Zombie Footballers, Bloody Brides and Pumpkin Sick

And now it's November already. The past few weeks have gone by in a bit of a blur, what with Mayhem (which was on last weekend) and loads of stuff to prep for the release of 'Mum & Dad', and trying to work on a couple of new outlines, so AiU has suffered. I'll attempt a bit of a catch-up...


Mayhem 2008 went brilliantly well. We had a couple of sell-outs, a couple more near sell-outs and some great crowds throughout. This being the first year that we've run for a whole weekend as opposed to a single night, our workload increased exponentially, so that despite there being three of us, we still needed to constantly be in two places at once.

Highlights for me were the guests. On Friday, Mark Tonderai, director of 'Hush' (who I met at the Fantasy Filmfest in Germany recently) and his producer Zoe Stewart, who both came to our special preview screening of the film. It seemed to go down really well - even with an unscheduled intermission, when the fire alarm went off about ten minutes before the end of the film after the smoke machine in the bar got a bit out of control (and which Mark and Zoe were thankfully very understanding about). It was great to see Mark again and get the chance to catch up - even if he was faced with my specially-grown-for-the-night Beard of Evil.

Also on Friday was the Halloween party at Broadway, run by No More Parachutes, which we as Mayhem piggyback onto each year. I don't know why, but this year everybody seemed to really go for it with the costumes, including these great zombie American footballers(who seem to be haunted by a tiny ghoul...)

Jeanie and her friend Katie also did their bitwith Jeanie previewing the look she'll be wearing for our wedding next year.

Winner of first prize in the fancy dress costume was Scary Hellraiser Lady (otherwise known as Annie), seen here being presented with her prize by Chris Cooke with a Freddie Mercury tribute microphone pose
On Saturday our guest was Mark Gatiss. I interviewed Mark in front of an audience for our 'What Are You Scared Of?' spot, where we ask people to talk about the formative horror moments in their lives, the moments that have really frightened them. Mark was terrific - very entertaining and charming, and we showed a clutch of clips from 70s Doctor Who ('Terror of the Autons') to Hammer House of Horror, Carry On Screaming and the BBC Ghost Stories for Christmas. These last clips were especially relevant, as Mark is just finishing three of his own Christmas Ghost Stories - a horror anthology spread over three nights leading up to Christmas called 'Crooked House'. He brought us a short trailer to show and it looks great. I can't wait. Talking to Mark about Carry on Screaming, he told me that it was one of the formative experiences in the lives of all of the League of Gentlemen, having all watched it one Bonfire night in the 70s. When he said it, it brought back my own memory of the same night - I burnt my hand on a sparkler and was allowed to sit up and watch the film as some sort of comfort. Pain, shock, horror and comedy all melding together in my little brain...

Also on Saturday, we had a screening of 'Mum & Dad' which was unexpectedly nerve-wracking for me. It was weird showing it at Broadway, especially as a load of people I knew were in the audience. It felt a bit like dropping your trousers at a christening. Afterwards I got some good feedback from some and some perturbed looks from others, which I've come to expect as par for the course with this film.

By Sunday, we were all feeling mental with tiredness, but still had a whole day of films to show, as well as runing events like Horror Wii tennis (basically Wii tennis on a big screen, except you get to play as a variety of horror characters - a werewolf, a vampire, Freddie, Jason, Sadako amongst others).

Our guests on Sunday, for a special screening of their new film 'Salvage' - another microbudget production, this time from the Digital Departures production scheme - were writer Colin O'Donell, director Lawrence Gough and actor Shaun Dooley, who I last met at FrightFest, where he was promoting 'Eden Lake'. They were all really nervous as the film hasn't really been seen before, but it went down really well with our crowd, who gave them a great response at the end.

The last film of the festival was 'Martyrs', which left a lot of the audience looking pretty battered (it's a very intense and brutal film), although that might have been me projecting my own feelings onto them, feeling as I did, like my brain was about to pour out through my ears and collect in a puddle on the floor.

