Horror on Sea 2026
00:38:13
About
We’re back like a vertebrae and ready to tell you all about our day at the 2026 Horror-on-sea Film Festival. Always a joy to attend this ever-brilliant event, this year we opted for the second Saturday (23rd of January), and we hit a brilliant seam of great new horror. Features covered are “Borley Rectory: The Awakening”; “All You Need Is Blood” and “Horror-on-sea: 13 Bloody Years”. Short films covered: “Mirror, Mirror: Matryoshka”; “Medieval Maze”; “Knell”; “Kindness”; “Antebody”; “Fox and The Hen”; “Say Bye Bye To Blood Sausage” and “She-Bear”. No prep needed for this episode, as these are all brand new we will try to stay spoiler free, so just tune in and join us.
Adam's research
Verbatim lifts from Adam's own words in the episode. Click a timestamp to hear him say it.
- Nell film availability
And uh, incidentally, um, I'll send you the link because the they had the QR code there. That is something you can see on YouTube. Yeah, they've they've put that up on YouTube and it's well worth a watch. If you look for um Nell K N E D L uh Dean Ferris is the director.
- Short film distribution challenges
because shorts shorts is a very difficult thing because usually they're supporting a main feature you may if someone then goes on to direct a feature film they may include them as extras but that's not even you're not even guaranteed a physical release now because things are not moved in that direction. So a lot of these things, hopefully they'll surface on stuff like YouTube because it's going to be the only way to see them. And it's, you know, surely it's got to be an effective calling card to be able to point someone in that direction. Yeah. You know, and go, right, if you want to see what I can do, here's this, you know, 15 minutes of um just great folk horror. It was, yeah, pretty good, very well acted and yeah.
- Borley Rectory director's filmography
Yeah, because he's done he's done quite a he quite done quite a number of films if you look on looking on his sort of IMDB credits. Um, but there's there's a couple of previous Borley Rectory as well, which I I'm not sure, you know, obviously we haven't sort of investigated those further, but I am intrigued to do some.
- Borley Rectory cast details
But they, um, but yeah, and I and quite a few, I mean, there are a number of familiar faces in there, but actually across the board, the cast were brilliant and they were I've got to sort of like say, they were um, I'm hoping I'm saying it right, Corneel Dion Willis. And Jess Inchbold, who were like the uh, the main sort of the. The brother and sister. Were so damn good. You know, they were because a lot of the time, you know, you sort of find it's like, oh, well, you've got familiar faces in there, but then the lesser known faces might not be. They were, they were brilliant to the point where I'm like, I'm convinced I've seen them in other things just because, surely I've seen them in other things because they were really, really good. But in terms of other names, you had Patsy Kensit in there and Julian Glover at the start, uh, Vicky Michelle, uh, Helen Ledrer who was great. She turned up as a doctor and was just, yeah, and Mark Winger from uh, who was Carver in the bill. Utterly unexpected. He was really great in it and um, yeah, just just all round the cast were fantastic.
- Antibody title etymology
Because it's Antibody with an E as in anti. Meaning before. Not anti as in against. So, yeah, so it's before body essentially is Antibody.
- All You Need is Blood actress's debut
Also, we've got to mention Emma Chase who was playing um the aspiring actress. This is her only film.
- Shebear silent film style
It's black and white and done like a silent film. Yeah. So you would have the and and the wonderful thing that you because we you we've watched we've watched silent stuff on the show on the show. Obviously we've watched Nosferatu. And and it's that lovely thing where someone says the dialogue and then it black the black card comes up with. The writing with the dialogue on this, you know, it's been said. And then this one they would subvert that occasionally where clearly they were saying something quite different. But they made it slightly more polite on the card.
- Horror on Sea festival submission policy
And I mean the best well the best will in the world, then it's not always the most comfortable seat in. And you know. But I mean, I'm a I'm a sucker for a documentary as it is, so I was quite happy with the run time, but my God, it was just such a just such a lovely evocative tribute of just how fun. And how oddly wonderfully amazing horror on sea is. And it taught me things that I didn't realize. I didn't realize that they don't charge people. To submit films, which is such a rarity within. You know, within filmmaking, certainly within film festivals, they don't charge people to submit their films. That's fucking amazing because that's the best thing. For for any struggling filmmaker, money is everything. You don't need to spend. And not only that also but but also you don't you don't think about it, but that's paying to submit your film. They may not even show it. You know, and that's like however much money you've wasted for someone's not going to show your film. And just again, much like being in the bar, it was just seeing all the familiar faces. Realizing how many people sort of met up and projects that spiraled out of people. And just this lovely little confluence of local, well, not even local, but like nationwide talent that has sort of been connected through Horror on Sea and which is all been brought together by Paul Crove. I mean, he's obviously he was the focal point of the documentary in a lot of ways, and he was a talking head in it as well. Um, but yeah, I mean, it's great to see the because it was hilariously funny the documentary.
