Saturday 10 September 2016

Trailer for lost British slasher Evil Elvis emerges after 17 years!

No matter how much of a horror fan you are, you have never seen the British slasher Evil Elvis. It was made back in 1999 by Fearnort, the movie side of 2000AD publisher/games company Rebellion, whose other foray into horror was cheesy oil rig film Parasite aka Hell’s Mouth. That film’s director, Andrew Prendergast, also wrote and directed Evil Elvis.

To date, no actual evidence of the film has emerged, beyond a minimal IMDB page that doesn’t even have a cast list (but see below). No stills, no poster, no clips, no trailer. We all know that some things listed on the IMDB were wishful thinking but Evil Elvis was definitely filmed – and finished – because in November 2011 it was passed as a ‘15’ by the BBFC. Since then this tantalising movie has been top of my Whatever Happened To list. There is also a page on the Festival Focus website which has this basic synopsis: “A convicted murderer with a penchant for The King brakes [sic] free whilst being transported to another prison facility. He goes on a new killing spree but there's one girl who can stand up to him.”

So you can imagine how excited I was to discover that a couple of weeks ago someone named Lee Mason posted the trailer onto YouTube. I don’t know who he is or whether he has any connection with the film, but thanks dude!


Obviously you can’t tell from the trailer whether the movie is any good. It’s a slasher about a maniac in an Elvis mask, and the areas where slashers tend to disappoint – plot and characterisation – aren’t things that come across in trailers.

Still, it’s a fun 67 seconds and raises the hope that one day the remaining 74 minutes might emerge somewhere. The Presley estate are notoriously litigious so I have always assumed that the film’s disappearance was some sort of copyright/trademark thing, but that’s just a guess.

Although the BBFC doesn’t list the cast, the BBFC website does so I can tell you that the film stars Rebecca Vaughan, Jonathan Monks, Phil Davies, Richard Stacey and Robert East (presumably the guy who played Prince Harry in the first series of Blackadder). Interestingly, in her bio Rebecca Vaughan refers to the film by an alternative title, Grace’s Land.



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