FILM NEWS (UK): Horror Channel FrightFest announces line-up for Halloween 2016 event

Horror Channel FrightFest unleashes a six-pack of cracking horror for their much-beloved Halloween event at the Prince Charles Cinema, Leicester Square, on Saturday October 22nd. The 13-hour trauma marathon includes five UK premieres and the world premiere of Ross Noble’s directorial debut. Shocktoberfest is here!

First up is the UK premiere of BED OF THE DEAD, a crowd-pleasingly ghoulish orgy of sex and gore where four swingers become stuck on a haunted double bed plagued by terrifying hallucinations. Next in the panic-stricken line-up is the UK Premiere of DON’T HANG UP where an evening of prank calls puts two millennials in deadly peril when one recipient decides to fight back. After that comes the UK Premiere of COLD MOON, a chilling tale of supernatural vengeance from the dark imagination of Michael McDowell, esteemed writer of Beetlejuice and The Nightmare before Christmas.

Then it’s time for a proper Halloween trick or treat with the UK Premiere of FEAR, INC, about a sinister company promising to bring all your personal nightmares to life. At 8.30pm comes the UK Premiere of RUPTURE in which The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo star Noomi Rapace is kidnapped and tortured to an extreme limit into another frightening realm altogether. Lastly, it’s the non-stop violent action movie currently wowing fantasy festivals all over the world, The Mo Brothers’ HEADSHOT starring Iko Uwais from The Raid franchise as an amnesiac trying to regain memories about his sadistic and extraordinary past.

Plus, we’ll be showing two fantastic shorts, the world premiere of Ross Noble’s nasty Halloween-set satire THE CATCHMENT, starring the comedy giant himself and Shauna Macdonald and DO YOU SEE WHAT I SEE?, an Xmas season shocker from, Canadian directors Justin McConnell & Serena Whitney. And of course there will be intros, Q & A’s, give-aways and a few special surprises…

Guests attending include RUPTURE director Stephen Shainberg, THE CATCHMENT director Ross Noble, DON’T HANG UP directors Damien Macé & Alexis Wajsbrot and COLD MOON producer Lee C. Rogers.

Alan Jones, co-director, said today: ““We just know you are going to love this hand-picked half-dozen of the latest and greatest chillers on the shock block. Horror, dread, terror and fantasy - it’s what we do best at FrightFest. So be very afraid and book now”.

Passes for the London event cost £45 and go on sale from noon on Saturday 1 October.
To book:  https://princecharlescinema.com/frightfest-halloween-special
Passes can also be bought at the cinema

FULL LINE UP:

10.30: BED OF THE DEAD (UK Premiere)

Director: Jeff Maher. Cast: Colin Price, Alysa King, Gwenlyn Cumyn, Dennis Andres, George Krissa. Canada 2016. 88 mins.

Out celebrating a birthday, two couples decide to party in a foursome at a sex club. Finding all the fantasy dungeons booked they are offered the mysterious Room 18 and start getting down to orgy business on the antique bed. But Room 18 has a dark history, the bed is haunted and once between the sheets, you can’t leave the mattress or you die. Plagued with frightening hallucinations across multi-dimensions, they must figure out the bed's secrets before they are all doomed. A race against time begins in a gloriously gruesome, gorgeous gore-fest from the LET HER OUT terror team.

PLUS….THE CATCHMENT (World Premiere) 

Director: Ross Noble.

Cast: Ross Noble, Shauna Macdonald, Cariad Lloyd, Richard Herring, Suki Webster

UK 2016. 16 mins.

A couple move into a house to be in the catchment area of a good school for their unborn children. But there’s a catch…


13:00 DON’T HANG UP (UK Premiere)

Directors: Damien Macé & Alexis Wajsbrot. Cast: Sienna Guillory, Gregg Sulkin, Garrett Clayton, Parker Sawyers, Bella Dayne. UK 2016. 83 mins.

I saw what you did and I know who you are! Two teens devise ever more elaborate prank phone calls to share online for their eager followers into impersonal humiliation. But as their
involved practical jokes become increasingly nastier, it never occurs to them they might be playing a very dangerous game. So when a mysterious threatening stranger calls the home landline, they suddenly realize they may not be invincible. In fact, they may be in very real peril, as the caller reveals the violent extremes he’s willing to employ to extract retribution before they’re able to reveal his identity.

