The first day of Frightfest began with the disappointing news that the BBFC had demanded cuts on both I Spit on Your Grave and A Serbian Film. The cuts on I Spit on Your Grave totalled 43 seconds and the cuts on A Serbian Film were 3 minutes and 48 seconds.

Frightfest organisers decided that the cuts were too much for A Serbian Film and decided to pull the film, but have decided to go ahead with the screening of I Spit on Your Grave. Very disappointing news, especially considering the more relaxed approach the BBFC have been taking recently. You can find the official statement from the BBFC here.

Anyway, bad news over and on with day one… America, Australia and the UK were all represented during the first day of FrightFest 2010 with three world premieres. Adam Green’s Hatchet II opened the festival and was followed by the Australian horror Primal and British vampire flick Dead Cert.

Kicking off the festival with Hatchet II was a wise move. Adam Green’s love letter to slashers was 90 minutes of joyful fanservice and splatter filled fun. Picking up from the end of the first film, Danielle Harris as Marybeth (a role played by Tamara Feldman in the first film) escapes the swamp but wants to go back in and is joined by Reverend Zombie (Tony Todd in a much larger role than the first film) and a band of hunters on a hunt to kill Victor Crowley. Building on the mythology of Victor Crowley Green throws in even more inventive kills and the result is not only an improvement on the first film but a solid and entertaining entry into the slasher genre.

Next up was Primal which showed a lot of promise. The film had an nice premise, ancient curse turns girl into a primal killing machine, a great Australian location and early footage suggested good imagery and effective practical effects. Sadly Primal does not quite live up to this potential. An ultimately weak story coupled with lacklustre characterisation (one male character’s only defining characteristic appears to be his desire to take his top off) make the film hard to enjoy. When this is combined with a host of technical issues, including some pretty unforgivable continuity slips, Primal feels like a wasted opportunity.

Last on the Frightfest opening night schedule was Dead Cert, a film that could perhaps be described as high concept, London Gangsters vs. Vampires, but the filmmakers struggle in the delivery of this high concept in any satisfying way. To fans of Cockney hard men gangsters posturing this film may look like a lot of fun but there is little done with this generic trope beyond simple repetition of things seen many times before. The injection of vampires into the mix adds a little flavour but not enough to elevate Dead Cert from the tired cliches and low grade filmmaking that constantly drag it down. The film ends with a definite set up for a sequel so hopefully this first film can provide a base for something bigger and much better.

Follow my Frightfest adventures on Twitter @Bandini1 and @HeyUGuysLive

Check out the trailers for all three day one films, embedded below.

HATCHET II

PRIMAL

DEAD CERT

Primal trailer via Fearnet

When talking about British Film there are certain, unavoidable, assumptions one automatically makes.  Those crisply enunciated words have long conjured pictures of rolling hills, heaving bosoms, mad Kings and foppish fools.  An entire industry has been built upon the ever changing hair of Mr Hugh Grant and Jane Austen’s back catalogue has been taken advantage of in the parlour time and time again.

It is a world apart from those reliable old exports that we may find the Britain of gangster flicks.  They populate a straight-to-DVD nether world which has scant regard for global recognition.  These are not slick Ritchie flicks, attracting Hollywood stars to a middle-class vision of roughing it.  These are honest to goodness, behind the scenes at the terraces, unflinching looks at a crude life of crime.  A fist-full make it to limited big screen release bolstered by underworld faces, true-crime notoriety and boxing names.  Few seek to venture outside the paint-by-numbers plot lines.  None seemed to wander far beyond our shores.  Until now!

Dead Cert is a creature apart from its plodding predecessors.  Granted a premiere at FrightFest 2010, Black & Blue Films and Raw Film Productions’ bold new project is treading new ground in its shiny old loafers.  The film takes the staples of the genre: busty birds, brawny boys, turf wars and violence and throws in a bloody new twist – vampires!  The only heaving bosoms here run ruby red with the claret of punters past.  It sounds compelling stuff and late last year HeyUGuys were lucky enough to be granted front row seats as the carnage commenced.

