Thursday 30 July 2020

Beware the Eye of Amun-Ra


d./p. Chris Starmer; w. Simon Hopkins, Chris Starmer; cast: Simon Hopkins, Neil Brooke, Joanne Archer, Angus Brooks, Chris Chaplin, David Chappell, Natalie Chisholm, Rich Llewellyn, David Mander, Derek McQuiston, Roger Simons, Chris Starmer

British animated features are scarce, British mummy films even rarer, so props are due to this unique action-horror-comedy about two MI6 agents and a nightclub singer who face a reanimated Pharaoh while searching Cairo for a stolen diamond. Starting life as a 1988 audio drama entitled The Curse of Seven Swedish Maids, this took seven years to produce using gaming software called Muvizu. Almost-one-man-band Starmer had some stop-motion experience but was a CG novice so this is a tremendously impressive piece of work. In all honesty, no-one is going to confuse it with Pixar: characters are stiff, polygonal and inexpressive, although the backgrounds are beautifully rich and detailed. A cast of local amdram players do a good job and there are some nice gags in dialogue and on screen. With some surprisingly gory deaths and some random vampires near the end! There was a single local screening in Northampton and an October 2018 VOD release but otherwise this has gone largely unnoticed.

2 comments:

  1. Hi MJ. I saw this some time ago, I quite enjoyed it. There is another animated UK horror from 2018 Ticket Zero by Ian Chisholm about 66 mins long, I couldn't see it on the site. It's animated like a computer game like an older Tomb Raider so a little clunky, but it is low budget so allowances need to be made. A group of computer trouble shooters are brought in to solve on going problems with a high tech system but there appears to be more then a ghost in the machine. I like it, it has some good group dynamics and quite creepy with some nasty deaths, not the most original, still well enough done. It's on you tube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?
    Wayne Mook aka Radiomoo

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Wayne. That's on my list but I haven't got round to it yet. I think there's five animated British horrors all told: these two, Dominator, Wolfskin and of course Curse of the Were Rabbit. (Plus Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampire's but I don't think that's ever been seen outside festivals so it doesn't make my masterlist.)

      Delete