In the low budget horror world, good reviews aren’t easily forthcoming but very pleasingly the first couple of media reviews for The Return Of The Tooth Fairy have both been decent. You learn quickly in this business to take reviews with a grain of salt. Good reviews won’t make your own opinion of the film change, and bad reviews won’t make you fall out of love with something. As it happens, I expected a better response to this feature than my first two, because my own script was better.

Likewise the amazing Louisa Warren batting out low budget films with regularity and unwavering passion with her Champdog Films outfit, has through repetition, grown as a film-maker. The more you make (particularly at these budget levels), the more you learn to work within those means and deliver on tight schedules. It becomes a fine art. Long may that growth continue.

Most pleasing to see is the glowing praise for Katie McKenna in her first feature, who I cast in The Dark Recess. For someone so fresh to the business she had an incredible emotional range. This is where it begins and when she hits the big time I’ll take great delight in telling people she got her start in a short and a horror I wrote. Watch this space.

Return of the Tooth Fairy: Nerdly review

Return of the Tooth Fairy: Rotting Zombie review

Two projects out on DVD/Blu-Ray/streaming across the world at the moment (Scarecrows Revenge and Cyber Bride). The Tooth Fairy 2 will be out in June on DVD in the UK. Later in the year will also see a release for The Witches of Amityville Academy and Reign Of Chaos as well.

Due for production soon (all being well after a little thing called Covid-19) we have Witchhunter, Jurassic Island, When Darkness Falls and Renegades (starring a number of icons). Then hopefully late 2020/early 2021 will see Milford Green, The Retreat, Backlash (with a genuine action legend being sought), Pirates of Purgatory Island, Pretty Boy (based on the life of renowned gangster/fighter, Roy Shaw) and Dragon Sword (a Conan inspired adventure). Next year will undoubtedly bring more projects including pushing a passion project, Feral forward, The Clan and Three Skeleton Key.

With my terrible record for updating, here is the latest rundown in a nutshell. A crazy year got crazier with the following now in post, The Witches of Amityville Academy (starring Kira Reed Lorsch and Donna Spangler), The Tooth Fairy 2 and a new 80’s set short which I produced, Party Like It’s 1984. I also co-wrote The Attack (A new adaptation of War of the Worlds) which is in production.

Shooting early next year will be Jurassic Island, and a few other potential films ranging from Pirates, to Rats to WW2. I’m currently adapting a comic book to screenplay too, which features Aliens again, this time invading a Victorian era village, Milford Green, which all being well will be the first in a series (in line with the trilogy of comics).

Finally, The Dark Recess is coming to the end of its festival run. It seems so long ago since we finished it but the festival run has been both successful, and an interesting learning curve. As things stand, 14 selections, 4 awards, a few finals and semi-final placings. It has exceeded my expectations. Next up will be Estranged, long gestating in post but close to completion and then a shorter more compact (but hopefully successful) festival run.

My first feature releases have hit the shops now with Scarecrow’s Revenge now available in the US and UK on VOD (Amazon) and DVD/Blu-ray in Germany (other territories to follow). Cyber Bride has also now been released on VOD in the US and UK too. Keep your eyes peeled for more releases in 2020.

Looking forward to 2020 and beyond, more titles to develop including The Retreat, The Returned, As The World Falls Down, Three Skeleton Key, an untitled Highland set thriller, The Clan (a highland set horror), Feral and more. A big wide, eclectic mix of genres.

Most of all I’m looking forward to working with a great group of people from all over the place.

Tom Jolliffe

So The Dark Recess has had an excellent start to its festival run. Along the way there have been four awards so far and about 8 selections. Considering we shot this for no money, I couldn’t ask for a better festival run, and we’re still running with potential of a red carpet event in January 2020.

Meanwhile, there are now 2 more features in Post-Production to add to Vikings vs Scarecrow. In feb, the boys and girls of Proportion Productions shot Reign Of Chaos, a Resident Evil/Buffy type action adventure. Then in April, the boys and girls at Champdog films shot Cy:Wife a Sci-Fi horror that blends Her and Black Mirror. I’m looking forward to seeing both very much.

