Film Names:
Mr Whispers: In Mr Whispers, we unveil a chilling story of long-buried horror, set in a town desperate to forget its tragic past. For decades, rumours have swirled about a place on the outskirts… a derelict cinema where something unspeakable once occurred.
Black Chariot: Chilling and uncanny, we follow three young men in their attempt to retrieve a red case that harbours a horrifying secret. But they are not alone in these woods and cannot even trust one another—not the girl they’ve taken hostage, nor the puppet master who lured them here. They are all alone in the dark, except for a 1957 Black Wolseley 15/50 that prowls silently in the night. Do not look into its red headlights…
Directors:
Mr Whispers: Seumas MacNeil, Oliver Revie, Dorian Todd
Black Chariot: Lawrie Brewster
Writers:
Mr Whispers: Seumas MacNeil, Dorian Todd
Black Chariot: Lawrie Brewster
Starring:
Mr Whispers: Megan Tremethick, Stephen Corrall, Sam McMillan, Dorian Todd, Novarro Ramon
Black Chariot: Laurence R. Harvey, Megan Tremethick Richard Pate, Dorian Todd, Nick Ford, Novarro Ramon, Sam McMillan
In a new exclusive interview on Blazing Minds I got a chance to ask Director, Writer and Actor Dorian Todd a few questions about his films Mr Whispers and Black Chariot, which have been selected to play at the Romford Horror Film Festival on Sunday the 22nd of February.
Q. Your films Mr. Whispers and Black Chariot will have their World Premieres at the Romford Horror Film Festival. Can you tell us a bit about what we can expect from each film?
A. Both films differ extraordinarily from one another and offer completely different experiences for audiences at Romford. Mr. Whispers offers a tense, suffocating atmosphere for viewers as they spend the night with the characters of that story, in what will surely be quite an immersive experience. The performances are very natural and grounded, and the film, while haunting, has a lot of heart and relatability within the cast.
Black Chariot, on the other hand, is a dark and profound character piece following three gentlemen who have been caught in a web of mystery and will have to do everything in their power if they want to escape it with their lives. It is beautifully shot by cinematographer Michael Brewster and edited by Lawrie Brewster, giving audiences a real sense that the film could have been curated decades ago.
Q. You play Adam in Mr. Whispers which you co-wrote with Seumas MacNeil; and Dorian McKerr in Black Chariot, which was written by Lawrie Brewster. Can you tell us a bit about the characters and what first attracted you to them?
A. For Adam, the attraction was easy. He is very much a part of myself just exemplified. He is who I could have been had life taken a different direction and I had ended up in a haunted cinema in 1995, haha. It was a role that was very personal and intimate and allowed me to project my own quirks and fears onto in a way that I can only hope comes across realistic and believable to the audience.
Dorian McKerr is a very special role for me due it being my very first major part in a British Horror Studio film. Hell, back then it was still known as Hex Studios! We shot it over 2 years ago while I was still studying at college, and I remember having to awkwardly rush 1000–2000-word essays in the early mornings before leaving to spend all day in the woods in my ‘50s attire! It was a very exciting opportunity for me because the material was so rich and the setting so immersive. I mean a Hitchcockian style thriller with such drama, style, and emotion? I would be a fool to refuse!
Q. What sort of preparation did you do to prepare for each role?
A. For Mr. Whispers, I won’t lie, co-writing the script helped a great deal, which was ideal for me coming into the project as an actor and co-director. Working on the story and script from its infancy allowed me to have a feel for the character long before the cameras rolled. However, I still wrote a character history for Adam detailing his relationships with the other characters, life at home, and I even developed a first love for him in a collection of paragraphs which detailed a bittersweet story of a romance that distance pulled apart. Though some might consider it pointless, it provided me with reference for Adam, and I found myself recalling these parts of his life during filming.
The years since Black Chariot have left me somewhat foggy on my prep, to be honest. I remember reading the script over many times and working closely with Lawrie to develop this character, and I think it just became a point of giving myself to the material completely and seeing what came of it.
Q. Are there any elements of either character which you feel reflect some of your own personality?
A. In good looks and quick wit, they most certainly do resemble the real me. But if I must detail qualities beyond that, I’d say Dorian McKerr reflects my desire for solution. I’m someone who likes to schedule themselves and who likes to always know what the next move is. He represents that side of me, though I think that is where the resemblances end. Perhaps for the best.
With Adam, he is very much in line with the kind of person I can be sometimes. I see myself reflected in his passion to be a strong friend to those around him, particularly with close friends in the same manner Adam is with Sam McMillan’s character of Tyler. Adam is someone still finding his footing in the world and likes to grab hold of opportunities and push himself. I’d like to think I share that quality.
Q. Did you make any changes to the character form how it was written in the original script?
A. Not with these roles as such. Although Black Chariot largely followed the text to a tee, Lawrie Brewster allowed me significant creative freedom in my character’s final scene, including shaping how it was directed and how it was performed. It was a fun chance to experiment and let me, as a creative, perform some different versions of the text, which ultimately led to a powerful scene in the film which I’m quite proud of.
Q. What was your process for writing the script for Mr. Whispers with Seumas MacNeil and what were some of your influences?
A. It was a lot of fun and something I’d never embarked on before. Both Seumas and I share a fond love for the found footage genre and internet horror in general, such as creepypastas and the recent rise of “analog horror” over the past few years. We worked closely on establishing our “threat” and how it would operate, creating our rules and lore first, based on Lawrie Brewster’s creation. For that, we drew on internet horror such as Slenderman, and along with reading up on the Celtic festival Samhain (where the veil between the land of the living and the dead is thinnest) we had our in-universe date for our brave explorers: November 1st.
