Film Name: MIDNIGHT PEEPSHOW
Directors: Jake West, Airell Anthony Hayles, Andy Edwards, Ludovica Musumeci
Writers: Andy Edwards, Airell Anthony Hayles, Jake West
Starring: Chiara D’Anna, Richard Cotton, Sarah Diamond, Roisin Browne
A Madame owns a Soho Peep Show with a difference – the sights on offer are tailor made to its customers’ deepest sinful fears. Tonight it welcomes a businessman who has a unique connection to an extreme fantasy website. He becomes witness to three stories of victims that found the website. But now the Midnight Peepshow has found him, it’s only a matter of time before he’s made to pay the ultimate price for dabbling in the dark side of desire. This is a twisted portmanteau horror threesome exploring the nightmare side of psychosexual fantasy.
In a new exclusive interview on Blazing Minds, I got a chance to ask co-writer/co-director Jake West a few questions about Midnight Peepshow which will make its World Premier at Arrow FrightFest on Friday August 26th at 23:00
Q. What were some of your influences when writing the script for your segment of MIDNIGHT PEEPSHOW?
A. Airell had written a draft of Midnight Peepshow so for me the main thing with the script was to try and unify the segments and wraparound story, so they are linked. Still the best anthology in my opinion is the brilliant ‘Dead of Night’ 1945 and the way it links its story still makes it the king of the Portmanteau format, so if anything, it was trying to be inspired by that.
Q. What were some of your influences for the look and style of the film?
A. The Black Rabbit segment for me was more inspired by the feeling of a bad anxiety dream and the continual feeling of things spiralling out of control – so no specific influence for me that I was conscious of when writing as I wanted to play this straight so resisted any of the usual influences.
Q. Did you make any changes from the original script during filming?
A. There were a number of scenes in the black Rabbit original script that were removed as would have cost too much to shoot and the segment would’ve been too long – but that’s the usual practical evolution of scaling the shooting script to budgetary reality. The. Last draft of the script is the edit!
Q. What were some of your favourite moments during filming?
A. I’m very proud of my fearless cast in ‘The Black Rabbit’. A number of actors who initially went up for the casting found the material too dark and disturbing to want to take it on but once I had landed Richard Cotton as Graham, and Sarah Diamond as Isabel, everything started falling into place as they had a brilliant chemistry. I really enjoyed seeing them bring the characters to life off the page and really enjoyed the rehearsal process with both them and Ryan Oliva, Bethan Walker and Beatrice May. It was invaluable figuring out and blocking the big finale and that planning really made it possible to nail that scene on the day as it had a lot of logistics.
Q. Did you experience any issues during filming?
A. I was using my car as one of the action vehicles and when the camera team were adding a cat mount it slipped and in a blink of the eyes smashed the passenger side window into a thousand pieces – so we had to shoot with that window open and remove all the glass that literally shattered into thousands of pieces over our actor (who was very good about it). If you tried you could never break a window so precisely! Fortunately, no one was hurt (but the camera teams’ pride). And production heroes sorted out getting it fixed within hours.
Q. What makes MIDNIGHT PEEPSHOW stand out as something different in the horror genre?
A. The great thing about making truly independent cinema and working within the portmanteau format is it lets the filmmakers off the corporate leash. If you’re fed up of the weak brew of predictable Hollywood films where you now know all the oh so familiar beats, then this is a dangerous late night cocktail that will get you giddy again. For me Midnight Peepshow is like a visit into a haunted carnival funhouse, where those visiting get to experience a number of different rooms within the whole structure…and all those rooms are haunted.’
Q. What do you hope people take away after watching the film?
A. That perhaps it got a little under their skin and certain images and moments may stay with them, like a vivid dream. Or nightmare. Ultimately you always hope the audience enjoyed the journey.
Q. Do you have any other projects which you are currently working on?
A. Always! The next one up that is definite as I’ve been working on it now for ages already is a feature length documentary about cult Manchester filmmaker Cliff Twemlow of GBH video nasty fame. It’s due Severin films and a very deep dive. That should be fascinating and I’m hoping also finally get my long gestating Werewolf film ‘Feral’ off the ground but that dependent on the financing gods, plus developing another horror idea with Airell Anthony Hayles as has great fun working with him on this.
Q. If someone was looking to write and direct their own film what advice would you give them?
A. Tell a story that really interests and excites you. It’ll eat up a large chunk of your life so make sure you’re in love with it before you start. And enjoy the challenges of the journey. It’s a tough road but rewarding if you really love the journey.
You can find out more about the Festival and purchase tickets here: https://www.frightfest.co.uk/
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!
