Last week we brought you the first word on the upcoming UK portmanteau horror ITS WALLS WERE BLOOD, which announced an impressive slate of directors as well as the casting of SIGHTSEERS' Steve Oram, Edward Hogg (ANONYMOUS) and THE WOMAN's Pollyanna McIntosh. The film follows four connected stories set throughout a house's history, from the 19th century to today, with segments written and directed by genre favorites Paul Davis (THE BODY), Sean Hogan (THE DEVIL'S BUSINESS), Paul Hyett (THE SEASONING HOUSE), and Tom Shankland (THE CHILDREN). Now we've learned a few new details regarding the flick and have a look at the first poster below.
Thanks to Twitch, we've learned that the film will be in the vein of classic portmanteau horror tales such as THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD and DR. TERRORS HOUSE OF HORRORS and will be an ensemble piece with a wide cast. But producer Paul Fischer has also gone on to share some more details about the plot, sharing…
"The initial announcement extrapolated from our synopsis that the film is a haunted house story, when in fact it's no such thing. It's all set in the one house, and the house is a character, certainly; but it's not a haunted house. It's more complex than that – more about the idea of bringing your own darkness to a place that draws it out of you, of stepping into darkness and darkness entering you in return."
Paul Davis, who is executive producing as well as directing, shares where the idea to do a film like ITS WALLS WERE BLOOD came from, stating…
"The origin of the project was really born out of the idea to create a 'contemporary-throwback' in the sense that we could use the classic portmanteau concept to tell four very different tales with modern ideas and sensibilities within the horror genre. That and the idea of doing something completely British as a tip of the hat to the likes of Dead of Night and the many great anthologies of the 60s and 70s is really where the idea and the passion came from and I'm so glad that we're going to have the opportunity to bring this to life."
While we don't exactly know what the four stories that make up the film will encompass, Davis describes his tale as "definitely the heaviest thing I've done so far…something that combines awkward laughter with downright aggressive fantasy horror." Shankland's contribution will be "a chilling and visceral journey through the twisted innards of a Victorian house" and Hyett's segment is described as a "retro horror/thriller echoing the grittiness of Straw Dogs and Clockwork Orange". I'm already intrigued by this! This sounds like the kind of project fans of the genre can really get behind.
Additional cast includes Conner Chapman, Ruth Bradley, Rosie Day, Sam Gittins, Scott Chambers and Belinda Stewart-Wilson. XYZ will be handling the North American rights to the film.
Below you'll find the first poster for ITS WALLS WERE BLOOD. Stay tuned for more on this cool-sounding flick as we hear it!