Benny Loves Killing online for two weeks

Benny Loves Killing, directed by Ben Woodiwiss, will be available online for two weeks from Friday 1st May. It's part of something called the American Online Film Awards (AOFAs) and apparently you can buy a pass to see a whole bunch of such things for just three bucks.

The AOFA site doesn't sem to have any information on what or how many films are available, but even if you only watching Benny Loves Killing, that's less than two quid so pretty worth it.

"The film follows the struggles of a student making a horror film, only for her life to fall apart. A tense, claustrophobic love letter to cinema."

There's a Benny Loves Killing Facebook page and you can watch the first five minutes for free on Reelhouse.

Red Kingdom Rising available on DVD

Navin Dev's fabulous Carrollian horror fantasy Red Kingdom Rising - which I called "a hugely impressive feature debut, a visual poem reminiscent of the masters of dreamlike cinema" - is finally available to buy.

The disc is now available on Amazon.com, including 5.1 surround sound, trailers and two of Navin's award-wining short films, Red Hood and The Tree Man.

• Buy the DVD for ten bucks from Amazon
• My review of Red Kingdom Rising
• My interview with Navin Dev

Ten years of The Last Horror Movie: DVD sleeve gallery

Julian Richards' The Last Horror Movie is re-released in the UK next week in a' tenth anniversary edition' by Soda Pictures. For my money, it's a strong contender for the best British horror film of the 21st century and if you've never seen it, here's your chance to remedy that. In the next week I will be adding to my website a number of interviews I've done over the years with Julian and with the film's star Kevin Howarth. Until then, here's a round-up of VHS and DVD sleeves from the past ten years. On the top row is, left, the original VHS sleeve which matches the one shown in the film, and right, the new Soda release.

And here's the original UK trailer (with a quote by me!)

Killer clown office horror Lock In now available on VOD

Mark J Howard’s feature Lock In, which premiered at Horror-on-Sea in January, sneaked onto VOD last month without anyone noticing. The publicity calls it a ‘psychological thriller’ which is misleading (or, if it’s accurate, the trailer is misleading) because this appears to be a film about a killer clown brutally and gorily killing people in an office building using a variety of builder’s tools.

Yes, that sounds like a psychological thriller. Come on, truth in advertising please folks.

The film stars Roy Basnett, Jessica Cunningham, Steve Greenhalgh (also producer), James Thompson, Jeff Downs and Tim Paley. Make-up effects by the Funstorm Industries team of Craig Read, Jen Walker and Dave Mohammadi.

The film can be purchased for $7.99 from VHX. Find out more on Facebook or at www.lockinthemovie.co.uk. The film-makers are planning a charity screening next month somewhere in the North West in aid of Help for Heroes, details TBC.

Here's the trailer:

Lots and lots of new titles

Yesterday I did a big round-up of British horror stuff and found a ton of new in-production movies that weren't on my list, including Afterdeath (d.Robin Schmidt, Gez Medinger), Altar (d.Nick Willing), The Apostate (d.Andy Dodd) and Blood Moon (d.Jeremy Wooding).

Also Christmas Hear Kids (d.Chris Purnell), Christmas Slay (d.Steve Davis), Death Walks (d.Spencer Hawken), Discarnate (d.Rusty Apper), Disturbed (d.Nakkeeran), Drax Manor (d.Ryan Merchant), The Fort (d.Doug Cubin), Geek Undead (d.Jason Jackson), The Guest Room (d.Adi Parige) and Haters (d.Vincent Cleghorne).

Plus The Haunting of Baylock Residence (d.Anthony M Winson), The House of Him (d.Robert Florence), House of Silence (d.Lawrence Parmenter), Impurity (d.Andy Remic), Jagoda (d.Lex Hefner), Merry Z-Day (d.Ben Steele, Lily Jenkins), Monstrum (d.Jonathan Kemp & James J Powdrill), The Mothertown (d.John Williams) and The 9th (d.Nathan Codrington)

And No Reasons (d.Spencer Hawken) and Plan Z (d.Stuart Brennan) and She’s Dead (d.Nik Box) and The Snare (CA Cooper), also Starcache (d.Douglas Sannachan), Territory (d.Tom Saville, Robert Vassie), Torture (d.Jason Wright), The Unfolding (d.Eugene McGing) and A Vault of Victims (d. Anthony Brems,Maria Lee Metheringham and Will Metheringham), And Wandering Rose (d.Corrie Greenop)

And The Wine Dancers (d.Dave Lewis).

