Thursday 1 December 2011

A list of 140 unreleased British horror films produced since 2000

In keeping a list of released modern British horror films up-to-date for my book, I also keep a subsidiary list of unreleased titles and this has now grown to a ridiculous length.

The stats are these. The British Horror Revival 1998-2008 will feature 106 movies (at the last count). In the three years since 2008, there have been a (quite staggering) hundred additional British horror films released, which I hope I can cover in a second volume. But during all this time there have been about 140 films which have yet to see a commercial release.

No doubt some are bloody awful and should never see the light of day, as much for the film-makers’ reputations as anything. But equally there must be some in here worth watching. In fact, I know there are.

Below is the current list but I make no claim to be definitive. Feel free to suggest deletions (please!) or additions (if you must) in the comments or by e-mail. I’m going to start a regular(-ish) series of ‘Missing in Action’ blogposts on individual films that look particularly tantalising.

Just to clarify:
  • ‘Released’ in this context means a commercial release, whether in cinema, on DVD or VOD, in at least one territory. The chance for an ordinary punter (somewhere in the world) to slap some money down and watch the film.
  • Some of these films are known to have played festivals or had one-off screenings; these are marked with an asterisk. I don’t count that as a release.
  • There are a few films in this list which are only ‘unreleased’ in the sense that they are still in post-production or currently playing festivals. We can confidently expect them to be released in the near future (although nothing is ever certain).
  • This list does not include films with announced release dates: ie. The Rise of Jengo, Little Deaths, Bordello Death Tales, The Wicker Tree, Passengers, The Woman in Black, Stormhouse, The Porcelain Man, Devil’s Bridge, Vampires: Brighter in Darkness and The Harsh Light of Day
  • It is possible that some of these films were never finished although I’m reasonably sure they all at least started principal photography.
  • All of these are, as far as I know, features running at least 70 minutes.
  • My definition of ‘British horror film’ is actually quite conservative, in terms of judgement calls about international co-productions, borderline ‘dark thrillers’ etc. I try to keep my lists short, not all-inclusive!
Any way you slice it, this is a remarkable, fascinating list:

