Horror-On-Sea 2018 Interview: Raybould & Manning on ‘The Snarling’

Following the showing of The Snarling at Horror-on-Sea I got a chance to talk with writer and director Pablo Raybould and producer Ben Manning about the screening of The Snarling, the impending DVD release and the planned sequel The Last Twitch.

Photo courtesy of J.Douglas Imagery

You had The Snarling premiere at Horror-on-Sea how do you think it went?

Ben – Really well, we are really pleased

Pablo – It was nearly a full house as well

Ben – I think it was a mix of a few people who had seen it previously and then a lot of people who were seeing it for the first time which was great. What was nice, before that we had a few people saying that had been told about it and told to look forward to it, so it was nice that there was a bit of expectation there

Pablo – What was also nice, there were people who had seen it two years ago, come back to see it and seen new things in it. Which we always knew, because there are some laughs which are too close together. You laugh at one and miss the next one, so they were picking up on all the things they missed the first time, which is great.

Ben – It’s nice to get the cast back together, because we had a few of the cast attend as well so it was good to see them again.

Have you got any more festivals where you will be showing The Snarling?

Ben – I don’t think so because we did it the first time around. We didn’t do a huge amount we did one in America and a couple over here.

Pablo – There might not be festivals, but there may be a couple of screenings just to put it on. We’ve had a couple of comments where we have been big at Horror-on-Sea in Southend, but of course we are all from the Midlands, the cast and the locations are Midlands, so some are like are you going to show it around here. Its very well showing it down south, so we thought we could do that, put it on.

Ben – We want to promote when its released, so we will try and out a few screenings around just to get people going I want to see that as well and sell the DVD’s

Next is the DVD release…

Ben – It is coming in the second quarter. Originally it was going to be January in the UK, but they wanted to coincide with the American release which is in the second quarter. As soon as we know we will be posting that about, but that’s quite exciting?

And how is the DVD going to be available?

Pablo – A large part of that is down to the distributor

Ben – It should be available in major supermarkets, on demand sites and Left Films who are releasing it in the UK said they will be approaching Netflix too. So that would be good.

What have you guys got next?

Pablo – The Last Twist which will be linked to The Snarling in as much it’s in the same town/village. Bens character Mike, Bob and Les the three amigos of the pub, they will be central to it again because it is their village. The DI (Detective Inspector) and Haskins, the coppers will be investigating a new series of very gruesome murders. It’s going to be a lot darker, but also a lot funnier.

Ben – Its got to be a lot bigger or there is no point making a second one. Bigger and better is what we are aiming for.

Can you give us an inkling of what it’s going to be about?

Ben – You get a hint in The Snarling.

Pablo – We will tell you in The Snarling

Ben – If you listen carefully Ashley Blake the BBC News reporter, when he is on TV he says, “The same film company will be making a second film which is” then it turns off. And it’s about Witches. That’s why.

Pablo – The Last Twitch. Actually, that little bit was written in to get that title really. It’s a jump scare in it which is a cadaveric spasm, it’s a release when the dead body is frozen like that. The cadaveric spasm is like a snap shot from the time they were murdered which helps police forensics. Normally it’s from a traumatic or violent end, when someone’s snapped they grab the knife and then they die, all that energy is locked on the knife. Well Kurt Cobain’s death was half proven because of cadaveric spasms, because when he shot the gun his hand was on the trigger. Because everyone thought they had placed the gun in the hand. That’s what you could shoot someone in the head, then put the gun under their head and make it look like they did it themselves. But this guy who couldn’t have been because the hand was locked. We reversed that almost with the jump scare in the mortuary when they are looking at somebody, Ch…! (Claps his hands together) and he says “That’s the last twitch”, the cadaveric spasm.

Ben – And it starts in the cellar in the pub as well.

Pablo – And it starts in 1645. It’s like a Mathew Hopkins witch trial type thing, in the cellar of the pub where there is a witch supposedly, just an accused woman who is taken out and burned at the stake. She puts a hex on the place, so it is actually linked to witch craft and the whole village will go up in flames, massive CGI effects of course so you spend all the budget in the first 5 minutes. You’ll just see them looking through the bars, going Argh, and it will pan back out, that’s the cellar door and you are back in the pub today. That’s just the back story to what happened because later they will find a pentangle on the wall and stuff like that, then the whole thing kicks off. But once again like The Snarling which starts off with a zombie film has nothing to do with zombies whatsoever. This one starts with a witchcraft type thing and before you know it we’ve away from that and its incidental. Although we don’t know, could it be? We don’t say, there is that element there to keep you guessing a bit as well and some original deaths.

Ben – Yes, we try to be more imaginative and gory with some of the stuff. Not too much with tons of blood and gore and stuff, it’s still a solid comedy but with some nice dramatic bits chucked in.

Pablo – And hopefully some nice stars

Ben – Yes, we are trying to get some bigger names with the next one

And when do you start filming?

Ben – I keep saying April in the hope that it’s gonna happen. That’s the plan, because I ideally, we are hoping to have it back here for next year. We will see what happens. Part of it will depend on, we are talking to people about money and stuff.

Pablo – We have potentially got someone to fund it or part fund it, so potentially that injection will move things along quite swiftly. You buy time with money more than anything else. You can do these things and find most of the things to assemble this and that, but it takes time to assemble, or someone if free or can I borrow that when you are finished. With money you can buy that now, get them now and job done. So, it could afford us a bit of time.

Ben – I am excited to start I can’t wait to get going again.

Pablo – More so after last night

It was a full house and they certainly enjoyed it…

That is the thing about this festival, they are so friendly and so supportive which is what I love. You are coming here and seeing your friends again, who you only see once a year. But everyone is so supportive of each other it’s great. A really brilliant festival.

If you don’t make the film for next year will you still be coming back to Horror-on-Sea?

Pablo – Yes, well we will be in Molly Browns. We did a voice over for the Weird World of Molly Brown, so we will be represented in some small way. In some way we have been here for the last five years now. We will at least have the trailer I think for the next one. But we will definitely be back one way or another.