- 13 Bloody Years documentary production
Because of the love of everyone involved, there was no problem with getting. Clips of the films and stuff like that and the stuff that's been break out of the and you know, everyone from people who just bring in mad shorts every year. To people who've made sort of like three or four feature films and stuff like that. And but you say you had clips from the films. And stuff like that to illustrate it as well. In fact, and I don't know if this rates for our IMDB, Lee. But I think we're in this more than we are in Video Shop Tails of Terror II. Because they were using off cuts from that. In there as well. … It's still in there, but it's part of the it became part of the governor trailer, didn't it, which is Paul. Paul's cameo role. … Yeah, they freeze frame. You can see us really. Yeah. Yeah. So. So we'll get we'll get we'll put that on IMDB. We've got to be putting us I don't know, archive footage or something like that.
- 13 Bloody Years documentary origin
And yeah, it's just it was just hilarious, but also it apparently it's spun from. It was going to be a DVD extra, it was just going to be like a 10-minute thing saying, Oh, here's the Horror on Sea festival, and so many people wanted to contribute and so many people that they ended up with this thing that then became half an hour. And then an hour, an hour's a feature-length documentary, and I'm hoping that I hope I hope that it comes out like in some physical form or is available somewhere.
Highlights
Transcript
Show full transcript
Lee Good evening and welcome to horror. I'm Lee.
Chris Hi, I'm Chris.
Adam I'm Adam.
Lee And we're here again to discuss the Great Horror on Sea Film Festival that we all attended yesterday.
Chris Yep.
Lee excellent as always.
Chris Yeah, it really was.
Lee It was really exciting, loads of people, loads of good films, so we're going to try and rush through it all quite quickly, because obviously there is a lot to get through.
Adam And we don't want to spoil anything, so you know,
Chris a good thing that we can there will be swearing.
Adam You're present.
Lee Yes.
Adam But there won't be spoilers, hopefully, so.
Chris We'll keep each other in check.
Lee Yeah.
Unknown yes, so we've managed to watch three main films, as well as we saw eight shorts along the way.
Adam About that, yeah, I think it was, yeah.
Chris Yeah.
Lee so we had a nice early start for a Saturday morning. We started with Borley Rectory The Awakening.
Chris
Lee Which was at 10:00 AM, but before that, we had a few shorts.
Lee first we had was Mirror Mirror.
Chris Mirror Mirror.
Adam Matr, Matroshka.
Chris Matroshka. Oh, there you go. That's the pronunciation.
Adam Well, that's that's my pronunciation. I'm probably doing it wrong.
Chris They did get debated on the day, didn't it? A little bit.
Adam Probably, probably best speak to a Russian.
Chris Sounds good.
Lee So we, so that was brought to us, it was the first of what's going to be a much larger story by Martin Payne.
Lee We, I, I really enjoyed it. I thought it was good. It was nice and short. It was only eight minutes.
Chris Yeah.
Lee it was very creepy and weird. It was really well done. We didn't give too much away, so I'm looking forward to the rest of the parts, because he said they're all going to fit together to create one large narrative.
Chris Yeah, because it seemed to top and tail with what looks to be what links it to the larger piece and then you've got the actual thing in the middle of it that was essentially standalone, yeah.
Chris I think the title does give you the hint really as you know, roughly what you can expect.
Adam But certainly the mirror mirror aspect, yeah.
Lee yes, so that was a great start to the day.
Lee that was followed by Medieval Maze.
Lee I liked this one as well. It was good.
Adam The Ne Ne remains very, very short.
Chris Yeah.
Adam like five minute, pretty much presumably done pretty much on an iPhone, but yeah.
Chris It did, it did look like it, but it totally worked for this.
Chris I like, it does make me think it would be kind of fun to try and do something like that.
Lee Yeah.
Adam Oh, absolutely, yeah.
Chris They're just gone to this medieval village and yeah, just used all the props that are there and
Chris yeah, managed to create a story around there.
Adam You use what you've got and, you know, it was an effective little sort of moment, yeah.
Chris Yeah.
Lee Very, very good.
Lee
Lee so but yeah, I get the same, Chris. I do every year when I come away from horror on sea, I'm like, maybe we should think about doing something, yeah.
Lee I've not yet, but
Lee It, it, you never know.
Chris I think, I think one day.
Lee Maybe.
Chris Yeah.
Lee Yeah.
Lee So,
Lee we also then saw a longer short Nell,
Lee which was a folk horror.
Adam And that's Nell with a K, so as in the toll of a bell.
Lee Yes.
Adam Not Nell as in Jodie Foster.
Lee Yeah.
Lee directed by Dean Ferris.
Lee yeah, this was super creepy.
Lee I like, I thought the effects in this one at that very end were really, really impressive.
Adam It was, it was a very good, very simple sort of like little folk horror moment like you say, you know, someone disturbs something they shouldn't in the woods and that follows them out. I think in everything about this, I really enjoyed. I thought the like the visually it was brilliant because they because it moves from the woods to the city and I think both were invoked.
Adam Really, really well.
Chris Yeah.