I didn't get much of a chance to recover from the weekend as I had an outline to finish for 'Empire of Flesh', plus some teaching to do. Then, on Wednesday, myself and Lisa went in to do the DVD commentary for 'Mum & Dad'. (Because the film is having this all-platform release on Boxing Day, it means that everything has to be done now - film trailer, DVD box, cinema poster...). It was strange sitting there talking away imagining that people are going to be listening to us (hopefully) in a couple of months. We pretty much went straight through in one take, with only a couple of moments where we paused for breath. It actually went really quickly - it felt like the minute we got into talking about one scene, we were straight on to another. Having done a load of Q and As and interviews over the last couple of months, it felt like a lot of elements in the film were really fresh in my mind, but I also did some homework by reading up on my blog from the time, which, even though it's only 18 months ago, felt a bit like leafing through a leather-bound journal you find next to a bricked-up corpse from the late 19th century.

After that, we had a meeting with our distributors Revolver, to discuss the poster and artwork for the cinema release and DVD, plus some more press stuff, screenings and the new trailer. During the meeting I got a fleeting icy jab of fear through my intestines as I realised that, yes, the film will be OUT on Boxing Day - but I quickly dismissed it by telling myself that Yes, That's Been The Whole Bloody Point Of The Past Two Years, You Idiot....

Christmas with the parents

With my head down all this week writing and working on finalising the programme for Mayhem, I forgot to even mention that 'Mum & Dad' has now got a release date - Revolver (our distributor) going for a simultaneous theatrical/pay-per-view/rental DVD/retail DVD release on Boxing Day, December 26th. Apparently, this will be the first time that a film has been released with this strategy, so we'll see what happens...

Mother and Dad

I've spent most of the past couple of weeks writing in one form or another. We've been having a few meetings with people to try and get development funding to make another film, capitalising on the fact that a lot of people in the industry have now seen 'Mum & Dad'. We've had a really good response to the film, but there seems to be a consensus that horror is 'a hard sell' at the moment. (Never a good thing to hear when you're trying to sell horror films). I don't know why this is - although one person said to me that in these credit crunch times, people want to see 'escapist, upbeat' films (citing 'The Dark Knight' as an example...) - but maybe that's just in terms of mainstream box office crossover. It's quite an interesting process, talking to people in the business of selling films, because you get a lot of idea about the potential options available to you as a filmmaker - whether you want to carry on writing and directing (pros: more control, more 'auteur' cache; cons: it takes time to write a film, so taking you out of the loop for a year or two), if you want to try and score a worldwide (including the US) hit (pros: you can make more money, get a 'bigger' career; cons: you probably won't be able to make many films in Britain, with British actors) or if you want to stay in the horror genre (pros: you love horror and it's great fun; cons: 'horror's a hard sell at the moment...').

Anyway, we ended up in one meeting pitching a few ideas, one of which is Empire of Flesh (which I've just re-outlined after getting script notes back) and two others which up till now have only really existed as a bunch of notes and a pitch. One's a science-fiction idea, the other one is a drama/thriller. I've spent the past week trying to work both of them up into short outlines, with the hope of maybe getting some kind of development deal.

At the same time, myself, Chris Cooke and Gareth Howell have been planning the next Mayhem Horror Film Festival. After initially forswearing the idea of applying for funding, we have now found ourselves in the position of actually putting in an application (I don't know what happened - i think I was out of the room at the time...) which led to us huddling round the form for three hours the other morning. None of us is a natural form-filler (there was a point where I saw a small portion of Gareth's soul die (it was like seeing the leg shrivel on a balloon animal) - so we ended up dithering and task-avoiding. Hence these lovely drawings, each bit drawn by one of us without reference to the previous drawing:



I don't think it was a fair game - the other two have both got Arts degrees (as I'm sure you can tell.)

The festival is coming together, though - we're hoping to show a few previews and get some guests along, as well as have a cracking party on Halloween itself, possibly with a repeat of last year's haunting.

In the next few weeks, I'm hoping to get to see some films, both at Frightfest and at the Fantasy FilmFest in Germany, which I'm hoping to be able to visit. (One great thing about this festival which I forgot to mention is that Dario Argento's 'Mother of Tears' is also playing, which means that on every site that lists the programme, my film and his get put next to each other, which I know is a really fannish thing to be excited about, but then I am still a fan...)


It's just weird to have spent so much time watching someone's films, then to find yourself showing alongside them.

