Veeam Brings Horror to the Boardroom with Cheerleading Masked Killer

It is late at night in a glass walled meeting room. Executives lean over cooling coffee while the CFO calmly announces cuts to the cyber security budget. Outside the glass, a masked killer raises two knives and begins a stiff cheerleader routine. Only the CISO can see that something is very wrong.

This is the starting point for Irresistible Studios latest work for data resilience company Veeam, created in partnership with creative agency alan. The campaign invites viewers into a horror tinted version of the corporate board, where the things that keep cyber leaders awake at night finally become visible to everyone else.

Earlier waves of the Be Resilient platform showed incidents and threats, but feedback from the brand was clear. The team wanted to dramatise what it feels like when a CISO can see a risk coming and the rest of the leadership group cannot, and they wanted stories that would resonate on an emotional level with a very specific audience. The answer was to treat the C suite like characters in a genre film and let the metaphors do the heavy lifting.

In one film the problem is underfunding. While the CFO talks through a proposal to move investment away from cyber security, a slasher figure in a dark cloak and mask dances outside the room, brandishing twin blades. In the companion story, Alien Language, confused executives who do not understand a word of the CISO presentation are replaced one by one with calm alien visitors who nod along. In both cases the invisible tensions of the job become very real, but the tone stays playful and human.

To deliver both stories on a single production budget, director Chip and the team set themselves the challenge of shooting everything in one location on one day. The project was approved on the second of October with the cameras rolling just two weeks later, which meant every department had to work with precision. Location, casting, design and creature development all had to move in lock step in order to protect time for performance on the day.

The chosen setting was a boardroom in a London office building that already felt cinematic. Director of Photography Miguel Carmenes and the lighting crew leaned into the existing architecture, using cool practical tubes and sharp reflections to create a world that felt part prestige drama and part classic thriller. The camera glides through the space, capturing executives in tight close ups while letting the horror unfold in the background and in reflections in the glass.

Special effects artist Soaf Wyatt led the creature build, creating masks and prosthetics for both the killer and the aliens. The look needed to sit somewhere between nightmare and office humour, and it also had to be safe and comfortable enough for long takes in a real working space. One of the striking images in the Alien Language spot is the transformation of a board member as black liquid slips from the mouth while fingers extend into something distinctly not human, all achieved with practical on set effects.

With no haze allowed on the shoot, the production planned additional atmosphere in post. Compositor Caitlin introduced layers of drifting smoke, especially in the corridor where the killer and aliens first appear, which helped bind the elements together and gave the creatures a slightly unreal shimmer. Music from Hugo at Brother and a bold grade from No.8ldn completed the cinematic treatment.

Cast performances keep the films grounded. Sasha Latoya plays the CISO as the one person in the room who cannot ignore the danger, shifting between professional patience and genuine fear. Michael Cahill and the rest of the board deliver lines with the relaxed rhythm of a routine budget meeting, which makes the escalating horror around them even funnier. It is a familiar dynamic for many cyber leaders and that sense of truth was important for both Veeam and the creative team.

Behind the scenes the schedule could have felt punishing, but the mood on set remained collaborative. The production adopted what the team describe as a GB approach, building a tight but capable crew who could move quickly without sacrificing detail. With client and agency present and fully engaged, decisions were made in the room and the energy stayed high through the final set up.

For Irresistible Studios the work shows how ambitious storytelling can exist even when the brief sits firmly in the business to business world. Cyber resilience is a specialist subject, but by treating it with the same care as a genre short film the team have created something that stands out in the feed and still speaks directly to CISOs and senior executives. It is proof that brave creative choices and tight production planning can live comfortably together.