Fangoria journalist Chris Alexander, straight from interviewing genre legends Roger Corman and George Romero, has interviewed Carrion film director Ashley Thorpe as the eagerly awaited Penny Dreadful number 4: ‘The Hairy Hands‘ nears completion. The interview also reflects upon all that has transpired with the previous films (‘Scayrecrow‘ and ‘The Screaming skull‘) since the previous interview held with Chris back in March 2009. The interview also gains an exclusive first mention of the proposed future short ‘Night of the Kraken‘. Here is a brief excerpt from the interview:
Chris Alexander – “… visionary UK based filmmaker Ashley Thorpe, an artist whose carefully controlled, creepy and rapturously gothic short films SCAYRECROW and THE SCREAMING SKULL (which screened at this years NYC Fango Con) really left an impression on me.
The man is a stylist supreme, his weird rotoscope approach matched by his respect for myth and I wasn’t the only one who thought so. Both pictures have gone on to win a multitude of awards and earn a plethora of accolades (you can see them for yourself at Thorpe’s site) and I thought it was high time to play catch up with the man.
See, I’m still convinced this guy is going to be a huge influence in horror for years to come and it appeases my ego to know that I was one of the first genre journalists on these shores to say so.
Are you ready, then? Good. Here we go.
Ladies and lads Ashley Thorpe…
CA: Tell me about your next film THE HAIRY HANDS. What’s the premise?
AT: Well, THE HAIRY HANDS, as daft or odd as the title may sound, is based on a Dartmoor ghost story. It tells the tale ostensibly of a haunted stretch of road that cuts straight across the moor. Travellers on this road have, since the early part of the last century, told of the sudden manifestation of a pair of disembodied spectral hands that suddenly seize the wheel and violently steer their vehicle off the road. It was a story that gained notoriety nationwide in Britain during the 1920’s when a Dartmoor prison officer died on that road, and his surviving daughters reported ‘strange phenomena’ at the time of the crash.
CA: Is it straight horror? How would you classify it, or do you even bother doing that?
AT: Straight horror, yeah, absolutely! It would be easy to take the Evil Dead 2 route with this one 
and play the creeping hands for laughs, and as much as I love that movie it’s not the approach that I want to take with it. I remember being particularly taken – hell, haunted – by a sequence in the Amicus studio film DR. TERROR’S HOUSE OF HORRORS wherein Christopher Lee is an art dealer who is stalked by the severed hand of an artist he’s maimed. Ok, the effects are a little suspect now, but it was played straight and that idea of a severed hand crawling round the house, or in my case your car, like an unseen spider, still gives me the shivers.
I don’t personally like to classify the films. I hate all that nonsense about whether PSYCHO is really a horror film – please! Unlike the previous two, this one actually has many aspects of the thriller, they’re stylistic devices to lead us into the story, but it’s still ultimately – and quote unashamedly – a horror film. If anything the thriller elements used in this one have made it resemble the EC horror comics. It’s very TALES FROM THE CRYPT actually, pulp horror at its finest, with a smattering of HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR and the odd nod to Hitchcock…
To read the complete interview visit Chris Alexander’s ‘Blood Splattered Blogs’ on the Fangoria website.
‘The Hairy Hands‘, produced with the assistance of South West Screen, the UK Film Council and Exeter Phoenix, is set for completion Halloween 2009 with appearances at festivals and interviews scheduled to coincide, full details of which will be posted here.
Chris Alexander recently, and in a bizarre co-incidence,was involved in a serious car crash (read his blog at www.fangoria.com: ‘TIFF 2009 ends with a bang and a screech, a crash, a crush, screams, sirens etc‘). Miraculously Chris only suffered relatively minor injuries. Ashley and all at Carrion Film would like to personally wish Chris Alexander a speedy recovery and also extend him and all at Fangoria magazine sincere thanks for their continued enthusiastic support.
BEST ANIMATION AWARD NOMINATIONS AT HORROR UK
In an extraordinary stroke of good fortune, both selections – ‘Scayrecrow‘ and ‘The Screaming skull‘ have been nominated for ‘Best animation’ at this years Horror UK festival. The films are both set to be screened as part of this years ’28 Hours later’ Horror Marathon.
“This festival is a little different to most horror film festivals. Some smaller festivals show all their films in one go on one night, other festivals show a large number of films over a number of nights. We have combined the two, and show a large number of films in one go, only this one go lasts for twenty eight hours. Think of us as the longest horror marathon that you have ever attended.”
“The good news for horror fans, is that it is free entry to come along and watch the films. If you feel that you would like to pay something for watching the films, then you can make a donation on the night to our selected charity, the Pam Brown childrens cancer ward.”
Full details for the event – programme, tickets and local accomodation – can be found via the official website : www.horroruk.com/28
SCAYRECROW NOMINATED FOR BEST ANIMATED SHORT – B-MOVIE FEST NYC 2009
Announced today (25th September) Penny Dreadful number 2 – ‘Scayrecrow‘ has been nominated for Best Animated Short 2009 at the B-Movie Festival in New York City.
“The B-Movie Festival began in 1999 and in the last few years has grown into a major North East event! We have helped bring exposure to over 10,000 movies, shorts and documentaries from around the world. Many of the movies that have played at our festival have gone on to distribution success with companies like Maverick, Image, Barnholtz, and are available in place like Blockbuster, Best Buy and Walmart. Be a part of the one film festival that showcases the underdog movies!”
The festival runs November 06, 2009 to November 08, 2009. More updates will be posted here as soon as the press releases appear.