Inbred goes Japanese

Apparently the utterly brilliant Inbred was released theatrically in Japan on Friday! Here's the subtitled version of the trailer - including the "Ee bah gum" song - and there's a website at www.inbred.jp. (I don't know what film the background image on the site's 'Trailer' page is from, but it's certainly not Inbred!)

British Horror Film Festival Awards nominations announced

And here are the shortlists for each category. The festival is in London on 12th-13th October and the awards will be announced on the Saturday evening.

• Festival website 

Best Cinematography:Trid An Stoirm
The Other Side
Demon
British Horror Award:Darkwood Manor
Three’s A Shroud
Beneath
Best Student Film:Darkwood Manor
Between Friends
Best Director:Santoro Brothers - The Other Side
Mark Duffield - Demon
Neill Gorton - Mother Died

Best Actor:Tom Hall – Demon
Paul Davis – The Other Side
Thomas Coombes – Love Bug

Best Actress:Sarah Winter – Mother Died
Clare Langford – Demon
Jennie Jacques – The Other Side

Best Music:Demon
Arthouse Massacre
Trid An Stoirm
Best Short Film:Love Bug- dir. by Benjamin Kent
One Night in Sutherland Hill- dir. by Michael Cullaghan
Shoreditch Slayer- dir. by Simon Levene
The Deadfall- dir. by Nic Alderton
The Tunnel- dir. by Ivan Radovic
Mother Died- dir. by Neill Gorton
Between Friends- dir. by Gerhardt Slawitschka
Just The 2 Of Us- dir. by Mat Brooks
Beneath- dir. by Al White
Trid An Stoirm- dir. by Fred Burdy
The Other Side- dir. by The Santoro Brothers

Best Feature Film:Demon – dir. By Mark Duffield
Three’s A Shroud – dir. By Dan Brownlie, David V.G. Davies and Andy Edwards
Darkwood Manor – dir. By Liam Hooper
Art House Massacre – dir. By Steve Laurence

Best Screenplay:Blood and Fangs: The Bloodening by Dabid McLeod

Audience Awards:short films, as above

Umbrage becomes A Vampire's Tale

British vampire western Umbrage: The First Vampire (filmed as just Umbrage) has been rebranded for its US release.

Lions Gate release the film on DVD, VOD and download on 4th December as A Vampire's Tale with a sleeve that makes it look like a full-on western.

Festival round-up 7: Grimmfest

Grimmfest this year has the world premiere of Menaj Huda's Comedown (with Q&A) and is also screening Cockneys vs Zombies, Grabbers (see: they say it's Irish but Mayhem says it's British... I just want to see it), Before Dawn and - blimey, when did this escape? - the UK premiere of Andrew Goth's Gallowwalker!

Also UK shorts The Other Side (Alex and Oli Santoro), My Brother's Keeper (Jen Moss), Yellow (Ryan Haysom), Welcome to Leathermill (Russell England), The Raven (Jenny Longworth), The Cleaner (Ben Edmonton and Sam Twyman), Sunday Best (Clive Tonge) and Dysmorphia, the debut short by Andy Stewart of AndyErupts.

Grimmfest is at the Dancehouse Theatre, Manchester over 4th-7th October.

Festival round-up 6: Festival of Fantastic Films

The FFF is the longest-running genre film event in Britain, now in its 23rd year, and one of the best. I've been every year (except one) since 1995 and never fail to have a great time. It's more of a convention than a festival, held in a hotel where punters and guests can mingle in the bar all weekend, talking toot and drinking. Most of the films are great old stuff but there are always some new pictures in competition too.

This year they're screening Alex Chandon's Inbred, Bryan Tyrrell's Premiss, Andrew Spencer's The Casebook of Eddie Brewer and Gary Andrews' The Spirt of Albion as well as a couple of new British superhero flicks: David Barras' Electric Man and Jordan Galland's Alter Egos.

Guests include the always wonderful Michael Armstrong, the legendary Linnea Quigley and a Children of the Damned reunion with Martin Stephens and Lesley and Teri Scoble.

