News

Daddy’s Head reunites director Benjamin Barfoot and writer Danny Morgan, Shudder will release the film in the UK.

Double Date, which is currently available to stream via Amazon Prime, is a fun, dark comedy horror from 2017. Directed by Benjamin Barfoot and written by Danny Morgan – who also co-stars alongside Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging star Georgie Groome, Michael Socha and Kelly Wenham – the plot concerns two men, Alex and Jim, the latter of whom struggles to talk to women. They meet two girls whose hobby is murdering men. Things do not go well.

The cast also featured Dexter Fletcher and Rosie Cavaliero, was met with critical acclaim and was nominated for a BIFA award for effects.

Their next film is horror Daddy’s Head. According to Screen Daily, streaming service Shudder has acquired and will distribute in the UK.

The synopsis, as reported by Deadline in 2023 when the film went into production,...

Here’s the latest episode of The Filmmakers Podcast, part of the podcast roster here on Nerdly. If you haven’t heard the show yet, you can check out previous episodes on the official podcast site, whilst we’ll be featuring each and every new episode as it premieres.

For those unfamiliar with the series, The Filmmakers Podcast is a podcast about how to make films from micro-budget indie films to bigger-budget studio films and everything in between. Our hosts Giles Alderson, Dome Lenoir, Dan Richardson, Andrew Rodger and Cristian James talk about how to get films made, how to actually make them and how to try not to f… it up in their very humble opinion. Guests will come on and chat about their filmmaking experiences from directors, writers, producers and screenwriters, to actors, cinematographers and distributors.

The Filmmaker’s Podcast #351: How to make a successful low-budget indie...

Bungling amateurs kidnap a morally bankrupt politico in this British film – but his wife won’t spring for him, and he’s enjoying the publicity

This pitch-black, low-budget British comedy entertainingly revolves around a sleazy, self-serving MP who may or may not bear a passing resemblance to a certain recent prime minister. The MP’s name is Richard “Hardline” Hardy (Patrick Baladi), a politician so morally bankrupt that when he is kidnapped by a pair of bungling amateurs, he spots a once-in-a-life opportunity for cut-through with the British public. “Four million hits!” he says as his eyes light up seeing his kidnap video rack up views on YouTube.

Hardy’s kidnappers are out-of-work actor Maggie (Kelly Wenham) and her boyfriend Brian (Jack Parry-Jones), a taxi driver studying coding in his spare time. The frankly implausible story of how and why they kidnap Hardy while he’s up north on an...

The film is produced by Ianthe Bathurst for UK outfit Horizon Film Productions, with Blue Finch Films handling worldwide sales.

Filming has wrapped on the latest comedy feature from UK writer-director Jamie Adams, which has a working title of Or Something Like It, and stars UK comedian Julia Davis and Screen Star of Tomorrow 2022, Harry Trevaldwyn.

It is set in a sleepy coastal town in south Wales, and follows an arthouse filmmaker’s trials and tribulations as she attempts to give a masterclass. Davis plays the filmmaker, while Trevaldwyn stars as the event organiser she collides with.

The film is...

Showtime and Channel 4’s new comedy from the production company behind Fleabag, has announced its cast. Entitled comes from writer Matt Morgan (Mister Winner) and is directed by Tim Kirkby (The Pentaverate). Morgan and Kirkby also serve as executive producers alongside Fleabag trio Harry Williams, Jack Williams, and Sarah Hammond. Production recently started in Manchester, England, according to Deadline. The series is led by Stranger Things star Brett Gelman, who plays Gabe, a conniving American widower who posthumously must get to know The Beaucrofts, his British wife’s eccentric estranged family, in their crumbling gothic mansion in the English countryside. As Gabe searches for closure and truth, his newly inherited fortune reveals each family member’s secrets and ambitions. In addition to Gelman, the cast also includes Donald Sumpter (Game of Thrones), Brendan Patricks (Downton Abbey), Pippa Bennett-Warner (Gangs of London), Mark Quartley (Lucky Man), Jonathan Livingstone (Peacock), Charlotte...

