lot of art growing up.
I went to my first horror convention when I was almost 30 and saw films there. I met some filmmakers and that’s what finally made it all click like, oh, real people make movies. First, I started a screening series showing horror movies locally once a month. Through that, I met more and more filmmakers and got inspired to try to be part of it.
I snuck my way onto other people’s films to try to help out and just learn. I had a friend, Eric Havens, who had written something and it would be my first short film, Call Girl. One day I was like, can I direct this? Not knowing at all what the hell that even means and then I just did it. I was like, I love this, I feel like I’m supposed to do this. It just went from there.
When it comes to Ghost Game, you didn’t write it, but you still have to visualize who these characters are coming in as the director. As a hairstylist, do you start visualizing a character with their hair? Is that something that you’re actively thinking about because hair is such a big part of your life?
I’m sure I do think about it a little bit. It depends on the character. It’s kind of secondary to finding the actor. In Ghost Game, I wasn’t thinking as much about hair. For The Stylist, hair was wildly important, with even just special effects and wigs. But yeah, once we cast Kia as our lead in Ghost Game, I started to put together kind of like a color palette for the film. Green was a major part of it and I felt like that represented the Ghost Gang, as I’ve dubbed them. I don’t think it was even my idea. I don’t know whose idea it was to put the green in Kia’s braids. We discussed it together. I was like, it’d be really cool if you got braids for it. Then we thought, oh, what if we put in neon green? I’m sure it was our hairstylist and makeup artist Emily Bravo’s idea. Our other lead, Zaen Haidar, has amazingly curly, beautiful hair, which I was like, oh, that’s going to look awesome on camera.
Ghost Game is written by Adam Cesare. How did you all meet? What made you interested in directing Ghost Game?
We met through another project of his. My agent also represents Jamie Nash, who’s a writer and wrote lots of Ed Sánchez’s other films outside of Blair Witch Project. I met Jamie and Adam through a script they had written, not Ghost Game, a different film years ago. I was attached to direct that one and we were kind of trying to see if we could get that made. I’ve had a million films we haven’t yet made or maybe never will get to, but that’s how I first connected with him.
It was almost probably two years later that Ghost Game was financed and ready to be made. They were looking for a director and Adam suggested me. It was a case of networking for ten years paying off. Ed Sánchez, director of Blair Witch Project, was also a producer on this. I knew him outside of Adam and, when Adam suggested me, Ed was like, I know Jill, I’ll reach out to her.
I loved the script most. I was mostly attracted to how layered it was. We’ve got our invasion home invasion storyline, we’ve got a haunted house film going on, and then lots of other layers are revealed through the film. Lots of mystery left unanswered at the end, too.
Your first feature, The Stylist, and Ghost Game have very voyeuristic themes, but they play out in different ways. What is it about the idea of voyeurism or watching other people that intrigues you as a filmmaker?
I love that you bring that up because someone else pointed it out to me not long ago. I’m like, oh my. It was not an intentional thing that almost everything I made has voyeurism. Even back to the short film I mentioned. Call Girl is about a guy killing a sex worker on a webcam. I don’t know what it is. It wasn’t intentional, but I’ve always loved people watching. When my best friend and I go to concerts, we like to sit at the exit and just watch everyone walk out and make up stories about people. Not be mean to people. I don’t like that kind of people watching.
I don’t know if we all have maybe a little bit of voyeuristic tendencies in us. Not to a criminal extent. But I do see these themes, and I’m like, what does this mean? Why do I keep doing this? The theme of obsession is in a lot of my stuff too. So I’m like, I don’t have obsessive-compulsive issues myself, but, yeah, it’s everywhere. I just think I love to watch people, but not in a creepy way.
That’s a good caveat there. From a directing standpoint, what do the logistics of a horror movie look like? I imagine it’s a lot more intense than, say, just a drama. I mean, you have some stunts in this, you have some blood work, but what does that look like? Do you find enjoyment in that part of the directing process, or is it more of a headache?
No, I love that stuff. It definitely is way more challenging on the days that you’re doing the practical special effects with blood or whatever it might be. Or you need the stunts. You don’t know if it’s going to work out the way you hope. That makes it exciting, but stressful, because you never know. If there’s a blood gag, is it even going to land on the camera or just spray the total opposite direction? Stunts themselves are extra-scary because we want to make sure everyone is safe and feeling confident in whatever they’re doing.
