The Sacrifice Game
Summary
Mena Massoud talks about taking on horror inThe Sacrifice Game , and whether or notAladdin 2is part of his future . In 2019 , audience member got to natter a whole young world as Massoud got his breakout role in Disney ’s resilient - actionAladdinmovie , which became one of the more successful remakes for the studio apartment . However , Massoud ’s late office is a whole new side of the actor that consultation members have not seen before as he tackles a very dark , dark character .
Directed by Jenn Wexler , The Sacrifice Gameis a repulsion thriller that takes place during the holiday season of 1971 , as four nonparallel slayer , Jude , Maisie , Grant , and Doug , go from town to townsfolk and perform ritualistic murders . Massoud play Jude , the cardinal figure of the chemical group , as he and his accomplices eventually make their way to Blackvale Academy . The Sacrifice Gamealso stars Olivia Scott Welch , Gus Kenworthy , Madison Baines , Derek Johns , Laurent Pitre , Chloë Levine , and Georgia Acken .
Horror pic that either revolve around the Christmas season or use it as the main background evoke care by subverting viewers ' expectations & memory .
Screen Rantrecently had the opportunity to exclusively interview Massoud about joiningThe Sacrifice Gameand take on such a different role from his late characters . Throughout the interview , Massoud schmoose about getting to play a cult loss leader while also playing around with the complexity of being a baddie . Massoud also reflects on his time working onAladdinand whether or notAladdin 2is on the tableat this point .
Mena Massoud Talks The Sacrifice Game
Screen Rant : Before you book this gig , how much did revulsion play in your life ?
Mena Massoud : I ’ve follow some here and there . I would n’t say I ’m a huge expert in the writing style , but it was nice getting to take part in one after having just seen it all my lifespan .
Do you have an all - time favorite horror movie that still stick to with you ?
Mena Massoud : The Exorcist , I grew up going to church quite a good deal so that was a film that when I watched it , it scarred me . Both in good and tough manner [ gag ]
I can only imagine what it is like to show the script versus shooting it ; were there times when you learn the hand that made you go , ' Oh wow , how are we going to shoot this ? '
Mena Massoud : Yeah , emphatically , especially figure out with a lower budget . I think when you ’re work with a gravid budget on a studio moving-picture show , you accept that anything is potential . But there ’s sealed things when you ’re working on a smaller budget pic , that you wonder how we ’re going to rend this off . But Jenn did an amazing occupation in putting it all together and the producer obviously for knowing how they ’re going to execute matter .
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I am sure that when you ’re doing a luck of motion capture or green screen door or VFX versus actually doing a muckle of hardheaded effects , it is different . Was that one of the more fun prospect of shootingThe Sacrifice Game ?
Mena Massoud : Yeah , prosthetics are always nice . I ’ve worked with prosthetics before and this was , of course of study , a lot of prosthetics [ and ] scarce any CGI in this . I in person like prosthetics , I think they always come off well on screen even today , when there ’s unbelievable CGI , I still think prosthetics read better . Some of my favorite films always apply prosthetics like Hellboy when you compare that to other film . So yeah , getting back into using prosthetics was definitely fun .
Playing a bad guy must have been so much fun . When they told you about what variety of mortal this is , what creative input did you get to have in fetch him to animation ?
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Mena Massoud : I ’ve play a couple of prince roles now and I usually play the romantic lead - those are kind of the roles that I ’m getting chuck in over the last few years - and Jenn wanted to make for that good luck charm to it . But the conversation was really how do we keep that charm but also meet him as a troubled cult leader ? Tthat was really more of the conversation when I got offer the role , I jumped at it because like I said , I ’m normally not getting offer these kinds of part . I knew that I could do this and that I had a interesting take on it . For me now , being on readiness is more about fine tuning my slyness , becoming a better actor every solar day that I ’m on jell and I thought this role could really help me do that .
Would you need to go back to playing a villain at some item ? You obviously play a hero as well as you play a baddie , so is that something you would want to revisit ?
Mena Massoud : Yeah , definitely .
It ’s not often that we see a horror with a Christmas scope . How much fun was that for you ?
Mena Massoud : Yeah , it was a lot of playfulness . For me , it was really interesting too , because the duo months before I had film Hotel for the Holidays , which was , again , a romantic comedy Christmas film on Prime Video . So to go from doing that to doing this with the same stage setting , but completely different genre , completely unlike character , entirely different story , that was a caboodle of fun [ in terms of the the juxtaposition . It ’s almost kind of like I jumped between from one Christmas movie to another .