15:15 COLD MOON (UK Premiere)

Director: Griff Furst. Cast: Josh Stewart, Candy Clark, Christopher Lloyd, Frank Whaley, Robby Kay. USA 2016. 92 mins.

From Michael McDowell, writer of BEETLEJUICE and THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, and STARVE director Griff Furst, a chilling tale of supernatural vengeance. Welcome to the sleepy southern town of Babylon where years earlier the Larkin family suffered a terrible tragedy. Now they are about to endure another when fourteen-year-old Margaret is robbed of her innocent life and sunk in the black waters of the River Styx. The powerful killer thinks he’s beyond the reach of the law. But he’s not beyond the rules of Hell or the spectral nightmares determined to mete out the most shocking justice.

18:00 FEAR, INC.(UK Premiere)

Director: Vincent Masciale. Cast: Lucas Neff, Caitlin Stasey, Chris Marquette, Stephanie Drake, Abigail Breslin. USA 2016. 91 mins.

Nothing is ever scary enough for unemployed horror fanboy Joe. Completely underwhelmed by a haunted house attraction he visits with his girlfriend Lindsay one date night, a creepy stranger gives him a business card for the mysterious service ‘Fear, Inc.’, a company
promising to bring personal nightmares to life… for a price. Despite warnings about the corporation’s dubious reputation, Joe calls the next day – Halloween - and sets off a chain of terrifying events that echoes such classic horror cinema as SCREAM, SAW, THE SHINING and FRIDAY THE 13th. Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bump-in-the-night ride!

PLUS….DO YOU SEE WHAT I SEE? (London Premiere)

Director: Justin McConnell & Serena Whitney. Cast: Caleigh Le Grand, Jorja Cadence, Adam Buller. Canada 2015. 14 mins.
It's the Christmas season, and Sloan is reluctanly helping her over-enthusiastic sister Jessica with the perfect party. But Sloan might have to do some kick-ass fighting to save the partygoers from a terrifying death...

20:30 RUPTURE (UK Premiere)

Director: Steven Shainberg. Cast: Noomi Rapace, Michael Chiklis, Peter Stormare, Lesley Manville, Kerry Bishé.  Canada. 2016. 102 mins.

Single mother Renee Morgan is trying to keep her life together when she’s suddenly kidnapped by a mysterious organization and held against her will in a sinister facility. Her captors insist they’re just conducting medical research, but to Renee and her fellow prisoners it’s torture! But why are they pushing her to an extreme limit, way beyond being scared to death and into another frightening realm altogether? A surreally spooky sci-fi horror from SECRETARY/FUR director Steven Shainberg, AMERICAN SNIPER producer Andrew Lazar and starring brilliant Noomi Rapace, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO and the millennial Sigourney Weaver in PROMETHEUS.

23:00 HEADSHOT (London Premiere)

Directors: Kimo Stamboel & Timo Tjahjanto. Cast: Iko Uwais, Chelsea Islan, Sunny Pang, Very Tri Yulisman, Julie Estelle. Indonesia. 117 mins.

Never forget, never let go in another fast and furious violent action thriller from The Mo Bothers, directors of MACABRE, KILLERS, plus V/H/S/2 and THE ABCs OF DEATH segments. The indomitable Iko Uwais (THE RAID and its sequel star) plays Ishmael, a young man who washes ashore, an amnesiac with a serious head injury whose past comes back to haunt him shortly after being nursed back to health by a young doctor. For Ishmael was a killing machine in his forgotten history and when his memories finally do return he is compelled to take on a vengeful drug lord’s henchmen.

Competition: Win Invasion Earth on DVD

Invasion Earth is released on DVD October 3rd. And to celebrate we have a great competition for you and 3 copies on DVD to give away.

Synopsis:
Famous self-help Guru, Dr. Carson travels to his new facility with eight young addicts with the aim of helping them through their troubles and integrating them back into society. Unfortunately for them society is about to be dismantled as a military force, not from this world, begins a hostile take-over.

Can these youngsters escape the facility and if they do, will it even make a difference?