Oh, and for anyone who is interested in trying the same route, the next round of applications for the Microwave scheme is now open. Good luck to anyone who's applying...

From Mayhem to November

As well as gearing up for Edinburgh, I've also been working with Chris and Gareth on the plans for this year's Mayhem Horror Film Festival. This will be the fourth year we've run the festival, and this year we're going for an even bigger programme, stretching over three days rather than just one night. Obviously that means finding a lot more content, but also gives us the opportunity to do a lot more events, outside of just showing films, that will hopefully give the festival a strong identity amongst horror fans. The festival is planned for the Halloween weekend - Friday 31st October to Sunday 2nd November - and is going to include a shorts programmes (any submissions gratefully welcomed), some special previews, some classics and hopefully a few special guests. We're going to be updating people on the website and on our Facebook page as soon as we get things confirmed. The event is going to be taking place at Nottingham's Broadway Cinema (as usual), including a big Halloween party in the cafe bar on the opening night. Get working on your Halloween costumes now..

Mayhem III: Chucky, ghosts and pig-man freaks

Last night was our third annual Mayhem Horror Film Festival at Broadway in Nottingham. We screened a 100 minute programme of local, national and international shorts, featuring killer clowns, zombies, pig-man freaks and a shot of a small child repeatedly punching an equally tiny Satan in the face. I think we (me, Chris Cooke and Gareth Howell, the co-directors of the festival) put together a really strong programme this year and the audience response seemed to bear that out. We had great numbers for the night as well - nearly sold out (in fact if Arcade Fire hadn't been playing just round the corner on the same night, I'm sure we would have done (selfish bloody French-Canadian alt-rockers and their cinematic, folk-influenced chamber pop)). After a brief intermission, we came back with a special preview screening of 'All The Boys Love Mandy Lane', a new American slasher film. I hadn't seen the film before last night (having been cruising with Goths for a couple of weeks) so I was keen (and slightly apprehensive) to see what it was like. Luckily for us it was great - really well shot with a great soundtrack and a real black heart. It's got twists, but ones that you kind of have an inkling of by the time they come, so there's no moment (unlike in, say, Switchblade Romance) where the film is in danger of alienating its audience by totally pulling some revelation out of left-field. In fact, the actual key moment of turnabout in the film is so brilliantly shot and staged, and the subsequent fall-out so black, bloody and pessimistic, that it doesn't really matter if you've seen it coming. While not exactly a gore-fest, there are a couple of really horrible moments, including one that made me suck air in through my teeth (a reaction I think I last had watching Takashi Miike's 'Imprint') and although it featured a typical bunch of selfish, sex-obsessed American teens, for some reason it didn't have me willing them to die quickly (like in 'Cabin Fever'). All in all, I think it went down well, although I know some people found it too generic and didn't think it pulled off what it was attempting. I think it came close enough.

After the screenings, Broadway bar were having a Halloween party (which we'd organised to have some kind of synchronicity with Mayhem) which featured a lot of fancy dress. Winners of the first prize were Sam Hawker (runner on 'Deliver Me' and "Mum and Dad', and local filmmaker) and his girlfriend Claire who came as Chucky and a very bloody Red Riding Hood. Second prize went to a man in a neck brace and blood all over his head (I think he was in fancy dress, it could have been that a taxi driver was taking the piss and had dropped him off telling him it was A and E) and third prize went to an actual ghost:I don't know if you can make it out, but if you squint you can just about see its outline hovering in the background between me and Cooke...

Octoberhem!

Mayhem, the horror film festival I help to run (alongside Chris Cooke and Gareth Howell) is gearing up for its third appearance at the end of this month. After missing our usual slot of May - basically because we were all too busy to be arsed to do it - we've opted for the traditional night of all things horror-ble - Halloween.

We've got a 90min selection of shorts - some local, some international, all good - plus a preview screening of 'All The Boys Love Mandy Lane'. There is a website here, which has news on the festival as well as hosting a number of horror shorts, including my two films 'Cry' and 'Through A Vulture Eye'. And yes, that is a blatant misuse of my festival co-director power.

There is also a Facebook group for those people who do that. Like I'm pretending I'm not one of them.