Carrion Film can now announce that Penny Dreadful 4 ‘THE HAIRY HANDS” has been selected to be shown at this years Cannes film festival as part of the Short Film Corner. The announcement means it’s the second consecutive year that a Carrion Film animation has been selected for screening at the prestigious event.
Last year ‘Scayrecrow’ was selected to be screened and its exposure at the festival led to ‘The Screaming Skull‘ being screened at the 17th Raindance Film Festival in London and its subsequent Best UK Short Film nomination. ‘The Hairy Hands‘ producer Tom Atkinson has sent this exclusive report directly from the World famous festival:
“Well, here we are again! Cannes 2010 trembles in its Jimmy Choos as Carrion Film screens its latest frightful flick at the world’s greatest film festival. My hotel room is small, the en suite even smaller and the carpet is certainly not red! However with the 2010 Cannes Film Festival in full swing and ‘The Hairy Hands‘ screening to critics and buyers left right and centre I have little time to dwell on my room or the ridiculous rate I am paying for it.”
“It truly is a glorious place to be when the sun shines, the salty sea ruffles your hair and the smell of money 
makes your head spin. I have spent the first days of the festival exploring the labyrinthine layout of the festival and bumping into old friends and colleagues, all of whom are twitching with glee at the possibilities this festival can hold for the boldest and luckiest filmmakers who meet the right person who just happens to be looking for exactly what they are screening. Moments like this are the stuff of dreams and yes I am on the lookout for just such an opportunity. Personally I would like to meet a horror mad Hollywood producer whose pockets are weighed down with money, whose brain is addled with champagne and possibly cocaine, whose only aim at the festival is to meet a young British Producer with a stunning, short animated horror film that could (and has) been described as “A tense, playful and ultra-stylized slice of modern gothic macabre…” by such luminaries of the genre as Chris Alexander of ‘Fangoria magazine‘. This is, however, unlikely but where there is hope there is…well, me.”
“This hope was boosted the other day as I sat through a screening of the tawdry and pointless yet much vaunted ‘Robin Hood’. This film is 
the final nail in the coffin of my already tattered faith in Sir Ridley Scott. It is awful, and to my sense of the ridiculous actually burst off the scale when it was reported to be a more sensible and historically accurate version of the – by comparison – academically precise, Kevin Costner film from the 90’s. The narrative is choppy and unbalanced, the cinematography is woeful, the accents are questionable in the extreme and the only thing remotely convincing was the filth and the sweat on the actors faces. It was uninspiring and unworthy of opening the festival.”
“By comparison, ‘The Hairy Hands‘ looks glorious up on the big screen and audiences so far have cried out in fear, ooohed and aaahed in the right places and the bubble of chatter during the credits is a very positive sign. Silence as the credits roll is akin to the silence among the crowd after the trap hs dropped and the hooded offender twitches and gurgles in the noose. I am here for the 
duration and will report back upon my return to the UK or as soon as that champagne addled Hollywood exec puts his arms around my shoulder and says “Hey kid, this is the film I have been looking for!” – Producer Tom Atkinson.
Apart from producing ‘The Hairy Hands‘ for Carrion Film Tom also heads up R3D Films; an award winning production company that currently has Film, Documentary, Drama and Corporate projects in production.
Atkinson’s work has been highly acclaimed by the press, particularly Film4 . He has produced several films, including The Wrestling (2008) starring Kendo Nagasaki and The Pantomime (2009) narrated by Simon Callow. In 2008, in conjunction with Egmont Publishing Atkinson produced the documentary Roy . This film was made to support the relaunch of legendary comic footballer ‘Roy of the Rovers‘ and the reprinting of his most famous stories. Acclaimed by Film4 in a four star review as “a superb short about a football legend who made up for being a somewhat two-dimensional player by virtue of his formidable haircuts, his nose for scandal and the best eye for goal in the business”, ‘Roy’ won the award for Best Documentary Short at the End of the Pier International Film Festival 2009, gained Official Selection in Rushes (company) Soho Shorts Festival 2009 and also screened at the Cannes Film festival. Atkinson has also worked with Oscar-winning production company Passion pictures on a documentary series screened on both Channel 4and More4.
With director Luke Dormehl, Tom Atkinson makes up the team behind the 10 Pound Horror Film: an 
independent film production that uses transmedia storytelling and is the world’s first fan-funded horror film.
Director Ashley Thorpe was unable to attend the festival due to writing commitments on a number of future genre projects – information on which will be posted here as soon as it is available.
THE HAIRY HANDS GET THEIR GRIP ON CANNES
Ever supportive legendary magazine ‘Fangoria‘ has posted their own news report on the Cannes screening of Carrion Film animation ‘The Hairy Hands’:
“The latest animated short from UK-based filmmaker (and Fango contributor) Ashley Thorpe, THE HAIRY HANDS (see Fango #293) looks set to have another “hit with a myth,” having been screened recently at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The vivid little flick—Thorpe’s fourth in a series of animations that aim to resurrect neglected aspects of British legend—looks set to follow in the footsteps of the award-winning SCAYRECROW and THE SCREAMING SKULL.
Evoking such previous genre treats as THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS, HANDS delivers EC Comics-style chills, telling of a stretch of Dartmoor road haunted by the eponymous fingered fiends. “My interests have always been this perverse blend of high and low art, and that wonderful kaleidoscope where one feeds from the other,” Thorpe tells Fango. “So it’s rather fantastic knowing that a film based upon the B3212 on Dartmoor has been screened at one of the world’s greatest festivals. It’s a bit like having one of your kids amble accidentally into a cover shot for Time magazine and drop his trousers. It’s extraordinary, really. From the windswept moors of Devon to the sunlit beaches of Cannes… But then, I suppose that was always my intention for the Penny Dreadful project. Get these stories out there!”
Due to other writing commitments, including the next Penny Dreadful entry SPRING HEEL JACK, the director was unable to attend the screening, but producer Tom Atkinson, who was present, was left extremely optimistic by the response. “THE HAIRY HANDS looks glorious up on the big screen,” he says, “and audiences so far have cried out in fear, oohed and aahed in the right places, and the bubble of chatter during the credits is a very positive sign.”