AfterDeath
Andrew Ellard's horror movie screening at FrightFest. UPDATE: Now available On Demand!
21 August, 2015 (Updated 23 October, 2015)
Update: For those of you who didn't manage to get to see Andrew Ellard's horror movie AfterDeath when it screened at London's FrightFest festival earlier in the year, good news has arrived with the announcement that the film is now available on a variety of on-demand platforms!
You're now able to buy or rent the film on (deep breath) iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Google Play, Blinkbox, Virgin Movies, Sky Store, Volta, Wuaki, Microsoft TV & Movies and TheHorrorShow.tv. That's a lot of options.
Head on over to the official website to find links to all of these services - but if you want reminding of what the movie's all about, then read on for our original story on the film and interview with Andrew...
As far as horror goes, we're pretty wussy - about the scariest creatures we can cope with are Dr Hildegarde Lanstrom and the Polymorph - but if you're of a stronger constitution than we are, then you might be interested in FrightFest, an annual film festival held in London every August that's dedicated to gore, frights, chills and scares. And you might become even more interested when we tell you that a certain Andrew Ellard - former web editor turned Red Dwarf associate producer and script editor - has written a movie that's going to be screening at this year's festival.
AfterDeath is an independent British production, directed by Gez Mendinger and Robin Schmidt and starring Miranda Raison (Spooks, 24), Daniella Kertesz (World War Z and Sam Keeley (Monsters: Dark Continent). Here's the synopsis, to give you a teasing hint of what it's all about:
Five nightclubbers find themselves washed up by the tide. They struggle up to an abandoned beach house, only to quickly firom that here the physical rules of nature they're accustomed to do not apply. This house and the world around them is a construct which only exists to prolong their suffering - for they are dead, and the afterlife they've discovered appears to have been created only for them. But why? And do the cabin's two mysterious paintings offer clues to redemption, and a way out?
The film, which won the Dark Visions category at the Nocturna Film Festival in Madrid on its first public screening, is showing on Friday 28th August at 1pm, at the Vue Leicester Square, London. And since we can't keep him away from the website for too long, we decided to have a chat with Andrew about the film. First of all, we asked about what drew him to horror, having usually been known for comedy in his work not only on Red Dwarf, but also on The IT Crowd, Miranda and Cardinal Burns.
"Comedy and horror are a lot about timing," Andrew says, "so there's a definite relationship there. But actually I looked at it more like a sci-fi mystery, not a million miles away from my beloved Doctor Who. You wake up on a strange world - what are the rules, what's wrong with this place, what keeps attacking us and why? And, excitingly for an afterlife movie: can we get out of here?"
Andrew's involvement with the film actually came about after it had already been conceived by co-director Gez. "He brought an outline to me for notes," explains Andrew, who works regularly as a script editor giving notes on TV and movie scripts. "It was a single-location thriller set in (what turned out to be) the afterlife. I fell for it so hard I made a not-so-subtle pitch to take on the writing - which, as it turned out, included rebuilding the story from the ground up (so we knew people were dead by the time the title card shows up), and creating a new set of characters, while embracing this mad reality. Turns out in giving him those notes I just made work for myself!"
So what might those who've followed Andrew's career, from our beloved Red Dwarf to his award-winning short film Future Inc., still recognise in this bold new direction? "I realised the other day that though it's not a sitcom, it's a sit-thriller. It's mostly set in this single, strange house. And it's all about the relationships and how the characters all react differently to the scary thing that's coming for them, and how they become each others' problem because of their situation." So you're saying it's a bit like Quarantine, Andrew, right?
And if all of that still hasn't sufficiently whetted your appetite, there's a special exclusive preview comic tying into the film available on the SFX website. The film will also be getting a wider digital release in October.
Full passes to FrightFest are now sold out, but you can still buy tickets to individual films - including AfterDeath - at the festival website for £13. We heartily recommend checking it out - just don't blame us if you have nightmares...
Find out more and watch a trailer for the film at the Film4 FrightFest website!
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