When we think of a funfair, the sweet smell of candy apples, neon and bright lights, and laughter mixed with screams generally come to mind. A feeling of nostalgia is perhaps added, as is the lightness of childhood. But it is a much darker and much less carefree funfair that brings together the Lamy/Jouannet family for the first time on screen.
This Friday, Amazon Prime Video puts online Killer Coaster, a new series in eight episodes of around thirty minutes. The story takes place in 1998, in Palavas-les-Flots. Sandrine Laplace (Alexandra Lamy), a slightly clumsy city contract worker who dreams of being a great investigator, decides to investigate the death of a man at the heart of the ghost train in the city’s Luna Park. Suspicion and fear will quickly win over the minds of the showmen, including the loud-mouthed Yvanne Poissonnet (Audrey Lamy) and the evaporated Carmen Jimenez (Chloé Jouannet), the daughter of her enemy…
“We wanted to show another variation of the funfair. We know it less when it is closed during the day or at night when there is nothing lit, a place in reality a little gloomy because all this joy has evaporated. We had to transcribe that on screen by giving it a menacing aspect,” explains 20 minutes director Nikola Lange. Horror therefore invites itself to the party, just like the thriller. But Killer Coaster is also a series that gives pride of place to humor and has fun blurring the lines and mixing genres.
“We wanted to surprise the viewer”
At the origin of the project, everything started from the common desire of the three actresses to work together. A trio that Nikola Lange knows very well, Chloé Jouannet, the daughter of Alexandra Lamy, having played the main role in his previous series Derby Girl (France.tv Slash in 2020). With his co-author Thomas Mansuy, they imagine for them this story of a macabre disappearance in a funfair. “It was a rather simple process because we knew who we were writing for, we knew the girls very well,” he says, specifying that he wrote the tailor-made roles for each one. Regarding the structure of the series, the two creators start with a “formula whodunit » to which they combine humor, both coming from comedy. “We wanted to surprise the viewer. We first worked hard to write a thriller that held up, then we adjusted the valves afterwards,” he explains.
On the other hand, there is this mysterious death, the terror which creeps in little by little and the suspicions which assail the three families at the head of Luna Park. Is this a murder? A settling of scores? Is the killer hiding among the fairground workers? We find the codes of the slasher, a heavy atmosphere, moments of tension, a killer with hidden features and a general paranoia about his identity… On the other hand, we move into the field of comedy, particularly with colorful characters , whether in very 90’s looks (special mention to the character of Carmen and her makeup incredible), as well as in personalities. Like the zany and clumsy Sandrine, who makes multiple blunders and arrives like an alien in the world of the funfair. Or the cheeky Yvanne who runs her family with an iron fist and doesn’t hesitate long before taking out the sulphate.
The series also multiplies the funny situations (a little thought for the little ball of fur Tyson), the jokes and the schoolboy humor. A balancing act when you are simultaneously involved in thriller and horror. “The dosage of humor is the difficulty,” recognizes Nikola Lange. To be honest, I think we worked a lot on this during assembly where it’s easier to remove valves. In the last episodes we deliberately cut some so as not to systematically destroy the emotion. We were keen to maintain an emotional reality in the characters. It’s a very precarious balance. You can be in parody or pastiche at any time. »
“It’s a somewhat hybrid audiovisual object”
If the series was initially thought of as a “horror comedy”, humor clearly takes precedence over horror in the first three episodes to which we had access. However, the director promises a completely different distribution later. “In the writing and production processes we wanted to split season 1 a little. I like to say that we followed the pattern Harry Potter : At first it’s a good atmosphere then it becomes darker and darker. From episode 4 we shift a little and the story becomes heavier with stronger interpersonal issues. It’s the result of writing work where we wanted the sincerity of the characters to develop gradually, that we begin to become attached to them in the middle of the season,” explains Nikola Lange.
Other stories intertwine with the main plot. That of a clan war between the three families who share the funfair and some members of which compete fiercely for power issues. The question of women’s emancipation is also present, through the weight of the family which weighs on some of them. Love is also there, with a romance at the Romeo and Juliet, cotton candy flavor. The series draws on thrills, fun and emotion.
“It’s a somewhat hybrid audiovisual object that responds to all the inspirations we may have had in writing or on set,” believes the director. It’s true that there is a real mix of genres, that can scare a lot of people. It’s a little more Anglo-Saxon as an exercise. It made us love it. » Just like thrill-seekers who Killer Coaster could well catch the eye.