Adam And, you know, there was the, the sound design and music was great on on it as well. And yeah, it was a very effective and, you know, excellent, you know, there was nothing about it that bespoke that spoke of small budget. It looked
Chris It it was really high quality, very high quality, really sort of well put together editing.
Adam You know, just just the whole thing. I think that was a great.
Adam And incidentally, I'll send you the link because the they had the QR code there.
Adam That is something you can see on YouTube.
Lee Oh, is it?
Chris That's good.
Adam Yeah, they've they've put that up on YouTube and it's well worth a watch.
Adam If you look for Nell K N E D L Dean Ferris is the director.
Chris That would be really great if if more could do that, because, yeah.
Chris Sometimes I really want to go back and watch them.
Adam Yeah.
Lee Well, this the thing with a lot of these, it's sort of they come out and they do the festival.
Lee And you know, some of the bigger films obviously get a Blu-ray release or whatever.
Lee But so much stuff that we watch that's fantastic, we you just never get the chance to see it again and it's such a shame at times, but I mean I know why.
Adam because shorts shorts is a very difficult thing because usually they're supporting a main feature you may if someone then goes on to direct a feature film they may include them as extras but that's not even you're not even guaranteed a physical release now because things are not moved in that direction.
Adam So a lot of these things, hopefully they'll surface on stuff like YouTube because it's going to be the only way to see them.
Adam And it's, you know, surely it's got to be an effective calling card to be able to point someone in that direction.
Chris Well, yeah.
Adam Yeah.
Chris Definitely.
Adam You know, and go, right, if you want to see what I can do,
Adam here's this, you know, 15 minutes of just great folk horror.
Adam It was, yeah, pretty good, very well acted and yeah.
Lee Yeah, oh yeah, great, great start to the day.
Lee then we had our first main feature, so that was Borley Rectory The Awakening.
Lee so this was, Stephen M. Smith.
Chris
Lee and he mentioned that he's done he's he's doing Borley Rectory through the ages. So this is the first of these I've seen, but judging by this, I will definitely be looking for more of these.
Lee It was,
Adam Yeah, because he's done he's done quite a he quite done quite a number of films if you look on looking on his sort of IMDB credits.
Adam but there's there's a couple of previous Borley Rectory as well, which I I'm not sure, you know, obviously we haven't sort of investigated those further, but I am intrigued to do some.
Chris
Lee Yeah, definitely.
Adam on the basis of the awakening.
Adam Because, yeah, it was really good.
Adam Nice, slow burn, supernatural horror.
Chris Yeah.
Adam obviously I think, I think they're using Borley Rectory just as a name. It wasn't really the the story the actual you know what I mean, the actual story of the believer story of the Borley Rectory, you know, of the haunting at Borley Rectory.
Chris I mean, they hinted at you know, potentially there have been many stories.
Chris But you know, or things that have gone wrong through any particular building through the ages.
Adam Yeah.
Adam But they, but yeah, and I and quite a few, I mean, there are a number of familiar faces in there, but actually across the board, the cast were brilliant and they were I've got to sort of like say, they were I'm hoping I'm saying it right, Corneel Dion Willis.
Chris
Adam And Jess Inchbold, who were like the the main sort of the.
Chris Brother and sister.
Adam The brother and sister.
Adam Were so damn good.
Chris Yeah.
Adam You know, they were because a lot of the time, you know, you sort of find it's like, oh, well, you've got familiar faces in there, but then the lesser known faces might not be.
Chris Like it stands out a little bit.
Adam They were, they were brilliant to the point where I'm like,
Adam I'm convinced I've seen them in other things just because,
Adam surely I've seen them in other things because they were really, really good.
Adam But in terms of other names, you had Patsy Kensit in there and Julian Glover at the start, Vicky Michelle, Helen Ledrer who was great.
Lee Yeah.
Adam She turned up as a doctor and was just, yeah, and Mark Winger from who was Carver in the bill.
Adam Utterly unexpected. He was really great in it and yeah, just just all round the cast were fantastic.
Adam Reminded me somewhat of the original TV version of the Lady in Black.
Chris Okay.
Lee Yeah.
Adam Okay.
Adam The Woman in Black.
Chris Okay.
Adam You know, it's kind of that sort of a slow burn that there were apparitions and ghosts.
Adam But it was done very, it was done very much in camera, you know, things would you would move and a figure would be there or the figure wouldn't be there and stuff like that.
Adam There wasn't a lot of, you know, ostentatious effects in that sort of sense.
Adam It was much more creepy and sort of.
Chris Yeah.
Lee It was a very classic ghost story, wasn't it the way it was told and it was kind of drip fed to you as well, which I really, like, I love that old classic style when I I think in that setting, it worked, it worked brilliantly.
Chris Yeah, it was building up the explanation throughout.
Adam Yes.
Chris Yeah.
Chris Yeah.
Adam And like again, speaking about sound design with it, I love the fact that when there were apparitions occurring, people's you you the the soundtrack would sort of distort so it was people who were drawn into the apparition were not hearing the rest of the world.
Adam Correctly. They sort of sounded muddy, like they were underwater, sort of thing.
