HNN Interview: Anthony Masi (Beyond Killer Games)

HNN Interview: Anthony Masi (Beyond Killer Games) by Matt Boiselle

We recently had the chance to sit down for a few and chat with Anthony Masi, the owner of Beyond Killer Games, who also works as a documentary and film producer, whose most recent work included the “Silent Night Deadly Night” remake, and get this: he’s also a professional magician! Working with a very talented team to rebrand the board game market, they came up with Beyond Killer Games and after getting a sizeable jumping-off amount, they were able to get the company up & running, but this time the focus was on attaching horror movies to the games themselves, such as “My Bloody Valentine”, “Halloween” & “Ghostface” – Anthony was more than generous to offer up some of his busy time to tell us all about the company, as well as what they have to offer, and what’s on the horizon, so settle in and enjoy the read!

HorrorNews.net: So what can you tell us about your business, Beyond Killer Games?

Anthony Masi: I’ve made my living producing, so I had a lot of connections with licensers, and I was on the producing team of the “Silent Night Deadly Night” remake which just came out, and I know Scott (Schneid), the head at Wonder Wheel Entertainment, so I said “let’s make some board games with horror movie connections!” So we started off with the SNDN game, then we moved onto a “My Bloody Valentine” game, then “Halloween 2”, then “Ghostface” – we turned into a type of boutique company We’re kind of the only ones offering this type of product, and it’s a new way to experience the movies that we love. Right now we’re shipping out our latest game which is based on the 1981 slasher, “Madman” – and the board itself is shaped like an axe – you can watch the movie as you play along on the game – it’s just a whole new way of experiencing the movie. We’ve brought into each game little things that we thought fans of all these films would really appreciate. We also have a non I.P. game out called “The Bad Side Of Town”, and it’s a serial killer game – we’d like to expand our customer base. The Kickstarter launched already (link below), so that’s what we’ve got going on right now.

HorrorNews.net: How do you manage to translate fear into your board games, which at times can seem passive in a respective film?

Anthony Masi: We realized that you really can’t be afraid of a board game as opposed to a film, but what we can do is create tension – such as in our “Ghostface” game, you’ve got the main killer running around offing people, and there can be up to 3 different Ghostfaces on the board, and if you’re playing with 4 people, one of you can become Ghostface and start slaying your friends – there’s anxiety there – am I going to be the next killer (decided by a wheel spin). There’s a 3-D design in the “Black Christmas” game where on the front of the box, you’re looking in the window like Billy would be doing – so by just picking up the box you’re engaged already , and through the game you’re moving all through the house itself.

HorrorNews.net: Do you wait to see what the specific title of each game will be before designing the specific mechanics of the game?

Anthony Masi: Yeah – we work with each licenser, and actually some don’t care and tell us “we don’t know how to design a board game – just do what you want” – it gives us the liberty to really create and all needs to be done (such as the case with the “Basket Case” game) was to have the artwork approved. So what I like to do is to have a Zoom meeting with each respective licenser to demonstrate how the game works to them. We’re currently working with the band “Ice Nine Kills” and I’ve been friends with the lead singer Spencer (Charnas) for a while, and I pitched an idea for a game based on the band, and he loved it – it’s a deck-builder which is a very popular type of game, and even if you’re not a fan of their band you can still play the game. We also did a game for the Horror Writer’s Association – almost like a charades game (“Sudden Acts Of Horror”) where you’re acting out different horror novels – we’ve got a lot of great partnerships such as Shout Factory (card games based on “Dark Crystal”, “Labyrinth”), so we’re slowly expanding and trying to come up with some cool games.

HorrorNews.net: What’s the bigger priority when creating these games: a good scare factor or high re-playability?

Anthony Masi: The scare factor is big, but the re-playability factor is something that we strive for – we don’t want these games to be just a one-and-done. You’re creating a moment that people experience forever, and to me I just love that whole idea.

HorrorNews.net: Do you find yourself leaning more towards psychological horror or visceral horror with your games?

Anthony Masi: The thing about horror is when you buy anything horror-related from a merchandiser, such as Fright-Rags, who have done a lot of our artwork – they tend to lean heavily towards the slasher-aspect of it all, and when we were coming up with the “Ghostface” game we needed to come up with 8-10 unique items that were laid out on the board. Some of the images were deemed just too graphic by the licenser (laughs), so we had to dial that back a bit. You know, horror fans love that stuff, so it’s a challenge. Either way it plays out, I just want it to be great for the fans.

HorrorNews.net: This one’s entirely up to you to answer, but is there anything on the horizon that you are working on you can let us in on?

Anthony Masi: You know, you really can’t talk about anything that hasn’t been signed yet – “Madman” is the newest game that we’re shipping out now, and “The Bad Sign Of Town” will be next up – we do have other movies in the lineup, but unfortunately I can’t mention what they are right now, but feel free to check out our site at BeyondKillerGames.com and see everything we have to offer.

HorrorNews.net: Thanks for the time, Anthony.

Anthony Masi: Thank you as well!

I’d also like to add that Anthony was EXTREMELY generous to send along a copy of the “Madman”, “Happy Birthday To Me” and “Candyman” games for review purposes, and as soon as the “WORK” is complete testing these awesome games we’ll be sure to have an opinion of them put down in print for you all to enjoy – in the meantime, make sure to check out their main site as well as their page @beyondkillergames on Instagram for their latest news, and check out their Kickstarter page as well for “The Bad Side Of Town” game which is currently screaming towards its goal amount.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/beyondkillergames/the-bad-side-of-town