‘The Mill Killers’, a 100-minute horror feature film made and set in Wales, is available to buy and rent online. The film was written and directed by Carmarthen’s Aled Owen. Aled Owen also produced the film, alongside Portsmouth’s Tom Rawding, as the Carmarthen-based production company Melyn Pictures Ltd, which was established in 2021.
During its successful film festival run, which began at London’s prestigious FrightFest in August 2024, “The Mill Killers” has been nominated for several awards and has won the “Best Feature Film” awards at the Wales International Film Festival and the International Film Festival of Wales, respectively. Ellen Jane-Thomas also won the “Best Supporting Actress” award at the Dead Northern Film Festival for her portrayal of “Mia” in the film. The film was titled “Scopophobia” during its festival run.
Trinity Creative Partnership has partnered with Melyn Pictures to oversee the film’s distribution and subsequently arranged the film’s worldwide release. “The Mill Killers” is out now. In the UK and USA, “The Mill Killers” will become available to rent or buy from Amazon, iTunes, Apple TV, and Google, with the addition of Sky in the UK. It will also be available to buy and rent in Australia and New Zealand on Amazon and iTunes.
The film follows Rhiannon (Swansea’s Catrin Jones) who suffers from severe paranoia as a result of her deep guilt, having been peer-pressured by her friends to steal money from their local steel mill as a teenager. Ten years later, the film finds Rhiannon reuniting with these friends, played by Carmarthen’s Bethany Williams-Potter, Bridgend’s Emma Stacey, and Tenby’s Ellen Jane-Thomas. This time, the place is a ghost town, and the girls pressure Rhiannon into taking them back into the now-abandoned mill, to retrieve the stolen money.
When they enter the mill to find it, however, they get locked inside, and there’s someone strange inside the mill with them. Perhaps their past has come back to haunt them, or perhaps it’s just their guilty conscience playing tricks.
‘The Mill Killers’ was produced on a shoestring budget made up entirely of the cast and crew’s own funding, and two online crowd-funding campaigns (on Indiegogo and Greenlit, respectively). Production began with a 5-day shoot in Carmarthen in March 2022. These were predominantly the film’s cheapest scenes (dialogue scenes, free of any action or effects), and the footage was then used to raise more funds for another 6-day shoot in October 2022, this time taking place in Swansea’s Bay Studios and the National Botanic Garden of Wales. Stunt/Fight Coordinator Kevin McCurdy and Special Effects Prosthetics Artist Ellie Baldwin joined the production at this stage. With two-thirds of the film shot and
edited, another crowdfunding campaign allowed the cast and crew to complete filming with one final 4-day shoot in March 2023, in the factories of Middlesbrough. Within 15 days across 1 year, the film’s production was completed.
Aled Owen and Tom Rawding met at the Northern Film School (Leeds Beckett University)
and both graduated in 2019. This project began when the Covid-19 pandemic caused Aled’s first film industry job to end prematurely. Worried that this would set him back to square one, Aled and Tom decided to create an opportunity for themselves. The script’s story was conceived by Aled while walking around Carmarthen during his allowed outdoor hours throughout lockdown. Seeing his hometown so empty and lifeless inspired the plot of ‘The Mill Killers’.
The Melyn Pictures crew is proud to boast diverse people from all over the UK and Europe. The cast is entirely Welsh. The film’s music was composed by Cardiff-based Lloyd Morgan, and features songs written and performed by Carmarthen’s GG Fearn.
Despite its financial limitations, Melyn Pictures is proud to have completed its production of ‘The Mill Killers’, a true passion project for all involved. It was selected to be part of several prestigious horror film festivals around the world. The first of these festivals (which proudly announced itself as the film’s world premiere) was London’s Pigeon Shrine FrightFest at the world-famous Odeon Luxe in Leicester Square on Saturday 24th August. Two weeks later, on the 7th September 2024, the film was screened at Aled Owen’s hometown theatre, The Lyric in Carmarthen. This Welsh premiere featured cast, crew, friends, family, and press, and Aled Owen called it a full-circle moment, having grown up performing in the theatre as a young aspiring actor.
As for the future of Melyn Pictures and its crew, writer-director Aled Owen has written another feature film script called ‘Mari Lwyd’. Currently in development, the film, again produced by Owen and Rawding, is a horror-comedy based on the mysterious Welsh wassailing tradition of the Mari Lwyd.
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!