A gang of tough London gangsters get more than they bargained for when a group of businessmen make an offer to buy their club, the Inferno. They turn out to be nothing less than Vampires wanting their land back and turn viciously on the gangsters when they fail to have demands met…

To bring the ambitious project in shy of a million pounds without damaging its slick appeal the producers sagely cropped production costs and, aside from location days in the country lanes and strip clubs of Essex, the bulk of Dead Cert’s shoot took place in an echoing Dagenham Warehouse.  It was here we joined the cast and crew during their (frosty) penultimate week of filming.

The eclectic cast features genre veterans Billy Murray and Craig Fairbrass, Lock Stock alumni Dexter Fletcher and Jason Flemyng and character greats Perry Benson and Steven Berkoff.  Sugar and spice are provided by scream queens Janet Montgomery and Lisa McAllister while Big Joe Egan offers all the muscle anyone could ask.  Murray also acted as one of the film’s producers and his camper van, parked up in a far corner of the warehouse, offered the closest thing to a VIP area we found on the back-to-basics shoot!  The atmosphere on location was one of tremendous camaraderie, despite the freezing temperatures.  There was a real sense of mucking in and even the syrup-drenched, bloodied extras were psyched to take a turn in the killing room.

In fact every cast member we spoke to echoed the instant sense of inclusion they felt when joining the project.  Black & Blue have sought to assemble something akin to a rep company and the benefits of that solidarity were plain to see.  Jobbing British actor Danny Midwinter (Rise of the Footsoldier, Freight) had the role of Dennis Christian written especially for him.  When we sat down together he became quite choked about his time on the film.  Billy Murray had been something of a mentor to him over the years and brought him through a dark time in his life – offering a shoulder, not to cry on, but on which to lean until he was ready to stand alone and an invite join the Black & Blue family.  It was a story I heard repeatedly during my two days on set.  Many of these good ol’ boys have had careers that ebb and flow with the slow mud drag of an estuary tide.  They are old timers, pros in the very truest sense of the word and the combined weight of their experience lent an authenticity to the production which left me intrigued to see the finished product.

Conventional career success has come more smoothly to Andy Tiernan (300, Mr Nice) perhaps, yet nevertheless he was relishing his role as the monstrous Chekha.  Snarling with savage charisma as cameras rolled he slinked across a bloodied banquette to mesmerise his prey.  Off-set he grinned with ill-disguised glee as he told me how much he loves to be a bad guy.  Andy met director Steve Lawson at a convention and had been on board with the project in its various incarnations from day one.  He, Steve and producer Jonathan Sothcott, shared a desire to see vampire pictures return to a Lost Boys sensibility.  To show the smile beneath the teeth!  Andy also pushed to bring Perry Benson and Ricky Grover into the fold “these two great home-grown comedy talents”.  A versatile actor who delights in a challenge, he had chosen to play the part of Chekha entirely in Romanian simply “to give it something different”.  That something different required that he translate his dialogue line by line – quite a demand for a non-Romanian speaker!

The man behind the Dead Cert story, Ben Shillito, also acted as our guide.  The behatted Sickipedia fan told us outrageous lies about the cast and crew, jokes we cannot repeat here and above all made us very welcome.  Ben and Steve Lawson were originally sent a vampire vs. demons script to develop for Dead Cert but chose ultimately to go their own way.  Dead Cert as it now exists was born during a brainstorming weekend with co-writer Nick Onsloe.  Ben’s obsession with gothic horror, mainstream and obscure, was well matched by Jonathan Sothcotts’s passion for Hammer and when the two met everything fell into place.

Ben and Jonathan had Billy Murray in mind for demonic lead Dante Livenko from the outset.  Billy had other ideas.  Having signed on as the project’s producer he had no idea he would end up its star.  When we chatted over a bucket of severed limbs he acknowledged he had somehow been sweet-talked into complying!  Ben described Billy’s performance as “calm, menacing and brilliant.  Billy is Christopher Lee in this role”.  Billy himself was more modest as he admitted how much fun his walk on the dark side had been.   Indeed his transformation to Dante was a million miles from the crinkle eyed charmer of our interview.  As I went over my notes he reappeared, threw me off my feet and swooped down to take a cheeky bite and readers…

I believed in vampires!

