I Scream on the Beach! (2019)

Directors: Alexander Churchyard, Michael Holiday

Writers: Alexander Churchyard, Michael Holiday

Stars: Lloyd Kaufman, Reis Daniel, Dani Thompson, Martin W. Payne, Leigh Trifari, Ross Howard, Hannah Patterson

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.

I Scream on the Beach is a new 80’s style slasher horror from co-writer/directors Alexander Churchyard and Michael Holiday, which is currently being filmed in Southend. Whilst on set I got a chance to talk to actor Jamie Evans and asked him a few questions about what we can expect from the film.

Can you tell us a little bit about what we can expect from the film?

I scream on the Beach! Is a throwback to the 1980’s slasher movies. It’s quite silly, not in a stupid sense, but in taking off the clichés of the genre. The characters are all very vapid and none of them are nice people. It’s not the kind of film, that when they die you feel sad, you are kind of cheering for them to die because they are terrible people. Apart from maybe Dave (Reis Daniel) who seems to have good intentions at least. The rest of them, my character in particular is pretty useless. He doesn’t really take any action throughout the film at all except to just talk on and on about B-movies and thing like that. No matter what trouble his friend gets into or the problems they are dealing with all he wants to talk about is these silly movies which he has imported in from South America.

Can you tell us a bit more about your character?

My character is the comic relief in the film, there really is no depth to him at all. He is kind of like the fat comic guy from The Simpsons, in live action form. All he cares about is these films and harps on and on about them to the point where his friends don’t even want to talk to him as that is the only topic of conversation.

Are there any characteristics which are similar to yourself?

There is a little bit. I am a bit of a film geek myself, I own 728 DVD’s because I still collect DVD’s even if it is 2019, so I think I am the only one keeping HMV in business at the minute. I like to think I am not as obnoxious about it as he is and I do other interests outside of film, but in that sense yes that is something. I am quite passionate. I studied filmmaking at university, and I make films in my spare time. I am that guy who knows a lot about how they made Terminator 2 (1991) or how they made Superman fly in the original Superman (1978) film.

What were some of your favourite moments so far during the filming of I Scream on the Beach!?

This is only my second day on set, I understand that the others have had a few days. So far, it’s the most relaxed shoot I have been on. Not in a bad way, but in the way that Alex (Churchyard), Mike (Holiday) and the rest of the crew have been incredibly organised. Usually when I do an independent film the budgets are so low, there are disorganised and usually it’s a first-time director and everyone ends up doing extra things. I did a film last summer and not only was I acting in it, but they were so low on budget that you had to keep track of your own costumes, they didn’t have a costume person. They didn’t have anyone watching continuity, so you had to monitor that yourself. I even ended up on shots that I wasn’t in working the boom as well – as I said I studied film at university as well, so I know all about how the equipment works. Whereas on this I am able to come in and I feel almost useless, because I am not being asked every two minutes. I am mostly sat at a table, read my lines back and drank this horrible fake beer they are serving. That is my only criticism, they could have done with real beer! (laughs)

One of the things I have noticed today are the horror t-shirts which you are wearing with the horror names.  Were you involved in these designs?

No, I didn’t help with these. I did make some extra suggestions, but they had already made the shirts. I thought it would be quite funny if they had a joke where it was reoccurring sequels to the same film, so each time it would get worse. One said, ‘Attack of the Ghost Alligator’ I thought it would be funny if we had one of those cheesy sci-fi films where its ‘Ghost Alligator vs Phantom shark’ or something like that. I have asked if I could keep one, but they haven’t decided which one yet because I think Alex and Mike want to keep some as well. Hopefully one of the good ones.

What do you think makes I Scream on the Beach! stand out in the horror genre as something different?

Horror is in a weird place at the moment both independently and with the big budget Hollywood horror films. There seems to be a shift towards smart horror now, more films that rely less on jump scares, blood and things like that. They rely more on building a sense of dread. Films like The Witch (2015) or The Secret of Marrowbone (2017), you could say they are not horror movies, they are more dread movies.

This is more of a tribute. I don’t think you could say it is bringing anything fresh it is more like saying goodbye to something that doesn’t work anymore. They tried remaking Friday 13^th (1980) and Halloween (1978) and things like that, but they just don’t work in this day and age. This is like a fond farewell to that genre which is quite nice.

It seems to have quite good production values, because it seems like every man and his dog who considers themselves an independent filmmaker makes a horror movie. There seems to be this attitude that horror is easy, which is why I think the horror genre, which is the only genre where 90% of it is garbage. The 10% is that’s good is really good, I am a huge fan of horror movies, A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) is my favourite movie that has ever been made, but 90% of its garbage.

It is so nice to be on a set where they have taken a lot of time. I know they’ve been in production for this for a long time because I remember the way I actually first met Alex and Mike, it was not long after I had moved to Southend which was four years ago. I walked past these two guys on the beach and Alex still had hair back then. They were just filming this severed hand on the beach, I stopped and asked what they were doing, mentioned that I was a filmmaker and we got talking. That was when they were shooting a test trailer to test the concept, but they have spent a lot of time and it shows.

Do you have any other projects which you are working on?

I am because I have a real problem saying no to people, so I am in lots of things at the minute. I am in a play that’s being performed at the Dixon Studio, Southend at the Palace Theatre – beginning 19^th March and it’s on every evening that week.  Its called Round and Round the Garden, it’s a comedy by Alan Ayckbourn. I play the lead character who is a lead man who is trying to have an affair with his sister in law and his brother in laws wife at the same time during a family weekend away.

I also write for a writers group called Writer Anonymous who recently published their latest collection of short stories called Shell-Shocked (2018). This was published towards the end of last year and was a collection of short stories that are related to the First World War as it was the 100^th Anniversary. You can go on amazon and buy that right now and there are two stories in there by me.

What advice would you give to someone who is looking to get into acting themselves?

My advice probably is the kind of advice that others would not give, but I am going to give it anyway. I have been acting since I was 11 years old. I started in school productions, things like that. I went to university to study acting and I dropped it and went to film instead. Although I would never discourage anyone from studying, acting is something that I think you cannot learn be reading it out of text books. There are two ways to learn acting; the first is do as many plays as you can, don’t be a diva and start turning down parts just because it’s one line or two lines, because there are a lot of egos in this industry. Secondly, I would also say just talk to people. Everyday people, as many as you can who are not from the same background as you because that is how you learn to empathise and put yourself into the shoes of the other person. I love meeting new people, I love it and that is one of the things that enables me to do this job.

You can see some exclusive behind the scenes pictures from on the set of I Scream on the Beach here

Philip Rogers

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!