Filmmaker Justin McConnell Talks About His Thriller ‘Lifechanger’

We speak to writer/director Justin McConnell about LIFECHANGER, which releases On Demand next month in North America from Uncork’d Entertainment.

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Hi Justin. How has it been since The Collapsed? Did the movie open as many doors for you as it got coverage back in the day?

Justin McConnell: It’s been touch and go since then. I kept making things, definitely, but that film didn’t open as many doors as I hoped. But let me be clear: I didn’t make THE COLLAPSED in the hopes someone would see it and my career would be rocketed to the top immediately. I made it for so little money, my only real hope with it would be that it would be another piece of work under my belt that I could use to open doors and get meetings, as I was fairly green back then. It was both lucky and a curse that it got picked up in as many countries as it did, by companies as big as Anchor Bay and Lionsgate. Lucky because it made money and put me on the map a bit, unlucky because even I’ll admit it isn’t the strongest film, and while it does have fans, a lot of people really didn’t like it. But I did keep making things, and trying to get things made. Between THE COLLAPSED and LIFECHANGER I made directed two feature films (Skull World, Broken Mile), several shorts (Do You See What I See?, Eviction, Damned Selfie), and spent 4 years shooting/directing a documentary series currently in post-production (Clapboard Jungle: Surviving the Independent Film Business). Also was a producer on a bunch of movies (Minutes Past Midnight, Galaxy of Horrors, Blood Sweat and Terrors, Cold Deck, Junkie). And none of this includes the massive slate I have in development that have yet to be made, and scripts I wrote in between. The point being is that it probably opened a lot of doors, but the biggest one was in myself, as I doubled or tripled my efforts, learned a lot of lessons, and just got down and did the work. Now we’re here.

READ MORE: Our full review of Justin McConnell‘s Lifechanger

I imagine you had to plan that next move – or movie – carefully? What kind of options did you consider after that film’s success?

JM: My biggest lesson was knowing that I had to slow down my writing/development process before production, and never rush something again, within reason. You can have a cool concept and do a good job making a film, but none of that matters if the core elements still need work that could have been fixed before production. But I attempted to make a number of larger films between then and now, including a couple that came close to camera: THE ETERNAL and TRIPPED. The money didn’t come together on those, but they are still on my slate, so who knows what will happen in the future. And maybe I didn’t plan my next move as carefully as I should have, because I made a ton of stuff between then and now, but I figure it’s better to work, even if it’s self-generated, and continue to improve and learn, than sit idle dreaming about your next project that may be years in the future. I firmly believe all the work I did between that and LIFECHANGER is why this newest one is working so well. I grew as a filmmaker, and as a person.

Was a ‘comedy’ or something lighter ever a consideration? Ha!

JM: Sort of. TRIPPED is a horror-comedy. THE ETERNAL has darkly-comedic elements. And there was a short-lived plan to do a dark comedy web-series called RUB ONE OUT based on a concept Kevin Hutchinson came up with before he tragically passed away. The last documentary I made, SKULL WORLD, is pretty funny. The short DAMNED SELFIE is a pure comedy. I’ve also got this insane new screenplay called TRACER that is an ultra-violent, tongue-firmly-in-cheek cyberpunk siege action movie that is designed to make the audience laugh along with all the mayhem. There’s even dark comedy worked into LIFECHANGER. So I certainly am not against comedy, but I mostly like it mixed with other genres.

How did Lifechanger come to be?

JM: That’s a very long story, but the short version: in 2014 I was trying to come up with an idea I could do for a really low-budget, and eventually the idea organically came to me. I was also going through some rough times in the fallout of Kevin’s death, getting really introspective and existential with my thought process, so that informed the film’s tone. Avi Federgreen came onboard as a producer, and we started shopping it around. We went to Telefilm in 2015 and went through months of their application process, but were eventually denied funding. In 2016 we had a deal signed with a certain production company (that will remain nameless) and they walked away from the project, took some of the contacts we introduced them to, and made a different horror movie (that will remain nameless). Finally in 2017 we set up a deal between Uncork’d and Raven Banner, which meant finally a greenlight.

How did you settle on your lead?

JM: I’m assuming you’re talking about Lora Burke. In the summer of 2017 I saw her in a film called ‘Poor Agnes’, which played Fantasia that summer, right before we started casting. Avi suggested she’d be a good option, I agreed, so we had her read like everyone else. That made it clear that she was absolutely the best choice for the role.

I’m very interested in some of the feedback you’ve received on the film – I imagine people are really digging the unique nature of it!?

JM: People generally seem to really like it, but you obviously can’t please everyone, with any film. You put ten people into a room and show them one film, any film, and you’ll have ten different opinions. And they’ll all respond to different elements of the same film, because you get from a film what you bring to it as an individual. Your life experience, your understanding of human relationships, your perspective, your level of cynicism or judgement, and your preconceived notions and expectations all inform the opinion you ultimately end up with. So I’m excited that the majority of people seem to be really responding to it. I’ve even seen people cry during it, and more have told me they did, which is an unexpected response to a what is essentially a horror film. At the end of the day, I think it is unique, and films that are different always have split opinions. But they also often age really well. So I can say that even the people who seem to dislike still say it’s original and the idea is at least interesting.

Are even more doors opening because of the film’s success on the festival circuit?

JM: It seems so, but time will tell. Meeting lots of great people, and have booked a lot of meetings talking about future projects throughout the last few months, so let’s see what happens. I definitely have the material ready to go, now let’s hope the people with the finance see the value in it, and want to make it a reality.