Reviews
"You will not be able to look away" - 28DaysLaterAnalysis.com

"Worth checking out" - CinemaCrazed.com

"Will keep your attention the entire time and even had me begging for more. 4.5/5" - RepulsiveReviews.com

Win This:
Invasion Earth [DVD]

To enter all you have to do is answer this easy question...


Competition Closed

Terms and conditions
1. Closing date 10-10-16
2. No alternative prize is available
3. When the competition ends as indicated on this page, any and all entries received after this point will not count and emails blacklisted due to not checking this page first.
4. Winners will be chosen randomly and will be informed via email.

Competition: Win Ash vs Evil Dead on DVD

Ash vs Evil Dead is out on DVD on 19th September! and to celebrate we have a great competition for you and 3 copies to win.

Synopsis:
ASH vs THE EVIL DEAD is the long-awaited follow-up to the cult favourite horror film franchise The Evil Dead from the original filmmakers Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert, Bruce Campbell and Craig DiGregorio.

Twenty Four years since the last instalment of the Evil Dead trilogy, action legend Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead trilogy, Burn Notice) returns as Ashley J. "Ash" Williams for another bout of ass-kicking the evil dead.

Ash (Campbell) now works at the "ValueShop" mart as a stock boy, and the aging lothario and chainsaw-handed monster hunter has spent the last 30 years avoiding responsibility, maturity and the terrors of the Evil Dead.

His life has gone nowhere and he now lives in a trailer, drinking in bars at night and having casual affairs with various women, usually after making up a sensational story about how he lost his hand. After having inadvertently read the incantation from the Book of the Dead again, he unleashes the Kandarian Demon one more time. A new set of events brings him to assume his former fighting persona and face the new demonic plague in order to save the human race.

Win This:
Ash vs Evil Dead - Season 1 [DVD] [2016]

To enter all you have to do is answer this easy question...

Competition Closed



Winners will be chosen randomly and will be informed via email.

6 Of The Best Cult Teen Horrors

Every few years, a film comes along that speaks to teens and becomes a cult hit. From the iconic Ghostface calling his victims in Scream to the blood-soaked prom prank in Carrie, these moments are relatable and overdramatic – perfect for the younger generation. Friend Request is the latest in this dark and twisted trend, where social media is used to terrorise a group of students.

Laura has 800 friends on social media, but when she accepts a friend request from a quiet girl in her class she quickly realises how dangerous the click of a mouse can be. Soon a dark spirit takes control of Laura’s account and one by one, her friends are killed in the most brutal ways. Ahead of the release of Friend Request on Blu-rayTM and DVD September 19, we wanted to take a look at some of the best teen cult horrors of all time.


Carrie (1976)
Carrie received two Academy Award nominations, and launched the careers of various young actors including John Travolta. The film follows the shy teenager Carrie, who has an overbearing mother and is bullied by many students at her school. When she becomes the victim of a cruel prank to crown her Prom Queen and dump a bucket of pig’s blood over her on stage, Carrie unleashes her telekinetic fury upon innocent and guilty students alike, destroying her high school gymnasium and trapping the students inside to feel her wrath.

Halloween (1978)
Arguably one of the most successful horror franchises of all time, the Halloween saga began with a moment which shocked cinemagoers everywhere. When six year-old Michael Myers dressed in a clown costume brutally murders his sister by stabbing her with a kitchen knife, the child is committed to a psychiatric hospital until he escapes at the age of 21. The psychotic murderer returns to his home town and begins stalking high school student Laurie Strode, killing anyone who gets in his way.

Scream (1996)
This American slasher mocked the clichés of horror movies by openly referencing classics like Halloween and Friday the 13th. The film introduces the mysterious and now infamous killer known as ‘Ghostface,’ who creepily calls and taunts his victims before murdering them. The film focuses on Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and her friends, who try to work out the identity of Ghostface while he goes on a killing spree until only Sidney remains, or so we think…

I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)
Another classic from the 90s, I Know What You Did Last Summer follows four friends a year after they killed a fisherman with their car and dumped his body in the water. When Julie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) receives a mysterious letter claiming that her crime was seen, the group set off to track down who they think is responsible for the note as they are persued by the ‘figure in a rain slick.’.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Freddy Krueger made his way onto our screens in 1984 wielding his blade-fixed glove, stalking and slashing the teens of Springwood, Ohio in their dreams, or rather, nightmares. Johnny Depp received his on-screen debut as Glen Lantz, a stubborn teenage boy who refuses to accept that the nightmare murderer is real despite seeing his friends and girlfriend fatally slashed by an unseen force.