Adam And I just thought that was a lovely effective touch that made you go, that that was like the hairs on the back of your neck. It was right, shit's going down because it's done that, you know, and
Adam Yeah, I think, I think I would like to see more stuff from Stephen M. Smith.
Adam Especially if there's other Borley Rectory.
Lee Yeah, yeah.
Lee Absolutely.
Lee so so,
Lee then we broke for lunch.
Lee Caught up with a few people.
Lee Not as many people that was the thing we we got a lot of films in, well we got three films and as I say eight shorts.
Lee but yeah, I next year I'm thinking I might try and allocate more time for talking with people, because the people who were there like Michael Fausti and Sin Law,
Lee Tommy Lee Rutherford was there, Philip Rogers, there were so many people I would have liked to have had more of a chance to catch up with.
Chris Yeah.
Adam It was it was lovely catching up with Tom, especially because he was so lovely about making sure I got my pocket film of Superstition Blu-ray through because.
Chris Yeah, he's dedicated.
Adam He's officially an arsehole and just never shows up.
Adam So.
Adam but no, yeah, it was great, great speaking to him and obviously you got to speak to Michael Fausti as well and.
Lee Yeah.
Adam You we saw Law and it was just yeah, it was just a nice sort of flying. Yeah, it was good to see everyone.
Adam We'll sort of catch up in that sense, but.
Adam Like you say, it'd probably be nicer to actually concentrate more on that side of it, the social side of it rather than the film side of it in a way, yeah.
Lee Yeah, like I could almost do two days next week and spend next year, sorry. Yeah, and just so that I get as many films in but break them up over two days, so we have more time to sort of socialize, or I might just bite the bullet, stay overnight and end up in the next yeah, because I mean, you know, we'll talk about it, but it was.
Chris Well, that's that's probably the way to do it.
Adam early hours.
Chris Yeah, we're doing around.
Adam Yeah.
Adam You're there in the wee smalls, yeah.
Lee so following that, our next feature that we went in for, was All You Need is Blood.
Chris
Lee so before this, we had again a couple of shorts.
Lee So we had, Antibody was the first, which was James Gleeson.
Adam Yes.
Lee yeah, this was I know he said this is an older film, so.
Adam It was 2004.
Chris Yeah, but this was like amazing production.
Adam No, that was, that was really, really good.
Adam Basically, a body is washed up in the LA River.
Adam the police go around to the woman's house to tell go go around to the the victim's house to tell his wife that his body's been found and then he walks through the door.
Chris There he is.
Adam And they're trying to work out how his body that is clearly it's not a mistake.
Adam It's clearly him, everything matches, dental records, fingerprints, all this stuff.
Chris I like that the way that like he is hiding some details from them, but we know essentially.
Chris Like, it it seems like it has to be him, because, yeah, because we're sort of knowing a little bit more than they do and the way that unfolds.
Adam But that was that was really effective, but what I really liked about it was I liked the fact that it kept it simple because it was kind of like,
Adam you could not not see where it's going is the wrong sort of thing, but you were like, right, this this has got to inevitably end in a certain way.
Chris Yeah, it can't.
Adam Yeah.
Adam And once it got to that point, it was like,
Adam right, that's it, finished.
Adam We're not having.
Chris Yeah, yeah.
Adam You it it it knew the audience were like, right, we know what's happened now.
Adam It sort of, you know, or, well, not that we know what's happened now, but right, that makes sense and now this.
Adam Because it's Antibody with an E as in anti.
Chris Yes.
Adam Meaning before.
Adam Not anti as in against.
Adam So, yeah, so it's before body essentially is Antibody.
Adam and the other short we saw was Jeff Harmer's kindness, which was a dark short.
Chris Oh, yeah.
Adam Very short piece that was really just
Adam you know, a single a single hander, the actress straight to camera.
Lee Yeah.
Adam Just doing a sort of quick monologue, very effective, very sort of, again, great.
Adam As he was saying, great calling card for her and just sort of like, you know.
Lee Yeah.
Chris Absolutely.
Lee Yeah, it was really punchy and really, yeah, it it it it was.
Chris Certainly showed off her acting skills.
Lee Yeah.
Lee Perfectly, especially when you've got nothing to act against.
Chris Yeah, I know.
Lee Like that down the barrel.
Chris Yeah.
Lee but yeah, it was really good.
Adam Well, as as we also know, if you're worried about doing that, you can put a cat around the camera.
Chris Yes.
Chris Oh, you're, you're showing your hand.
Adam Which leads us.
Adam Yeah, which leads us nicely to our feature film.
Chris Or or segway nicely.
Adam Segway nicely to our feature film, which was All You Need is Blood directed by Bucky LaBouf.
Chris So I mean, this this blew me away. This might even be in like you know,
Chris my top 20 films of all time.
Lee Wow, wow.
Chris Like, I just, I just seriously was not expecting it to hit the marks.
Lee Oh, was it?
Chris Like so well.
Lee Like.
Adam That it really sort of came came from under.
Adam It was like.
Adam Oh, well, I kind of know where I am with this.
Adam And again, not a particularly well-known cast.
