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Showing posts from January, 2019

Interview with Jack McHenry - Director of Here Comes Hell

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Ahead of the World premiere of the stand-out period horror comedy HERE COMES HELL at Arrow Video FrightFest Glasgow 2019, director Jack McHenry tells us about the challenges of a £22,000 budget. casting his mum and why nothing beats puppets and real blood. HERE COMES HELL is to receive its world premiere at Arrow Video FrightFest Glasgow. Excited or what? It’s amazing! I made this movie for people like me, people who like horror movies and crazy genre films. It’s the perfect place to premiere this kind of movie, as horror audiences are the most open minded movie-goers, they’re not turned off by low budgets or films made by first time directors.  They just want an exciting cinematic experience. The film started life as a Kickstarter campaign. Were you pleased with the outcome? We shot a short trailer and a pitch video. That was the worst part for me, having to talk in front of a camera. I feel much happier behind the lens.  When we posted the Kickstarter I had no idea it would turn out

Interview with Jack McHenry - Director of Here Comes Hell

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Ahead of the World premiere of the stand-out period horror comedy HERE COMES HELL at Arrow Video FrightFest Glasgow 2019, director Jack McHenry tells us about the challenges of a £22,000 budget. casting his mum and why nothing beats puppets and real blood. HERE COMES HELL is to receive its world premiere at Arrow Video FrightFest Glasgow. Excited or what? It’s amazing! I made this movie for people like me, people who like horror movies and crazy genre films. It’s the perfect place to premiere this kind of movie, as horror audiences are the most open minded movie-goers, they’re not turned off by low budgets or films made by first time directors.  They just want an exciting cinematic experience. The film started life as a Kickstarter campaign. Were you pleased with the outcome? We shot a short trailer and a pitch video. That was the worst part for me, having to talk in front of a camera. I feel much happier behind the lens.  When we posted the Kickstarter I had no idea it would turn out

Interview with Lawrie Brewster - Director of Automata

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Ahead of the World premiere of the darkly erotic AUTOMATA at Arrow Video FrightFest Glasgow 2019, director Lawrie Brewster tells us about his record-breaking Kickstarter campaign, the growth of Hex Studios and his fascination with creepy dolls. AUTOMATA has earned its place in Kickstarter history as the UK’s most funded narrative film ever. Why do you think that happened? The reason this happened is because there is a disconnect between a swathe of the audience, in our case a genre audience, and commercial distributors. Because commercial distributors and broadcasters for that matter, are so adept and so accustomed to selling a type of predictable product, that a form of repetition occurs whereby films that might not fit the mould, are simply not sold, and hence not usually produced. With Automata, and with all of our films at Hex Studios, we utilise that underserved niche, to produce unique genre films, which would be considered both unpredictable and even risky. Despite the financial

Interview with Lawrie Brewster - Director of Automata

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Ahead of the World premiere of the darkly erotic AUTOMATA at Arrow Video FrightFest Glasgow 2019, director Lawrie Brewster tells us about his record-breaking Kickstarter campaign, the growth of Hex Studios and his fascination with creepy dolls. AUTOMATA has earned its place in Kickstarter history as the UK’s most funded narrative film ever. Why do you think that happened? The reason this happened is because there is a disconnect between a swathe of the audience, in our case a genre audience, and commercial distributors. Because commercial distributors and broadcasters for that matter, are so adept and so accustomed to selling a type of predictable product, that a form of repetition occurs whereby films that might not fit the mould, are simply not sold, and hence not usually produced. With Automata, and with all of our films at Hex Studios, we utilise that underserved niche, to produce unique genre films, which would be considered both unpredictable and even risky. Despite the financial

Interview with Tamara Thorne - By David Kempf

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Tamara Thorne's first novel was published in 1991. Since then she has written many more, including international bestsellers Haunted, Bad Things, Moonfall, and The Sorority. Tamara's interest in writing is lifelong, as is her fascination with the paranormal, occult, mythology and folklore. She's been an avid ghost story collector and writer all her life.  When did you first become interested in writing? I don’t recall a time I wasn’t interested. My mother read to me every morning from the day she brought he home, so my indoctrination into books came early. I remember walking around singing Paperback Writer in first grade. I was already telling kids ghost stories about various houses we could see from the schoolyard. I started writing them down because that made it easier for me to keep them straight. That’s how I found out how much I liked to write.  How did you get involved in fantasy/horror? I’ve loved ghost stories all my life. I think I was just born that way. I’ve writ

Interview with Tamara Thorne - By David Kempf

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Tamara Thorne's first novel was published in 1991. Since then she has written many more, including international bestsellers Haunted, Bad Things, Moonfall, and The Sorority. Tamara's interest in writing is lifelong, as is her fascination with the paranormal, occult, mythology and folklore. She's been an avid ghost story collector and writer all her life.  When did you first become interested in writing? I don’t recall a time I wasn’t interested. My mother read to me every morning from the day she brought he home, so my indoctrination into books came early. I remember walking around singing Paperback Writer in first grade. I was already telling kids ghost stories about various houses we could see from the schoolyard. I started writing them down because that made it easier for me to keep them straight. That’s how I found out how much I liked to write.  How did you get involved in fantasy/horror? I’ve loved ghost stories all my life. I think I was just born that way. I’ve writ

