A note from the founder...

 

(January 25, 2025)

 

Hi! I'm Anthony Masi! Now that we've been around for a few years, I can share with you how this company started, where we are, and where we're going! Yes I own this company, but I am also a documentary and film producer in the horror genre. Since you are a horror fan, you may be familiar with some of my work! I am mainly known for producing the Halloween: 25 Years of Terror, His Name Was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th, and Still Screaming: The Ultimate Scary Movie Retrospective documentaries. In early 2020, right when the pandemic hit, I had the wonderful opportunity to produce a remake of one of my all-time favorite slashers... Silent Night, Deadly Night. To say that I was excited about this opportunity would be an understatement. My great friend, Nate Ragon, had a connection with one of the licensors (Dennis), and he was able to help set up a lunch meeting with me and Dennis, as well as his business partner, Scott. Scott heads Wonderwheel Entertainment, and owns all the rights to the film. Long story short, Scott and Dennis welcomed me into their SNDN family and off we went to make the movie with a very promising small studio in Louisiana. Except... it didn't get made! It's 5 years later and it's FINALLY going to be made with a new company, and yes, I'm still involved (read the press release).

 

When we were developing the remake back then, Scott wanted to start marketing SNDN in new and exciting ways beyond t-shirts and he read me a big list of what he was thinking of, such as wrapping paper, ornaments, Christmas decorations/lights, etc., but then he said the phrase "board game"... If you know me well, you also know that I'm a professional magician, and designing a board game ​to me seemed very much like designing a magic trick. Us close-up magicians design mini-illusions for one purpose only: to create a sense of wonder for a small group of people. Board games similarly do what magic tricks do... they, too, gather a small group together to experience something fun and wondrous. I designed the game in my spare time after schooling myself in game design (thank you, YouTube and Amazon!) and Scott and Dennis really liked it, so we worked with the very talented folks at Fright Rags to make it look incredible (via artwork from Justin Osbourn and Joe Guy Allard), and we put it on Kickstarter, where it raised over $85k. We were pretty shocked by this! When that Kickstarter ended, the idea of rebranding the same game with other horror movies seemed exciting, so that's what we did, and within no time we released MY BLOODY VALENTINE, HALLOWEEN II, and GHOST FACE, again in partnership with Fright Rags, all licensed, and boom... a game company was born!

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Why were we called STOP THE KILLER GAMES?

 

The games we were releasing were all about stopping a killer from reaching a destination on the board, and we kept saying those three words over and over - "You have to STOP THE KILLER," "It's all about STOPPING THE KILLER," "Can you STOP THE KILLER?" - so naturally that's what we called the company! It felt like a fitting name, but there were times when we'd release a game that had nothing to do with stopping a killer, and I have to admit, that's when the Stop The Killer name felt out of place.

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When you own a company it's a good idea to eventually trademark your company name, so we decided in March 2024 to file for the trademark. It takes about 9-10 months to fully get approval from the US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO), so we filed and waited patiently, not thinking for one second there would be an issue. What happens when you file for a trademark is that the USPTO reviews the submission and either approves or rejects it. Fortunately, they approved our trademark, but the next step is to publicly share the trademark in what's called an "opposition window," which basically gives other companies a chance to contest the trademark if they feel it steps on the toes of any existing trademarks. The opposition window is 45 days, and unfortunately near the end of that window a company called Hunt-A-Killer opposed our trademark, and we were taken back by this. Our attorney said that when this happens you either litigate or rebrand. After thinking about it, we saw the rebrand as a great opportunity to sharpen the direction of the company and move forward into the next phase of our growth with excitement. Let me explain!

 

But first, if you haven't visited Hunt-A-Killer's website, please click here.Their catalogue of games consists of original murder mystery adventures, and some of them you play over many months through a subscription for what appears to be a very fun immersive experience. Check them out!

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Back to us... as you know, we love horror movies and our games and books celebrate them. Our next game, for example, is based on the 1981 horror film, MADMAN, and we are so excited to share the artwork for the game in a few days after so many months of development! The giant 24-inch axe-shaped board, the super-fun method of gameplay, the amazing artwork by our fantastic designer... it's what we do! BUT, we've been yearning to do more. We love basing games on movies, but the truth is that no matter how great a game is that's based on a movie... if a customer doesn't like that movie, they won't buy the game. We couldn't ignore this fact any longer so we gave this A LOT of thought.

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Why did we choose BEYOND KILLER GAMES?​​

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Because we are at the part in our journey where we must move forward... to go BEYOND what we've been doing. Yes, we love developing games based on horror movies and we absolutely will continue producing them (we have a huge list that we're trying to get through!), but we are also making space to release the games we've been developing that are original - and just as fun. And from one horror fan to another, trust me when I say that you will love these games!

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Plus, doesn't saying "beyond" before any adjective make it sound exceptionally fun?

"Dude, this game is BEYOND killer!" 

 

We hope this explains the rebrand for those who wanted a little more info, and if you've been with us since that first Silent Night, Deadly Night game, be assured that we are the same people running the company, just under a new name. What I love most about this whole journey is that my great friend, Nate, is a massive daily part of the team here at Beyond Killer Games, and it's so fun for me to see how far we've come from that single lunch he helped to set up with me and the Silent Night, Deadly Night folks almost 5 years ago. Time flies, but as long as you're having fun along the way, that's all that matters.​

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Thank you for being a customer, we appreciate you immensely.

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Now let's go into the BEYOND!

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