Airborne (d.Dominic Burns)
Alien Rising (d.Nigel Moran)
Ambition (d.Nicolas Forzy)
Animal Soup (d.David VG Davies)
Bad Place (d.Darren Winter)*
The Battersea Ripper aka Manilla Envelopes (d.Nick Tyrone)*
Beast in the Basement aka Conquering Heroes (d.Robbie Moffat)*
Before Dawn (d.Dominic Brunt)
Bicycle Day aka Bad Trip (d.Damian Morter)
Blood Army aka Nephilim (d.Will Moore)
The Box (d.Jason Wilcox)
Cockneys vs Zombies (d.Matthias Hoene)
Collateral Consequences (d.Paul TT Easter)
Comedown (d.Menhaj Juda)
Community aka Final Project (d.Jason Ford)
Creepsville (d.Michael J Dixon)
The Dark Hunter (d.Duncan Cowan, Mark Jackson)
Dark Journey aka Parkside Hell House (d.James White)
Dark Night (d.Daniel Grant)*
Dead Crazy (d.Frank Scantori)
Dead Dog Blues (d.Aimee Stephenson)*
Dead Frequency (d.Rob Burrows)*
The Dead Inside (d.Andrew Gilbert)*
Deadtime (d.Tony Jopia)
Dead Time (d.Jason Wilcox)
Death (d.Martin Gooch)
Demon (d.Mark Duffield)
The Demon Within (d.Harold Gasnier)
The Devil’s Business (d.Sean Hogan)*
Dreaming of Screaming (d. Lee Burgess, John Ninnis, Tuesday Burgess)
The Dungeon Moor Killings (d.Jim Hickey)*
A Dying Breed (d.Katharine Collins)
Eldorado (d.Richard Driscoll)
Ellie Rose aka Not Alone (d.Tristan Versluis)
Entity (d.Steve Stone)
Every Picture (d.Tobias Tobbell)*
Expiry Date (d.Karen Bird)*
The Fallow Field (d.Leigh Dovey)*
A Fantastic Fear of Everything (d.Chris Hopewell, Crispian Mills)
Le Fear (d.Jason Croot)
Forest of the Damned 2 (d.Ernest Riera)
For One Night Only (d.Belinda Greensmith)
The Found Not Missing (d.Luke Massey)
Fragments (d.Ross Dickson)
Furor: Rage of the Innocent (d,Victor Marke)*
The Glass Man (d.Cristian Solimeno)*
Gozo (d. Stephen Shell)
Grabbers (d.Jon Wright)
Graders (d.David Hutchison)*
A Grave for the Corpses (d.SN Sibley)
Grave Tales (d. Don Fearney)*
Graveyard Shift: A Zomedy of Terrors (d.Sapphira Sen-Gupta, Denise Channing)
The Great Ghost Rescue (d.Yann Samuell)
Guinea Pigs (d.Ian Clark)*
Hacked Off (d.Andrew Weild)
Hard Shoulder (d.Nicholas David Lean)
Harmony’s Requiem aka Silent Terror (d.Mark McDermott)*
Harold’s Going Stiff (d.Keith Wright)*
The Harrowing (d.Tim Burke)
Haunted (d.Steven M Smith)
The Haunting of Harry Payne (d.Martyn Pick)
The Haven (dir.Ray Kilby)
HellBilly 58 (d.Russ Diaper)
Heretic (d.Peter Handford)
High Stakes (d.Peter Ferris)
The Holding (d.Susan Jacobson)*
Hollow (d.Michael Axelgaard)*
Horrorcide (d.Rakie Keig)
The Horror of the Dolls (d.Shane Davey)*
The Hounds (d.Maurizio & Roberto Del Piccolo)*
Inbred (d.Alex Chandon)*
In the Dark Half (d.Alastair Siddons)
Invisible Eyes (d.Olivier Cohen)*
Jacob’s Hammer aka Jacob (d.Angie Bojtler)
Lady of the Dark: Genesis of the Serpent Vampire (d.Philip Gardiner)
The Last Blood Line (d.John Evans)
The Last Zombi Hunter (d.SN Sibley)
Legend of the Alleyman (d.Mike Jelves)
The Legend of the 5ive (d.James P Weatherall)*
Lethal (d.Darcia Martin)
Liberty Bleeds (d.Stuart Wood)
The Lost (d.Johan Neethling)
Martyr (d.Shaun Troke)
May I Kill U? (d.Stuart Urban)
Monitor (d.David VG Davies)
Myth (d.John Aldridge)
A Night in the Woods (d.Richard Parry)*
Night is Day (d.Fraser Coull)
Occasional Monsters (d.Sam Addison, Michael Cox)*
Old Blood (d.Sapphira Sen-Gupta, Denise Channing)*
One Hour to Die (d.Philip Gardiner)
Patient 17 (d.Tuyet Le)*
The Perfect Burger (d.Todd Carty)
Piggy (d.Kieron Hawks)
The Power (d.Paul Hills)
Psychosomatic (d.Andrew C Tanner)*
Purgatory (d.Stuart Wood)
A Reckoning aka Straw Man (d. AD Barker)
Re-evolution (d.Andrew Walkington)
The Reverend (d. Neil Jones)*
Rising Tide (d.Dawn Furness, Philip Shotton)*
Rock and Roll Fuck’n’Lovely (d.Josh Bagnall)
Sacrificed (d.Keith Bradley)*
Sawney: Flesh of Man (d.Ricky Wood Jnr)
Scopia (d.Chris Butler)
Screen (d.David P Baker)
Season of the Witch (d.Peter Goddard)*
Seven Crosses (d.Robbie Moffat)*
Showreel (d.Ross Birkbeck)
Simon and Emily (d.Lee Isserow)
Slasher House (d.Michael J Dixon)
Slumber Party (d.Martin Marshall)
Sparrow (d.Shaun Troke)
Stag Hunt (d.James Shanks)
Stitches aka The Killer Gloves (d.Trevor Fleming, Lee Isserow)*
Strippers vs Werewolves (d. Jonathan Glendenning)
Telephone Detectives (d.Mark Reynaud)
Third Contact (d.Simon Horrocks)*
Three’s a Shroud (d.David VG Davies, Dan Brownlie, Andy Edwards)
Through the Looking Glass (d.Craig Griffith)*
Tied in Blood (d.Kevin McDonagh)
Till Sunset (d.David Woods)
Transylvanian Express (d.Kirby Leitko)
Truth or Dare (d.Robert Heath)
Tuck Bushman and the Legend of Piddledown Dale (d.Chris Lumb)*
UFO (d.Dominic Burns)
Unwelcome (d.Keith R Robinson)
The Urge (d.Chris Andrews)
Venus Drowning (d. Andrew Parkinson)*
A Very Grimm Fairy Tale (d.Scott Johnson)
Voodoo Lagoon (d.Nick Cohen)*
Warhouse (d.Luke Massey)
Webkam (d.Ibraheem James Layton)
When the Lights Went Out aka Speak No Evil (d.Pat Holden)
Wilby Park (d.Ian Fielding)
Within (d.John A Curtis, Merlin Ward)
Within the Woods (d.Luke Massey)
The Zombie King (d.Aidan Belizaire)
Zombies of the Night (d.Stuart Brennan)

1 comment:

  1. Thanks to Chris Knight for suggesting Screen, shot in the States by Scottish film-maker David Paul Baker, and Eschatrilogy, a partially shot zombie anthology directed by Damian Morter.

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