Showtime and Channel 4 comedy Entitled from the production company behind Fleabag has unveiled full cast and rolled cameras in Manchester.

Joining Fleabag and Stranger Things star Brett Gelman in Two Brothers Pictures’ eight-parter are Donald Sumpter (Game of Thrones), Brendan Patricks (Downton Abbey), Pippa Bennett-Warner (Gangs of London), Mark Quartley (Lucky Man), Jonathan Livingstone (Peacock), Charlotte Louise Arrowsmith (This is Going to Hurt) and Kelly Wenham (Merlin).

Entitled stars Gelman as Gabe, a conniving American widower who posthumously must get to know The Beaucrofts, his British wife’s eccentric estranged family, in their crumbling gothic mansion in the English countryside. As Gabe’s search for closure and truth reveal a newly inherited fortune, each family member’s ambition comes to a head.

Matt Morgan (Mister Winner) created Entitled, which entered production in Manchester this week. Director is Tim Kirkby (The Pentaverate) and exec producers are Morgan, Kirkby, Gelman and Fleabag trio Harry Williams,...

A group of grieving friends gather at a remote lakeside and start telling spooky stories in this effective comedy-horror

As the title suggests, this portmanteau film winks at the multi-stranded spookfest Tales from the Crypt (1972), but this time with even more winking and a fair few nudges thrown in for good measure. The umbrella narrative finds five university chums in their late 30s – two couples and another bloke, Paul (Dustin Demri-Burns) who’s brought along his trashy new girlfriend, Miki (Kelly Wenham) – assembling at a remote lakeside cabin to scatter the ashes of a sixth pal who drowned there a few years back, the result of a misadventure, suicide or maybe something more sinister.

There’s good-natured sniping over who forgot to bring food, moaning over the lack of phone signal and bitchier remarks from tart-tongued Martha (Laura Fraser) directed at Miki, who no one really likes. With well-timed rhythms and backchat,...

Stars: Michael Socha, Georgia Groome, Danny Morgan, Kelly Wenham, Dougie Poynter | Written by Danny Morgan | Directed by Benjamin Barfoot

Meet innocent Jim, terrified of girls and on a reluctant quest to prove his manhood the night before he turns 30. He and his cocky friend Alex think they’ve hit the jackpot when they meet the beautiful sisters Kitty and Lulu, who seem up for anything on a wild party-fuelled night. They also have an incredible car. But little do they know that the feisty femmes fatales have their own shocking agenda in mind and have every intention of making Jim lose much more than just his virginity… Getting laid has never been so bloody difficult.

A British horror comedy, about a loudmouth wideboy trying to get his shy mate laid will, for many, not sound like an invitation for a good time. After all there’s been a myriad of...

The lineup for this year's Grimmfest in Manchester, UK, has been revealed and it includes Richard Bates Jr.'s Tone Deaf, Blood Vessel, 1Br, and so much more. The panel of judges for Grimmfest 2019 will be led by the legendary Barbara Crampton. Also in today's Horror Highlights: Killer Therapy, Along Came the Devil 2, and Slasher Crasher book details.

Grimmfest 2019 Lineup: "Grimmfest, one of the UK’s leading cult and genre film festivals, is in its 11th year. The festival will take place at the Odeon Great Northern cinema in Manchester, UK, from 3 - 6 October 2019.

In total, the festival will host 21 feature films and 19 short films, which includes 6 European premieres, 17 UK premieres, 2 English premieres, and 15 Northern UK premieres.

European premieres include Audrey Cummings' laconically brutal She Never Died (the keenly awaited follow up to 2015 horror hit He Never Died), claustrophobic Argentinian thriller 4X4 and Australian WWII set creature feature,...