Adam Mina Sava is in there.
Lee Yeah.
Adam and just fantastic.
Adam but the the concept the concept of this.
Adam Is basically it's a a boy and his friend are sort of amateur filmmakers.
Adam They're just it's setting the late nineties, so they're recording on VHS cameras and he has aspirations to be a sort of auteur director.
Adam And so he wants to make dramas, he's very sniffy about, you know, sort of popcorn fodder films or trash or you know.
Adam So anything that's hokey or whatever like that, so he's has all these aspirations.
Adam But then, strangely enough, his dad is infected by a meteor right that turns him into a zombie.
Adam And they slowly.
Chris Yeah.
Chris I was just gonna say the start, the very start where you where we're shown the effects of the meteor right.
Chris Like even that was really funny, very quickly.
Adam Yes.
Chris Like and that just drew you straight in. It's like, oh yeah, no, these seem like they know how to make a comedy.
Chris Okay, now what are they going to do with the horror aspect?
Adam You kind of knew you were in safe hands.
Adam And they and they and we remained in safe hands.
Chris Yes, absolutely.
Adam And so, yeah, so they realized, well actually, we can make a horror film or, you know, despite resisting it, we can make a horror film because we've we don't need special effects as we have a zombie.
Chris Yes.
Adam And it sort of spirals out from there, they advertise for actresses, but there's also an aspiring actress.
Adam Who has terrible stage fright and sort of cannot act to a camera.
Adam So she comes along and offers her services just as researcher, gofer, you know, second assistant, whatever, you know, and makes a pickle sandwich turns up as very highly strung, very sort of demanding.
Chris The main job.
Adam actress who actually wants to play the part and it's the sort of misadventure that spirals out from there.
Chris I mean, she has got a pretty impressive cocaine habit as well, like that. That was some serious dedication.
Adam That's that's within the universe of the film, rather than you're saying.
Chris Yes.
Adam You're saying the actress actually, but yes.
Chris Like that, I mean, that scene was just so good.
Chris It was basically it's like Mission Impossible escape, but the whole point is to get the cocaine.
Adam I think because I and certainly, I mean, we were sort of saying, and I, I think you could be right, Chris.
Adam I think this could be the best zombie comedy since Shawn of the Dead.
Chris Like, for me.
Chris Yeah.
Adam Yeah.
Adam It was consistently funny.
Adam And oddly enough, for it was it had a lot of heart to it.
Chris Right, that's it.
Chris That's where really that came out just at the right points.
Chris Like his character arc was fantastic.
Chris Because he was kind of a completely, you know, sort of a loser, essentially.
Adam Logan Riley Bruno, who's playing that character.
Adam Yeah.
Chris Yeah.
Chris Like just a miss, you know.
Adam A proper misfit.
Chris Yeah.
Chris And but yeah, but yet figures it out in the end and at points throughout is sort of showing clearly he's got skills, and he's got understanding, but he's almost just missing the mark a lot of the time.
Chris And then, yeah, it comes together so well.
Chris And especially with his friend. I mean, that's that's really sweet as well, their friendship.
Chris Because his friend is mute.
Chris and they yeah, but like the way they communicate, that's a fantastic touch.
Adam I think because yeah, I think it's just it's it's it's clearly it's clearly a tribute to growing up wanting to be a filmmaker.
Adam And that love of making stuff with your friends and but also you know,
Adam but not it wasn't sort of when I say it's got heart, I don't mean in a sort of cloying sense or anything else like that.
Adam There's a lot in there that's like, you know, there's a lot of horrible bits in there.
Adam There's proper gore, there's proper guts.
Adam you know, and but also it's never sort of, yeah, it's never sort of sickly.
Chris No.
Adam You know, it's just like, no, this this film feels genuine. This is, you know, this is this this comes from a good place.
Adam But it's not afraid to still it's not pulling punches or anything else like that.
Adam It's still.
Lee It had everything in the, as you say, everything in the right proportions.
Lee So the gore was excessive and hilarious. The comedy was laugh a minute.
Lee Like there wasn't there wasn't a two-minute scene without a real laugh in it.
Lee but yeah, at the same time the connections between him and his dad and the whole, you know, him and his friends and everything, yeah, it was really, really well done and really well polished.
Lee It was great.
Chris Yeah.
Lee and I've got to say my favorite character though was, the detective.
Lee Played by Eddie Grim.
Chris Oh, yes.
Lee He was.
Chris He was fantastic.
Lee He was just off his head.
Lee He was brilliant.
Chris Like when he's talking to himself, you're just like, yeah, you know where he's going through.
Chris Trying to do all of this.
Adam Yeah.
Adam Yeah.
Chris You do not want to be here.
Adam Also, we've got to mention Emma Chase who was playing the aspiring actress.
Adam This is her only film.
Chris Is it?
Lee Wow.
Adam And again, it's one of those things where you're just like, this felt like, you know, this felt like somebody's been acting forever.
Chris Yeah.
Adam And again, it's it's that thing, it's an independent film, but there were no there were no loose, there were no loose threads.