As of writing I’ve just finished writing Jurassic Island a Dinosaur film with nods to Journey To The Centre of the Earth. Currently also writing a short I’ve been hired to do, called The Bar (working title).  A twisty turny, Lock Stock-esque little thriller. Then I move onto a string of features. First a Pirate feature. Then an exciting feature mixing elements of Suspiria, Charmed and The Craft which will feature a couple of very exciting actresses with a large following. One of whom I remember vividly in the long distant days of 1am viewings of titillation on a then new Channel 5 in The Red Shoe Diaries, in the one episode people remember more than any others from that (oddly artistic, for a booby show) series as being the David Duchovny episode (which aired around the same time he was breaking out in The X Files.

Finally after that it’ll be a WW2 action film with odes to Inglorious Bastards and Basterds. From then on the rest of the year will undoubtedly bring more pitching, writing and hopefully features, as well as a return to producing alongside the amazing Leila Bartell as we develop firstly, the short film As The World Falls Down before moving onto our passion feature Feral and potentially developing several more features beyond.

So here, ladies and gents, please find the trailer for my upcoming zero budget short, The Dark Recess. I’m really proud of what we achieved with this for no money. The film is currently beginning it’s Festival run before a release mid-late 2019.

The Dark Recess Official Trailer.

Katie McKenna in ‘The Dark Recess.’

So Winter Hill is in the festival phase. It’s a time where you leave a film and wait patiently to hear back about selections. So far we’ve had a pleasing amount of selections for the film and on a personal level I’ve now won two awards, which is greatly satisfying. Again, I can only give credit to all involved in bringing my PDF delivered script to life so fantastically. Actress Lucy Lowe hits first, and brilliantly well in a key car scene which requires a lot of emotion. According to the director, my good buddy Alex Lawton, she did it right on cue. It’s the central heart of the film (every film has that key moment, like Rocky Balboa’s pre-match confessional to Adrian in Rocky), on which we need to grab the audience, and she nailed it, and as such the film is doing well in the fests, and I get a little more recognition than perhaps I deserve (but will gladly take).

Meanwhile I’ve been overseeing the shoot for a no budget short horror/thriller I wrote (The Dark Recess), that my brother is directing. An ode to all manner of films from Labyrinth, Stalker, Persona, Cries and Whispers, to Videodrome, American Psycho, Taxi Driver and The Machinist. Not having any money to spend on a film provides challenges, but at the same time a certain (maybe indulgent) freedom. I like to think I have a good eye for casting. I’ve cast quite a lot of roles in films over the years and there’s never been anyone in retrospect I was disappointed with. Genuinely. I’ve had a few first timers too, some newbies and they’ve done very well and in Katie McKenna (for The Dark Recess) I’ve found someone who makes me think of Liv Ullman. Given Bergman was one of several influences for Recess, that comparison seems apt. She’s got a gift for introspective acting that not many can pull off (particularly so young). I think this film could be her ‘do you remember this early short you did with a couple of mad bastards?’ when she hits it big.

Film is a funny business. I’ve been working non-stop it seems of late. Projects blend into each other. 2-3 on the go at once. Then you see a window in the distance where you might have space. An itching begins. I long for a break, for some peace, but then I begin dreaming of new projects. Then one day, in the space of an hour I get a new project offered, plus a potentially very exciting one in Poland (that would mark my biggest project so far). Then another day passes and another opening comes up from China (that would be massively big). Then another just today and the short version is, I’m pitching left, right and centre like a pitching demon. If just one of them sticks, I’ll be happy. For now though, I move onto Hell-Girl (undoubtedly to be retitled) and continue enjoying a mix of genre pictures. I had a lot of fun writing about Cyborg wives, demonic scarecrows and Witches so far, so Demonic cults, Hell-Girl vigilantes and Demons will be masses of fun. No rest for the wicked. Never stop pitching.

Tom