Stars: Mackenzie Crook, Laura Fraser, Sophie Thompson, Johnny Vegas, Kelly Wenham, Dustin Demri-Burns | Written and Directed by Abigail Blackmore

A group of middle-aged friends gather at a remote lodge to honour a friend who recently drowned in a nearby lake. With emotions running high, everyone makes the most of a gloomy situation by celebrating the best way they know how: swapping silly, scary stories that would have earned a giggle from their dearly departed pal. Urban legends about a masked slasher, a paranormal ghost hunt and a post-apocalyptic wasteland soon lose their fun shock value as the sextet become stuck in a true terror tale that exposes dark secrets no one could have possibly foreseen.

Tales From the Lodge continues the very British tradition of the portmenteau horror – a genre that is synonymous with the UK horror industry of the 60s and 70s, companies like Hammer, Amicus and Tigon, and...

Longtime friends pass the time at an isolated cabin telling scary stories to each other, but it's not long before they find themselves embroiled in their own terrifying scenario that's all too real in Tales from the Lodge. Ahead of the horror comedy's world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival, we've been provided with a new clip, images, and a poster for the latest film from writer/director Abigail Blackmore.

Tales from the Lodge will make its world premiere on March 13th at the SXSW Film Festival. The movie stars Mackenzie Crook, Dustin Demri-Burns, Laura Fraser, Sophie Thompson, Johnny Vegas, and Kelly Wenham. For a sneak peek at the film's horror and comedic elements, check out the images, poster, and clip below, and stay up to date on Tales from the Lodge by visiting its official Facebook page.

Daily Dead will once again be in Austin to cover the SXSW Film Festival,...

A British horror comedy penned by Danny Morgan, we take a look at Double Date...

British horror comedy is a broad church, and when it comes to the cinema, you could end up with anything from Shaun Of The Dead to Lesbian Vampire Killers. Happily, Double Date, a blokey thriller written by its star Danny Morgan (BBC Three's Ideal) is quite funny and has a certain amount of visual panache, so it lands comfortably in the better end of the spectrum.

Arriving in UK cinemas fresh off a crowd-pleasing premiere at FrightFest earlier this year, the film follows Jim (Morgan), a painfully shy young man who's on the verge of becoming a 30 year old virgin. His best mate Alex (Michael Socha) seems even more exasperated about this than he does. And so, neither of them can believe their luck when stunning sisters Kitty (Kelly Wenham) and Lulu (Georgia Groome...

Even by ladling on the gore a mansion-set horror comedy struggles to cover up its failings

A pair of lairy lads looking to pull get more than they bargained for when gorgeous sisters Kitty (Kelly Wenham) and Lulu (Georgia Groome) offer to take them home to their family mansion. Crude, unsophisticated but enthusiastically bloody, this British comedy horror feels a bit like The Inbetweeners Movie with multiple stab wounds and cranial trauma.

Continue reading...

British horror-comedy about a pair of siblings who pick up blokes to murder them in an occult ritual is weirdly unpleasant – and unfunny

There are a couple of reasonable moments in this Brit horror-comedy, and Georgia Groome is always a likable presence. But it feels weirdly nasty, unfunny and lame – like a homegrown, humourless Baise-Moi for a 90s ladmag audience.

Groome and Kelly Wenham play Lulu and Kitty, two sisters who pick up clueless blokes for double dates, take them back to their palatial family home and kill them, for occult ritualistic motives. Kitty is supposed to be the more fanatical of the two, set up as a serious badass and a positive kickboxing ninja. (And yet towards the end the film is oddly reluctant to give Kitty the obvious easy victory in single combat over an untrained male: their fight goes on interminably.)

Continue reading...

Better Watch Out

Stars: Virginia Madsen, Patrick Warburton, Olivia DeJonge, Dacre Montgomery, Levi Miller, Ed Oxenbould, Aleks Mikic | Written by Zack Kahn, Chris Peckover | Directed by Chris Peckover

On a quiet suburban street tucked within a ‘safe neighbourhood’, Ashley has turned up to babysit 12-year-old Luke for the evening while his parents are out for a Christmas party night. Ashley is Luke’s favourite babysitter and he’s looking forward to spending time with her again. Suddenly a brick crashes through the window reading ‘U Leave, U Die’ and they hear someone sneaking around the house upstairs…

Where to begin with Better Watch Out? A film that starts as your typical, cliched seasonal slasher: two teens trapped in a house by a madman outside, who eventually breaks in to terrorise his victims. If the film had stuck with that story it would have been, judging by what we saw, an...

