In a new exclusive interview on Blazing Minds, I got a chance to ask writer-director Chris Wade a few questions about his latest short film Wuurm.

Q. Can you tell me a little bit about yourself and how you first got into filmmaking?

A. The only definitive way – filming friends being idiots and hurting ourselves! Then later, I went on to grab a BA in TV production and moving image culture at the University of Greenwich.

Sadly, not much of that culture found its way into my filmmaking style, as I am ultimately still fascinated by the trashy B-Movie era of 70-90s sci-fi and horror. I love it!

Present-day, I run 3 production companies which are all pretty different. Dogbrain Videos, which is inspired by all of the above. A creative outlet for my stranger ideas, which stays close to my influences.

The Kent Video Company, which is doing really well in the corporate sector, and a new one, Fish Guts Productions which offers trashy low-fi animations and is a total parody of my own self. 

Q. You are currently in post-production for your new short horror-comedy WUURM. Can you tell me a little bit about what we can expect from the film?

A. WUURM is a short horror-comedy film, which tells the tale of Barry. A sad, pathetic man in his late 50s who’s locked himself in his bathroom, out of sight of his overbearing elderly mother. 

Barry has a sentient tapeworm living inside of him, which has been talking to him and driving him mad for weeks. After forcing him to nearly kill someone, Barry knows there’s only one thing to do; flush it out and grapple in a fight to the death! 

Q. WUURM is an unusual title that works well with the b-movies themes which you are trying to incorporate. How did the concept for the film’s theme and title come about?

A. WUURM is our first proper short film. We have dabbled in shorts before, but this one is our first, original project.

The idea for the film was actually dreamed up by co-writer and producer Calum Syers, whilst suffering from a fever and hallucinating on a stormy night. He thought he had a tapeworm in his tummy. 

As for the title, WUURM is German for WORM. I have no idea where it came from, but I’m pretty sure I spelt it that way first and then looked it up after! 

I love the aesthetic of the word and works great as a big, trashy, bold font. 

Q. What were some of your influences for the look and style of the film?

A.  The film is a strange mash of Evil Dead (1981) meets British TV sitcoms like Father Ted (1995–1998) and Bottom (1991–1995). 

Visually, the film has the tonal colour pallet of a disgusting bogey, with the cinematography style of Danny Devito’s Matilda (1996) and Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead II (1987). Make of that what you will! 

A lot of the film’s look also comes from the location itself. The film takes place in a really tight space, as the bathroom is a real location. It has super reflective wall tiles and any lighting we brought in bounced off the walls like crazy – so we opted to use the soft glow of the already existing vintage globe lights and stuck smartphone-controlled bulbs in them to adjust. About 80% of the film was actually shot with these practical lights. It’s never how I pictured doing a first film, but it just seemed like the right choice after working with the space we had. The result is a really strange looking short, which fits nicely within its own little otherworldly universe. 

I’m also the cinematographer and well as the director, which is lucky as you wouldn’t be able to fit anyone else in the room!

Q. The film was made with just one actor. Did you have an actor in mind to play the role when you were writing the film?

A. Most definitely! Geoff Sloan stars as Barry and he’s great. I’ve worked with Geoff on a number of music videos, and he also appeared as a shifty bouncer in a fun, improvised short film I made a few years ago with some friends called Starfish Men. 

Geoff is an awesome actor. He’s our very own Bruce Campbell!

Q. I know you mentioned on social media that you felt WUURM was officially cursed, with both cast and crew having multiple accidents off set. We all know a cursed set is not uncommon in the horror genre which includes several large productions, so can you please elaborate on some of the incidents which occurred whilst you were making the film.

A. Geoff fell off a step and smashed his face and glasses on the first day of filming. An inch to the left and he would have lost an eye!

As soon as that healed, he did the exact same thing again but worse. Demons maybe??

We had to halt production whilst his stitches and black eye healed. 

Calum the Co-producer also locked himself out of his flat for the day with the oven on and I fell off a ladder into a holly bush. 


Q. What were some of your favourite moments when filming?

A. Getting Geoff to fight a slimy worm puppet is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.

There’s also a scene where he smashes a mirror with a rubber duck. There was a 5% chance of it working, and it did!  

There’s also a scene in the film I acted in too, which was a lot of fun. It involves me falling down the stairs. 

Q. What makes The Wuurm stand out as something different within the horror genre?

A. WUURM is a British-horror-comedy-soap-opera-sitcom-B-Movie. I’m pretty sure I’ve never watched anything that pulls all of these elements together, especially in the third act which just goes bonkers. 

We have taken all of our early influences and bundled them together in this love letter to what we grew up on. Essentially, it’s the one we needed to get out of our systems and make first.

If I was going to compare it to anything, it would probably be Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place (2004). Matthew Holness also went to the same school as me and Calum, so maybe it’s that hell mouth of a school that breeds this kind of thing. 

Hopefully, it finds its place with people who understand what it is we’ve done! 

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

A. I’m always working away on client focused projects, so after this is done, it will be back to making videos for other people for a while. 

WUURM has been a completely self-funded project between other video jobs, so I’ll be getting back to work whilst submitting the film into festivals in 2022. 

We know what our next film is going to be though! Another horror comedy which involves builders attempting to evict an 800-year-old witch off her land. We are hoping to grow our network of other horror film makers and hopefully get this one funded.

I’m actually also starting to explore indie-go-go and the short-film world in general. I’ve just supported and become an associate producer on a short film called Video Shop Tales of Terror which has just ended its funding run. It looks like great fun and happy to be part of it!

Q. What advice would you give to someone who is looking to get into directing themselves

A. Find a good group of friends to play with. Laugh, act and film! 

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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!