Skillhouse brings deadly slasher vibes to influencer culture, focusing on a group of kidnapped internet personalities who are forced to compete for likes — or they face certain death. A purposefully grisly film that leans into the character’s unlikability but never forgets they’re human, Skillhouse is all about infusing Gen-Z influencer culture with a dash of Saw-style gorn.

That’s why it makes perfect sense that the film is from the mind of Joshn Stolberg, a veteran of the Saw and Pirahanna franchises who wrote and directed the film. During an interview with TVBrittanyF, Josh Stolberg discussed how his experience on Saw influenced his approach to the influencer horror of Skillhouse and how the film continues a societal theme to his horror films.

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TVBrittanyF: What lessons did you bring from films like Saw X and Spiral to Skill House?

Josh Stolberg: One of the things about the Saw franchise is that, for the first nine movies, they never put a kid in jeopardy. There were never really younger people put in jeopardy. One of the things I learned from Saw X was the emotional impact that it has. Being a father, the ending scene of Saw X was a special moment for me, because we were able to kind of take the franchise in a different way.

We saw John not only be in a trap, but also the stakes were raised so high because the kid is in the trap as well. I know that the majority of our audience is going to are going to be kids. That’s what horror movies do. But I also feel like we’re saying things for the adults as well. I’ve learned to try to help my kids approach social media in a healthy way, and kind of ramping this up to 14 with Skill House is one way to do it.

What was it about this cultural moment that really caught your attention as a filmmaker?

I’m not really on Tik Tok or anything, but I have two kids who are. I’ve been seeing it firsthand in my house, seeing how this device can destroy their minds. I mean that a little playfully, obviously. There are a lot of really good things that happen because of those devices. I love the way that social media platforms are allowing people into worlds that they had no way to see before. That’s really wonderful.

The theme of the movie isn’t about that. I don’t look at this as a horror movie. I look at it as a horror satire. What was really important to me was not just to do the kills, but to also bring a theme to the story. All of the films that I have worked on have some kind of theme to do it. I try not to force it down the audience’s throats. Spiral was about police brutality, Saw X is about the medical industry.

With this, I was really interested in the toxic side of influencer culture. Neal McDonough, who I just love, he at one point calls them all ‘parasites.”‘ He delights in proving that no one will miss them tomorrow. ‘You could drop dead now, and no one will miss you tomorrow.’ It really, for me, underscored this critique of the disposable nature of internet celebrity.

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These kids are being cycled over and over, they wait until they either get canceled because they do something horrible, or they die by jumping off a building. The other thing that was important is that I’m not just laying the blame on the kids. It takes an audience for this to happen. This idea of spectacle for profit, this idea of the audience’s complicity.

You wouldn’t see kids doing these stupid things online for clicks if they weren’t getting famous for it. I’m not just calling out the influencers, I think they’re just part of the problem I think the bigger problem is the audience’s complacency. You see a video of something horrible happening, and it’s getting a million reposts. Can’t we just see more puppy videos?

It’s very much what’s going on in the scene where one of the characters really does cross some personal lines to keep everyone’s attention on her.

That scene is what the movie is about. That one scene — it’s not like Saw, where you get told you’re gonna die in 30 seconds. This is somebody sitting down, setting out candles, creating an atmosphere, trying to create a moment for the audience, and then doing something horrific. Just to get people to push the like button.

Everything about this movie is encapsulated in that moment to me. I also love that scene because it’s all practical effects. Steve Johnson, who’s been around forever, he just killed it with that scene. It’s hard to watch! It encapsulates everything that the film is to me. That’s the reason I wanted to make the movie.

Skill House is now playing in select theaters