FrightFest 2018: Director Stewart Sparke on Reading a BOOK OF MONSTERS
Having it’s world premiere at Arrow Video FrightFest 2018 is Stewart Sparke’s Book of Monsters, which I previously said is, “…exactly the kind of movie that should get audiences screaming and cheering!” The film follows a young girl who is celebrating her 18th birthday when demonic monsters are summoned and wreak havoc on everyone in reach.
Today, we’ve got a short interview with Sparke to hear his own words on why people should check out the movie at FrightFest, the film’s devotion to practical FX, and what’s next for him and his team!
“Sophie’s 18th birthday party becomes a bloodbath when six terrifying monsters descend upon her house, intent on devouring the party guests and killing anyone who tries to leave. As her school friends are torn apart and eaten, Sophie must rally a band of misfits and take up arms to send their party crashers back to hell. To survive the night, Sophie will face her destiny; monsters are real – and she’s the only one who can stop them.”
Directed by Stewart Sparke and written by Paul Butler, Book of Monsters stars Lyndsey Craine, Michaela Longden, Lizzie Stanton, Daniel S. Thrace, Anna Dawson, Rose Muirhead, Arron Dennis and Steph Mossman as well as Nicholas Vince, aka the “Chatterer” from Hellraiser!
Dread Central: If you had to describe Book of Monsters to a stranger to convince them to check it out, how would you do it?
Stewart Sparke: Six badass girls must fight off a horde of terrifying monsters at an eighteenth birthday party in a movie that brings 80’s inspired practical monster effects and buckets of gore! If you like strong women kicking ass and sawing monsters in half with chainsaws then this is the movie for you!
DC: It’s obvious that practical FX were very important for you for this film. Can you tell us a bit about utilizing such a method?
SS: Paul Butler, the writer/producer, and I really wanted to pay homage to the 80’s creature features that we loved when we were younger. Think Evil Dead 2, The Thing or Braindead/Dead Alive. These movies had real, practical creature effects with gallons of blood flying around. The monsters were performers in suits, superb makeup effects or puppets covered in slime and the key thing is that they felt real and tangible. Whilst CGI certainly has its place in the industry, we couldn’t make an 80’s inspired monster movie without using the same techniques that keep us watching those classic movies.
We had the team from DDFX Studio onboard to bring the creatures in the film to life and those guys love 80’s horror even more than we do and know exactly how they used to do it! We’ve got six main monsters in the movie and each one was realised with classic techniques, depending on the creature. We’ve got performers who suffered for hours in sweaty costumes, actors covered in special effects makeup and tireless puppeteers who brought our critters to life. Working with any kind of creature effects takes a tremendous amount of time and effort on set but the payoff of having your actors interact with real, tangible monsters is worth it all!
DC: The trailer exudes pure splatter fun! What are FrightFest audiences in store for?
SS: Blood is what the Frightfest audience demands and I’m pleased to say that gorehounds will really enjoy the splatterfest we have on display in the movie. We knew from the start of making the movie that we had to have some really fun and creative deaths in the film and we actually worked that into our Kickstarter campaign. We have a moment that you see in the trailer where one of the monsters first crashes the party and we let our backers vote on their favourite way to kill the party guests. With choices like ‘Vertical Split’ and ‘Squeezed out the top like a tube of toothpaste’ we fully embraced our backer’s sadistic taste and you’ll see some really fun kills in just that sequence alone.
DC: What does it mean to have your film world premiere at FrightFest?
SS: It means the absolute world to us having Book of Monsters world premiere at such an amazing festival. We had the honour of our first feature ‘The Creature Below’ premiere there in 2016 and as soon as we started planning Book of Monsters, we did so with the goal of getting it into Frightfest so it really feels like were returning home. Frightfest is such a supportive and creative environment which nurtures filmmakers and provides horror fans with an array of indie movies that they might not get a chance to see elsewhere. It is through their support of our first film and their warm welcome to the Frightfest family that we were able to get Book of Monsters made and I would put them at the top of the list for festivals that emerging horror filmmakers should attend, regardless of if their film is in the festival.
DC: What’s next for you?
SS: Under our Dark Rift Films production company, Paul and I are hard at work on a slate of genre films and we hope to start production on our next film early next year. We’re always keen to play with different sub-genres of horror and although I can’t say too much at this stage, you can expect more practical effects-driven monsters to come!
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