The Festival of Fantastic Films is at the Manchester Conference Centre over 26th-28th October. I will be there (and so will Mrs S and young TF Simpson). Find me in the bar!

Festival round-up 5: British Horror Film Festival

Last week I posted about the features at this year's British Horror Film Festival (just to remind you, it's Three's a Shroud, Demon, Darkwood Manor and Art House Massacre).

The full list of shorts has now been announced and runs like this: ove Bug- dir. by Benjamin Kent.

• One Night in Sutherland Hill - Michael Cullaghan
• Shoreditch Slayer - Simon Levene
• The Deadfall - Nic Alderton
• The Tunnel - Ivan Radovic
• Mother Died - Neill Gorton (should be interesting - Gorton is a top FX bloke)
• Between Friends - Gerhardt Slawitschka
• Just The 2 Of Us - Mat Brooks
• Beneath - Al White
• Trid An Stoirm - Fred Burdy
• The Other Side - The Santoro Brothers

The British Horror Film Festival will be held at the Empire, Leicester Square over 12th-13th October. I'm hoping to get down to this one.

Festival round-up 4: Cochise

The Cochise Film Festival in Nottinghamshire has a great line-up of B-movies and trash flicks including some British titles. They are showing anthology feature Three’s a Shroud; one of the segments of that was directed by David VG Davies who will be at the event, also screening his film Monitor.

Also screening is The Hounds, directed by Maurizio & Roberto Del Piccolo, at least one of whom will be there. And although it’s not at all British, can I recommend my mate Ivan Zuccon’s superb film NyMpha starring Tiffany Shepis in one of her best roles.

The Cochise Film Festival is at the Masonic Hall, Retford over 3rd-4th November.

Festival round-up 3: Bram Stoker

The Bram Stoker Film Festival in Whitby has the world premiere of Steve Stone’s feature Entity (with director Q&A). They also have Dominic Brunt there to introduce his zombie feature Before Dawn which is getting a lot of good press, and Alex Chandon on hand for a screening of Inbred.

Martin Gooch will be in attendance for a screening of his feature Death (which is listed as UK premiere but didn’t it play Sci-Fi London back in May?). And Eileen Daly will introduce a screening of Razor Blade Smile - can you believe that film is 14 years old now?

They also have some British shorts: Ben Kent’s Love Bug, Josh Alott’s Wasted Youth and the world premiere of Mark Triller’s True Love. Plus lots of other films from around the world.

The Bram Stoker Film Festival takes place at the Spa Pavilion, Whitby over 25th-28th October.

Festival round-up 2: Abertoir

Abertoir, the ‘National Horror Festival of Wales’, hasn’t yet announced its feature line-up but has announced the shorts which will be competing for a Melies d’Argent.

There are three UK films in contention: Axelle Carolyn’s The Halloween Kid, Toby Meakins’ Lot 254 and Ben Kent’s Love Bug. Plus films from Canada, Germany, Serbia, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands and - crikey - Uruguay.

Abertoir is at the Aberystwyth Arts Centre over 6th-11th November.

Festival round-up 1: Mayhem

The Mayhem Horror Festival in Nottingham is screening the European premiere of Steven (Mum and Dad) Sheil’s Dead Mine - not a UK film but made in Indonesia for HBO Asia. Sheil of course is one of the festival organisers.

They do have some homegrown horrors too: Ben Wheatley’s Sightseers, the Anglo-Irish Grabbers (which they list as a UK film but other sources consider to be predominantly Irish), Andrew Spencer’s The Casebook of Eddie Brewer, Ian Clark’s Guinea Pigs and Joe Ahearne’s new BBC TV production The Secret of Crickley Hall. There are some shorts too but they’re not itemised on the website.

Mayhem is at the Broadway Cinema from 31st October to 4th November.

Can't wait to see... Silent Night Bloody Night: The Homecoming

A British remake of obscure 1974 Yuletide slasher flick Silent Night Bloody Night? Heck yes. Directed by James Plumb and co-written with Andrew Jones (The Feral Generation), this looks to be yet another in the British Horror Revival's current Welsh mini-boom.

Plumb has landed a distribution deals for SNBNTH with 101 Films in the UK and is talking to a US distributor, which bodes very well. Find out more at www.madsciencefilms.com.