Every October, horror fans in Los Angeles celebrate the Halloween season with diverse scares on the big screen at the Screamfest Horror Film Festival, and this year, in addition to a slate of exciting new films, the festival will honor the late, great Tobe Hooper with a special screening of The Funhouse, and Child's Play fans can also look forward to a screening of the first Chucky movie followed by a Q&A with director Tom Holland.

Press Release: Hollywood, Calif. – September 26, 2017 – Screamfest Horror Film Festival, America’s largest, and longest running horror movie festival, announces its 2017 official schedule and the second wave of its festival line up. The fest will run from Oct. 10 - 19, 2017 at the Tcl Chinese Theatres in Hollywood. Over its seventeen-year run, the female-run festival has launched careers - providing a platform for filmmakers and actors to showcase their latest work to enthusiasts and general audiences.

Nikki Baughan Aug 31, 2017

A big hit at Horror Channel FrightFest, we chat to Danny Morgan about the upcoming horror, Double Date...

London-born actor/writer Danny Morgan (Off The Hook, Ideal, On The Road) had a very good reason for turning to the horror genre when it came to writing his first screenplay. “I thought that was a genre I could do something in, because there are so many crap horror films. I thought ‘well, it’s not going to stand out horribly if it’s completely terrible’. So I went into it with a good frame of mind!”

It’s a characteristically self-deprecating remark from Morgan who, along with director Benjamin Barfoot, can rest assured that Double Date is one of the funniest and most entertaining British horror comedies of recent years. Following screenings at Karlovy Vary and Edinburgh, it brought the house down at this year’s London’s Horror Channel FrightFest,...

With only four weeks till the start of the festival, Frightfest organisers have announced not only some of the guests set to appear over the August Bank Holiday weekend, but also the addition of another film to the line-up! The 150 plus guest-list this year is as vibrant and eclectic as ever, with nearly 40 of the films represented… New to the film line-up is Jackals, Kevin Greutert’s potent blend of horror thriller, home invasion terror and murder cult chiller, which stars Stephen Dorff and Deborah Kara Unger. The film is scheduled for Saturday 25th August, 4pm and 4.30pm in the main screens at the Cineworld Leicester Square.

Check out the new festival trailer and guest details below:

From the press release:

It’s been five years since Don Mancini and Fiona Dourif raised the Empire roof with Curse Of Chucky and this year they are joined by the irrepressible Jennifer Tilly...

Author: Richard Phippen

It’s hard not to like and admire a low-budget British genre flick when it’s written by a young English actor and directed by his friend, even if the writer has given himself the lead role. In this instance, it’s a rather brave move, as screenwriter Danny Morgan, probably best known for regular appearances in the Johnny Vegas vehicle Ideal, has cast himself as Jim, a nerdy virgin about to hit 30. It’s a successful collaboration with Benjamin Barfoot too, a visually impressive director with a distinctive vision for the project at hand.

Online dating hasn’t helped Jim’s sexual cause, and his chat-up technique is non-existent, so his best mate Alex (Michael Socha) decides he’s to be responsible for getting Jim’s cherry well and truly popped before his birthday is up. Unfortunately for the pair of them, they’re about to...

Exclusive: First look at feature starring Michael Socha, Georgia Groome; Matt Wilkinson, Maggie Monteith produce; Dexter Fletcher among cameos.

UK sales outfit Film Constellation has boarded international rights to recently wrapped UK comedy-horror Double Date, the directorial debut from UK filmmaker Benjamin Barfoot, written by UK actor Danny Morgan.