As the process continued, we both watched many films in the genre too to prepare. Obviously, you can’t make a found footage film without drawing on the timeless classic The Blair Witch Project (1999). But exploring further flicks such as REC (2007), V/H/S (2012), Hell House LLC (2015), Lake Mungo (2008), and The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014) provided nice references to have during both pre-production and filming.
Q. In addition to co-writing and acting in Mr. Whispers, you also share the co-directing duties with Seumas MacNeil and Oliver Revie. What was the process of you co-directing together and how did you find the balance working both in front and behind the camera?
A. The prospect was truthfully a little daunting at first. I’d never been so spread thin on a production and at the end of the day, you want to service the product and make something truly special. Luckily, with such a hard-working team, I had confidence that we would achieve that, but I didn’t want focusing on one role of mine to leave me neglecting another. It was almost like a little holiday of sorts when it was one of Oliver’s or Seumas’s days directing, because I just had to act and not worry about too much else. But I had a lot of fun directing on my days, I had such a passionate team to assist with everything and make the process as smooth as possible. For that I am very grateful.
Q. What were some of your favourite moments during filming?
A. Mr. Whispers provided many for me. As well as playing Adam in the film, I also portray Mr. Whispers himself. We had a lot of fun getting creative with his antics, and one scene towards the end of the film involves spotlights going on in sequence, which required me to move around in character while shouting commands to my lighting team, who did a fantastic job with their timing and made for a memorable sequence in the film.
Another favourite moment is provided by Megan Tremethick and Novarro Ramon, who formed a very believable and thoughtful relationship between their characters, Kathryn and Leon, which peaks for me in one key scene where both of them acted their asses off, leaving even some members of the crew emotional afterwards.
As for Black Chariot, it was all a favourite moment! To detail anything would be to reveal too much of what should be best experienced blindly!
Q. Did you experience any issues during filming?
A. Every film production experiences its own challenges. What matters is how everyone can adapt to them and correct anything that needs attention. One point about Black Chariot, not so much an issue, is that my character is also called Dorian (and this won’t be the last time this happens!). I think Lawrie just likes to remember who is who. I enquired about a new name, but we met on middle ground with a surname alteration. Thus, McKerr was born! Granted, hearing Nick Ford bellow “Dorian!” threateningly into the woods like a big game hunter on the prowl for easy killings did shake the real me a little.
Q. What makes Mr. Whispers and Black Chariot stand out as something different in the horror genre?
A. Both films offer so much that I fear I’ll only be able to scratch the surfaces of them in this answer. Mr. Whispers offers believable realism in its characters and an experience that should immerse the viewer completely unlike other films of a different genre might. It’s what I love the most about found footage as a subgenre! That sense that you are watching something you shouldn’t be…the sense that you’re truly in the room with the characters. It is also set inside a gorgeous retro cinema which is a setting I personally have rarely seen, if ever, in a film like this. Which in itself opened a bountiful casket of unique opportunities for scares.
Black Chariot speaks for itself in my opinion. In 2026, how many Hitchcockian noir thrillers are you seeing released? It’s rich in its style and drama and I think everyone will leave the film with a different favourite character which excites me. The performances across the cast are exceptional and really elevate the film to another level. Paired with the cinematography of Michael Brewster and Lawrie Brewster’s writing for suspense and drama. It’s easily one for the must watch list.
Q. What do you hope people take away after watching the film?
A. With Mr. Whispers, I hope people leave believing that good characters with strong performances are just as important to horror (and found footage horror) as the horror itself. I also hope that people can be a little inspired by our guerrilla filmmaking. Mr. Whispers was crafted by a small but extremely competent team, working intensively over a week in a cinema with a camera and a clear story. As long as you’ve got the passion and the people, the only thing stopping you from going out and making a movie is yourself.
I hope people leave Black Chariot with the conscious that the “golden age of Hollywood” doesn’t need to be left simply in the past, that films emulating those styles of old which possessed such beauty and unique ways of storytelling, can still be made today, and to such a degree that they wouldn’t go amiss should they have been released 70 years ago!
Q. Do you have any other projects which you are currently working on?
A. I always like to try and keep myself busy, and most recently I’ve done that through working on a very exciting film titled MEOW. It’s a film which I’ve had the pleasure of both writing and directing and we only just wrapped shooting on in January. It is another immersive horror starring Sam McMillan, Novarro Ramon, and myself. I’m in the process of editing it now and am very proud of everything we achieved on the production. I’m hoping to make it my most frightening work yet, so I look forward to being able to share more in the near future.
Q. If someone was looking to get into filmmaking what advice would you give them?
Making a film in 2026 isn’t as difficult as it sounds. Nowadays we have portable cameras in the form of our phones, and they are only getting better! I’m still at the very beginning of my artistic journey and I’m still learning and navigating the industry just like everyone else. But before I knew anybody that I do now, I was making naively over-ambitious films at 16 with the few friends who would accompany me into whatever woods or castles we could find. We would film ourselves fighting with lightsabers or speaking dialogue that I would have been lucky to have resonate with anyone who thought that sucking their thumb was still socially acceptable. Not my proudest work I’ll admit, but a necessary step. Basically, I would encourage anyone wanting to get into filmmaking to simply go and make something. And more importantly, believe in what you’re making. Believe in your path enough, and other people will start believing in it too. Don’t hide your passion. Wear it proudly and you’ll find others who share it too.
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Mr. Whispers and Black Chariot are having their world premieres at the Romford Horror Film Festival on Sunday the 22nd of February. Mr. Whispers will be screening at 4.20pm and Black Chariot will screen afterwards at 6.50pm. You can find tickets and festival passes on the Romford Horror Website.
Published in various websites, Philip is a reviewer who is best known for his interviews and media coverage of independent projects including; films, books, theatre and live events. Always on the lookout for something different to cover!
