With 'All Fun and Games,' co-directors Ari Costa and Eren Celeboglu weave nostalgia, heart, and horror in their debut thriller

From Left to Right, Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, Laurel Marsden, Natalia Dyer, and Asa Butterfield star in 'All Fun and Games,' coming to theaters and VOD September 1

By: Adriana Toma

When AGBO co-founders Joe and Anthony Russo initially acquired the promising “All Fun and Games” script by J.J. Braider, they entrusted longtime collaborator and AGBO SVP of Production Ari Costa and director Eren Celeboglu to bring the horror-thriller concept project to life. The pair, who had previously joined forces for “The Internet Kills,” a horror short, refined the “All Fun and Games” screenplay and completed the project over the course of three years alongside AGBO’s production team. 

“AGBO is proud to use our platform and resources for producing first-time and newer directors over the years, introducing audiences to exciting and untapped visionaries. Ari and Eren’s debut feature film is no exception,” producer Angela Otsot-Russo told Collider.

In doing so, co-writers and co-directors Costa and Celeboglu introduced layers of thematic complexity, visual richness, and an all-star cast featuring “Stranger Things” star Natalia Dyer, Asa Butterfield of “Ender’s Game” fame, and Laurel Marsden from the “Ms. Marvel” TV series.

The film follows a group of teens as they navigate demonic forces unleashed by a cursed knife that drives them to play dark, fatal versions of traditional child games. The only catch? They must win in order to save their lives. On a deeper level, the film stretches viewers’ imaginations by weaving concepts tied to family, personal transformation, and youth into its internal plot. 

“For us, the project had this strange, sweet spot of nostalgia – this idea of a scary, thrilling movie with a heart,” Celeboglu said, reflecting on what initially drew him to co-direct the film. 

Ahead of the film’s September 1st release in theaters and VOD, we sat down with Costa and Celeboglu to uncover the creative elements that brought the film from development to post-production, its highly specific yet universal themes, and the visual language that makes the film both horrifying and unforgettable.

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Adriana Toma: You started co-writing this film during the early days of COVID. What was the process like for you, and how did you find your inspiration?

Eren Celeboglu: We had written and directed two shorts together that were very much our own ideas. So this was a first for us: Re-writing someone else’s screenplay that was obviously very strong. Writing is really where, for us, the rubber meets the road, so we basically dug in on characters and dug in on themes. We were coming from a place of movies like “Eighth Grade,” “Ladybird,” and other coming-of-age family dramas, like “Mid90s.” We love genre, because we think you can smuggle ideas in that aren’t necessarily as entertaining as some people would like. So we addressed the mythology, while also making it our own. We thought, ‘OK, we can do our thing with this, but there’s more emotion here. There’s a bigger heart underneath.’

AT: Ari, you worked on multiple films with the Russo brothers before taking on the project. How did you evolve from working as a producer, to co-directing your first feature film?

Ari Costa: I started working with the Russos in 2010 as their assistant on the second season of “Community,” and I met Eren shortly after, since he was working on “Community” as well. Since [I had previously] worked with directors and produced their content, [directing] always seemed like an open lane. But I became more and more interested in directing as I watched the Russo brothers on set and shadowed them and learned about the process. I started directing my own work early on while working with the brothers. When they started working on “Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and “Civil War,” I started producing and also covering the second unit. There, I was the Russos’ eyes and ears in communicating back and forth between the main unit. I did that same thing on “Avengers: Infinity War” and “End Game.” When AGBO started as a company, I moved in as a VP of Production and actively started producing films with the Russos. Then, when Eren and I filmed “All Fun and Games,” it was a little bit of a shock, a bit odd, to take a step back and to be the director again. To have the company that you work at producing for you meant that we trusted them implicitly – and it was amazing to have AGBO’s support. 

AT: The film is set in Salem, Massachusetts. How important was that to the story? 