This was my first time doing stunts, actually. I had worked on other films as a producer or other roles with some stunts, but Ghost Game was the first time directing and working with a stunt coordinator. Our coordinator, he goes by Mascot, was awesome. He was so good at speaking and teaching. I would say that he could teach anybody anything. He’s just such a caring person and that makes you feel like he’s got your back, and you can do whatever the heck it is. It was really fun to work with all that stuff, but yes, challenging. You have to work everything out way in advance to figure it out. We kind of design the effects around the camera work. It’s all connected.
You have to know which thing comes first. Are we going to build this bloody body or figure out which angle we’re going to shoot it from? There’s no point in doing work to one side of it if we’re not going to see it. Stuff like that. You’ve got to plan out everything for everything else to line up in these dominoes. In Ghost Game, we had a dead body and we didn’t have a lot of time to build it. I was kind of thinking we wouldn’t show it too much and then it was freaking awesome. We were like, we have to shoot the hell out of it.
I think I can guess the dead body. If I’m right, it looks awesome. You guys shot on location in Hagerstown, Maryland. I didn’t realize there was already a connection to the Blair Witch Project, but as someone who grew up in Maryland, I always knew where the Blair Witch Project was filmed. Hagerstown isn’t too far from it, so it’s really cool that this connection keeps coming up. What was it like to just take over the house entirely for filming? I imagine that helped a lot with the planning of the logistics of the stunts and everything.
Yeah, that house was a dream come true to shoot in. Just on a personal level, I would love to go into a house like that, but especially to shoot in. It was the dream house from the script. I just thought maybe we’d be lucky to get some old house in the country that just looks creepy. Then they show me this and I’m like, what? This is a possibility? It was built in the 1700s, or pieces of it were. The house got bigger and bigger through the years. It was such a dream come true to be in the house.
And you brought up Blair Witch Project. I’m such a horror nerd myself that, on days off or after we stopped shooting, I went to multiple locations. I went to Burkittsville and the mayor showed me around the cemetery. I went to all different spots, but he was so freaking cool.
I need to go back as a more seasoned horror movie fan. You mentioned it earlier, but you started a monthly horror showcase in Kansas City where you’re from. Ghost Game is going to have a Kansas City theatrical run. What does it mean to you to return to your hometown and play your horror movie along with some of the greats that you’ve played previously?
It’s so awesome. Screenland Armour Theatre, where we’re showing it, has just been like the most supportive thing in my life as far as filmmaking goes. That’s also where we hosted the monthly screening series. Adam Roberts, one of the owners there, has been so helpful. He also co-founded Panic Fest here in Kansas City with Tim Canton. Ghost Game premiered at Panic Fest here in Kansas City, but festival screenings are mostly out-of-town festival crowds. A lot of my local friends and family couldn’t come to that. To be able to do a theatrical run, even a tiny one or one of any kind, is huge for me. I didn’t think it would happen. It’s so exciting and it feels full circle.
In fact, my friend Erica Kaufman runs the company Atomic Cotton with her husband, Zack. We’re releasing a t-shirt with them for Ghost Game and they’re going to be at that screening, selling it. It feels very full circle because Erica created our poster for our first short film showing at the same theater ten years ago. It’s so cool to still all be connected and working together.
The premise of Ghost Game is that there’s an internet challenge to see how long someone can hide in a person’s house and wreak a little havoc. I want to know, how long do you think you could play the ghost game in somebody’s house?
If I was with someone else that was more brave. Like, if Laura from the movie was taking me, maybe I could do that for a little while. I’m actually a scaredy cat. If I were just to go into the house we filmed in by myself…now I’m comfortable there, but the first time by myself I would be very scared walking around in the dark. My assistant director and I went up during pre-production when there was a full moon because I was like, oh, I want to see the house in the full moon and scare myself. We succeeded. The basement door is on the outside and it was open way further than it was previously when we’d left the house. I thought someone could be down there. But yeah, I don’t think I would do very well. No.
Thank you so much, Jill. This was a great time.
Thank you so much!
