Thursday 19 September 2013

Andrew Parkinson's three features to be re/released

Jinga Films, the fine label run by Julian Richards, is planning to release three features by Andrew Parkinson next year, and all of them are excellent films worthy of your attention.

I, Zombie is still, after all these years, one of the very best British horror films of the past 20 years, a bleak, powerful tale of horror, introspection and social realism. And of historical interest as the debut credit for the UK's number one prosthetic make-up guy (and now director too) Paul Hyett, who was just a teenager when he worked on Andy's film.

Dead Creatures was the follow-up (but not sequel) and is a second brilliant slice of post-modern zombie horror: a study in contrast between dark, brutal savagery and caring companionship. Not as iconic as I, Zombie but just as good. A superb example of the burgeoning millenial rebirth of British horror cinema.

Both zombie films have been released before (I, Zombie was originally on VHS!) but this will be the first release of Parkinson's third feature. Enigmatic, Cronenbergian body horror science fiction set in an evocatively desolate British seaside locale, Venus Drowning is an extraordinary film, sort of The Brood meets Liquid Sky.

The success of Little Deaths has raised Andrew Parkinson's profile recently. If you haven't seen these earlier features, buy them when released. And hopefully we won't have to wait five years for the next Andy Parkinson movie.