EC: There is this family in which there’s a single mom. The ghost of a father has fractured this family, and everybody is struggling with their [own] identities. The metaphor is the demon who’s coming to kill them, because it’s really their own demons. The biggest evolution [of the screenplay] was that it started off as an urban legend, and Joe Russo helped give it those singular notes… He was the one who had the idea for the knife. And it galvanized from there – not just the mythology, but the storytelling,too. For us, that was a bit of a lightning bolt. From there, the story linked to Salem and the specificity of the knife, which we married to the back story. We always had the idea that Daniel was a little boy who had been bullied and tortured, and we wanted to link the trauma of the past to trauma of the present. 

AT:  Is there something about these teenage characters being the precipice of leaving their childhood behind, that lends itself to this idea of uncovering the dark side of seemingly innocuous childhood games?

EC: I think obviously children’s games are a way to either be in something, or not. There’s that element of social inclusion: There’s winning versus not winning, and this idea of community and deciding together. We shouldn’t play Blind Man's Bluff or Red Rover, or anything forbidden. Games seem to be a microcosm of society in that way. [The characters] are all coming of age as real people. But it’s also the metaphor for adolescence, which is that you can go different ways, right? You can go down the dark path that Marcus (Butterfield) might go, or make terrible decisions like Billy was maybe gonna make. Ari and I really loved the family dynamics – one of our all time favorite films is “Boogie Nights” [since] it’s all about how people find family and what family looks like to everybody. 

AT: How did you go about casting for the film, and bringing these actors together to form a family on screen?

AC: The credit is due to our wonderful casting director, Jessica Sherman. She made us aware of all of our options. We did a very wide search of all the talent that was out there in this age range, and we were really, really lucky to get Natalia Dyer, Asa Butterfield, Ben [Benjamin Evan Ainsworth] and Laurel Marsden as our four teenage characters in this movie. The other really great thing was that we had one week of rehearsals, and the actors were hanging out with each other – since we only had 20 days total. That way, we could run lines and try to figure out what blocking might look like because we owned the house for most of the shoot.

AT: Your cinematographer, Ricardo Diaz, is well known in the horror space – what were the most important visual and stylistic elements he brought to the film?

AC: Rick, who did “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (2022), was a really great partner. It was very evident early on that he was going to be the third amigo to basically help bring this film home. We understood what we were going for, and he understood it right away. It was this mesh of “E.T.”-style throwback, the authenticity of growing up with a single mother, and then the harsh reality of boyhood. Rick understood that [mesh] and I think it also transferred to the colors [of the film and the way we covered it. ‍

AT: What are some references to classic horror films that viewers can keep an eye on throughout the film?

EC: We love “Hereditary” and “Midsommar” – the kind of horror movies or old movies that are almost like Technicolor dreams. And that contrast with horror films like "The Shining" is another great example. Brilliant colors everywhere, but it’s also horrifying. That was definitely in the back of our minds. Whereas a lot of people feel like horror needs to be cooler and darker, I think the scenes that always stand have that dichotomy. The kitchen scene was our love letter to "E.T.", and in the barn scene, where went for suspense and a Hitchockian feel.

AC: We also had a nod to “The Shining” in our bathroom scene, when [the characters] come out from behind the shower curtain. Their blue dresses match the little blue dresses of the girls in “The Shining” as well. 

AT: What are some of the more subtle messages you hope viewers take with them?

AC: That trauma never really goes away. You have to learn to live with it. They’re all carrying the trauma of the past, of dad walking out. They just have to learn to live with it. 

EC: And, the house itself is a character – the outside almost has this sort of “Halloween”-esque vibe to it, but also with a weird “Home Alone”-like vibe. If you look at the front of the Home Alone house, it’s all ideal, banal suburbia. But underneath, there are darker things. And that’s something that we’re always playing with. 

This interview was edited for concision and clarity.

‍Watch the trailer for 'All Fun and Games' here. 

'All Fun and Games' hits theaters September 1.

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