But like I said , everything about it was different . That was a ton of merriment , because I could really focus and set apart the performing in the performance of it , because the setting was alike in that it was Christmas . We all treat the Christmas part of it as the backcloth . But the nub of the story was the same , which was the functioning , the subject , the genre , all that kind of stuff .
Were there any challenges that you faced during the production that you sweep over that have now given you something more to your tool case as you go into your next projection ?
Mena Massoud : Yeah , I opine the difficultness with playing a baddie , which , I knew going into it , but you realize promptly when you ’re doing it is , how do you not portray an mental image of someone evil or an persona of villain , quote , unquote , like you say , It ’s really prosperous to go up there and pretend to be bad , but what does it really think to be a villain ? What does it intend to be a cult drawing card ? What do those things really intend ?
I think there has to be some deep motivation for a character when they ’re carelessly perish around kill people . plainly , back in the time , there was n’t DNA , there was n’t forensics , things like that . That make a piffling mo of justification of how this gang went around defeat people without really deal about the consequences . But at the same time , I did n’t want to have Jude come across as just like your unimaginative [ evil guy rope . ] I want to cranch him a piffling act more and I intend that was a challenge , how do you ground this person ? Give them that charm that Jenn wanted that we talked about while at the same time , have them amount off as a serial killer , essentially ,
Is there any repugnance property that you would love to take on in the future ?
Mena Massoud : I desire to be a part of American Horror Story when it first come out . That was really interesting , but I do n’t recognize how much more they ’re go to do that project . But I cerebrate FX , the true law-breaking tale . I call back those are interesting - not needfully horror , but I retrieve being part of those would be interesting .
I wanted to check in onAladdin 2 . I make out the live - action interlingual rendition , and it was so successful that I ’m aghast that we have n’t hear more about a continuation . Do you have any updates on if that ’s something that ’s moving forwards ? I know the smash delayed a lot of things but is that something you see moving forward in the foreseeable future ?
Mena Massoud : I do n’t have any updates No , I opine like you said , the strike kind of just put everything on clutch . I know they were trying to get it off the ground for a long time but I have no melodic theme where it ’s at .
Does that shock you when you see something likeAladdin , being such a Brobdingnagian hit both financially and critically , not moving forward ? The world of Aladdin is so rich and you guys had such a good fourth dimension making the first one that I experience there are so many more level you could explore .
Mena Massoud : Not any longer . Listen , we shot in 2017 . It ’s been six years now since we shot and wrap the project . So to me , at a certain detail , life just goes on . So not really , I ’m sure they have their reasons . I know they were trying for a long meter . So I do n’t know what the obstacle exactly were . But perchance now after the strike is over , they ’ll stay to seek to get it off the priming .
But I hope , I hope by all odds that it happens in some way . You know , because I again , I have it off what you did with it because Atlanta Atlanta as well was one of my favorite part since growing up and you . I stand for , you did n’t just play you , you were have you know , that ’s how much I apprise your execution of hoping that something comes out of it . But what is the you recognise , as we have no , of course , no , but as we get ready to shut out the year , what uh , what are you work on ? What is next year ? What can we see you next if you if there ’s anything you could razz or divvy up with us ?
As we get quick to close out the class , what are you working on ?
Mena Massoud : I ’m in reality in Japan , and just wrapped up time of year 2 of Evolving Vegan as a nutrient vegan travel show that I created , executive produced and the mailing as well . It ’s not usable in the States yet so that ’s why people have n’t really take heed of the first time of year but we just enfold up our 2d time of year . We went to some really cool cities . I ’ve also get an Arabic language film , which is my debut Arabic spoken communication film , it ’s call In Broad Daylight .
My production company also serve make that in Egypt . So that ’ll be an Egyptian film . But I ’m hoping that it ’ll be on one of the external pennant so that everybody can keep an eye on it subtitled . That ’s like an action drama . It ’s got constituent of Romance language and very classical kind of Egyptian film . So I ’ve got those two projects perish and now that the strike is over , we ’ll see what ’s next .
About The Sacrifice Game
The Blackvale School for Girls , 1971 . It ’s unfit enough that students Samantha ( Madison Baines ) and Clara ( Georgia Acken ) ca n’t go home for the holidays , but things take a pestilent turn when a gang of cult killers arrive at their doorstep — just in time for Christmas .
The Sacrifice Gameis now pour on Shudder .