Adam There was no one who was like, you know, not, you know, again, we're looking at something where it's like,
Adam this is professional, you know, on a proper, proper level.
Chris Yes.
Adam And I hope that all you need is blood goes on to be like a bit of a cult hit. I think it's in that same sort of it feels like in that same sort of area like something like Zombieland or something like that, you know, that it could be.
Chris Yeah.
Lee Yeah.
Adam Something that really.
Adam Sort of runs and runs.
Lee If this hit streaming, I will 100% be.
Lee And that's if I don't just go out and buy it, because like you said earlier, Chris,
Chris Yes.
Adam Exactly, yeah.
Lee I could watch this again in six months time without a doubt. It was such a fun ride.
Lee Yeah, so excellent.
Lee Yeah, so we had that in the middle of the day.
Lee And Chris quite rightly when we came out then said, well our main film for the evening better be pretty freaking because it's got a lot to compare to if it's going to
Lee gonna follow that.
Lee So our last film of the evening was actually a a feature link documentary.
Lee so Horror on Sea 13 Bloody Years, which was the story of Southend on Horror on Sea Film Festival.
Lee But before that, of course, we had our shorts again.
Lee which were.
Adam there was the Fox and the Hen.
Lee Yeah.
Lee I, you know what, that caught me off guard.
Lee I watched the first half and I was like, everything in this has been so predictable.
Lee It's painful and then it had a beautiful twist.
Chris Yeah.
Chris Really did.
Adam Yeah, because I was kind of I was the same. I think I got to the point where I was like, you know, where's this going? Because we know we've seen this.
Lee Yeah.
Lee And then we had, oh, no actually.
Adam Yeah, done, yeah.
Chris Yeah, nice, nice rug pull there, certainly. Yeah.
Chris Yeah, it was perfect ending.
Lee Great gore as well. I loved that.
Lee It was
Chris Yeah.
Adam And actually it looked, it looked brilliant.
Lee Yeah.
Adam Basically the tale of two girls who got who get lost on their way to a hen night and have to take shelter in a farm with a creepy farmer.
Adam And
Chris And you don't know for sure, or you think you know for sure, but even if at some point.
Adam Well, I think it's one of those ones you can definitely, you can definitely put that down as sort of like, stick with it because you could quite easily just be going, no, I've seen this a million times before and.
Adam Oh, no, actually, you know, we're sort of we're going a bit.
Lee Yeah.
Adam Yeah.
Chris Take it somewhere else.
Lee But yeah, it was.
Lee It was great. I really.
Lee Yeah, as you say, I mean, considering the budget and it was all shot in very low light in a, you know, in a sort of abandoned barn, it it did look really good. I was really impressed with it.
Lee that was followed by another another very short short, which was say goodbye to blood sausage, by Caleb Thresher.
Lee yeah, just a very comedic, very quick.
Lee Yeah, I think they said it was their first their first attempt and they came up with the name first, which really made me laugh.
Lee They said, wouldn't they were at a film festival and joking about and said, wouldn't it be funny to see something ridiculous on one of these, you know, lineups, came up with the name, then went away and shot the film.
Lee And yeah, it was it was really funny. I enjoyed it. It was good laugh.
Chris It was very entertaining.
Chris It it's definitely more in line with I guess what I would expect from a short indie.
Lee Yeah.
Adam This this felt like if Troma had a sketch show.
Adam This is like a five-minute sketch in the middle of a trauma show, you know, that.
Chris It totally worked for what it needed to do, like.
Lee Yeah.
Chris Yeah.
Lee Fantastic.
Lee and then finally, we saw Shebear.
Lee
Lee Again, another short that was made, I think the director, Madeleine Malum said that it was made in three months.
Lee Basically, it was a, oh, we should do something quick for the film festival and made it.
Chris Yes.
Lee And I, I, I found this so funny.
Lee It was.
Chris I love the unique, like unique take on showing the text on the screen with it and also quirky aspect.
Adam It's black and white and done like a silent film.
Chris So.
Adam Yeah.
Adam So you would have the and and the wonderful thing that you because we you we've watched we've watched silent stuff on the show on the show.
Adam Obviously we've watched Nosferatu.
Adam And and it's that lovely thing where someone says the dialogue and then it black the black card comes up with.
Adam The writing with the dialogue on this, you know, it's been said.
Adam And then this one they would subvert that occasionally where clearly they were saying something quite different.
Chris Yes.
Adam But they made it slightly more polite on the card.
Adam It was really good.
Adam And.
Chris But I don't think I've seen that used for him for a short.
Adam I.
Lee No, I haven't.
Adam No.
Adam But basically, yeah, the story of a.
Adam ornithologist and his girlfriend who are out looking for a a very rare bird.
Adam she is molested by a bear while he's looking the other way looking for this bird.
Adam And then later she reappears having having become yeah, she reappears and.
Adam I mean, can can you spoil something that quick? Possibly. I don't know, but yeah.
Lee Yeah, no, I mean, you know, yeah.
Lee I mean it's called Shebear. You know she's gonna she's gonna become a bear.