And The Wrong Side of Town (d.Craig Quinn).

All of the above began production within the past couple of years. Some have wrapped. Some are complete. A few have even had screenings but remain unreleased. I will try to feature some of them in more detail in the coming days. But you can see what a big job it is keeping track of this stuff...

Wild Eye picks up A Date with Ghosts

This recent report in the Nottingham Evening Post says that Jason Brown has signed a distribution deal with Wild Eye releasing for his debut feature A Date with Ghosts which was shot in and around Notingham a couple of years ago.

This will be Wild Eye's first British title. They have previously released some good movies including Exhumed and Caesar and Otto's Deadly Xmas.

The Glass Man on DVD at last... in South America

In today's global market, it's extraordinary how many British horror films get released abroad before appearing on UK shelves. I recently reported how Zombie Resurrection had made its debut in Japan. The Zombie King and Art of Darkness have both had German releases with no sign of a British one, while Gangsters, Guns and Zombies was available on amazon.fr before amazon.co.uk

But this really takes the biscuit. I've been wondering for some time what had happened to Cristian Solimeno's The Glass Man (starring Andy Nyman from Severance) after its premiere at Frightfest in 2011. Well, if you're desperate to see the film you can now buy it on DVD - in Argentina!

The title is Un Hombre al Limite. It's Region 4, has English and Spanish subs and will set you back about 110 Pesos. Plus postage.

Paul Hyett tackles werewolves in Howl

Effects artist turned director Paul Hyett is following his magnificent debut feature The Seasoning House with something very different, a werewolf movie set on a train. To call this exciting news is an understatement.

The script is by Nick Ostler and Mark Huckerby who have lots of kidimation credits (Tree Fu Tom, Octonauts etc) and another horror feature in development, Don't Knock Twice. Martin Gentles and Ed King of Starchild Pictures are producing.

Follow @HowlMovie for updates and pictures like this full-body cast created as the basis for the werewolf suit. Although be aware that the website linked from there, www.howlmovie.com, isn't live yet.

The Ditch - third time lucky?

Despite only having two cast members and running a mere 15 minutes, British horror short The Ditch has taken 18 months to film, apparently. Some footage was shot in September 2012 and some more in September 2013 but both shoots were cancelled because of problems with the weather. Now writer-directir Sheena Holliday has rewritten her script for interior scenes and plans to finish the picure next month.

Holliday's previous shorts include A Plaster, a Paper and a Cheese and Pickle Sandwich and 0800-FINALGIRL. The two actreses are Lucy Wilkins (Harold's Going Stiff) and Katie Pattinson.

Waiting for Gorgo took about six years to get made from pre-production to premiere, and that was only 18 minutes so I have every sympathy with Sheena and co. Find out more at theditchmovie.wordpress.com and www.facebook.com/theditchmovie

First look at The Library - yet another new British horror!

There must be something in the air right now because this is the fourth new British horror film to have come to my attention in less than a week! It's called The Library, it's directed by Daljinder Singh and it stars Sibylle Bernardin, Bradley Carpenter and Kathryn Walker.

Here's the synopsis:

The Library is a riveting suspense thriller with intense shades of psychological horror. Despite being warned, Lucy Clarke starts work at the mysterious Beckinsale Library. She not only meets strange and colourful characters, but also finds herself confronted by the dark secrets that lay hidden behind the buildings walls. The Library doesn't want Lucy there and before long it unleashes a chain of terrifying events to drive her out for good.

I'll be reviewing The Library when I get a moment, but I've got so many of these things stacking up now, I really don't know when I'm going to have a chance to work on the new book...

And in good time, here comes that review.

