Take This Lollipop
| Take This Lollipop | |
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Film poster
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| Directed by | Jason Zada |
| Produced by | Jason Zada Brendan Kling |
| Written by | Jason Zada |
| Starring | Bill Oberst Jr. |
| Music by | Bobby Jameson |
| Cinematography | Mihai Malaimare Jr. |
| Edited by | Jason Zada |
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Production
company |
Little Monster
Tool of North America |
| Distributed by | Tool of North America |
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Release date
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Running time
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3 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Take This Lollipop is a 2011 interactive horror short film and Facebook app, written and directed by Jason Zada, which uses the Facebook Connect application to bring viewers themselves into the film, through use of pictures and messages from their own Facebook profiles. Starring actor Bill Oberst Jr. as 'The Facebook Stalker', the film acts to personalize and underscore the dangers inherent in posting too much personal information about oneself on the internet. The information gathered from a viewer's Facebook profile by the film's app is used once, and then deleted.
The interactive film first requests that viewers temporarily allow the application access to their Facebook account, and then incorporates information gleaned from the viewer's Facebook page to fill in details of the film itself.
Showing 'The Facebook Stalker' as a thin, creepy fellow, hunched over and typing at a computer keyboard, images provided from the accessed Facebook account begin to appear as the stalker types at his keyboard, and appears to search for the specific Facebook user who had granted access. The Stalker becomes more and more agitated as he scrolls through the discovered information, until he locates the home of the user, pulls up Google Maps, and finds directions to the user's home from geographic data contained in his or her profile. With the user's profile picture taped to its dashboard, the stalker is then seen driving in his car to the user's location, apparently to perform mayhem.
At the end of the film, a screen appears with an image of a red lollipop containing a razor blade. Below the image is the viewer's Facebook screenname and the name of the stalker's next victim as gleaned from the viewer's own profile.
The title comes from a parents' warning to children to avoid taking candy from strangers. The concept developed from director Jason Zada's attraction to horror films from his youth, his wish to do something serious within that genre, his experience as a digital editor, and his understanding that people place their personal information on the internet for anyone to find. He decided to create a project that would "get under people's skin without any gore or anything", and that would underscore its point by making it about the viewer in a quite personal manner. The writer/director came up with the idea in September 2011, after waking up one morning and thinking about how he loved the Halloween season. Zada explained, "I wanted to do something that messed with people and I wrote the script. Instantly, I knew there was something special about the idea." He briefly toyed with the idea of using an "A-list" actor, but instead chose character actor Bill Oberst Jr. for both his look and his skill. He stated, "When I saw Bill's headshot, I knew he was the guy. It was a twist of a role and Bill was the right type and he'd done horror movies. Some actors would overdo it, the audience needed to see what you're doing without thinking. I wanted people to feel his anger and discomfort with minimal movements. Bill went deep. He trusted the process." Oberst himself spoke toward his development of 'The Facebook Stalker' persona, saying "It was easy to get into character. The filming environment was an abandoned and reputedly haunted hospital, that helped and Jason's script and direction did the rest. Stepping onto the dressed and lit set and sitting at that desk, it was very easy to feel the vibe."
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