Meanwhile on set it was all kicking off.  The gleaming Inferno club of our first visit with its writhing glamour girls and immaculate bars was a gore spattered, intestine strewn abattoir.  Luckily This is England’s Perry Benson and young gangster favourite Roland Manookian soon arrived – tooled up and ticked off – to set things straight.  And lest you think Dead Cert is all about jobs for the boys, let me assure you that the girls were equally well-represented.  Lusty beauties, feisty girls next door and vampish vixens abounded.

The Dead Cert set was a vibrant, violent delight and the footage we saw promised nothing less from the final cut.  Selected tickets are still available for the debut screening this Thursday night at Frightfest and, if you’re planning to lounge around London town, we urge you to give it a go.  As the East End boys would have it:

This one’s got a lot of heart!

FrightFest 2010 infects the Empire Cinema, Leicester Square between the 26th and 30th of August and HeyUGuys will be there to bring you all the news and reviews. Festival tickets go on sale tomorrow and you can find all the details on how to grab yours here.

Today we got our first look at the stunning line-up for the festival and you can check it out in all its glory right below. The official FrightFest site has also had a huge update with pages for each film and loads of information. Head over here to check it out.

We previously brought you the news that Hatchet 2 and The Last Exorcism are set to open and close the festival but this is just the tip of the iceberg. Highlights of the line up that strike me immediately are the already infamous A Serbian Film, a screening of the rare 1969 feature Eggshells (with an appearance by Tobe Hooper), Patrick Hughes’ debut Red Hill, retro Giallo Amer and Gareth Edwards’ Monsters. I’m sure as I investigate the line up further I will find so many films to get excited about, it looks like it’s going to be a great FrightFest!

MAIN EMPIRE SCREEN
Thursday 26th August
6.30 – HATCHET II
9.15 – PRIMAL
11.15 – DEAD CERT

MAIN EMPIRE SCREEN
Friday 27th August
10.15 – EGGSHELLS
1.00 – TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE
3.15 – TOTAL ICON TOBE HOOPER
5.30 – ISLE OF DOGS
7.45 – F
9.15 – RED HILL
11.30 ALIEN VS. NINJA

DISCOVERY SCREEN
Friday 27th August
10.45 – BURNING BRIGHT
12.45 – THE CLINIC
3.00 – FINALE
5.00 – WOUND
7.15 – OUTCAST
9.45 – HIGANJIMA: ESCAPE
FROM VAMPIRE ISLAND

MAIN EMPIRE SCREEN
Saturday 28th August
11.00 – CHERRY TREE LANE
1.15 – THE TORTURED
3.15 – 13 HOURS
6.30 – I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE
9.00 – MONSTERS
11.30 – DREAM HOME

DISCOVERY SCREEN
Saturday 28th August
11.00 – CHRISTOPHER ROTH
1.15 – FAN BOYS
3.30 AFTER.LIFE
6.35 – FINALE
9.00 – BURNING BRIGHT

MAIN EMPIRE SCREEN
Sunday 29th August
11.00 – THE PACK
1.00 – ANDY NYMAN’S QUIZ FROM HELL
+ FILM4 FRIGHTFEST INTERNATIONAL
SHORT FILM SHOWCASE
4.00 – WE ARE WHAT WE ARE
6.30 – KABOOM
9.00 – A SERBIAN FILM
11.30 – THE LOVED ONES

DISCOVERY SCREEN
Sunday 29th August
11.00 – HIGANJIMA: ESCAPE
FROM VAMPIRE ISLAND
1.30 – OUTCAST
4.05 – WOUND
6.35 – AMER
9.05 – THE CLINIC

MAIN EMPIRE SCREEN
Monday 30th August
11.15 – VIDEO NASTIES: MORAL PANIC,
CENSORSHIP AND VIDEOTAPE
1.15 – THE DEAD
3.30 – BEDEVILLED
6.30 – RED WHITE & BLUE
9.00 – THE LAST EXORCISM

DISCOVERY SCREEN
Monday 30th August
11.00 – AMER
1.30 – AFTER.LIFE
3.35 – FAN BOYS
6.35 – CHRISTOPHER ROTH

Dead Cert is a film we’ve had our eye on for a while now.

Director Steve Lawson’s take on vampires running amok in London’s gangster-strewn underworld has attracted a pretty impressive UK cast including Craig Fairbrass, Billy Murray, Kick-Ass’s Dexter Fletcher and Steven Berkoff and now there’s a trailer for you all to see what the fuss is about.

Embedded below is an unofficial production trailer and sets out the story effectively, with plenty of fangs and fists rolling between gangsters and vampires and there’s something of the From Dusk Till Dalston about this one.

We spoke to the director Steve Lawson before the film rolled into production (you can read our interview here) and we’re hoping to sit down with him again

Check out the trailer below.

Here’s our Dead Cert coverage so far, and there’s plenty more to come from this one. Expect big things from this one.

Shooting has nearly wrapped on indie horror flick Dead Cert, and we’ve been lucky enouh to be sent a set of stills from the film.

Quite apart from the fact that it seems to be filled with some disturbingly attractive vampires (the goth girls were never that hot when I was at school), the film also seems to be taking on a really nice look. Let’s hope we see a trailer at some point in the near future.

Oh, and for a bit of Friday fun, feel free to post captions for the photos on the board.

]]> http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/2009/11/06/more-dead-cert-stills-released/feed/ 4 http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/2009/10/26/dead-cert-update-and-production-stills/ http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/2009/10/26/dead-cert-update-and-production-stills/#comments Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:52:25 +0000 Ben Mortimer http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/?p=2449

Recently HeyUGuys published the new poster for Black & Blue productions’ forthcoming film, Dead Cert. A few days before the poster went online, we managed to sit down with the film’s producer, Jonathan Sothcott, and director, Steve Lawson to find out how things were going.

When we last spoke to Lawson, the script was still in development, and the cast was just beginning to come together. Barely weeks later, things had moved on significantly. As Steve explained, “Actors have had a lot of input on the dialogue, which has made it a lot clearer”¦ A lot of the cast that we wrote the characters around are back here again”.

As well as an expanding cast, which now features Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels veterans Dexter Fletcher and Jason Flemyng, the production designers have been busy building sets for the film. Rather than spending much of their budget on hiring studio space, Sothcott opted to rent three warehouses in Essex. He explains, “We’ve turned [the warehouses] into a mini-Leavesden. There’s three different studio builds. Billy [Murray] and I went down to have a look yesterday”¦ It’s literally like walking on to one of the stages at Pinewood.”

Dead Cert promises to be a huge step forward for Lawson, whose previous work was, ultra-low-budget mockumentary Just For the Record. This new film is far more action orientated, and requires a host of effects shots, both practical and digital. The first day on the film is a location shoot, at night. As Sothcott explains, “The first thing we’re doing in Docklands is a body going through a car windscreen.”

In addition to Dexter Fletcher and Jason Flemyng, Dead Cert features some of the more prolific actors working in the UK today. Craig Fairbrass (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) plays the lead, but also cast are Stephen Berkoff and Billy Murray. As it turns out, Murray was cast long before even he realised, “I ram-rodded him into playing Dracula for this.” Sothcott explains, “I told everyone else he was doing it long before I’d even mentioned it to him”.

During our interview Lawson provided us with some interesting information, “I’m going to shoot some scenes on 35mm”. When asked for more information Lawson explained, “It’s something I decided to do about a week ago”¦ to get a test for it and see the difference between it and the RED, and also to get the experience of using it”.

When asked whether the footage was simply an experiment, or if it would feature in the finished film, Lawson told us that it would “We’ve got a good post house, who tell me it can be done. It will look different, but the way I’ll shoot it, I’ll be clever with it. There’s dream sequences throughout this, so I’m going to shoot the dream sequences on 35[mm]“.

In a few days time we’ll have some more details about the film up, including interviews with some of the cast. We’re also hoping to feature a production diary, written by one of the members of the film’s crew. If that’s not enough for you, Sothcott has promised us a trailer by Christmas.

Production on this film is moving at breakneck speed. At the time of writing the film crew are finishing the location shoots, and will be moving into the “˜studio’ within days. Lawson puts this efficiency down to the enthusiasm of those he’s working with, “Everyone believes in the project, and everyone’s got behind it, so the last thing I’ve got to do now is tie it all up and deliver what we’ve got”.

Dead Cert is in production at the moment, and should be hitting cinemas at some point next year.