Adam And yeah, so basically she she's aware bear at that point and yeah.
Adam But really well done and knowing its limitations.
Adam So keeping keeping the silly, very silly, which I think was, yeah, and just.
Lee Yeah.
Lee And worked in its favor so massively for this.
Adam Absolutely, yeah.
Adam It was it was the real they turned that into a real strength.
Lee Yeah.
Adam You know, that it was going to be sort of the effects were going to be daft and yeah.
Adam And just.
Adam And but that but also that thing where it's like, you know, when that sort of thing can actually have a ton more personality.
Adam Than some model that the creature workshop spent months developing or something like that.
Chris Trying to do it perfect.
Adam Whereas actually, you know, just a an effective mask with a good performer and it's like, no, this is that's that's the thing.
Chris Like getting the right camera angle for it just to give it that extra edge, you know.
Chris Yeah, yeah.
Chris They clearly knew what they were doing.
Lee Yeah, so much fun.
Lee yes, and then the final piece for the evening, Horror on Sea 13 Bloody Years.
Lee I I I I was not concerned, but.
Lee An hour and a half documentary is a very long run time.
Lee And I was worried it might dry up or feel stretched.
Lee I don't know about you guys, I could have watched another hour of this so easily.
Chris Absolutely.
Chris I was thinking we've been sat down for quite a long time now. We've seen some amazing films.
Chris Like, this has really got to do something and it absolutely did.
Adam Yeah.
Adam And I mean the best well the best will in the world, then it's not always the most comfortable seat in.
Adam And you know.
Adam But I mean, I'm a I'm a sucker for a documentary as it is, so I was quite happy with the run time, but my God, it was just such a just such a lovely evocative tribute of just how fun.
Chris Yeah.
Adam And how oddly wonderfully amazing horror on sea is.
Adam And it taught me things that I didn't realize. I didn't realize that they don't charge people.
Chris Yeah.
Adam To submit films, which is such a rarity within.
Chris The film.
Adam You know, within filmmaking, certainly within film festivals, they don't charge people to submit their films.
Adam That's fucking amazing because that's the best thing.
Adam For for any struggling filmmaker, money is everything.
Adam You don't need to spend.
Chris Every, yeah.
Adam And not only that also but but also you don't you don't think about it, but that's paying to submit your film.
Adam They may not even show it.
Chris Yeah, yeah.
Adam You know, and that's like however much money you've wasted for someone's not going to show your film.
Adam And just again,
Adam much like being in the bar, it was just seeing all the familiar faces.
Adam Realizing how many people sort of met up and projects that spiraled out of people.
Chris Yeah, the way they all collaborate with each other over time.
Adam And just this lovely little confluence of local, well, not even local, but like nationwide talent that has sort of been connected through Horror on Sea and which is all been brought together by Paul Crove. I mean, he's obviously he was the focal point of the documentary in a lot of ways, and he was a talking head in it as well. but yeah, I mean, it's great to see the because it was hilariously funny the documentary.
Chris It was.
Lee But yeah, you could feel how much everybody involved, how much respect and love everybody has got for him.
Lee And everything he does.
Lee To put this together.
Lee
Lee Yeah.
Lee And the impact, as you say, the impact it's had.
Lee On the the people who've produced films specifically for this and just the collaborations that have come out of.
Lee And I, I thought it really captured the essence of it, when you could, you know, the shots where it was just everyone just hanging out in the bar area and all the writers and actors and people who do special effects all get into chat to each other.
Lee And and projects coming out of the film festival, so it's not just a place to to show your film, it's a place to make those connections and network while having a nice time and it not feeling like, right, I've got to go and I've got to find someone to do this and do that.
Lee It's just, it's it's such an amazing event.
Lee And so to have it put to put a film like this by it was Alex Churchyard, wasn't it, who
Adam Yes.
Lee Who put it together, yeah, along with Michael Holiday and Hannah Patterson.
Lee Yeah, and I, I, yeah.
Lee I was totally blown away by it. I thought it was, yeah, enjoyable.
Adam And obviously.
Adam Because of the love of everyone involved, there was no problem with getting.
Adam Clips of the films and stuff like that and the stuff that's been break out of the and you know, everyone from people who just bring in mad shorts every year.
Adam To people who've made sort of like three or four feature films and stuff like that.
Adam And but you say you had clips from the films.
Adam And stuff like that to illustrate it as well.
Adam In fact, and I don't know if this rates for our IMDB, Lee.
Lee Yeah.
Adam But I think we're in this more than we are in Video Shop Tails of Terror II.
Lee Oh.
Adam Because they were using off cuts from that.
Lee Yeah.
Adam In there as well.
Lee I love that.
Lee I don't know if I don't know if we mentioned it when we we discussed so we obviously we were extras on Video Shop Tails of Terror II.
Lee And we also shot a fake trailer for a ninja film that then got cut from the film, unfortunately.
Lee you know, as these things are, like you end up.
Adam It's still in there, but it's part of the it became part of the governor trailer, didn't it, which is Paul.