Friend Request (2016)
A modern day cult horror movie in the making, Friend Request is a breath of fresh air for the genre. Using social media as the medium to strike terror into teens, the film brings horror into the 21st century by highlighting how much we share online and how that could be used against us. Laura is one of the most popular girls at college, and suddenly receives a friend request from the awkward and lonely Marina. After accepting, Marina becomes jealous and angry when Laura doesn’t hang out with her, prompting an unfriending. But this is a decision that Laura will live to regret, if she can survive that is.

FRIEND REQUEST IS OUT ON BLU-RAYTM AND DVD SEPTEMBER 19

Film News (UK): Horror Channel to premiere HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN, TRIANGLE & WICKER MAN

There are a magnificent seven premieres on the Horror Channel this month, including the UK TV premiere of Renny Harlin’s icy horror mystery THE DYATLOV PASS INCIDENT and the network premieres of Christopher Smith’s compelling psychological thriller TRIANGLE and Jason Eisener’s rampaging HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN, starring a pistol-packing Rutger Hauer.

Also enjoying their network premieres are Darren Lynn Bousman’s wince-inducing SAW III, Phil Claydon’s sharply-toothed LESBIAN VAMPIRE KILLERS, with James Cordon and Matthew Horne, the late Robin Hardy’s all-time classic THE WICKER MAN and the Pang Brother’s creepy family drama THE MESSENGERS.

Full details of premieres in transmission order:


Fri 9 Sept @ 22:55 – HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN (2011) * Network Premiere

Rutger Hauer stars as a gun-toting homeless vigilante determined to clean the mean streets of trash – or rather, who he perceives as human vermin. He pulls into a new city and finds himself trapped in a mire of criminal chaos. What ensues is a bullet-ripping drama of riotous revenge. Filmmaker Jason Eisener won the SxSW Festival’s GRINDHOUSE competition with the original HOBO fake trailer.


Saturday 10 Sept @ 23:00 – SAW III (2006) *Network Premiere

Minutes after Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith) leaves him in the underground bathroom at the end of Saw II, Detective Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg) escapes by breaking his foot with a toilet lid and slipping it out of his ankle chain. Six months later, another Jigsaw victim is discovered by Lieutenant Rigg (Lyriq Bent) and Detectives Kerry (Dina Meyer) and Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) and the horror begins…again.


Fri 16 Sept @ 21:00 – LESBIAN VAMPIRE KILLERS (2009) *Network Premiere

Fletch (James Corden) and Jimmy (Matthew Horne) decide to escape their girlfriend problems and head to the countryside for a weekend of debauchery. Things don’t quite go to plan and they find themselves stuck in a village where all the women have been enslaved by a legendary vampire curse. As the night unfolds the boys have to put all of their fears (and dreams) behind them in order to rise to the challenge of becoming LESBIAN VAMPIRE KILLERS. . Also stars Paul McGann playing the potty-mouthed priest who is the only one who knows how to slay the vampirettes.


Sat 17 Sept @ 21:00 – TRIANGLE (2009) *Network Premiere

When Jess (Melissa George) sets sail on a yacht with a group of friends, she cannot shake the feeling that there is something wrong. Her suspicions are realised when the yacht hits a storm and the group is forced to board a passing ocean liner to get to safety, a ship Jess is convinced she’s been on before. The ship appears deserted, the clock on board has stopped, but they are not alone...Someone is intent on hunting them down, one by one. And Jess unknowingly holds the key to end the terror. A masterpiece in psychological terror from Severance & Black Death director Christopher Smith.


Fri 23 Sept @ 21:00 – THE DYATLOV PASS INCIDENT (2013) *UK TV Premiere

In February, 1959, nine Russians hikers ventured into the Ural Mountains on a trip that should have been manageable for a group with their vast experience. Two weeks later, all nine were discovered dead. A search party found the hikers’ tents ripped open from the inside and all seemed to have died from hypothermia.   With no compelling evidence or witnesses to account for the puzzling night, the case quickly fell into legendary infamy. The riddle has baffled investigators, researchers and authorities ever since. Now five young filmmakers retrace the steps of the doomed hikers in pursuit of the unsolvable mystery. What will they find? Starring Gemma Atkinson & Holly Goss.