Hungerford - yet another new British horror

And here's yet another one. Probably easiest and qickest if I just copy and paste the press release:

A new British Horror Sci-Fi film, directed by 19-year-old Drew Casson who has made films on YouTube since he was 12, will get its World Premiere at the National Film Theatre in London on 3 May as part of this year’s SCI-FI-LONDON Film Festival.

Produced by talent incubator Wildseed Studios and shot in a vlog style, Hungerford paints a thrilling and visceral portrait of a small English town taken over by aliens, which descends into violence and carnage.

Hungerford’s teen protagonist is Cowen Rosewell, a media student whose first assignment is to record everything in a week of his life. The random acts of violence he films go largely unnoticed, dismissed as the type of trouble to take place in small English towns. However, when one of his best friends is savagely attacked by a stranger a more disturbing reality emerges.

As events escalate, Cowen and his friends discover that the town has come under a mysterious evil influence which is somehow controlling organised gangs to round people up and take them to a nearby disused factory. The friends hide, hoping to escape, but their sanctuary is discovered. As Cowen makes his way alone to the abandoned factory in search of his loved ones, the malicious force that awaits him there threatens not Cowen, but the entire world.

Jesse Cleverly, co-founder of Wildseed Studios said: “Drew is typical of the next-generation of film makers we’re investing in – a generation who have grown up on genre movies, who operate outside the institutions of the British Film Industry, and who are utterly fearless and highly proficient with the tools of production and post-production in the pursuit of excitement, scale and an audience. We’re thrilled to have produced Hungerford and thanks to the ingenuity of Drew, the crew and excellent special effects this micro-feature achieves a sense of scale more fitting for a film with 100 times the budget.”

Hungerford (78 mins) gets its world premiere at the London Sci-Fi Film Festival at the National Film Theatre on 3 May 2014 at 6pm. Buy tickets here: http://ow.ly/vALhh

#HungerfordFilm
@HungerFordFilm
www.facebook.com/HungerfordFilm

Rites of Passage - another brand new British horror

Last Friday I was at the cast and crew screening of Rites of Passage, a brand new horror feature from my old mate Steve Lawson (Insiders, The Silencer). Starring Helen Crevel, Jay Sutherland, Andrew Coughlan and Sam Smith, it's an absolutely cracking horror-thriller packed with tension and fright. Expect a full (and very positive) review on the main blog soon.* In the meantime, here are some stills and you can find out more at www.rites-movie.co.uk

*And indeed, here it is.

Zombie Resurrection - big in Japan

Believe it or not, this is a British horror film. This is in fact Andy Phelps' and Jake Hawkins' Zombie Resurrection which was shot in late 2011 and has made its global debut with a subtitled DVD release in Japan last October. Further international distribution is in the offing, but if you're desperate to see the film asap you can buy it from Amazon.jp.

For info about the film, check www.charmed-apocalypse.com

Blood and Carpet - kitchen sink retro horror

Here's the groovy trailer for Blood and Carpet, a brand new British horror feature which takes the genre back to the 1960s. Not the 1960s of Victorian Gothic Hammer but the real swinging sixties, or at least the seedy underbelly thereof. Director Graham Fletcher-Cook sells the film as a cross between Billy Liar, Up the Junction and Psycho. Or maybe it's A Taste of Honey meets Alfie meets Cover Girl Killer. Whatever, it looks great.

Fletcher-Cook is better known as an actor. He was in Sid and Nancy, he was in Straight to Hell (and a 2010 sequel of which I whit not). He was in Cry Freedom and Absolute Beginners and Stars of the Roller State Disco but of course we all know him from his turn as Mr Newman in Elisar Cabrera's Demonsoul.

The cast includes Frank Boyce (Tony), Bill Fellows (Bloodless, Zombie Women of Satan, Witch House: The Legend of Petronel Haxley), Shona McWilliams (When Evil Calls), Nicola Stapleton (Urban Ghost Story), Andrew Tiernan (Dead Cert, Man Who Sold the World) and GFC himself.

I'm looking forward to seeing this one. Expect a review as and when...