Social media addiction, a relationship breakdown and brotherly bonds: The making of Ghosted with Nick and Nathan Lacey

Directors Nathan and Nick Lacey on the set of Ghosted.

Premiering at the 2022 Sydney Film Festival, Ghosted is a short film that centers on Adrian, a social media influencer who is followed by a stalker during a weekend getaway with his partner. Directed by brothers Nick and Nathan Lacey, the film explores the impact of social media addiction through the lens of a romantic relationship.

“Our goal was to make a film about social media addiction without feeling like we were lecturing to the audience. Everyone can relate to the feeling in some way – we all have that friend who can never seem to draw themselves away from their phone. This is something that has become so normalised and we wanted to highlight the absurdity of it through Adrian’s character and how he prioritises social media over his relationship.”

The Lacey Brothers have long had an admiration for the horror genre as a format to tell social truths and comment on broader societal trends. “I wrote Ghosted to eventually build into a horror”, explains Nathan Lacey. “The film is about the breakdown of a relationship due to social media so it felt right to introduce these sinister undertones as it progressed.”

Matthew Backer and Adam Dunn in Ghosted.

A sense of unease permeates the film and a lot of the tension comes from paralleling the idea of being watched by an audience online with being watched secretly IRL, which was a deliberate choice. “We wanted to introduce an element of voyeurism in the way we shot it. As Adrian is being stalked throughout the film we wanted to make the audience feel this, so we had a lot of discussions with our DP Patrick Coe about how we would frame the characters and you’ll see in the film we have a lot of shots through windows and door frames. It creates an unsettling atmosphere that we felt complemented the story.”

“The music, sound design and sound mix were also paramount to building that unsettling atmosphere,” the brothers add. “The interplay between them was very crucial to the success of how the final scene lands. We couldn’t have pulled it off without our composer Donal Sinnott (aka ghost_code) and James Ashton who worked on the sound, along with Dylan and Steve Burgess on foley.”

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Before the film’s darker side emerges, it grounds itself firmly in the relationship between Adrian (Matthew Backer) and Daniel (Adam Dunn), which feels both real and loving. “We knew we had to get the audience invested emotionally in their relationship from the get-go, so casting was extremely important from an early stage,” the brothers emphasise. “Matthew and Adam were our two first choices for the leads and we were stoked when they told us they liked the script and wanted to work with us.”

“Matthew is such an unbelievable performer, he’s done so much theatre work as well as film and television and we just knew he would be able to bring the range and energy needed for Adrian’s character. We’ve been fans of Adam since we saw him in a Tropfest short film years ago and when we wrote the character of Daniel we thought he’d be a perfect fit. He also brought so many ideas to his scenes and is such a great collaborator.”

Matthew Backer in Ghosted.

Ghosted is the Lacey Brothers’ third short film they’ve made together as directors. “Being brothers, we know each other pretty well and I think that helps when we’re directing as we’re already on a similar wavelength. Trust plays a huge role in this as we need to rely on each other to make these decisions in a unified vision – and we definitely don’t agree on everything so there are times we’ll go back and forth on something until we get it right.”

Ghosted will be screening next at the Sydney Mardi Gras Film Festival on February 27. Details here.