Sat 24 Sept @ 21:00 – THE WICKER MAN (1973) *Network Premiere

The story was inspired by David Pinner's 1967 novel Ritual and centres on the visit of Police Sergeant Neil Howie (Edward Woodward) to the isolated island of Summerisle, in search of a missing girl. Howie, a devout Christian, is appalled to find that the inhabitants of the island have abandoned Christianity and now practise a form of Celtic paganism. His unease intensifies as he continues his investigation, slowly coming to fear that the girl's disappearance may be linked to a horrifying circumstances beyond his control. Director Robin Hardy was working on his next film, The Wrath of the Gods, which would have completed The Wicker Man Trilogy, at the time of his death on July 1, 2016.


Fri 30 Sept @ 21:00 – THE MESSENGERS (2007) *Network Premiere

The first English-language horror entry by the Pang Brothers and produced by Sam Raimi  this suspenseful supernatural thriller centres on the dysfunctional Solomon family, who leave the fast paced life of Chicago for the secluded world of a North Dakota farm. Amidst the tranquil sway of the farm's field of sunflowers, Jess, 16, soon realises how terrifying seclusion can be when she and her brother Ben, 3, begin seeing ominous apparitions invisible to everyone else.

PLUS! Horror Channel has some exciting Daytime premieres of films and TV series, including the UK TV premiere of TERRORDACTYL, a prehistoric joyride into hell where downtown Los Angeles is plagued by a deadly swarm of pterodactyls.

The full line-up of daytime films:

Wed 7 Sept @ 16:00 – THE DINOSAUR PROJECT (2012) *Network Premiere

Wed 14 Sept @16:00 – AMAZING STORIES: THE MOVIE (1966) *Network Premiere

Wed 21 Sept @16:00 – KNIGHT RIDER 2000 (1991) *Network Premiere

Wed 28 Sept @16:00 – TERRORDACTYL (2016) *UK TV Premiere

The Daytime series:

From Mon 5 Sept at 09:00 & 19:00 – HERCULES: THE LEGENDARY JOURNEYS SEASON 4  (1997-1998) *Network Premiere

From Mon 19 Sept at 12:00 & 20:00 – LAND OF THE GIANTS SEASON 1 (1968-1969) *Network Premiere

TV: Sky 319 / Virgin 149 / Freesat 138 | Freeview 70
www.horrorchannel.co.uk | twitter.com/horror_channel | facebook.com/horrorchannel

Competition: Win Exterminator 2 [Blu-ray]

Exterminator 2 is released on Bluray September 5th. And to celebrate we have a great competition for you and 3 copies on Bluray to give away.

Synopsis:
For the first time available in the UK on Blu-Ray.

John Eastland (Robert Ginty) is back and hes cleaning up the urban jungle again but this time, hes going to do it right.

When his brother is fried alive by The Exterminator during a hold-up attempt, the satanic X (Mario Van Peebles) and his gang decides to get even and eliminate The Exterminator. The marauders unleash a campaign of violence and barbarism and, as they terrify the populace, it appears they may be invincible. But they make a terrible mistake they cripple The Exterminators girlfriend and its a mistake they quickly regret.

Donning an Army jacket and metal mast and arming himself with his flamethrower, The Exterminator takes to the wheel of his garbage truck and sets to clear out the city of its malignant human refuse. In a confrontation of all-consuming fury, the warlords meet their match

Win This:
Exterminator 2 [Blu-ray]

To enter all you have to do is answer this easy question...

Competition Closed

Terms and conditions
1. Closing date 19-09-16
2. No alternative prize is available
3. When the competition ends as indicated on this page, any and all entries received after this point will not count and emails blacklisted due to not checking this page first.
4. Winners will be chosen randomly and will be informed via email.

Competition: Win Patient Z on DVD

Patient Z is released on DVD September 5th. And to celebrate we have a great competition for you and 3 copies on DVD to give away.

Synopsis:
Lacie Donovan suffers from a problem that is all too common for college students: an empty wallet. With semester break at hand, a flyer on the campus bulletin board offering $1,000 for medical research volunteers could not have been posted at a better time.

