I Scream on the Beach! (2020)
Directors: Alexander Churchyard, Michael Holiday
Writers: Alexander Churchyard, Michael Holiday, Max Davenport (Original Story)
Actors: Hannah Paterson, Dani Thompson, Reis Daniel, Jamie Evans, Lloyd Kaufman
In the small seaside town of Mellow Coast, Emily (Hannah Paterson) is trying to discover what has happened to her father, but as she searches for answers her friends start getting picked off one-by-one by an unknown killer.
In a new interview in the series leading up to Horror-on-Sea Film Festival, I got a chance to ask I Scream on the Beach! co-writer/director Alex Paterson-Churchyard a few questions about what we can expect from the film.
Q. Your latest horror film I Scream on the Beach! has been selected to play at Horror-on-Sea. Can you tell us what we can expect from the film?
Firstly we should say how grateful we are to be playing at Horror-on-Sea. This film comes from an idea that goes back a long time now, but it was at HOS in 2015 that Mike (Holiday)and I talked about turning that idea into this project and now here we are 5 years later and it’s playing at the festival. The film, having been shot in Southend and utilising so much local talent, it’s beyond touching that we get to now screen it at the local horror festival, one we’ve been going to for years.
HOS is also how we got some of our cast – we have HOS regulars Martin Payne, Scream Princess Dani Thompson and a little voice cameo from Michael Fausti – again without Horror on Sea it’s doubtful we would have met any of them. Dani has actually been attached to the project since 2016 so it was great to expand her role and finally finish it this year.
Hopefully you can expect laughs, some horror and definitely some gore. There’s a mystery, some red-herrings and a twist. For locals they will see parts of their town up on screen. For horror fans hopefully they will find the tropes etc funny. We also have Lloyd Kaufman of Troma in the film and lots of local talent from the likes of Hannah Paterson, Reis Daniel and Jamie Evans.
Q. You co-wrote the film with Michael Holiday based on an original story from Max Davenport. What were some of your inspirations when writing the script for the film?
Part of the story dates back to some films I made with my brother Max when we were kids, then later when I met Michael he made some with me as well. It’s hard to explain without spoiling the film, but there’s a key element from those original films that I made as a child as well as some of the characters. Otherwise this is a totally new thing really
We were influenced by a plethora of 70/80’s slasher films such as My Bloody Valentine (1981), Friday the 13th (1980) and Halloween (1978). But we were also influenced by such films as Basket Case (1982), Evil Dead (1981) and Phenomena (1985). I think because this is a horror/comedy as well that is quite knowing, it also has influences from Scream (1966) – we really tried to have archetypal characters and situations. That being said; I don’t think our characters know they’re in a horror film so it’s not quite as self-aware as Scream.
Q. What were some of your influences for the look and style of the film?
Well again it was a lot of 80’s slasher films – we wanted (on a budget) to make it feel as authentic as possible – so no flashy editing, no digitally aided camera techniques and then in terms of finished look we always wanted to downgrade the film to make it looks a bit like film that has been transferred to VHS. We tested this in a variety of ways, including actually running the film through a VHS player and ultimately I’m happy with what we have achieved.
Q. Where there any elements of the original script which were adapted during filming?
Yes, we added a character because we had the opportunity to add Lloyd Kaufman to the cast – essentially we actually took an existing character and split him in to two different ones. That did have a knock-on effect with the script and sometimes I was rewriting with Mike and the actors between takes – I don’t think I was very popular on those days!
There’s also minor things we changed in the edit – the entire film is redubbed so it did give us some flexibility to change things later and with cutaways etc we did actually change a couple of scenes significantly.
Q. Did you experience any issues during filming?
Bad weather mostly… We filmed in March/April and so the weather wasn’t on our side generally speaking. Also filming by the sea with heavy winds is not fun for anyone. We had one day in particular where we just weren’t prepared for it and we did all take a battering. Subsequently we bought thermal blankets and on one of our later outdoor shoots we were prepared and sent actors to the pub when it rained and quickly pulled them out to film once the skies cleared. Luckily our cast and crew were game.
Q. What were some of your favourite moments during filming?
So a large portion of our film is set in a pub; I did (particularly in hindsight) love that set – it was stressful because we had a great number of our cast members plus a lot of extras and probably the biggest amount of crew members that we had at one time. But it also felt the most like a movie set and I think we ran things incredibly well on those days.
Also any time we did anything with gore I’d be cackling at the monitor; love that stuff!
Q. The film includes a cameo from independent filmmaker Lloyd Kaufman, what was he like to work with on the film?
Yeah that was quite something really – we were texting a friend and they were with Lloyd at an event in London. Basically they asked him if he’d be interested in making a cameo in I Scream on the Beach! And he agreed. Next thing I know I’m texting Lloyd himself and arranging to meet him the next day in London to shoot this cameo that hadn’t even been written.
Mike and I quickly figured something out and I wrote it and then the next day we frantically searched around London for somewhere nearby Lloyd’s hotel that we could film in. It’s actually the only bit of the film not shot in Southend.
When we met him and his wife Pat they were just the nicest people – really down to earth and normal. He really didn’t have to give up his time for us, but he really kindly did. We actually ended up having to go to their hotel room to record his audio again as the location we found was very noisy. I got him to sign my The Toxic Avenger (1986) steel book so that was a bonus!
But yeah that was a great experience.
Q. What makes I Scream on the Beach! stand out as something different in the horror genre?
Hmm… Well there’s a lot of 80’s set stuff recently, but although our influences are mostly foreign I Scream is quintessentially British… It’s set in a small seaside town, a lot of it is in a pub or the boat yard, there’s scenes at an allotment. So perhaps it’s that infusion of an American type of slasher film, but in Britain.
Q. What do you hope people take away after watching the film?
I mean, there’s no deep message to this film. I hope people recognise the effort that was put in and I hope they have a reaction to it and don’t just think “meh!”. I’d rather people hated it than were in-different, but of course I hope people do respond to it favourably.
We’re on at 8pm so I hope some drinks are had before and during.
I hope they also appreciate the score – I can big it up as I have nothing to do with it – our composer Levi Miah has created something memorable and just really fantastic. He just recently finished it and also provided us our theme song that will play with our closing credits – it has lyrics that reference screaming on the beach and many of the deaths; it’s amazing!
Q. Do you have any other projects which you are currently working on?
Our company, TIS Films, has a few projects in the pipeline; we have a short film that is being written by Hannah Paterson titled Margaret Thatcher’s Ghost, Michael is writing a feature at the moment, we have an anthology film that we have both been writing that will at least hopefully go into production next year and I might be shooting a short film in America at the end of 2020 as well.
Q. If someone was looking to direct their own film what advice would you give them?
Same advice all the filmmakers will give you; just do it! Don’t procrastinate, put yourself out there and get something made. I would say if you can volunteer on other people’s projects then that could also be a great learning curve for you and also a good way to meet like-minded people.
You can keep up to date with news for ‘I Scream on the Beach! on the following social media Twitter– Facebook – Instagram
I Scream on the Beach will be playing at Horror-on-Sea on Sunday 12th January at 20:00 hrs
You can find out more about Horror-on-Sea and purchase tickets for the festival 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!
