Borley Rectory

Julian Sands joins Devon filmmaker’s resurrection of British Gothic Horror

By Cptn on | From devon-cornwall-film.co.uk

Julian Sands, Ashley Thorpe and Mick Grierson

Actor Julian Sands, with Ashley Thorpe and Mick Grierson of Carrion Films

Carrion Films is set to follow the multi-award winning animated films Scayrecrow, The Screaming Skull and The Hairy Hands with the next ground breaking film in its series of gothic shorts. Borley Rectory is inspired by what director Ashley Thorpe believes to be neglected aspects of British horror heritage. It’s an approach that has led to the Devon-based artist being marked as integral to a British Horror revival.

Carrion Films’ resurrection of British Gothic Horror continues with Borley Rectory – The Most Haunted House in England. the movies is a Carrion Film / Glass Eye Pix co‐production, with directors Larry Fessenden and Glenn McQuaid onboard as exec producers and featuring narration by Julian Sands (seen most recently in David Fincher’s Girl With the Dragon Tattoo).

Exec producer Fessenden’s production outfit Glass Eye Pix has been responsible for dozens of celebrated independent films including The Innkeepers, I Sell the Dead, The Last Winter, The House of the Devil and Stake Land, as well as the critically acclaimed Tales From Beyond the Pale series of radio dramas.

Larry said: “It is a pleasure to see how much inspiration Ashley draws from his local myths and surroundings. I believe strongly that the sense of place is an essential character in any good story, and after his wonderful radio play The Demon Huntsman captured the feeling of the Moors, I knew Glass Eye would want to get behind the next Thorpe production.”

Glenn said: “Ashley is a unique and soulful voice within the horror genre, and having already collaborated with him on Tales from Beyond the Pale, it’s a logical and exciting step to jump into another project together.”

Director Ashley said: “Borley Rectory is essentially an animated documentary, inspired by a genuine haunting that caught the world’s imagination during the late 1920’s. It’s something quite old‐fashioned, very textural, with a house very much a projection of the personalities within it – haunted house as voyeur.

“It’s a subject that seized my imagination as a child after stumbling across the legend in the Usbourne Book of Ghosts. So it’s occupied a very strange colourful place in my imagination for a very long time, and I’m thrilled to be making it with people for whom I have so much genuine admiration.”

Borley Rectory is due for completion in winter 2012. Once that happens, Ashley is fully prepared for the next step. “I’m planning for this film to be the catalyst for all of the Carrion Film animations to finally be released on DVD. I also have my first feature in development – Spring Heel Jack – a Victorian gothic which will be the absolute culmination of my endeavors.”

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