Lacie, her friend Killian and half a dozen other participants sign up for the 3-day experiment. Unfortunately, they've unknowingly volunteered their bodies as human guinea pigs in an ongoing U.S. Military experiment aimed at developing a bioweapon...

Kirk Anderson (Actor), Daniel Baldwin (Actor), David McElroy (Director)

Win This:
Patient Z - The Infected [DVD]

To enter all you have to do is answer this easy question...


Competition Closed

Terms and conditions
1. Closing date 12-09-16
2. No alternative prize is available
3. When the competition ends as indicated on this page, any and all entries received after this point will not count and emails blacklisted due to not checking this page first.
4. Winners will be chosen randomly and will be informed via email.

Competition: Win Vampyres on DVD

Vampyres is out on DVD on 5th September! and to celebrate we have a great competition for you and 3 copies to win.

Synopsis:
Two beautiful women roam the English countryside, luring men to their estate for orgies of sex and blood. But when a group of campers stumble into the vampires' lair, they find themselves sucked into a vortex of savage lust and forbidden desires.

Stars:
Caroline Munro
Verónica Polo

Directed:
Victor Matellano

Win This:
Vampyres [DVD] [2016]

To enter all you have to do is answer this easy question...

Competition Closed

When the competition ends as indicated on this page, any and all entries received after this point will not count and emails blacklisted due to not checking this page first.

Winners will be chosen randomly and will be informed via email.

Interview with Barbie Wilde By David Kempf

 “Barbie Wilde is best known for playing the Female Cenobite in Clive Barker’s classic British cult horror movie, Hellbound: Hellraiser II. Before moving to the UK, Wilde attended Syracuse University in New York State, majoring in Drama and Anthropology. She continued her education in London, studying Drama, Classical Mime and Art History, before joining Britain’s largest classical mime troupe, SILENTS.

Wilde has performed in cabaret in Bangkok, Thailand; robotically danced in the Indian blockbuster, Janbazz; was a vicious thug in Michael Winner’s Death Wish 3; and played a drummer in the so-called “Holy Grail of unfinished and unreleased 80’s horror”: Grizzly II: The Concert, which also featured then unknowns George Clooney, Laura Dern and Charlie Sheen.

In the early 1980s, Wilde danced professionally at the top nightclubs and rock venues of New York, London and Amsterdam with her group, SHOCK. SHOCK released two singles on RCA Records and supported such artists as Gary Numan, Ultravox, Depeche Mode and Adam and the Ants.

Wilde wrote and presented eight music and film review TV programs in the 1980s and 1990s, interviewing such pop personalities as Iggy Pop, The Sisters of Mercy, The B-52s and Johnny Rotten, as well as actors Nicolas Cage and Hugh Grant. Wilde was also a Casting Director for the BBC’s The Buddha Of Suburbia and for MTV’s The Real World: London.

In 2009-2016, Wilde contributed short stories to 15 horror or crime anthologies and publications. In 2012, Comet Press published Wilde’s well-received debut dark crime, serial killer novel, The Venus Complex. Fangoria has called Wilde “one of the finest purveyors of erotically charged horror fiction around.”

---
Interview with Barbie Wilde By David Kempf

Please tell us about your new illustrated horror short story collection Voices of The Damned. 

Here’s the blurb that I came up with for the book, which I believe describes it perfectly:

Enter into the mind of Barbie Wilde, whose disturbing interior world teems with the voices of rebellious female demons, devilish witches, semen-hungry neo-vampires, raging gods and home invaders, the fiends of sleep paralysis, pint-sized store-front preachers with a whiff of sulfur, body horrors of the most grotesque kind, clandestine aliens and Zulu zombies.

These truly are the Voices of the Damned: eleven short horror stories from Barbie Wilde, actress (Hellbound: Hellraiser II, Death Wish 3) and dark crime-horror novelist (The Venus Complex).

Each story is accompanied by seductive, haunting, full color artworks and illustrations created by some of the most imaginative artists in the genre: Clive Barker, Nick Percival, Steve McGinnis, Daniele Serra, Eric Gross, Tara Bush, Vincent Sammy, & Ben Baldwin.

When did you first become interested in writing?

