INTERVIEW: Reviewer Charlotte chats with Amanda Fleming about her involvement in a new HORROR FILM Festival

                                                                   Amanda Fleming

Last week I had the privilege of speaking with writer/producer/actress Amanda Fleming, regarding her latest project - Linear International Film Festival. Manchester-born Amanda graduated from the Arden School of Theatre in 1995 and since then has worked with some of the most prestigious Television, Film and Theatre companies.

A video call had been scheduled but due to a mixture of bad weather, poor internet connectivity plus the two of us giggling like old school friends as we tried figuring out just how this modern technology of video calling works, we mutually agreed rather sensibly to a good old fashioned phone call instead!

Obviously my first question was regarding the upcoming Film Festival. Amanda gave me the insight into the event - a series of short horror films (with a maximum of 25 minutes run time per film) by new or existing writers/producers. Prior to this Amanda had worked on a similar project - De Profundis Horror Film Festival (a Bi-Annual Horror film festival), with the majority of the films Amanda makes herself being gothic horror or supernatural horror. Having got together with a friend and fellow film-maker Andy Green, the pair recently to launched the event (Linear International Film Festival) and are now open to pretty much all styles of films. This merge has been somewhat of a weight off Amanda’s shoulders - instead of having to do EVERYTHING herself, she now has somebody like-minded to share the workload with, which can only be a positive thing to the creative duo.

The festival will have different categories such as 'comedy/horror', 'comedy/drama' etc. The event will take place on the 9th November 2019; an event open to the public with tickets priced at just £5 each - in the perfectly selected venue The Unitarian - a Gothic Church in Todmorden, West Yorkshire. 

I’d asked Amanda what made them choose this particular venue in favour of such as the likes of Whitby Abbey - located in a town which is known for its Gothic vibes and annual Goth weekends. Amanda replied that they have used this particular venue before for a live theatre production (a gothic horror of course!) which she also wrote and directed, and that she is familiar with the area as she has family living close by. When searching for the perfect venue Amanda knew that she wanted something fairly rural to fit with the genre of the performance. Whilst The Unitarian is still technically a Church, it isn’t run by a Priesthood, instead it is run by a charitable organisation which rents the venue out to allow various events to be held locally whilst raising the funds to keep the venue open. This has also proved beneficial to the church and has brought people into the venue for the first time. This previous event did so well that Amanda decided to stage a three night event in Manchester so that those who couldn’t make it to Todmorden had the opportunity to see the production. The further plan for Linear International Film Festival is that it can become a touring event - covering from the likes of the stereotypical Gothic venues to cities from Manchester, to Liverpool, Sheffield etc.

         

I was intrigued to find out more about Amanda’s love of horror films...

The conversation swiftly moved on to our mutual passion for horror. After discovering we were born a decade apart from each other, Amanda’s love of horror films stems from the likes of Hammer House of Horror (an ’80s British television series which ran for 13 episodes) whereas my own love for the genre came from the likes of Stephen King movies or films such as Halloween or Friday 13th. Amanda continued to explain her love of Hammer House of Horrors, as she laughs saying if she could buy Bray House, she would in a heartbeat. Bray House - or Oakley Court in Bray to give it it's correct name - is a Gothic country house located in Berkshire that was used for a set in the Hammer Horror franchise. Interestingly, the same house was also used as Frank N Furter's castle in The Rocky Horror Picture Show in 1975 and in The Belles of St Trinian’s in 1954.

Towards the end of the interview I asked Amanda how she feels about modern horror films compared to the horror films she grew up watching, and what her thoughts were with all the remakes over the years. It wasn’t too long ago that a remake of Pet Cemetery was released. I asked Amanda what her views are on such remakes. “It doesn’t quite work” was Amanda’s reply.... “some of the prelude type films are okay where they show you the before or the lead up to the original horror film”. We discussed the quality of horror films over the decades and how the horror genre continues to change - and my particular dislike of more recent films such as Jigsaw (the one we couldn’t for the life in us remember the name of but Amanda knew what I was on about!) - something we both have a mutual dislike of.

To conclude, Amanda added that her next priority is to start researching funding options so that she can bring her production company’s touring theatre to more people across the UK and be able to open it up to the general public for free, making it truly accessible for all.

Further information can be found at https://filmfreeway.com/linearinternationalfilmfestival along with https://www.deprofundisprods.com/
If you’re a horror fan then this is the perfect post Halloween gathering in the perfect Gothic setting for the bargain price of just £5 a ticket.

Interviewer - Charlotte Davis-Browne