Prime Time: An English Haunting (2020)

As far as I can tell, writer-director Charlie Steeds may be a very lovely guy. A lot of film festival patrons support his career, and he has been making a number of low-budget British horrors for quite a few years now. The big problem he has is that he isn’t actually very good, although An English Haunting is a bit better than some of his other titles.

It is the 1960s in England and a young man named Blake (David Lenik) ends up living in a large country estate with his problematic mother (Tessa Woode) while they care for his dying grandfather (Barrington De La Roche). Blake starts to see things that make him think something is amiss, and that sums up the movie for the majority of the runtime.

It’s all competently made, in general, and well done to Steeds for getting things to a polished and slick level that many other low-budget film-makers never achieve, and sometimes never try to achieve. Unfortunately, the script isn’t very good, and the cast aren’t good enough to turn that chopped liver into a more appealing main dish. Steeds has a decent location to shoot in one unoriginal idea to aim for, but nothing else. There’s no meat on the bones here, and the end result feels disappointingly close to a family play put on by some rich people who decided to throw something together for their friends to endure.

Lenik is decent in his main role, as lacking in confidence as he is filled with mother issues, but he’s almost alone, with the exception of a decent supporting turn from Emma Spurgin Hussey (who isn’t in nearly enough of the film). Woode is far too overwrought and painfully old-fashioned at all times, and De La Roche just spends most of his screentime lying in a bed and looking close to death (which he does well enough, to be fair).

I don’t think it is fair to label An English Haunting a bad film. I have seen many bad films. This isn’t one. It’s not good though. There are no effective scares, there’s a lack of atmosphere, the plot feels like it could barely fill out a short film, and it’s so serious in tone that viewed cannot even hope for random moments of fun or whackiness to punctuate the proceedings. Steeds will make more movies, I may or may not watch them, and he and his fans will be happy enough without caring about my opinion. I would, however, advise others to leave this very low on the list if you have many, or any, other horror viewing options.

4/10

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A Werewolf In England (2020)

Writer-director Charlie Steeds seems like a lovely man. And he's certainly been doing his best in recent years to provide horror fans with a number of British genre flicks. So it's with no great relish that I warn people to avoid A Werewolf In England, which is arguably even worse than most of The Howling sequels (yes, I know what I am saying, unfortunately).

Tim Cartwright is Horrace, a man in charge of a prisoner (Archie, played by Reece Connolly) who is to be sentenced to death. They have to shelter at an inn for the night, and it turns out that those running the inn have some guests marked as potential food for some local werewolves.

On the one hand, fair play to Steeds for not letting his limited resources narrow his vision. Where some people might just figure out a way to make this a modern horror movie with one main creature, Steeds has decided to set this in years gone by, and to show multiple werewolves. On the other hand, there's a fine difference between genius and stupidity. Worrying about making one werewolf that looks good enough to be shown onscreen is one thing. Having more than one, or editing to make it look that way, doesn't feel like a wise decision, especially when things aren't quite as polished and effective as they could be (to put it nicely). The first full werewolf sighting is disappointing, and things don't get any better.

Oh well, at least the script is energetic and full of good humour, eh. No. Those involved with the film may have thought that, but it's not. Humour, like horror, is very subjective, but there's something far too on the nose about the potential metaphor that came to my mind as I had to endure a drawn-out scene in which a werewolf inadvertently sprayed two main characters with liquid shit. Nothing feels well thought out, and the second half feels very much like a lot of padding around whatever gags Steeds thought would be enough to make the movie worthwhile.

I wouldn't say that Cartwright and Connolly were bad, not exactly, but they're given material that needs them to do a lot of mugging and overacting in ways that don't really show them in their best light. Natalie Martins fares a little better, playing an "employee" at the inn, named Jane, but most of the cast are left to the same fate as the leads.

I like the attitude of Steeds, he doesn't seem to be in the mindset that so many others might adopt while working on independent British horrors and he's certainly trying to be prolific without necessarily joining in with the titles that feel like they've come out of some British manufacturing line (the ones that feel like British companies emulating The Asylum). It's just maybe worth remembering that quality over quantity can also be a good thing. 

2/10

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Nothing like this is IN the movie.

Vampire Virus AKA After Dark (2020)

Charlie Steeds has directed about half a dozen features before this one, which I am going to insist on referring to by the better title of After Dark (EVEN if it eventually ends up being forced to go under the far-less-enjoyable title of Vampire Virus). I haven't seen any of his other works, but I've heard some praise for them, especially The Barge People, which I need to see soon.

After Dark is a familiar tale, a woman (Jennifer, played by Natalie Martins) has herself a nice sexy time and then finds that she's feeling quite different after. It turns out that she's been vampirised, which adds tension to her relationship with her friend/co-tenant Jack (Peter Lofsgard), who happens to be dating a police officer (Freddie, played by Derek Nelson). And that police officer is part of a special squad looking to take care of a vampire menace.

The look and feel of After Dark is very much in line with some beloved vampire movies from the 1980s (this is very much a distant relative to the likes of Fright Night and Vamp), which is a huge bonus. Although filmed mostly in the UK, it is set in America, and designed to feel like a pretty standardised American horror film. I don't mean that in a disparaging way, I just mean that it works extra hard to avoid looking like a low-budget, low-aiming, British indie flick.

The script, written by Steeds and Sam Ashurst, is lively and fun, happily running through the full range of dialogue and exchanges that you'd expect to find in a cool vampire movie, and everything unfolds at a cracking pace, thanks to the appeal of the central characters and the timing of some well-done gore gags.

Martins is very good in the lead role, perfect as both the uncertain and scared incarnation of her character and the strong and confident version, and she's capably supported by both Lofsgard and Nelson, even if the latter is more of a stereotypical role you can find in many other vampire/horror movies (he's basically a good cop still doing his job after being given a peek "behind the curtain). Then we have Jéssica Alonso, playing Izabella, the prime vampire who changes Jennifer's life.

You can, if you're that type of person, have fun spotting the many ways in which Steed and co. tried to cover up the fact that they were filming an American-set movie while not being actually in America. If you do that, however, then do balance out your critical eye with an appreciation of what ended up onscreen. This often looks great, and it's impressive to see a small film like this aim to be something more, something with ambition and scope that is rarely seen in smaller UK film releases.

Flawed, both in terms of the material and also the execution of the material, this is still worth your time, and I would say that it's very much worth your support. I'd rather have a few more films like this every year than the hundred other found-footage horror movies we've had that throw people into the British countryside and try to make a plus point of having very limited resources.

6/10

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