I’ve been writing ever since I was a little kid. I wrote a play about the American Revolutionary War patriot Paul Revere when I was 12 and acted out all the parts in front of my 6th grade class. That was the first time I heard applause and I was hooked. Even when I was a full time actress, I was trying my hand at screenplays and TV shows.

When I hit my mid-thirties, “acting left me behind” as thespians say, and I turned my hand to casting commercials and TV shows, however, the love of writing was always buzzing away in the background until I was working on it full time, creating my debut diary-of-a-serial-killer novel, The Venus Complex, which was published by Comet Press in 2012.

In 2009, I wrote my first short horror story, “Sister Cilice” (the tale of a sex-starved nun who transforms into a female cenobite), for the Hellbound Hearts anthology, which was edited by Paul Kane and Marie O’Regan. I was subsequently asked to submit to other short horror story anthologies such as The Mammoth Book of Body Horror (again edited by Paul and Marie) and Dean M. Drinkel’s Phobophobia, Phobophobias, The Demonologia Biblica, The Grimorium Verum, etc. Many of these stories are featured in Voices of the Damned.


How did you get involved in fantasy/horror?

I’ve always been interested in the criminal mind, which is why I wrote The Venus Complex. Writing horror isn’t such a great leap from crime, because I tend to write about real life horror. Man really is the scariest monster of them all. Although this doesn’t preclude me tackling supernatural subjects such as vampires, demons, enormous polyps, and possessed children as well.


How did you land the part of the Female Cenobite in Hellbound: Hellraiser II?

The casting director for Hellbound, Doreen Jones, called my acting agent and arranged for me to audition with Tony Randel. I nearly didn’t go because the first Hellraiser film disturbed me so much! I also thought that I was going up for the role of the Chatterer and I hated the idea of that kind of heavy mask work, having done it in the past. However, I had a great chat with Tony and I ended up getting the part.

Why? I’m not sure. I did have classical mime training and I know that Clive was very interested in mime, so that might have been a deciding factor.


Was it scary to work with Charlie Sheen?

In Grizzly II: The Concert, Charlie played a “Red Shirt”, i.e., a fairly inconsequential character who gets killed off quite quickly. I never actually met him, or Laura Dern, or George Clooney during the filming. (It’s amazing how many soon-to-be-famous actors appeared in this so-called “Holy Grail of unfinished and unreleased ‘80s horror”.) All my scenes were filmed on a huge concert stage in a national park in Hungary. I was playing a drummer in an electronic band performing in the park while Charlie, Laura and George were being munched on by the bear in the forest somewhere nearby.

Grizzly II was a very strange experience, but I did have a lot of fun. Bits of the film can still be found on Youtube. I think there were a lot of technical problems with the mechanical bear, which kept breaking down, along with the usual financial woes, that finally scuppered the film.


Tell us about receiving literary critical praise from the world’s premiere horror magazine Fangoria.

I was thrilled, to say the least. I initially contacted Chris Alexander, the editor-in-chief of Fangoria at that time, and asked him if he wanted to review The Venus Complex. Chris asked me to send him everything that I’d written up to that point and we ended up doing an interview featurette in Fangoria #321 called “Bad Barbie”.  Chris really understood where I was coming from in trying to explore the sexual mindscapes of my characters in a way that I felt hadn’t been done before. It didn’t matter if the character was a Greek myth-obsessed shut-in, or a 300 year old witch, or an author suffering from writer’s block, or an art history professor who ends up morphing into a serial killer.

Also, having New York Times best-selling author John Skipp review The Venus Complex and a filmmaker like Izzy Lee review Voices of the Damned was brilliant, as I love their work so much.

What does Clive Barker think of your fiction?

Clive has been incredibly supportive of my work, as well as being very generous. His beautiful artwork, “She Waits”, is the cover art for Voices of the Damned, “Kiss Me” for my nun-turned-Female-Cenobite story, “Sister Cilice”, and “Princess Breath” for “Gaia”.


What do you see as the primary difference between British and American horror?

You know, I’ve never thought about it in those terms. Although I’ve been in the UK a long time, I’ve only written two stories from a British perspective. The first one, “Zulu Zombies”, appeared in the antho The Bestarium Vocabulum (edited by Dean M. Drinkel), then it was reprinted in Fangoria’s Gorezone and it now features in Voices of the Damned with a fantastic illustration by Nick Percival. Milton Keynes and London are the settings for “Zulu Zombies”.

