Five Raindance Revelations with Aaron Fisher for ‘Corporate Retreat’

Team-building exercises are supposed to bring colleagues together. In Corporate Retreat, they do something rather different.

Making its UK premiere at Raindance Film Festival, Aaron Fisher’s darkly comic horror takes aim at the ruthless world of corporate culture, transforming a luxury desert getaway into a blood-soaked battle for survival. What begins as a leadership retreat for a group of ambitious tech executives quickly descends into chaos, where office politics give way to primal instincts and performance reviews become a matter of life and death.

Led by an impressive cast that includes Odeya Rush, Sasha Lane, Alan Ruck, Ashton Sanders and Rosanna Arquette, Corporate Retreat combines savage satire with graphic horror, using its outlandish premise to explore the darker side of ambition, power and workplace hierarchy. Having already generated significant buzz on the festival circuit, the film arrives at Raindance as one of the contenders for the festival’s Roger Corman Award for Best Horror Feature.

Ahead of its UK premiere, we spoke with writer-director Aaron Fisher for the latest edition of 5 Raindance Revelations, where he reflects on the films that shaped his cinematic outlook, the legendary filmmaker he would most like to learn from, and the surprising discovery he made while bringing Corporate Retreat to life.

Aaron Fisher writer-director of ‘Corporate Retreat’

1. Tell us about your film and why you felt Raindance would be a great place to unleash it on London and the UK.

Corporate Retreat is a horror/dark comedy film, and I think it’s perfect for the new competitive horror section at the Raindance film festival that features the new Roger Corman Award for Best Horror Feature.

2. What moment made you realise you wanted to create films, not just watch them?

My mind was blown the first time I watched 2001: A Space Odyssey when I was 11 or 12 years old. I realized that directing movies was something I wanted to do. It was also the first time I realized that the director really could have a lot of creative control.

3. What’s one film that fundamentally changed the way you think about cinema?

Barry Lyndon changed the way I looked at pacing and editing in films. The final shoot out in the film is paced so deliberately long and it really builds the tension. It’s an amazing film.

4. If you could collaborate with anyone in film history, who would unlock the most exciting project for you?

If I could work with anyone in film history it would definitely be Stanley Kubrick! At the very least it would be amazing if I were able to shadow him as he worked. He’s my favorite director. I’m so in awe of him.

5. What’s something making this film revealed about yourself that you didn’t know before?

Making Corporate Retreat made me realize that working with practical effects can be a lot of fun.

Beneath the gore, dark humour and corporate carnage, Corporate Retreat taps into anxieties that feel increasingly familiar in modern working life. By pushing workplace competition to absurd and terrifying extremes, the film offers both a wickedly entertaining horror experience and a sharp satirical bite.

Fisher’s answers reveal a filmmaker whose love of cinema was forged through classic films and whose admiration for masters such as Stanley Kubrick continues to shape his approach to storytelling. As Corporate Retreat continues its festival journey, it stands as proof that horror remains one of the most effective ways to expose uncomfortable truths, even when audiences are laughing as much as they’re wincing.

Corporate Retreat trailer