Many of the cast and crew also worked on Plumb's other eagerly awaited, in-post feature Night of the Living Dead: Resurrection. Speaking of which...

Can't wait to see... Night of the Living Dead: Resurrection

A British entry into the wide-ranging subgenre of NOTLD sequels, prequels, remakes and spin-offs? Heck yes. Directed by James Plumb and co-written with Andrew Jones (The Feral Generation), this looks to be yet aanother in the British Horror Revival's current Welsh mini-boom.

Plumb has landed distribution deals for NOTLDR with Lionsgate in the US and 4Digital in the UK (with a limited theatrical run), which bodes very well. Find out more at www.madsciencefilms.com.

Many of the cast and crew also worked on Plumb's other eagerly awaited, in-post feature Silent Night Bloody Night: The Homecoming. Speaking of which...

Four new features at British Horror Film Festival

The British Horror Film Festival 2012 plays at the Empire Cinema, Leicester Square on 12th/13th October with a great line-up of four features and a selection of shorts. Friday evening’s film is Demon, the new feature from Mark Duffield (Ghost of Mae Nak): “Demon is the bloodiest love story of all. Set in Victorian London it tells the tale of Lorcan a young handsome man cursed by love that transforms him into a blood thirsty demon.”

Saturday kicks off with eagerly awaited anthology feature Three’s a Shroud, which features Emily Booth and Eleanor James among its cast(s). Then there’s Steve Laurence’s Art House Massacre: “a nail bitingly tense suspense horror set over one gruesome night ... etc etc ... Now: Liz is trapped in the dungeon-like basement of the house, in the clutches of a murderous psychopath with artistic pretensions, and caught up in an organ-harvesting nightmare.”

Finally there’s Darkwood Manor, which was directed by 17-year-old Liam Hooper: “when the intrepid group of volunteers and their form tutor arrive at the manor it quickly becomes clear that the resident evil is not a ghost after all and, one by one, they start to disappear”.

There are also a number of shorts playing. Full line-up to be announced but including Mat Brooks’ Just the 2 of Us, Nic Alderton’s The Deadfall and Matthew Callaghan’s One Night in Sutherland Hill (produced by the folk behind the Outpost movies).

Tickets for everything will be on sale soon.

Inbred in cinemas next week

It's been way, way too long since Alex Chandon gave the world Cradle of Fear. Finally, his new feature Inbred arrives in UK cinemas on 21st September, although I can't find any details of which ones. Probably not round here as nothing ever plays Leicester.

With production design by Mel Light, special effects by Tris Versluis and a cast that includes Emily Booth and Mat Fraser, this promises to be a real treat. Full details at www.inbredmovie.com

The DVD, with deleted scenes, director's diary, Making Of and more, is out on 15 October.

Can't wait to see... Backslasher

It is perhaps a measure of how much recent British horror films have dominated my life over the past year of book-writing that I can get unfeasibly excited about a film that brings together two people who both get space in Urban Terrors.

Backslasher stars the always wonderful Eleanor James (HellBride, Bordello Death Tales) and pairs her up with none other than Northamptonshire's own Jason Impey (director of Sick Bastard, Home Made, The Turning and many others).

Eleanor plays a woman starts her own 'Ann Summers' style business and uses social networking for promotion, but later discovers her friends list is being used as a hit list...

Impey also DP-ed this feature from Tim Cowles, a screener for which was recently added to the TBW pile here in Leicester. The film will be made available for digital download on 20th November, and can be pre-ordered now from www.backslasher.com

Here are some stills and the trailer:

Jacob's Hammer set for Halloween cinema release

Angie Bojtler's creepy kid horror flick Jacob's Hammer (formerly known as Jacob) is apparently set for a theatrical release on 31st October, although I have no idea how extensive that will be.

The cast includes George McCluskey (The Zombie King, Catalina: A New Kind of Superhero), Helen Holman (Harmony's Requiem), Diane Rimmer and Adi Alfa. Make-up effects by Vera-Maria Fenlon (The Eschatrilogy). Here's the trailer: