British Horror

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/20085658

Tales of the Unexpected (1979–1988) started off with a foundation of Roald Dahl-based stories, but over time, this classic television anthology sought out other inspirations. One such source was Elizabeth Taylor, an esteemed English author whose short piece of fiction, “The Flypaper,” was adapted in 1980.

Fans of the show will often cite this episode as one of the best, not to mention the scariest. In the troubling episode, a schoolgirl is hounded by a stranger, only to then realize her peril is greater than first imagined. Now, Tales of the Unexpected did not always live up to its title; some stories were more foreseeable than others. “The Flypaper,” however, caught everyone off guard, including the young and unfortunate protagonist who, despite her efforts, could not escape harm.

An admiring Dahl wished he had written Taylor’s short story himself. And during the adaptation’s introduction, the host went on to tell viewers to watch carefully, for the episode does not give anything away until the very end. That preface, while enticing, is not quite true when comparing the two versions of “The Flypaper”; Taylor kept a tighter lip, whereas the teleplay, written by Unexpected regular Robin Chapman, was more forthcoming. The conclusion is identical in both forms, but the dramatization gives the audience a substantial preview of what awaits poor Sylvia (Lorna Yabsley).

Fans of Peter Cushing are in for a Halloween treat, with the iconic Frankenstein star the latest to be resurrected by AI.

In Hammer: Heroes, Legends and Monsters, a Sky doc airing in two days’ time, viewers will be treated to a “powerful and poignant reveal of Hammer royalty,” Sky said, with what is being described as a “special homage” to Cushing.

Cushing, who died in 1994, played Doctor Van Helsing in five Dracula films and Baron Frankenstein in six movies from that franchise. He will be the latest celebrity given the AI resurrection treatment.

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Narrated by Charles Dance, the doc is celebrating Hammer Films‘ 90th birthday and will track its progression from a back office in London’s Regent Street to its iconic status within the horror film genre. We first revealed news of the doc in August.

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This isn’t the first time Cushing has been resurrected. His likeness was revived as Grand Moff Tarkin for 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and a high court legal battle over the use of the image was recently ruled by a judge to go to trial.

Ben Field, who runs Deep Fusion, said the Hammer doc resurrection has secured all necessary permissions. The decision to resurrect Cushing is “tied to his significance to the Hammer legacy,” he added. “As a figure central to Hammer’s success, Cushing’s presence is crucial to telling the story authentically,” he added. “His work, particularly alongside Christopher Lee, was instrumental in shaping the brand and legacy of Hammer Films. Including him allows the project to honor the spirit and impact he had on the studio and its fans, creating a connection between the past and this new exploration.”

The use of deepfake technology has been approached with “great care,” Field added. “The team’s intent is not to manipulate or sensationalize but to use technology as a tool to bring audiences closer to the history of Hammer Films in an engaging and reverent manner.”

Hammer: Heroes, Legends and Monsters will follow other influential figures from the horror genre such as Lee. Tim Burton, John Carpenter, Joe Dante and John Logan will also feature. Through a series of fateful turns, the film will reveal how Hammer’s distinct visual style and storytelling continue to shape modern horror and inspire filmmakers around the world.

Filming has already wrapped on Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later, the long-awaited sequel to 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later that intends to launch a brand new trilogy. In fact, Ralph Fiennes spills the beans in a chat with IndieWire that the first TWO movies have been shot!

Fiennes also served up some plot details for 28 Years Later that were previously under wraps.

He tells the outlet, “Britain is 28 years into this terrible plague of infected people who are violent, rabid humans with a few pockets of uninfected communities. And it centers on a young boy who wants to find a doctor to help his dying mother. He leads his mother through this beautiful northern English terrain. But of course, around them hiding in forests and hills and woods are the infected. But he finds a doctor who is a man we might think is going to be weird and odd, but actually is a force for good.”

That doctor, you might have guessed, is played by Ralph Fiennes.

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28 Years Later arrives in theaters on June 20, 2025 from Sony

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/19086517

‘FILMFEAR’ COLLECTION – STREAMING ON CHANNEL 4 UNTIL 2ND NOVEMBER

• ENYS MEN
• SMILE
• IN THE EARTH
• THE LODGE
• AMULET
• FIRESTARTER
• BULL
• X
• ALONE
• WEREWOLVES WITHIN
• A BANQUET
• THE THING (2011)
• THE INNOCENTS
• FRESH

‘COMPLETELY BEN WHEATLEY’ COLLECTION – STREAMING ON CHANNEL 4 UNTIL 15TH NOVEMBER

• DOWN TERRACE
• KILL LIST
• SIGHTSEERS
• A FIELD IN ENGLAND
• HIGH-RISE
• FREE FIRE
• THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY

For a good scare with a local twist, look no further than Haunted Ulster Live — a new Belfast-based spookfest that is streaming on Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV. When interviewed last year by this newspaper about the comedy-horror film, director Dominic O’Neill had described it as being a bit like “UTV meets The Blair Witch Project”.

Now he has referenced it as also being a love letter to Northern Ireland in the “90s, and local community television”.

A synopsis for the movie says: “On Halloween night 1998, Northern Ireland TV veteran Gerry Burns teams up with popular new children’s presenter Michelle Kelly to investigate poltergeist activity in a reputedly haunted house in Belfast. Light entertainment turns to horror when an unseen terror reveals itself.

“Combining found footage horror, folklore and a nostalgia for regional television, Haunted Ulster Live recreates a familiar world of 90s light entertainment which, much like Belfast itself during the Northern Ireland Troubles, is haunted by something unseen and sinister.”

Haunted Ulster Live premiered at FrightFest 2023, with a local premiere at the Belfast Film Festival.

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Having been released on streaming services on October 14, Dominic said the film has had “a really good reception and great print reviews”, including glowing reports from The Guardian, and movie/fantasy magazines such as Total Film, SFX and Filmhounds.

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​Viewers can buy/stream Haunted Ulster Live now on Prime Video, Apple TV or Google Play

Previously:

• 'Haunted Ulster Live' Exclusive Clip: A Strange Case of Sleepwalking
• 'Haunted Ulster Live' Trailer- Chilling Mockumentary Compared to 'Ghostwatch' and 'Late Night With the Devil'

I will burn on this hill. It's a mystery/suspense film.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/18584670

A gory first-look trailer for Channel 4 series Generation Z has been released.

The horror-comedy is set in a fictional town where care home residents are zombified after a chemical leak, and face off against the local teenagers.

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The show is set in the town of Dambury, which has “stark opportunities and not much to do”, and is “the last place you'd expect the apocalypse to begin”.

“When an army convoy overturns outside a care home, a chemical leak starts to have an adverse effect on the residents there,” the synopsis adds. “The OAPs, led by Cecily and Frank, escape the grasp of the army looking to contain their angry, violent, insatiable hunger for raw flesh.

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Generation Z comes from director Ben Wheatley, and also stars Masters of the Air’s Lewis Gribben, The Batman’s Jay Lycurgo, My Family’s Robert Lindsay, Johnny Vegas, Our House’s Buket Komur, EastEnders’ Anita Dobson and The Nevers’ Viola Prettejohn.

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Generation Z will premiere on Channel 4 on Sunday, October 27.

Trailer

A teaser trailer has been released for a Scottish horror comedy film about mutant killer midges.

Fort William-based author and screenwriter Barry Hutchison posted his idea for the movie on social media last summer as a joke.

The response to the post has led to Midgies going into a pre-production phase with cast and locations being considered ahead of a plan to film next year.

Glasgow-based film-maker Alessio Avezzano shot the short teaser this summer, with some of the filming done in Balloch Country Park, West Dunbartonshire.

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The teaser features two walkers coming across a frightened scientist, and a laboratory under attack from an unseen menace.

Scottish companies including Motif Studios, which worked on visual effects for a Mad Max film, and digital entertainment firm Blazing Griffin were involved in making the three minute-long short film.

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He said the new teaser would form part of a package of materials which will be pitched at film production companies and potential funders.

"We were hoping to be a little further on," said Hutchison.

"Writer and actor strikes in the US ground film production globally to a halt in many ways. As a result of that we lost our US producer."

Hutchison said the focus was now on making the film as much of a Scottish production as possible.

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Hutchison added: "We are looking to shoot next year in the summer, although we will be plagued by actual midges which could be problematic."

Teaser trailer

IMDb

A film primarily shot in Malvern which claims to be "the best British horror comedy since Shaun of the Dead" has premiered to a sold-out audience.

Bad Things, a new film about AI infecting young people and turning them into killing machines that target old people, had its first showing at the Worcester Film Festival.

The movie, which has taken more than five years to produce was worked on by around 30 young people from across the county to give them a chance to work in the industry.

The director hopes the film will be screened worldwide after its resounding success being one of the first events to sell out at this year's Worcester Film Festival.

IMDb

Fans of mockumentary horror such as Ghostwatch or the more recent Late Night With the Devil prepare to add another to your nightmarish collection with Haunted Ulster Live, which takes viewers back to Halloween night, 1998, where a live broadcast from a haunted house in Belfast goes hauntingly wrong. The footage is so disturbing that it hasn’t been seen in 25 years.

Bloody Disgusting is excited to share the trailer for Halloween-themed horror that will release across all platforms, including our SCREAMBOX streaming service, on October 8th.

Haunted Ulster Live takes place on Halloween night. Gerry Burns (Mark Claney) teams up with popular children’s presenter Michelle Kelly (Aimee Richardson) to investigate poltergeist activity in a haunted house in Belfast. Dead Northern writes: “Ghostwatch finally meets its match with Haunted Ulster Live!”

Written and Directed by Dominic O’Neill (“Belfast 1912”), the film also stars Siobhan Kelly.

“We’re found footage fanatics, and devotees of the genre will hopefully enjoy the faux doc chills of Haunted Ulster Live,” said O’Neill. “We grew up on old Irish and British horror TV, the kind of TV that makes you want to hide behind the couch when you’re a kid! Our film is firmly rooted in 90’s Belfast, drawing from the rich well of Irish folk stories, and the conflict of that time.”

Trailer

IMDb

A Boltonian filmmaker who has previously worked with Netflix and the BBC is set to debut his first short “horror-comedy” – filmed entirely in Rivington.

Michael Patrick Clarkson, who grew up in Smithills, created the short film, “UPHOLSTERGEIST” with the BAFTA award-winning company Agile Films.

Michael has previously written for Netflix’s The Haunting of Bly Manor (2024), The Wheel of Time (2021) and is co-creator/showrunner of Red Rose which was shot and set in Bolton, now available on BBC and Netflix.

The horror-comedy film, which was shot entirely in Rivington, features a star-studded cast including Game of Thrones’ Tara Fitzgerald, Adam Nagaitis from Chernobyl and The Terror and Aaron Pierre, who will star in the upcoming Disney musical drama, Mufasa: The Lion King later this year.

Speaking on his inspiration for the film, Michael said: “It was during lockdown, and I was watching The Repair Shop on BBC. It was very beautiful with light, heartwarming stories and my mind began to twist it into something darker.

“I came up with the concept of people bringing a dark and haunted item for someone to repair.

“There’s a fine line between comedy and horror, there’s an awkwardness – that’s what I wanted the film to explore.

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UPHOLTERGEIST was completed earlier this year and has since been submitted for a number of prestigious film awards.

The short movie will see its world premiere at Bolton’s International Film Awards taking place on October 2, will feature at the prestigious North American Austin International Film Festival running from October 4 and will also play at Screamfest LA, New York Horror Film Festival and FREAK SHOW horror film festival in Florida.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/17692216

In the wake of the film’s World Premiere at Fantastic Fest this Sunday, September 22, Benjamin Barfoot’s horror movie Daddy’s Head is coming to Shudder on October 11.

Watch the official trailer for Daddy’s Head below.

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In the film, “In the wake of his father’s untimely death, a young boy is left in the eerie solitude of a sprawling country estate with his newly widowed stepmother. Struggling to navigate the overwhelming task of parenthood, his stepmother grows distant, leaving their fragile bond at risk of collapse. Amidst the growing tension, the boy begins to hear unsettling sounds echoing through the corridors, and is soon haunted by the presence of a grotesque creature bearing a disturbingly familiar resemblance to his late father.

Trailer

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/17662744

Even though professional, cinema-quality digital cameras are now commonplace, they're generally not small or compact. (Take a look at Arri's current lineup, for example, with its Mini LF, used to capture Deadpool & Wolverine.) However, Danny Boyle’s forthcoming zombie flick, 28 Years Later, was shot over the summer with a bunch of adapted iPhone 15s, WIRED has learned, making the Hollywood thriller, with its budget of $75 million, the biggest movie to date filmed with smartphones.

Starring Killing Eve's Jodie Comer, next James Bond favorite Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Ralph Fiennes, 28 Years Later, due for release in June 2025, is the long-awaited follow-up to 28 Days Later—the 2002 genre-defining movie that was the first to portray zombies as scary fast rather than lumbering—and 2007's 28 Weeks Later. Boyle is joined by cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle; they won Oscars together in 2009 for their hit Slumdog Millionaire. Mantle was also cinematographer on the original 28 Days Later, as well as Boyle’s films Trance (2013), T2 Trainspotting (2017), and 127 Hours (2010).

There’s a tech story arc to Boyle and Mantle choosing Apple’s log-profile powerhouse for 28 Years Later: The pair’s 2002 kick-off movie, 28 Days Later, was filmed with an innovative-for-the-time digital camera—one of the first Hollywood feature films shot with a Canon XL-1. The lust-worthy $4,000 prosumer camcorder had interchangeable lenses and wrote data to MiniDV (digital video) tapes.

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The use of Apple smartphones as the principal camera system on 28 Years Later was subsequently confirmed to WIRED by several people connected with the movie, detailing that the particular model used to shoot was the iPhone 15 Pro Max. (Evidently, filming took place too early for Boyle and Mantle to get their hands on the new iPhone 16 series.)

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Several arthouse films have been shot with iPhones, including Sean Baker’s Tangerine (2015) and the Steven Soderbergh drama Unsane (2018), but these movies were limited-release, low-budget offerings compared to 28 Years Later.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/17353054

The live intro and live Q&A are only at the Leicester Square Odeon.

General screenings Friday 27th - Sunday 29th September, with an iSense one on Wednesday 2nd October (the one I'm going to).

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/17298316

The nominative deterministic owners of Hammer Films, the classic British horror movie studio and library, John Gore Media Limited, have announced the acquisition of Silver Salt Restoration, a British film restoration studio, as part of what they call "our ongoing commitment to preserving cinematic history." Silver Salt, which has a long history of working with the likes of Arrow, StudioCanal and the BFI, will now take on some of the more memorable films within the Hammer Films portfolio for restoration.

And right now Silver Salt is working on the remastering of a number of rare Hammer Films cult classics, many of which have been out of circulation for years. These films will undergo 4K restoration and preservation, for new and old audiences.

This comes as Hammer Films celebrates its 90th anniversary in November, with a special documentary, Hammer: Heroes, Legends and Monsters on Sky TV, exploring the legacy of Hammer Films, its many productions, and its impact on British cinema.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/16891767

Gwledd/The Feast (2021) got the number one slot in the best folk horror movies of the 2020s listicle but there isn't a post on it, so here is one from 2022.

Where did the inspiration for this project come from?

I’ve worked with screenwriter Roger Williams quite a bit on a number of television projects, and we’re both passionate about horror. We were also passionate about creating a piece of horror cinema in the Welsh language, with the ambition of having it travel the world. We decided to delve into the long history of Welsh literature, which is inherently horrific in many ways, and use that as a springboard to tell a story about contemporary Wales, weaving in the global theme of climate crisis.

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Now that the film is about to be unleashed on the world, what are your hopes for it and the Welsh industry at large?

I have big hopes for our little film. I would love it if it were to kickstart some kind of industry in the Welsh language. There’s absolutely no reason why we shouldn’t have a thriving film industry. But it seems to me that we need to be pragmatic in establishing the kind of brand that we sell to the world, and it’s about identifying what we do really well. Our culture, our literary heritage is full of these brilliant, fantastical stories. I think that’s a really good base for us to start from. There is no reason why Wales can’t be as renowned for horror as somewhere like South Korea.

For it's reception see:

• Gwledd (The Feast) on track to become most successful Welsh language film of all time
• The Feast’ review: A keen-edged, slow-burn Welsh-language horror that takes no prisoners
• The Feast is a chilling Welsh-language eco-horror
• The Feast—folklore meets gore in this environmental horror film

Trailer

IMDb

The old eat the young. That is the back-of-a-beermat pitch for new Channel 4 drama Generation Z. And because the Z stands for zombie, the eating is meant literally. “I loved the idea of a horror story about societal breakdown, told from the perspective of different generations,” says its writer-director Ben Wheatley. “Once I started writing it, I couldn’t stop.”

The film-maker’s first original series for TV begins with an army convoy crashing outside a care home. The subsequent chemical leak turns the residents into marauding monsters who attack local youngsters. “It’s a bit of a Brexit metaphor,” admits Wheatley. “But it’s by no means binary. We discuss it from each generation’s viewpoint, exploring the notion that boomers have ruined the lives of the young. Because it’s a genre piece, that’s basically by biting their hands and eating their brains.”

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“I love telly and watch a lot of it – Battlestar Galactica, The Sopranos and Deadwood were the golden age for me – so I was keen to play with a different train set,” he says. “It was exciting to write in longer form, rather than the sprint that is a film script. In terms of production values and cinematic scale, TV has closed the gap on film. It’s like the difference between a single and an album. Actors move freely between the two now. The skillset’s no different. Any stigma has long gone.”

Fittingly for a series punctuated by gruesome deaths, he’s assembled a killer cast. Playing the pensioners are veterans such as Sue Johnston and Anita Dobson. “Sue’s first day on set, she was biting someone’s nose off,” he says. “They got to do stuff they don’t usually do, running around covered in gore, and had a blast doing it.” The gore is created the old-fashioned way. “Everything is practical, with prosthetics or models. There are very few CG effects. When arms are ripped off and blood spurts, there are people pumping plasma just out of shot. We use jelly when organs need to be edible. It’s all very visceral.”

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Generation Z is coming to Channel 4 this autumn.

28 Years Later and its planned sequels get a surprising update from producer Andrew Macdonald. Released in 2002, Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later follows Cillian Murphy's Jim as he attempts to survive after the "Rage Virus" turns British citizens into zombie-like monsters. After a mixed-reviewed sequel from director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo in 2007, Boyle is set to re-team with Murphy and original movie writer Alex Garland for the upcoming 28 Years Later, which is intended to serve as the first installment in a new trilogy.

Now, Macdonald reveals to THR that 28 Years Later has just wrapped filming. According to the producer, work on 28 Years Later Part II is also set to get underway imminently. The planned fifth film in the franchise, however, seems less concrete at this stage, though Macdonald seems hopeful. Check out his comment below:

“We’re making, hopefully, three more 28 films with the first one called 28 Years Later that Alex has written, and Danny has directed, and has finished shooting. Then we’re just about to start, tomorrow morning, actually, part two. And then we hope there’s gonna be a third part and it’s a trilogy.”

The first trailer for new vampire thriller The Radleys, starring Line of Duty's Kelly Macdonald, has been released.

Adapted from Matt Haig's novel of the same name, the film centres around a married couple who are hiding a dark secret from their children: they're vampires.

The film will receive its world premiere at the upcoming Edinburgh International Film Festival on Tuesday, August 20. Sky has also confirmed The Radleys will then be released on Sky Cinema and in cinemas on October 18.

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"The Radleys are an ordinary family who hold a dark secret... they are abstaining vampires," reads the official synopsis for the film.

"As if being a teenager wasn't bad enough, bloodthirsty instincts take over the teens of the family, revealing the terrifying truth and opening the door for an extended family member to re-enter and upend The Radleys' once perfect slice of suburbia."

Trailer

Anthology films are notoriously hard to pull off but, though it starts shakily, this low-budget British portmanteau has an ace in the hole: horror stalwart Richard Brake, whose grimy leer is normally a kitemark of something at least halfway chilling. (Hopefully his dental hygiene is better in real life.) In Lore, he is a Cryptkeeper-style host for four hikers out for an “immersive” experience in the wilds; informing them that they have pitched their tents above the site of some ancient evil, this campfire compere bids them bring forth their most blood-chilling yarns.

A Scottish horror film has finally been released - 17 years after filming first got under way.

