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...

In Fear screening and director Q&A, 10th March, to promote DVD

Press release:

In Fear releases on DVD & Blu-ray 10th March 2014 and to celebrate, StudioCanal (in partnership with Total Film magazine) is hosting a special screening event at The Prince Charles Cinema.

Fans have one last chance to watch this tense psychological horror on the big screen, taking place at 6.30pm on Monday 10th March, and will also be treated to an exclusive Q&A with the Director Jeremy Lovering – hosted by Total Film’s Editor-at-Large Jamie Graham.

The film stars Iain De Caestecker (Filth) and Alice Englert (Beautiful Creatures) as a young couple fighting to make it through the night when they find themselves trapped in a maze of country roads.

With only their vehicle for protection, Tom (De Caestecker) and Lucy (Englert) become terrorised by an unseen tormentor hell-bent on exploiting their worst fears. Driving, lost and tormented in the night, primal fears of the dark and the unknown give way to fear that you have let the evil in, or that it is already there.

Also starring Allen Leech (Downton Abbey), IN FEAR is directed by Jeremy Lovering (Sherlock) and produced by Nira Park (Shaun of the Dead, The World’s End, Sightseers).

Tickets are limited – so to get yours visit The Prince Charles Cinema website.

Death on DVD

Here's director Martin Gooch enjoying the moment every film-maker is working towards - seeing his movie on the shelf at HMV.

Death (aka After Death) was shot three years ago, had a VOD release in June 2012 and finally became available on a shiny disc yesterday, courtesy of a distributor called Three Wolves Ltd.

Synopsis: "Following the death of their Dad, four brothers and sisters return to the family home after many years to face each other, face facts and face the future. But what do they know of the past? Frankenstein meets The Others. An indie film for lovers of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Amelie, Truly Madly Deeply and lovers of all that is Gothic."

Death stars the incomparable Leslie Phillips (who narrated Gooch's legendary short Arthur's Amazing Things), Ben Shockley (Bloodmyth, Ten Dead Men, Left for Dead), Nick Moran (Puritan, Harry Potter 7 and 8), David Wayman (Art House Massacre, Nazi Zombie Death Tales, The Dead Inside) and of course Miss Emily Booth (who was also in Arthur's Amazing Things).

For more info, see deaththemovie.co.uk and www.martingooch.com

Bordello Death Tales US sleeve - and one that got away

Pat Higgins sent me this, the DVD sleeve of the American disc of Bordello Death Tales, due soon from Chemical Burn Entertainment. Apparently Battlefield Death Tales aka Zombie Death Tales aka Nazi Zombie Death Tales will also have a US release... as Angry Nazi Zombies. Because three titles just isn't enough. And because the film doesn't actually have any Nazi zombies in it.

Pat also sent me this, an unused British DVD sleeve which was going to have my quote front and centre...

Shell Shocked: Dominic Brunt's war/horror short

Dominic Brunt, who previously brought us the marvellous zombie feature Before Dawn, has directed a short war/horror film which is available to view online. Shell Shocked premiered at last year's Frightfest and is now on YouTube.

Written by Joanne Mitchell (ie. Mrs Brunt) from an idea by their six-year-old son, Shell Shocked stars Geoffrey Newland as a British squaddie and Anthony Mark Street (Where Seagulls Cry a Song, Stormhouse) as a German soldier. Set in a claustrophobic trench, the last inhabitant of which is still lying in a bloody mess, this is a bleak and powerful film, a sobering consideration of the inhuman horrors of war with an unexpectedly horrific twist. Check it out.

British horror shopping list, first quarter 2014

Here's what's coming up on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, over the next three months:

• 6th January: Heretic (UK)
• 7th January: Amityville Asylum (USA), Dead of the Nite (USA)
• 13th January: Evil Never Dies (UK)
• 21st January: Splash Area: Night of the Freaks (USA)
• 10th February: Amityville Asylum (UK)
• 11th February: A Night in the Woods (USA), The Reverend (USA)
• 17th February: Stalled (UK)
• 18th February: I, Zombie (USA), Dead Creatures (USA), Venus Drowning (USA), Silent Night: Bloody Night: The Homecoming (USA)
• 4th March: The Facility (USA)
• 10th March: Rehab (UK), Outpost III: Rise of the Spetsnaz (UK)
• 24th March: Dead of the Nite (UK)