Tuesday 26 November 2013

Tons of new British horror at Horror-on-Sea 2014

The second Horror-on-Sea festival has a bunch of brand new British horror features, several of which even I have never heard of. The festival runs 17th to 19th January 2014 in Southend on Sea and the programme includes:
  • The Haunting of Harry Payne (Martyn Pick) - UK premiere "Ex-gangster Harry Payne confronts his violent past by taking vengeance from beyond the grave."
  • Lock In (Mark Howard) - world premiere "An ambitious young executive, working through the night, realises she’s not alone."
  • Evil Bread (Andy Ward) - world premiere "A film crew awakens an ancient evil, dormant for millennia and eager for souls."
  • The Casebook of Eddie Brewer (Andrew Spencer) "Eddie Brewer, an old-school paranormal investigator, is trailed as part of a documentary."
  • Molly Crows (Ray Wilkes) "Jess and her alcoholic mother are easy targets for bullies. But there's something different about Jess."
  • All the Fear of the Fair (Chris Jupp) "After a roller-coaster accident the ghosts of the dead children torment an unscrupulous developer."
  • KillerKiller: The Special Edition (Pat Higgins) "In a secure facility for captured serial killers, someone, or something, is picking off the inmates." (This is a brand new cut of Pat's terrific film from 2006.)
  • C.A.M. (Steve Du Melo/Larry Downing) "Police are deployed when a rare parasite contaminates a meat processing plant."
Plus the following British shorts:

  • Dystopia St. (David Cave) "Lost in a nightmare world, a man must unravel the mystery of his plight before he can escape."
  • Rats! (Stewart Sparke) - world premiere "When a young woman tackles a rat infestation she gets more than she bargained for."
  • Frostbite (Stewart Sparke) "Faux trailer: An Arctic research vessel discovers a submarine lost during World War II."
  • Sleepworking (Gavin Williams) "A ‘sleepworker’, programmed for menial labour while she is asleep, suffers disturbing side effects."
  • Somebody to Love (Phil Haine) "Love has found Sebastian. It just wasn’t the love he was expecting."
  • Grime Horror Trilogy (Richard Elson) "Three tales of terror – short but deadly."
  • Belly of the Wolf (Mark Fisher) "On an abandoned airbase, a young boy stumbles across a blood stained jacket."
  • Doll Face (Louis Paxton) "On a dinner date, Lilly expects Henry to declare his love. But he has an unsettling confession to make."
  • One Careful Owner (Mike Tack) - UK premiere "At Hammers Motors, has Terry the salesman met his match in Chris the awkward customer?"

All this plus numerous other new features and shorts from around the world and the brand new live show from the legendary Pat Higgins, Fake Blood and Real Guts! Writing and Filming Your Horror Classic. By all accounts last year’s Horror-on-Sea was a terrific event and I’d love to get there one year but not with my current family commitments alas.

The following weekend, the same folks are organising two days of ‘Salty Shorts’, plus another brand new British horror feature: Return of the Ghost (Jason Wilcox) "In a haunted mansion, a couple realise it isn’t only ‘occupied’ by the dead."

British short films on offer over 24th/25th January include:

  • The Collector (Sarah Goodall)
  • You are going to Die (Cameron Richardson)
  • Television (Graham Gunner)
  • Voodoo Moustache (Louis Paxton)
  • Profile in Darkness (Graeme Noble)
  • Sticky Fingers (Grahem Gunner)
  • Sweet 6Teen (Pantelis Hapeshis)
  • Pinot Rouge (Jordan Cochrane)
  • Yule (Steven Lancefield)
  • Monomania (Ben Vokes)

and a brace from my old pal Molly Brown: Haunted Hospital and Your Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse

1 comment:

  1. You won't be surprised to hear that I went, MJ. all of the Brit films featured above were pretty decent, and I'd single out THE HAUNTING OF HARRY PAYNE (on DVD as EVIL NEVER DIES, apparently) and EVIL BREAD for special praise - the former effortlessly mixes gangsterism, the supernatural, and scythe murders, and has a wonderful role for Katy Manning, while EVIL BREAD is a comedy horror that actually manages to sustain a level of humour and has some very likeable characters. Excellent shorts too, DOLLFACE (which I considered borderline but which plays around superbly with horror expectations and cliches) would particularly appeal to you, I think. Best films of the weekend were all American, though - COYOTE and BLOOD SOAKED emerging as minor classics.

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