Interview with Danishka Esterhazy - Director of Level 16

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Ahead of the UK premiere of LEVEL 16 at Arrow Video FrightFest Glasgow 2019, director Danishka Esterhazy tells us about the long journey to get her film made, the empowering nature of female friendship and her love for Sci-fi. It has been 10 years since first draft to a world premiere at Fantastic Fest. Quite a journey. What inspired you in the first place and what kept you going? Yes, it has not been an easy road with this film. I wrote Level 16 right after graduating from film school and I had hoped that it would be my first feature film. But I could not find any investors or broadcasters or distributors who wanted to support the film. I love science fiction, love dystopian films, but I had not seen many (any?) with a primarily female cast. Most science fiction films have a large male cast with maybe one or two female actors in smaller roles, most likely the love interest. But as a Sci-Fi fan, I wanted to see more stories about women, with women in the lead. So, I wrote Level 16 and

Interview with Danishka Esterhazy - Director of Level 16

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Ahead of the UK premiere of LEVEL 16 at Arrow Video FrightFest Glasgow 2019, director Danishka Esterhazy tells us about the long journey to get her film made, the empowering nature of female friendship and her love for Sci-fi. It has been 10 years since first draft to a world premiere at Fantastic Fest. Quite a journey. What inspired you in the first place and what kept you going? Yes, it has not been an easy road with this film. I wrote Level 16 right after graduating from film school and I had hoped that it would be my first feature film. But I could not find any investors or broadcasters or distributors who wanted to support the film. I love science fiction, love dystopian films, but I had not seen many (any?) with a primarily female cast. Most science fiction films have a large male cast with maybe one or two female actors in smaller roles, most likely the love interest. But as a Sci-Fi fan, I wanted to see more stories about women, with women in the lead. So, I wrote Level 16 and

UK premieres for REDWOOD and THE TALL MAN lead Horror Channel's February line-up

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February on Horror Channel sees the UK TV premieres of films by two highly talented directors: Tom Paton brings a fresh spin to creature-in-the-woods mythology with REDWOOD, a nerve-shredding chiller that will make you think twice about going camping, and THE TALL MAN, Pascal Laugier’s follow-up to his classic Martyrs is another sensational thriller of astonishing depth. There are also channel premieres for Luls de la Madrid’s unholy supernatural shocker THE NUN, John Dahl’s white-knuckle thriller JOY RIDE, the Wachowski Brothers’ stylish, neo-noir crime caper BOUND , starring Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon, and Alexandra Aja’s intensely disturbing MIRRORS, starring Kiefer Sutherland. Sat 2 Feb @ 21:00 – THE NUN (2005) *Channel Premiere Years ago, a cruel and merciless nun turned a boarding school into a living hell for her students until they could no longer bear the abuse, causing her undiscovered death. Now, the alumni are being brutally murdered one by one. Feeling a familiar and

UK premieres for REDWOOD and THE TALL MAN lead Horror Channel's February line-up

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February on Horror Channel sees the UK TV premieres of films by two highly talented directors: Tom Paton brings a fresh spin to creature-in-the-woods mythology with REDWOOD, a nerve-shredding chiller that will make you think twice about going camping, and THE TALL MAN, Pascal Laugier’s follow-up to his classic Martyrs is another sensational thriller of astonishing depth. There are also channel premieres for Luls de la Madrid’s unholy supernatural shocker THE NUN, John Dahl’s white-knuckle thriller JOY RIDE, the Wachowski Brothers’ stylish, neo-noir crime caper BOUND , starring Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon, and Alexandra Aja’s intensely disturbing MIRRORS, starring Kiefer Sutherland. Sat 2 Feb @ 21:00 – THE NUN (2005) *Channel Premiere Years ago, a cruel and merciless nun turned a boarding school into a living hell for her students until they could no longer bear the abuse, causing her undiscovered death. Now, the alumni are being brutally murdered one by one. Feeling a familiar and

Arrow Video FrightFest announces Glasgow Film Festival 2019 line-up

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It’s full scream ahead as Arrow Video FrightFest, the UK’s favourite horror fantasy event, returns to Glasgow Film Festival for a 14th fearful year, from Thursday 28 February to Saturday 2 March, 2019. Presenting a stunning and resonating two days of trauma, terror and tantalising thrills, this year’s line-up, once again housed at the iconic Glasgow Film Theatre, embraces the latest genre discoveries from around the world, spanning four continents, with two world, two European and six UK premieres. Alan Jones, FrightFest co-director, commented: “Currently at its most vibrant and popular, the horror fantasy genre is constantly garnering critical acclaim, pushing boundaries and asking tough questions of audiences by reflecting relevant political and social issues. The genre isn’t just about escapism but a key tool to make sense of the chaos and confusion swirling around our everyday lives and FrightFest has known this for 20 years now, so it’s fantastic the rest of the world has finally