Film Name: Exhibition of Evil – Segments: The Haunted Man and Golden Boy
Director: The Haunted Man – Sam Mason Bell / Golden Boy – Sam Mason Bell and Bhuna Baby
Writer(s): The Haunted Man – Joe Duncombe, SN Sibley and Sam Mason Bell / Golden Boy – Bhuna Baby
A curator unveils a most sinister collection, each with its own tale of terror.
In a new exclusive interview on Blazing Minds, I got the chance to ask segment Co-Director/Writer Sam Mason Bell a few questions about the segments of ‘Exhibition of Evil’ – ‘The Haunted Man’ and ‘Golden Boy’, which have been selected to play at The Horror-on-Sea Film Festival on Saturday, 24th January at 17:30hrs.
Q. You directed the segment The Haunted Man and co-directed Golden Boy as part of the feature film Exhibition of Evil, which has been selected to play at the Horror-on-Sea Film Festival. Can you tell us what we can expect from your segments?
A. A Haunted Man was actually a short we shot at Horror-on-Sea last year during the festival. It’s a psychological horror with a manic brilliant performance from Tony Mardon.
Golden Boys a lovely little revenge story.
Q. You co-wrote The Haunted Man with Joe Duncombe and SN Sibley. What the process of you writing the film together?
A. In all truthfulness originally I had wrote an entirely different film to shoot at Horror-on-Sea, but unfortunately our lead actress wasn’t available at last minute. So we came together and rewrote the film for Tony to lead, focusing on a more haunting regret from a flawed director.
It was fantastic writing with these two, even if time was incredibly tight for us!
Q. Golden Boy was written by Bhuna Baby, what first attracted you to the script?
A. Bhunas, a good friend of mine, they had worked on animated sequences for my film Senseless (2022) so it made sense for me to ask them to direct a short for Exhibition of Evil. Bhuna had already been developing this as a short anyway so it all came together organically.
Q. What were some of your influences for the look and style of the films?
A. Haunted Man we wanted the personality of the hotel to come through, following our protagonist through the venue but keeping the haunting to the hotel room, working with darkness and minimalist lighting. Golden Boy on the other hand we wanted to take advantage of the venue The WedgeWood Rooms using the lighting to add the emotion of the intensity of the scene.
Q. What were some of your favourite moments during filming?
A. Haunted Man was the pleasure of seeing Tony working, letting him dive into this sad conflicted eruption of a man and finally working with Andrea Sandell. For Golden Boy it was working with Darren Ward on some of the more gorier aspects of the film!
Q. Did you experience any issues during filming?
A. Well despite rewriting the whole film when the original actor dropped out Haunted Man wasn’t too much of an issue to shoot, the hotel and Horror -on-Sea film festival were very welcoming. With Golden Boy, Bhuna couldn’t attend the WedgeWood Rooms part of the filming so I shot all of those scenes working from her story boards, thankfully they were there for the gore inserts.
Q. What makes The Haunted Man and Golden Boy stand out as something different in the horror genre?
A. I think with every film I’m looking for a new challenge where it doesn’t feel its repeating myself. Haunted Man was a great lil character piece on focused grief that I hadn’t done before and I think
people will be very impressed with Tony. Golden Boys a lot of fun very much what you expect from a
gory revenge story but using classic traits from Greek mythology too.
Q. What do you hope people take away after watching the film?
A. I hope people really enjoy our anthology, we all worked on each other’s film, giving a real communal feel and hopefully a stronger quality control!
Q. Do you have any other projects which you are currently working on?
A. Last year we finished our latest feature They Wait In Shadows and had like 5 releases! This year we are prepping our next found footage horror to shoot end of Feb its a Rosemary’s Baby (1968) esque horror set around therapy, another new challenge for us!
Q. If someone was looking to direct their own film what advice would you give them?
A. Just do it, find people with passion, learn from mistakes and always listen to good advice.
Exhibition of Evil has been selected to play at The Horror-on-Sea Film Festival on Saturday 24th January at 17:30hrs.
You can find out more about Exhibition of Evil and purchase tickets for the film here
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!
