Mid-Sussex screening for new Crawley Down Hammer Horror style chiller

Xander is co-producer for the film which comes in the style of Universal Monster and Hammer Horror, offering an original story and an original monster in the form of the Ravenstein.

Filmed entirely in Crawley Down and written and directed by Eveshka Ghost, the story revolves around two friends David and Marky (played by James McClusky and Nik Kaneti-Dimmer) who stumble upon an abandoned worksite. Tempted by urban exploration, they find themselves hunted by its resident, a killer birdman…

The film, which has already won an international film award and has been nominated for another, will be scaring its first public audience on October 24 at 7.30pm at Scott Cinemas, East Grinstead.

Xander explains: “We had just finished a film called The Bastard Sword which was a medieval fantasy film, and when we finished it, we met this guy called Tom Walters who is the other producer for this film.

“He and Eveshka started working on the film, found a location and thought what kind of story can we have here.

“They thought ‘What about one of those cheesy horror films?’ It came from that, and we had a big wobbly bird costume mask.

“We are a very small operation. We are very small humble film-makers. We usually find something in a charity shop and think ‘How can we use this?’ So we had this mask and we ended up thinking of a killer bird man.

“The story is set in the modern day. We found this location in Crawley Down. The way it started was that we were driving around talking about things we could do, and we drove through Crawley Down one day and Ghost found this abandoned workshop place.

“The film starts with these two guys going in there. One of them has had an argument with his father and the other one takes him on a bike ride.

“They come across this abandoned workshop place, and it is open. Usually it is closed.

“They go in and they investigate, and they meet a homeless man called Jack who tells them about this killer bird man that has been seen walking the grounds. The boys don’t believe him at first…

“It is classic horror. It is not supposed to take itself too seriously, but it is supposed to give a sense of what the old-fashioned horror movies would be like set in the present day.”

Made through their company Rusalka Pictures Ltd, the film has a running time of 93 minutes.

The team are currently developing American streaming options. In the meantime, they will make it available through their website as DVD, Blu-ray and VHS.

Features: James McClusky, Nik Kaneti-Dimmer; directed by Eveshka Ghost; produced by Xander Phillips, Tom Walters; written by Eveshka Ghost, Tom Walters; music by Chris Wilson.

There is also a CD soundtrack from the film coming soon.

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