The co-production between Dignity Group and Stigma Films stars Michael Socha (This is England), Georgia Groome (London to Brighton), Danny Morgan (On The Road) and Kelly Wenham (Merlin).

The film follows the story of Jim, aided by his obnoxious but charming best friend Alex, on his quest to lose his virginity before he turns 30. The night before the big day they meet Kitty and Lulu, two beautiful sisters who seem determined to seduce them, but who secretly have another darker agenda for Jim’s birthday – virgin sacrifice.

Cameos include Dexter Fletcher (Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels), Tom Sturridge (Far From The Madding Crowd), Olivia Poulet (Sherlock), [link...

Stars: Kane Kosugi, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Rade Serbedzija, Gary Daniels, Kelly Wenham, Paige Lindquist, Charlotte Kirk, Biljana Misic, Sahajak Boonthanakit, Ron Smoorenburg, Eoin O’Brien | Written by Nicole Jones-Dion, Steven Paul | Directed by Wych Kaos

Videogames… They’ve not had the best of luck when it comes to translating themselves from game to movie. Especially when adapted into live-action movies. You end up with films like Alone in the Dark, House of the Dead, Bloodrayne, Doom and 2007′s Hitman. But they’re not all bad… Mortal Kombat kicked plenty of on-screen arse and garnered many a film fan’s love thanks to a plot that didn’t mes around with the source material or with inconsequential new storylines and characters. The Resident Evil franchise has at least managed to find a fanbase and continuing budgets to keep going even in the face of derision from non-gamers and gamers alike. And the...

Stars: Luke Roberts, Jon Voight, Kelly Wenham, Ben Robson, Holly Earl, Stephen Hogan, Richard Ashton, Poppy Corby-Tuech, Vasilescu Valentin | Written by Pearry Teo, Nicole Jones, Steven Paul | Directed Pearry Teo

Dracula is one of the most prolific, some would say overused, characters in fiction – from literature, to theatre, to cinema and television, Dracula has been one of The most re-interpreted horror monsters. Be it the well-loved Hammer movies, the silent black and white vampire of Nosferatu or more modern takes such as Francis Ford Coppola’s gothic take on the character, Dracula is often seen as one of the go-to horror icons. The character has even inspired a whole genre of vampire movies that, whilst not utilising the official moniker, are clearly influenced by Bram Stoker’s novella – and Dracula: The Dark Prince is no different.

Misunderstood, despised and hunted, Dracula (Roberts) is driven to pursue an ill-fated quest for...

More news from the 2012 Afm: distro deals for Nicholas McCarthy's Home and Benni Diez's killer bee thriller Stung plus early info on new witch tale Blood Shed and new vamp flick Dracula: The Dark Prince.

Celluloid Nightmares has struck a multi-territory deal with Wild Bunch on Home, Nicholas McCarthy’s follow-up to Sundance hit The Pact. Wild Bunch will distribute Candlewood Entertainment’s horror film in France, Germany and Spain. Sonny Mallhi is financing and will produce the story of a young woman who investigates mysterious goings-on at a house where she learns the previous tenant unwittingly summoned the devil. UTA Independent Film Group handles North American sales. Xyz Films and Celluloid Nightmares’ Nate Bolotin and Sarah Gabriel negotiated the deal with Wild Bunch.

Bolotin and Celluloid Nightmares have also announced a multi-territory deal with eOne on killer bee thriller Stung covering the UK, Canada, South Africa and Scandinavia,...

Merlin has cast Kelly Wenham in the role of Queen Mab. Wenham's online filmography claims that she will appear in the BBC fantasy drama's fifth series. A version of the Mab character previously appeared in Sam Neill's 1988 TV mini-series Merlin, in which she was depicted as the evil twin sister of the Lady of the Lake. Wenham's past credits include ITV drama Where the Heart Is and Charlie Brooker's E4 zombie thriller Dead Set. Guest stars confirmed for the next series of Merlin include Game of Thrones stars Liam Cunningham and John Bradley, as well as returning actors Lindsay Duncan (Queen (more)...