NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- There's a correlation between everything unearthed from Facebook’s fallout and the series of corporate strikes dubbed “Strike-tober."
Sure, both are rooted in unfair labor practices, but they were also predicted by filmmakers Jim Cummings and PJ McCabe. So much so, that they had already made a movie about similar events before they even caught the media's attention.
Cummings and McCabe are the two minds behind ‘The Beta Test’, a new social media-themed satire that hits theaters this Friday.
Set in sunny California, the film follows a soon-to-be-married Hollywood agent who finds himself sucked into an underworld paved by lies, deceit, and death after receiving a mysterious invite to have an anonymous affair.
While the story itself is obviously fiction, the toxic workplaces it portrays and the ideas it shares surrounding digital exploitation have become a nightmarish reality.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with 1010 WINS, the pair explained that they often experienced doubt throughout production because they were unsure if anyone would actually care about the issues the film sheds light on.
“When we were writing it,” Cumming said, “it felt a bit like inside baseball, and we kept on having these feelings of inadequacy. [We asked ourselves] if people would watch this film in Sweden, or around the world, [or] if they [even] care about a writer's strike?”
Throughout the film, there’s constant mention of a strike that inhibits the main character, played by Cummings, from doing his agency job. However, he explained that when all of these recent big shifts in Hollywood became mainstream news, he and McCabe found clarity.
“It validate[d] us,” McCabe said.
“This is the movie that we made,” Cummings added, “so there is a bit of kismet and happenstance, but we called it. We’ve been working in the industry for 10 years. We knew this was going to happen.”
As McCabe pointed out though - and as we all know now - “It’s not just the entertainment industry...the corporate doublespeak expands like that in a lot of industries. People are just leaving their jobs that they've been stuck in because they're sick of dealing with the [nonsense].”
Interestingly and ironically enough, the whistleblowing done by Facebook employee Frances Haugen proves that the exodus is happening at all levels.
Now, aside from what the film has to say about the real life horrors of the workforce, there's a message about the real life horrors of the web at its core too. With all that’s come out - and continues to come out about Facebook - it’s extremely relevant.
Having just appeared in the most recent Halloween film, Halloween Kills, Cummings certainly knows a thing about horror. However, rather than lean into the darkness surrounding such already serious topics, Cummings said he enjoyed playing on the audience's fear and tension for a different effect here.
He said, “We always say that a film has to have comedy in it. If you don't make jokes throughout your movies, your audiences will want to have jokes being made at the expense of the film, and we just do it ourselves.”
“Comedy helps kind of disarm these scarier, dark elements of life and helps audiences connect to the bigger, scary issues,” McCabe added.
Cummings concluded, "It's bringing the power back to the people."
"The Beta Test" is available in select theatres and on demand now.