DARK NIGHT – HORROR ON A SHOESTRING

Dark Night, a feature film made by students on a tiny budget of just £5000, promises to be a “clever psychological thriller that unfolds a frightening story through the eyes of each character.” Judging by the screams of the girls sitting next to me, it certainly hits the spot, as the hapless characters are dispatched by a mysterious killer who lurks behind the camera until the very end.

The movie opens with four friends travelling to a house party, which is taking place in the middle of a dark, creepy forest. Although such a setting is often the natural habitat of horror movie baddies, they are undeterred, and the drinking games begin in earnest after they arrive. As the night wears on, one of the gang gives the others a scare by revealing the dark secret behind the abandonment of the house that they’re in. Few believe the story, until they themselves become the newest victims of the “beast.”

Apart from all the gore, the dialogue also shows that the makers are aware of the clichés of the horror genre. As the characters note of the evening’s events, “this would make a good movie.” They also use horror movie logic to plot their escape from the faceless killer. The fact that the murders only really begin about halfway into the movie keeps the audience on edge, waiting to find out who will be the first to succumb, and how…

After the premiere screening of Dark Night at the Curzon Soho, I caught up with some of the cast and crew. Most of them were inexperienced in the ways of filming on location, and the rigours of filming at night meant that lifestyles had to completely change. Some were subject to harsher treatment than others; Adriana Maestranzi remembers being wedged between two mattresses at 4am pretending to be undead. As she puts it, “that was hard… but great fun too!”

Still, Dark Night might lead on to greater things for them. One cast member was absent from the premiere because of filming commitments in Majorca.

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Chris Grezo, who plays Will, has just finished filming on The Good Shepherd, where he “got to be a 1940s rent boy with the legend that is Robert De Niro.”

vaughntristan The assistant director, Vaughn Stein, is working on the filming of Matthew Vaughn’s Stardust at Pinewood Studios.

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The writer and director, Daniel Grant, also has big plans for other film projects.

tony_film1 For Anthony Noble, however, the most pressing concern of the moment was finding out the result of his English degree.

Overall, though, their hope is that Dark Night will make it to a festival, to be seen by the powers that be. If they’re not too scared that is…

For more information, go to the Dark Night website

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by Suchandrika Chakrabarti

Published 21 July 2006