“Blue-Eyes”, a story that I’ve just written for the Best British Horror: Green and Pleasant Land antho, is set in the green belt north of London.

Since I grew up in Canada and the USA, I’ve always given a North American sensibility to my stories because that’s what I know best. That’s also where the biggest differences can be found, for example: the lingo, the locations, and the cultural background and perspectives of the characters.


What are your favorite horror books?

Dracula, Frankenstein, The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker, The Stand, The Shining…

My favorite authors: Clive Barker, Patricia Highsmith, Shirley Jackson, Colin Wilson for his true crime books, Raymond Chandler, Ernest Hemingway, Paul Kane, Ramsey Campbell and Philip K. Dick. Also, writers for the screen such as David Cronenberg, Guillermo del Toro, The Soska Sisters and John Carpenter.


What are some of your favorite horror movies?

Hellraiser, Audition, The Ring, Sinister, American Mary,  Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), The Haunting (1963), The Thing From Another World (1953), Carpenter’s The Thing, Alien, Halloween…


What do you consider your greatest accomplishment as an author?

To fearlessly explore the minds, the urges and the emotional landscapes of my characters and to never self-edit myself while doing so.


Do you have any advice for new writers?

My favourite inspirational quote is from the movie GalaxyQuest: “Never give up! Never surrender!” It’s the best advice I can give to anyone going into the arts.


What is your opinion of the new self-publishing trend?

I’ve always gone with well-respected independent publishers because they’re very supportive and enthusiastic about my work. I’ve had some friends go the self-publishing route and I think that they’ve been rather disappointed by the response they’ve received. Of course, there is always the “Twilight”-type example that shows that self-publishing can lead to great success, but that’s probably the exception that proves the rule.


What are your current projects?

I’m currently working on a couple of film scripts based on two of my short horror stories. I’m also gearing up to the 30th Anniversary of Hellraiser in 2017. There are some horror convention appearances with my fellow cenobites on the horizon.


Please in your own words write a paragraph about yourself & your work.

Well, the narrative arc of my career has certainly been a wild one. (Pun intended!) Starting out as an actress, then having a pop career in the early ‘80s, moving into writing and presenting as a host of eight different TV shows, then working as a casting director, and finally becoming a published author. I guess you can say that when one door opened, I didn’t hesitate, I just walked through and discovered the strange and wonderful surprises that lay beyond. Becoming an author has been one of my favourite and most liberating career choices as I’m fascinated and exhilarated by writing fiction, where there are no boundaries to my imagination. As far as my work is concerned, I consider myself very much a character-driven author. Instead of just playing roles, I now create characters — the darker the better — and then let them loose upon the world. And if you do choose to read one of my twisted and erotic tales, not only will you hopefully be scared and disturbed, you’ll also be amused — and perhaps even offended and disgusted. But the likelihood is that you’ll always remember my horror stories.

Website: www.barbiewilde.com
Facebook: www.facebook/barbie.wilde, www.facebook.com/BarbieWildeAuthorActress
Twitter: @barbiewilde

Credits:
Photographer Iain McKell
The Venus Complex cover Daniele Serra
Voices of the Damned - Clive Barker
American Mutant art by Vincent Sammy

Competition: Win Lair of the Beast DVD

Lair of the Beast is released on DVD August 22. And to celebrate we have a great competition for you and 3 copies on DVD to give away.

Synopsis:
Four friends hike into the Pinewood forest to find evidence of the Chupacabra, a creature believed to be responsible for the disappearance of a group of experienced hikers a year earlier. As they journey deeper into the forest, they are introduced to a darkness that leaves these four victims fighting for their lives. One by one these friends are faced with the reality of survival.

Lair of the Beast is released on DVD August 22

Win This:
Lair Of The Beast [DVD]

To enter all you have to do is answer this easy question...


Who Directs Lair of the Beast?

To enter Email us on competition@mastersofhorror.co.uk with your answer, along with your name and address.



Terms and conditions
1. Closing date 29-08-16
2. No alternative prize is available
3. When the competition ends as indicated on this page, any and all entries received after this point will not count and emails blacklisted due to not checking this page first.
4. Winners will be chosen randomly and will be informed via email.