The Bench is a grisly slasher where a group of friends take a trip to a remote cabin in Renfrewshire, only to disappear one by one.

However, the production was struck by a host of difficulties, from badly misjudging the Scottish weather's suitability for filming to money running out half way through.

Writer and director Sean Wilkie told BBC Scotland News that he was a mixture of being "pleased, nervous and relieved" now that The Bench can be seen by the public.

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Filming began in Lochwinnoch in 2007, using a cabin owned by friends of the film's director of photography.

For indoor filming, the Caves venue in Edinburgh was used, with Drumpellier Country Park used for occasional outdoor shots.

The film has a cast that includes Two Doors Down star Joy McAvoy and Matt McClure from American horror show Penny Dreadful.

"The first two weeks on location were fine but we couldn’t keep that up," reflects Sean.

"I wish we’d have someone following us all the way though, as it would have made some documentary. Due to the weather and other things we couldn’t finish filming as planned, so we were coming back on odd weekends here and there to complete it."

That was only the start of the film's issues. Initial financing had fallen through at an early stage, but Sean decided to "charge ahead" anyway, something he admits now was "probably a mistake."

The film's original editor departed, so Sean took on that role as well, and by the time reshoots were needed many of the cast and crew were working on other projects.

You’d have to travel many miles for a more concentrated array of frights than the one assembled each year by FrightFest, the UK’s biggest horror film festival. Even in a year already replete with classy horror flicks, the line-up for August’s five-day fest looks like a seriously unsettling one. Gorehounds, midnight movie aficionados, cult-heads and more casual horror fans are catered for across 69 films and five days and nights between August 22-26.

But what are this year’s proper FrightFest frighteners? The cortisol-inducing films that will lurk in your nightmares? We asked festival co-founder and all-round horror maven Alan Jones to pick five gnarly cuts that will give even the hardiest movielover pause. Book them if you dare.

They are:

1. Test Screening
2. A Desert
3. Strange Darling
4. Shelby Oaks
5. Charlotte

We've got something to sink your teeth into as the first-look images from The Radleys has landed.

Adapted from Matt Haig's novel of the same name, the movie stars Kelly Macdonald and Damian Lewis as parents Helen and Peter. They might seem normal on the surface, but they're hiding a dark secret from their children: they're vampires.

They're abstaining vampires who don't drink blood, but when their vegan daughter Clara (Bo Bragason) is attacked at school, it unlocks her bloodthirsty true self leading Clara and her brother Rowan (Harry Baxendale) to question their identity.

And when Peter's twin brother Will (also played by Lewis) arrives on the scene, showing off his proud, practicing vampire lifestyle, the entire family face a battle to hold back their hidden bloodlust.

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The Radleys will receive its world premiere at the upcoming Edinburgh International Film Festival on Tuesday, August 20.

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When filming started in June 2023, it was reported that The Radleys would be released on Sky Cinema in 2024 in the UK and Ireland. We don't yet have a confirmed release date for the movie though.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/12101758

Fallout star Ella Purnell has joined the cast of Craig Roberts’ comedy-horror The Scurry, which is now filming in the UK.

Purnell will play a leading role, of a park attendant who must use her unique skills and strength to survive a band of killer squirrels.

True Brit Entertainment is co-producer and UK distributor on the film, which is shooting on location and at Dragon Studios in South Wales.

Previously announced cast members include Rhys Ifans, Screen Star of Tomorrow Paapa Essiedu, and Antonia Thomas. The Mash Report writer Tim Telling penned the script. ...

The film follows two pest controllers called to a country park café to investigate a routine vermin problem, only for an avalanche of deranged squirrels to descend at nightfall, wreaking mayhem on the staff and visitors in the park.

IMDb

EXCLUSIVE: The new 28 Years Later trilogy from director Danny Boyle and Sony Pictures is gaining momentum, and some serious star power. Sources tell Deadline that Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Ralph Fiennes have boarded the first pic, a sequel to the original 28 Days Later.

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Deadline recently broke the news that the studio has already tapped Candyman director Nia DaCosta to helm the second part of the trilogy, and that the plan is to shoot both films back to back. As for the three newest cast members, the studio is clearly showing it means business, adding star power instead of going the lesser-known-actor route like in previous installments