Horror-On-Sea 2018 Interview: Keith Eyles and Tim Richards
Photo courtesy of J.Douglas Imagery
You have two films which are being shown at Horror-on-Sea. On Friday you had the first film Judge. What was it like having the film on screen and what was the crowd reaction like?
Keith – It’s always good a) having the film on the big screen and b) see it with an audience, that is why we do this I think. It was really good, this is the first time I have seen Judge since we filmed it, so I’d not seen it. Mike Tack did a really good job of editing and putting it together and the crowd reaction was really good. We got lots of comments following it and Mike actually asked us to come in our characters costumes. Myself and Ben Shockley who was in the film with me and Bandit who was the dog in his judge costume as well, so it was really good to see it with an audience.
Tim – I must admit it was my first time too, since making it you don’t really get to see how its gonna look until you finally see the end result. When I saw the end result it was great, by far his best work. Its more accomplished since he done anything, it is more of a polished production for him.
Keith – I think so. We did a few films together with Mike and over the years I think they have all shown at Horror-on-Sea. Mike is a bit of as regular and this is the fifth project, obviously its more for you (Tim) you have worked on all of them.
Tim –He does seem to get better and better. We are waiting for the time that he actually does a feature. That is our goal.
Keith – And pays us lots of money obviously (laughs)
Tim – We just saw another movie, The Snarling which was great. I saw that and I though if we get anything close to that I would be happy.
For those who haven’t seen the film can you explain what it is all about?
Keith – I guess you could call it a psychological thriller and it’s about a man with a dog who challenges another man into a competition and he bets that his dog can tell if he is lying or not. I can’t really tell you any more about the film without maybe spoilers coming out, bearing in mind it is only a 10-minute short. The reaction that I heard from other people is that questioning was incredibly tense throughout, so it’s a film which builds very much on the tension.
Especially for a short film as well, you build it up rather quickly.
Keith – Yeah, it was nice from an actor’s point of view Mike let myself and Ben really play with it, because essentially it is a lot of dialogue and that can sometimes not be a great thing in film, because you want it to be about action. It was paced in a way that kept people on the edge of their seats, so it was quite fun. In a nutshell that’s what it is, it’s a gentleman’s bet that gets quite nasty.
Tim – I’m involved so yeah
Keith – If Tim’s involved you know its gonna be gory.
You have a second film which is playing at the festival as well
Keith – I do, it’s a film called Taste which I actually co-wrote, produced and directed this with Richard Knock. Essentially Richard came to me and he had an idea. He wanted to do a contemporary telling of the Goldilocks and the Three Bears story, but he wanted to frame it around internet dating. Essentially, I went away, re-read the fairy tale, because it’s been quite a few years since I read that. So, I re-read the fairy-tale we shaped and worked in this story. Richard wanted to work with actors, but didn’t necessarily want to deal with filming producing and filming something. So, I took on the filming duties and he dealt with the actors, and in the process cast me as the dad in it. One of my dream roles, I always wanted to play the sad dad. It’s a little twisted story on that and turns out to be something else as most short films do, there always tends to be a twist or a reveal. Tim’s involved once again with the gore and we did make this one a bit of a gore fest.
Tim – There is a lot of effects in this one.
Keith – We filmed it over a weekend again zero-time, zero money, the usual thing, but its turned out interesting.
Do you have any other project which you are working on?
Keith –We are always working on something. We have been talking to Mike about something I tried years ago. I had some short film that I the intention of making them in an anthology series and Mike wanted to expand on that even more. We’ve got an idea that we are going to write together a number of short films which will be a part of this anthology series which we want to do. We are going to do it a bit like they do Inside Number 9 (2014 -), it’s going to involve the same actors playing very different roles in each one, which is nice for me, Ben and a few other actors we work with. So, the next one is a psychological thriller that’s is set in World War Two. It is a period piece this one. We are using our friend Paul Cross whose helped on all these films so far, so he is a bit of an expert on military history so he’s going to help us as a consultant to help us get the details right. We are looking to hopefully to film that April/May this year if we can. We are then in the process of writing several other pieces to accompany that. Its going to be a busy year. It’s about creating your own work and doing what you can in your free time and you never know where it might lead. Even at this festival I have had a few film makers come up to me and say I really liked you in judge and we’ve swapped details. You never know I might get a phone call someday.
Tim – I just like killing people (laughs)
Keith – We are at Frightfest every year and we have been at Horror-on-Sea two or three years now and I’ve noticed that this is getting much bigger each time we come.
Tim – The best thing about this festival is grass roots, which I really like. It’s not big conglomerates saying you’ve got to watch this film, its home grown with people who are really interested. This is like how Frightfest was before it got really big.
Are these films available to watch online?
Some films are available, not these ones. In terms of work I have written produced and directed before Taste I have done six other films which fall into the thriller/horror genre. They can be found if you go to YouTube those films are available to watch. Mike’s Films are available to watch at http://apocalypticconservatory.com some of his other short films can be found there which has Tim’s gore make up effects work involved in a lot of those. So, we are out there so if anyone wants to get in in touch with us they can through those.
