A film that he made soon after his breakthrough debut in “Attack the Block” 6 years ago (wow, time flies!) John Boyega starred the BBC3 drama production based on the 2008 murder of teenager Shakilus Townsend – an incredibly sad real-life story, titled “My Murder.”
Also known as the “Honeytrap murder,” the film tells the true story of how then 16-year-old Shakilus Townsend was lured to his death by a girl he really liked (Samantha Joseph, also 16), and whom he apparently thought felt the same way about him, but clearly didn’t.
The disturbing act by Samantha Joseph was said to be all in an attempt to get back with her older ex boyfriend, Danny McLean. In brief, according to news reports on the story, she was dating both Townsend and McLean simultaneously, McLean eventually found out and dumped her. She wanted him back, and essentially made a pact with McLean that she’d bring Townsend to him for what was to be a thrashing.
Joseph lead Townsend to McLean, his brothers and friends (members of a South London gang), where he was beaten with a baseball bat, and stabbed in the chest five times; he later died from huge amounts of blood loss.
The group responsible for his death, including the young lady who led him to it, were all convicted of murder in 2009.
In the BBC3 project, John Boyega playe Shakilus Townsend, Simona Zivkovska as Samantha Joseph, and Malachi Kirby (another name you’ll be familiar with; Kunta Kinte in the “Roots” remake and the most recent season of “Black Mirror”) plays the older Danny McLean.
Levi David Addai wrote the script, which primarily follows those 3 three key characters.
“My Murder” aired on BBC3 in March of 2012, about a year after “Attack the Block” premiered in the USA at the SXSW Film Festival, but it never made it to US shores officially. No network Stateside picked it up. And it’s not on any streaming platforms like Netflix or Hulu. So I’m assuming most of you haven’t seen the film.
Thankfully, it’s been uploaded to YouTube. Not by the BBC however, so there’s a chance that soon after this post, it will all be removed from YouTube. Or maybe not…
So if you’d like to see what was essentially John Boyega’s first released starring project after “Attack The Block,” this is it.
Worth noting is that, last year, AFFRM released another feature film based on the Shakilus Townsend murder, titled “Honeytrap.” Directed by Rebecca Johnson, the film toured the international film festival circuit starting in 2014, and was picked up and released in the USA by AFFRM last fall. It’s currently streaming on Netflix, so check it out as well, and maybe compare the 2 different films on the same real-life case.
Watch John Boyega’s “My Murder” in full below, broken up into 6 parts:
