If Curry Barker’s Obsession gave horror fans one of the year’s most disturbing examinations of obsession, entitlement, and romantic rejection, Jonathan Schey’s Everybody Wants to F*ck Me feels like the perfect companion piece. This time, however, we’re experiencing the nightmare from the perspective of the male fuckboy. After catching the film at TIFF, I walked away having seen one of my biggest surprises of the festival: a hilarious, uncomfortable, and increasingly terrifying takedown of the self-proclaimed “nice guy” and the performative nature of modern dating.
Taron Egerton stars as Adam, a man who has seemingly mastered all the tricks of enlightened masculinity. He knows when to listen to women in meetings, practices yoga, reads feminist literature, and has perfected the exact amount of self-deprecation needed to make himself appear sensitive without seeming insecure. From fake reading books to buying a dog and naming it after a Haim sister, it’s all here. The problem is that nearly everything about Adam feels carefully calculated. These aren’t necessarily things he believes in; they’re tools he’s learned to use. He’s constructed the perfect version of the modern “good guy,” one designed specifically to convince women and himself that he’s different from all those other men.
Egerton is gleefully committed to making Adam work, delivering what I think is easily one of his best and funniest performances. He moves through the role with an effortless comedic confidence, completely embracing just how ridiculous Adam can be while never turning him into a full-blown caricature. He’s charming enough that you understand why his routine has been successful, but there’s always something lurking underneath that charm. Egerton makes him hilarious, pathetic, frustrating, and occasionally even sympathetic without ever letting us forget that Adam has built his own mythology around being one of the good guys. It’s a fantastic performance and one that feels perfectly suited to Egerton’s comedic strengths.
Charly Clive also shines as Adam’s longtime best friend, who has spent years providing cover for his behavior but is increasingly tired of playing accomplice. Their friendship gives the film another way to dismantle Adam’s carefully constructed image. She knows him well enough to recognize the tricks, excuses, and patterns behind the “nice guy” routine, and Clive is hilarious as someone who has finally started to realize just how exhausting her best friend can be.
Then Adam meets Sofia.
Played by Jessica Henwick, Sofia immediately feels different from the women Adam is accustomed to pursuing. She sees through the performance and isn’t afraid to call him out on his behavior. Henwick brings exactly the kind of sharpness the character needs, and watching Sofia puncture Adam’s carefully constructed persona makes for some of the film’s funniest moments. But after their encounter, something changes.
Suddenly, everybody wants Adam. His carefully studied charms aren’t just working anymore; they’re working way too well. Mild flirtation turns into obsession. Obsession turns into stalking. Before long, Adam finds himself experiencing the kind of unwanted attention he never imagined having to fear.
This is also where some of the film’s horror really starts to kick in, and Schey doesn’t hold back. What initially feels like an absurd extension of the film’s central joke gives way to some downright terrifying imagery, a couple of genuinely great jump scares, and an almost unbearable level of awkwardness. Some of the situations Adam finds himself in become so uncomfortable that I genuinely wanted to put my hands over my face and hide from the secondhand embarrassment. One moment involving Adam’s mom in particular was a highlight. While Everybody Wants to F*ck Me never leaves its dark comedy roots behind, Schey isn’t afraid to lean hard into horror when the moment calls for it, making the scares just as effective as the painfully awkward comedy.
Schey’s ability to ride the line between comedy, horror, and genuine tension is remarkable. There are stretches where the film is hysterically funny, particularly when it’s skewering dating apps, performative feminism, and the ways people manufacture an idealized version of themselves online. Then, without warning, Schey tightens the screws. The laughs become nervous, the attention surrounding Adam becomes increasingly threatening, and situations that initially seemed absurd begin to feel legitimately dangerous.
For a feature directorial debut, that control of tone is especially impressive. Schey never lets the satire completely disappear once the horror kicks in, nor does he undercut the genuinely frightening moments by constantly reaching for another joke. The two genres feed off each other.
It’s also what made me immediately think of Barker’s Obsession. The films approach their subjects from very different perspectives, but both take recognizable behaviors surrounding attraction, rejection, and entitlement and push them into terrifying territory. Both understand that some of the best horror comes from taking something we’ve normalized and turning the dial just far enough for us to recognize how frightening it already was.
What I especially appreciated is that Everybody Wants to F*ck Me never turns its ideas into a lecture. Schey has plenty to say about men who have learned how to signal virtues they may not actually possess, but the movie is far more interested in exposing those contradictions through comedy and horror than stopping to explain them.
Adam knows the right books to carry around. He knows the right hobbies to have. He knows the language. He knows exactly how vulnerable he should appear. But knowing how to look emotionally intelligent and actually possessing emotional intelligence are two very different things. Once the tables begin to turn, the film has a wicked amount of fun making him confront that difference.
Everybody Wants to F*ck Me was easily one of my biggest surprises at TIFF. It’s funny, scary, deeply uncomfortable, and at times genuinely intense. Egerton gives one of the funniest and most committed performances of his career; Henwick is the perfect person to challenge him, and Clive nearly steals every scene she’s in. Most importantly, Schey announces himself as a filmmaker with an exciting command of both horror and comedy.
The fake “nice guy” has never looked worse.
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Everybody Wants to F*ck Me
Summary
Funny, scary, deeply uncomfortable, and at times genuinely intense. A phenomenal directorial debut.
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