Adam Paul's cameo role.
Lee Oh, you know what, it doesn't matter how many times I see that, I laugh out every single time.
Lee but yeah, so we were very surprised when we sat down and got 10 minutes in and then found that they'd put the put the trailer for the ninja film into the documentary and then we were like, oh shit, yeah, that's us, we were there.
Adam Yeah, they freeze frame.
Adam You can see us really.
Adam Yeah.
Adam Yeah.
Adam So.
Adam So we'll get we'll get we'll put that on IMDB.
Adam We've got to be putting us I don't know, archive footage or something like that.
Adam On.
Lee It's funny, I normally with documentaries, they're one of those things. Once I've watched it and I've learned the information, I don't generally go back to a documentary very often.
Lee But this, literally, I said to you guys, we walked out and I said, if I could get my hands on a copy of that, I'd watch it again tomorrow.
Lee Because it's so fast.
Lee There was so much going on.
Lee It was so fast.
Lee I think we missed a lot of what was going on because we were still laughing at the previous scene.
Lee It was just.
Adam Yeah.
Adam I think that's.
Adam That's the other thing as well is it's just so many lovely and funny people all together.
Adam And yeah, it's just it was just hilarious, but also it apparently it's spun from.
Adam It was going to be a DVD extra, it was just going to be like a 10-minute thing saying,
Adam Oh, here's the Horror on Sea festival, and so many people wanted to contribute and so many people that they ended up with this thing that then became half an hour.
Adam And then an hour, an hour's a feature-length documentary, and I'm hoping that I hope I hope that it comes out like in some physical form or is available somewhere.
Adam Just because, yeah.
Adam I could happily watch this again and it's just it's also a lovely thing if you've been to Horror on Sea.
Adam It's a lovely little sort of it's a souvenir.
Adam It's a souvenir from your time in Southend.
Adam It's a stick of rock with horror on sea written all the way through it.
Lee It is.
Lee And again, and it's for people who haven't been, people who maybe aren't so close to us and aren't just, you know, 40 minute drive away and are like, well, it's a long journey and you don't.
Lee If you watch that, there is no way you would not go.
Lee So I think they should release it as advertising.
Lee If nothing else.
Chris Yeah, it made me want to stay the night and go back again the next day.
Chris I was like, what what else am I doing?
Chris This is obviously the best thing I could be doing right now.
Lee But yeah, so excellent work to the team who put it together.
Lee I know they I think they said they literally the day before it was airing.
Lee So the festival was already running before they'd finished editing it.
Lee You know, actually sent it over.
Lee but yeah, it was just a fantastic.
Lee It was a perfect end to the day.
Chris Yes.
Lee Yeah.
Lee Yeah.
Lee And we've been going, we worked out since 2018.
Adam Yes.
Lee yeah, so we've been, you know, several times, four or five times, I think we've been now.
Lee and and always have a great time, yeah, and just seeing it and but it is good because all the stuff you miss as well.
Lee so many films that they mentioned that were classics that we were there for, the Snarling and films like that.
Lee but also stuff that we missed, Day of the Stranger was mentioned.
Lee Tom's film, which we had picked up on DVD.
Adam Yeah.
Lee Yeah.
Adam Yeah, thank you, Chris.
Adam Because Chris got that for me for my birthday.
Chris Yeah.
Adam Yeah.
Lee Yeah.
Adam My birthday.
Adam Because I've been I've been desperate to get hold of that as well.
Adam Because it's what he's made an acid Western.
Adam Yeah, no, I want to see that.
Chris Yeah, once I'd heard you both talking about it, I'd just grab a copy on the way out.
Chris So.
Lee Oh, so you bought it.
Lee Yeah.
Lee Yeah.
Chris And it like you say though, in that documentary, clearly there are some others that absolutely we need to get hold of at some point.
Lee Yeah.
Lee So much stuff we need to track down.
Lee yes, so thank you everybody for an amazing day.
Lee It it always is, it's such a.
Lee You know, it's I just wish I I had I could clear more of my calendar.
Lee To make it. I think I should make more of an effort next year to clear the whole weekend really and maybe put the money off, but we'll see how it goes.
Lee yes.
Lee So,
Lee go and check out all of those film, go and find them, say, some of I don't know if all you need is blood might be streaming somewhere.
Lee Because it's a couple of years old now, but if you can track it down, do.
Lee Yeah, Borley Rectory the Awakening and obviously when this documentary comes out.
Lee When we hear about it, we'll let you know because yeah.
Lee We'll be getting hold of it and and.
Adam Yeah, we'll be first in line to grab copies, certainly.
Lee Yeah.
Lee Absolutely.
Lee So, what are we covering next, Adam?
Adam oh, next time we're going to do a we have been watching.
Adam Because we've been away for a few weeks, so and that gives us plenty of time to vamp.
Adam Until we've actually worked out what we're going to watch next.
Lee Excellent. Good plan.
Lee I like that one.
Lee Right, thanks ever so much for listening, everybody, and goodnight.
Chris Goodnight.
Adam Night, night.
