Andrew Douglas on uwantme2killhim?

“The internet is the crime scene of the 21st century.” Andrew Douglas ponders the line he’s just said, not quite remembering whether he cribbed or invented it. He raises his eyebrows optimistically: “I like to think I invented it.” In fact he didn’t, but who cares? It’s still a great line, and attaches itself neatly to uwantme2killhim?, his chatroom crime thriller, which had its world premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival. 

Although set in 2003, Douglas has hit the jackpot with its imminent release date. The online environment has become a blood-soaked frontline, what with the current battle for our online souls and identities. “When we developed the film what we were talking about was domestic abuse and personal abuse,” he says, “but the Edward Snowden case has really blown the whistle on privacy in general. We didn’t intend to be prophetic at all but there’s a line in the film ‘everybody’s being watched, everybody’s being followed.’ It was just meant to drive the dramatic function in the film, to support this paranoia, which eventually drives Mark to do an unspeakable thing.”

Mark, one half of a star crossed young duo, is addicted to his online relationship with Rachel, the abused partner of an unhinged criminal. When she asks him to protect John, her bullied brother at school, Mark is drawn down a destructive path. In many ways it’s a timeless, universal tale of obsession and deception, but a principal character enabling the drama here is the internet itself. The online environment provides a mask, an empowering anonymity that allows us to dissociate ourselves from guilt and develop characteristics of our choosing.

“When people play [online] games they have avatars,” Douglas says, before telling a story from his research: “One of the most heartbreaking things I saw in the last two years was in the New York Times,” he recalls. “There was a series of portraits of young kids with their avatars, and it was so telling. You saw in the portrait their powerlessness, and often it was that they were disabled. Then you saw the avatar. It was an opposite of them, a literal completion in their mind.”

“The internet unsupervised is like the dark woods of fairy tales. You go in there and have no idea what will happen” – Andrew Douglas

Uwantme2killhim? is born from a true story gleaned from a Vanity Fair article and developed into a taut drama. The filmmakers had no access to those involved in the reality (those involved were too young at the time to be named), but constructed them from a single goldmine of material. “I got a look at the chatroom transcripts,” he reveals. “If I have one single regret about the film it would be that I didn’t make more of that, because they are endless. It was absolutely addictive and obsessive. I couldn’t really believe the density of it. You really got a sense of people staying up all night and having this completely other life.”

There is an implicit challenge when juggling fact and drama. The second part is fulfilled by the tightly strung suspense Douglas achieves. He also feels – hopes – that he’s treated these real people with respect. But...  “we’ve never talked to the boys, don’t know who they are,” then a smile creases his face and his eyes sparkle with mischief, considering the evening’s premiere screening. “I’d love them to turn up tonight!” 

As a director he is rewarded with two fine performances by his young stars (Jamie Blackley and Toby Regbo) who imbue their characters with the empathy, intrigue and charisma necessary for the construct to work. They in turn were rewarded by sharing EIFF’s best performance award. Mark and John combine to form a strange yin yang of yearning; one longing for normality and the other to be free from its shackles. And the internet is the landscape which allows this. Andrew explains: “For my generation, if we wanted to escape to fantasy land we often went to drugs. I think [the internet] is incredibly addictive. I think it’s a story of addiction. In many ways at uwantme2killhim?’s emotional heart it’s really a story of not getting what you need at home and going elsewhere to look for it.”

With our time almost over the PR is twirling his fingers in my direction; “wind it up,” he silently mouths.  Douglas tells me not to mind, he’s ready to talk all day. Obviously he loves this personal, independent film after what sounds, in his temporarily muted tone, like a challenging studio experience with his 2005 Amityville Horror remake. And although he’d earlier expressed no intention to prophecise, his final line during the interview assumes that function in relation to his film. “The internet unsupervised is like the dark woods of fairy tales. You go in there and have no idea what will happen.”