Podcast interview with 'Wrong Floor' director

Marc Hamill, writer-director of British horror-crime-action-comedy-trash-grindhouse epic The Wrong Floor - in which I am privileged to appear as mad scientist Dr Logan - was interviewed this week by Wayne Kelly of The Joined Up Writing Podcast ("a regular show for writers by writers").

Marc talks about how he developed the Wrong Floor script and the importance of understanding a genre fully before working within it.

The podcast is about 35 minutes long. If you just want to hear Marc's bit, that runs from about 6'10" to about 22'20".

You can find out more about The Wrong Floor, which is now very close to wrapping principal photography, at www.facebook.com/TheWrongFloor

Japanese sleeves of British horror films, part 3

More crazy marketing from the Pacific Rim:

This is the film variously known as Doctor Sleep, Close Your Eyes and Hypnotic. It was never released in the UK.

A very different photo of Kelly Reilly on the Eden Lake sleeve.

Stuart Hazeldine's Exam: you can spot the English title faintly behind the Japanese text.

That notorious, long-delayed, much re-edited Wesley Snipes horror western.

The meat pie gives away the fact that this is Gregory Mandry's Gnaw. I love that the Japanese distributor retitled it Crazy's Kitchen!

More Japanese sleeves:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 4
• Part 5

Free preview screening of Unhallowed Ground

There is a preview screening of Unhallowed Ground, the debut feature from director Russell England, on 19th March. Tickets are free, but limited.

The screening is at West Digital Post Production, London W12. Doors open 6.30pm, lights out 7.00pm, followed by a Q&A with some of the people behind the film.

Book yourself a place here.
Here's the teaser trailer:

Japanese sleeves of British horror films, part 2

Here are some more examples of remarkable DVD packaging created for modern British horror films when released in Japan.

Monster is Andrew Goth's bonkers police/monster romp Cold and Dark, starring Luke Goss and Kevin Howarth.

Michael J Bassett's Deathwatch uses a different photo of Jamie Bell which makes him look younger and more like Billy Elliot.

I know it's a bit small but this is the only image I could find for the Japanese release of The Descent. Blame amazon.jp,

I'm reasonably sure that Hitman vs Devil is Sean Hogan's The Devil's Business.

Run of the Dead is generic zombie flick Devil's Playground, starring Danny Dyer and Craig Fairbrass. What do you mean, they should have called it Run of the Mill? That's a bit unkind.

It's that man Dyer again in Jake West's hilarious Doghouse, looking less pensive than on the UK sleeve.

A distinctly different approach for Neil Marshall's loopy post-apocalyptic epic Doomsday.

More Japanese sleeves:

• Part 1
• Part 3
• Part 4
• Part 5

Japanese sleeves of British horror films, part 1

Everyone loves Japanese movie marketing. The posters and sleeves which come out of the Land of the Rising Sun are often completely different to those found in the rest of the world, and indeed sometimes completely different to anything in the film in question.

To celebrate the UK release of Zombie Resurrection (reviewed here) which comes about 18 months after it hit shelves in Japan, here's a selection of Japanese DVD sleeves for other British Horror Revival titles:

Jonathan Glendening's 13hrs gives away the monsters, but at least they're the monsters in this film, unlike on the US sleeve.

If it wasn't for the credit block there would be no way to tell this is Adam Mason's awful debut The 13th Sign. Still, at least it's better than the UK sleeve...

28 Days Later is basically the international design with a bit of yellow tape on it.

There's a triangular angle to The Disappearance of Alice Creed.

What's this? Another sequel to Cube? Nope, it's James Eaves' vaguely Cube-esque Bane.

A cabbage wearing headphones? That can only be Berberian Sound Studio.

Enjoyably daft crime-horror romp Botched played down the horror angle, using the 'victim in toppled chair' element but not the 'lift door' or 'severed head in pool of blood'.

And finally for now: how freaking awesome is this?

More Japanese sleeves:

• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4
• Part 5

Watch Pat Higgins' brilliant A-Z of How Not to Make a Horror Movie

If you can't get to Horror-on-Sea each year (as I can't) you can at least enjoy the talk by Pat Higgins (he of Hellbride, The Devil's Music etc) which this year was entitled How Not to Make a Horror Movie. It's on Vimeo now.

Pat's 80-minute talk is liberally scattered with awesome behind-the-scenes footage plus video insert contributions from some of the best indie horror makers around including Jonathan Glendening (13Hrs), MJ Dixon (Legacy of Thorn), Dani Thompson (Serial Kaller), Jason Impey (Zombie Lover), Keith Wright (Harold's Going Stiff), Al Ronald (Jesus vs the Messiah) and Jim Eaves (Bane). There's even a brief mention of me near the end as Pat shows people a bar chart I did demonstrating the rise in British horror film production.

For anyone with an interest in contemporary British horror, this is essential viewing.

But when is Pat going to actually make another feature?

Redemption planning new Poe and Frankenstein features

Nigel Wingrove of Redemption Films is relaunching his evidently profitable 'Satanic Sluts' brand with a slate of low-budget features, some of which will certainly be more than just lesbian goth chicks masturbating.

Where the original three Satanic Sluts vids were basically collections of performance vignettes which, with the best will in the world, can't really be considered 'films', Satanic Sluts version 2.0 is a series of actual feature-length narrative productions. Nigel sent me a screener for one of the first, an avant garde feature called A Girl (review coming soon, if you'll pardon the expression).

I think A Girl can just about be considered a horror film in its depiction of a descent into madness. Some of the others lined up clearly aren't horror, but some titles do sound very promising indeed. Nigel currently has four projects on IndieGoGo including these two little gems:

WHAT IS 'I WAS A FRANKENSTEIN NYMPHOMANIAC GIRL' ABOUT?
A mad scientist obsessed with creating a living human from the remains of dead bodies creates a female monster but there is one problem, she lacks a brain! Then the scientist's ghastly assistant accidentally knocks over a drunk woman and brings her body to the scientist's laboratory. Unknown to the doctor is that this woman had a pathological condition and suffered from nymphomania, an uncontrollable and excessive sexual desire. Once the new brain is implanted in the monster the scientist realises his terrible mistake...

Or, if you fancy something a little less jolly:

WHAT IS 'THE BLACK HOUSE' ABOUT?
A bleak expressionist re-imagining of Edgar Allan Poe’s Fall of The House of Usher, featuring “The Evil Twins" from Tean SYNister.