Name: HorrorScopes Volume 2: Chinese Zodiac – ‘Dragon’
Directors: Dani Thompson
Writers: Dani Thompson
Starring: Philip Rogers, Judy Matheson, Dani Thompson
In a new exclusive interview on Blazing Minds leading up to the Horror-on-Sea Film Festival, I got a chance to ask writer-director Dani Thompson a few questions about her segment of HorrorScopes Volume 2: Chinese Zodiac – ‘Dragon’
HorrorScopes Volume 2: Chinese Zodiac has been selected to play at the Horror-on-Sea film festival on Friday 19th January at 20:00pm.
Q. You contributed a segment film to HorrorScopes Volume 2 which has been selected to play at Horror-on-Sea Film Festival. Can you tell us about the segment?
A. In the pickening, I was assigned the sign-on Dragon to work with after initial brainstorms. I really liked the idea of there being a dragon egg, so I wanted to centre my story around that. But I also liked the idea of chasing the dragon. so I kind of combined the two along with some dragon polymorphs and a little bit of forced fertilization and the idea was born.
Q. What were some of your influences when writing the script for Dragon?
A. I had actually done a lot of brainstorming during the 2023 Horror on Sea film festival and although I had the idea of the egg and chasing the dragon, the separate ideas weren’t quite connecting. I was actually in the bath and suddenly had the fully formed idea just popped into my head so my bath was cut short (my friends laugh as I can easily spend hours in the bath) and I wrote a kind of>treatment immediately and the script was written the following day!
Q. What were some of your influences for the look and style of the film?
A. For some of it, I was influenced by an old episode of Midsomer Murders (1997 – ) which centred around and egg thief, the opium den scenes from From Hell along with some of the cinematography from Moulin Rouge (2001).
Kemal Yildirim and I have worked together many times before with him as DOP and me acting so we know each other well and he knew exactly what I wanted when I explained my vision to him and how to bring it to life.
Q. Did you make any changes from the original script during filming?
A. I think we pretty much shot it exactly as it was, it was a two day shoot with a very small cast and not too much dialogue but of course as always there are extra shots that were decided on the day due to the locations providing ideas.
Q. What were some of your favourite moments during filming?
A. The lead actor Philip who plays Charlie turning up to set and the DOP Kemal not recognising him due to his lack of his trademark facial hair. He’s actually a very versatile actor so was nice to see him sinking his teeth in to something completely different, and I think the different look really helped him
with getting in to character.
Also a shot of Philip getting in the car but it was actually my car and I have much shorter legs and hadn’t moved the seat back so it was quite comedic.
Also having Judy Matheson on set was incredible and she really brought Madame Drakaina to life.
Q. Did you experience any issues during filming?
A. Not really, it all ran pretty smoothly, I worked with a small but incredible team who just made
everything very easy.
Q. What makes Dragon stand out as something different in the horror genre?
A. I like to think there’s a message in there about not messing with nature. Egg thieves and trophy
hunters of all sorts should think twice… I love those stories when a trophy hunter gets their
comeuppance, squashed by an elephant, eaten by a lion etc!
Q. What do you hope people take away after watching the film?
A. I hope they enjoy it as much as we enjoyed making it.
Q. Do you have any other projects which you are currently working on?
A. Writing/ directing wise, I have a completed feature film script for a vampire film called Blood &
Glitter that I’d really like to make. It’s quite an ambitious one and is going to require a reasonable
budget so I’d like to get the funding in place this year with a view to going in to production next year.
I will also be working on a segment for Videoshop Tales of Terror 3 although that’s very early in the
planning stages.
Acting wise, I just finished a film called One Night Rental directed by Christ Annable and am due to start filming Good Neighbours directed by Richard Anthony Dunford which I’m really looking forward to.
There have also been a lot of films I worked on doing the festival rounds with Burnt Flowers and
Pocket Film of Superstitions due for release soon.
Q. If someone was looking to get into filmmaking what advice would you give them
A. This is always a tough question as everyone’s journey in to film making is different, I would say I’m
predominantly an actor and I hadn’t thought about directing until MJ and Anna form Mycho asked
me to write and direct a piece for the first Horrorscope’s Volume and now here I am. Two short anthology segments in and a feature and another anthology segment on the card. So my journey has been the actor first journey, picking up things on set and learning from directors over the past 13 years since leaving drama school, rather than having trained at a film school. But if you want to work in one of the behind the camera jobs then a proper film school training will give you the technical knowledge that you need, but really just learn, watch people work if you’re lucky enough to be on set and if you have an idea, put pen to paper!
You can find out more about the festival and purchase tickets 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!
