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Stars: Hannaj Bang Bendz, Dean Marshall, Sean Cronin, Mark Topping, Ayvianna Snow, Carl Wharton, Jasmine Sumner | Written and Directed by Steve Lawson

Amidst a busy filmography, Wrath of Dracula marks the third 2023 released feature for writer/director Steve Lawson – including the interesting Ripper’s Revenge. Inspired by Bram Stoker’s iconic 1897 novel, the story begins with Mina Harker (Hannaj Bang Bendz) receiving a letter from her husband, Jonathan Harker (Dean Marshall), about how he’s a prisoner at Castle Dracula. She travels to Transylvania intending to help her beloved, where she discovers a decimated village fearful of the mysterious Count Dracula (Sean Cronin), and the man determined to hunt the Count, Van Helsing (Mark Topping).

Considering how often vampires are brought to the screen, particularly when adapting Stoker’s novel, it becomes difficult to find a way to make these new takes stand apart within a crowded field. Despite putting the...

‘The aliens are among us’ or so it seems from those that fear immigration or difference of any kind. “Keep watching the skies” during the original atomic fear is also a tagline in the more subtle version of The Thing From Another World (1951). The Creature Walks Among Us (1956) was an underrated third sequel to the Creature From The Black Lagoon series of films touching on themes of difference, adaptability and wanting to go home. Alien Conspiracies – The Hidden Truth (2023) isn’t an episode of The X-Files television series but a documentary film bringing into focus the idea that Earth has been invaded or influenced by an alien presence.

The cut for commercial breaks film Directed by Steve Lawson with Mark Topping on camera or in voice-over summarizes the theories drawing from the work of Switzerland-born Erich Von Däniken and others. The book Chariots Of The Gods? by Erich Von Däniken...

Stars: Lowri Watts-Joyce, Noel McAlley, Jeffrey Charles Richards, Mark Topping, Jimmy ‘The Bee’ Bennett, James Hamer-Morton, Nicolas Ball | Written and Directed by Richard John Taylor

Having grown up in the shadow of Pendle Hill, there’s no way I could not check out a horror film set in the very area we learnt about in school, did plays about as kids, and walked up as adults. The story of the Pendle Witches was a subject that was, when I was in junior school, drummed into children alongside stories about the village of Eyam (I don’t know why schools in the area were so obsessed with the plague town some 2 hours dove away), the fairies of Burnley and the lost villages of Singleton Thorpe and Kilgrimol.

But it’s the Pendle witches which are the most [in]famous of the local “legends”, so it’s surprising that – given British horror has...

Stars: Tom Hendryk, Michael McKell, Helen Crevel, Robin Denys, David Lenik, Mark Topping, Francesca Louise White | Written and Directed by Steve Lawson

Following on from Bram Stoker’s Van Helsing and Ripper Untold, Leicester-based filmmaker Steve Lawson returns with his third take on classic cinematic villains with Jekyll & Hyde; and like those aforementioned movies his story doesn’t take the traditional route, retelling the same story we’ve heard before with a new slant… It’s an interesting low-budget adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novella, Jekyll and Hyde, that’s for sure.

Though if you are looking for a formula, Lawson does follow that which he set out in Bram Stoker’s Van Helsing and Ripper Untold, namely that the film is small-scale, with minimal locations and feels much like a stage play (which it would be if not for the trip to Jekyll’s home) than cinematic...

Stars: Charlie Bond, Helen Crevel, Tom Hendryk, Joe Street, Mark Topping | Written and Directed by Steve Lawson

I know what you’re thinking… “Oh my god, not another take on Bram Stoker’s Dracula?!” Mainly because I was thinking the same too. But there’s a very good reason this film is called Bram Stoker’s Van Helsing and not Dracula. Because Dracula is nowhere to be seen in this film!

The film tells the story of Arthur Holmwood’s fiancée Lucy (Charlie Bond), who falls victim to a mysterious illness. Turning to a former love rival, Dr John Seward, for help; Seward calls in his mentor, Professor Van Helsing, who quickly uncovers the terrifying truth – the illness that afflicts Lucy is in fact a vampires curse, and the only cure is a fresh supply of human blood. The discovery of several bodies each drained of their blood forces Van...