Devilish deeds in dark and dismal rooms

The horror movie I wrote for Chameleon Pictures, THE DEVIL’S ROCK, which went on general release earlier this year, now appears to be doing business on a global scale. The rights to many territories have been sold, but it is also hitting the festival circuit in a big way.

The latest news on that front sees THE DEVIL’S ROCK included in the schedules at the OUTCRY FILM FESTIVAL, Norway (Oct 27-29) and the SAN SEBASTIAN HORROR AND FANTASY FILM FESTIVAL, Spain (Oct 29 - Nov 4). These follow on from its screening at the Icon TLV Fantastic Film Festival in Tel Aviv, Israel, last weekend.

In other news connected to the movie, leading man Craig Hall, who played the conflicted Captain Ben Grogan (and is pictured below during filiming with the film’s director, Paul Campion), has landed a plum role in Peter Jackson’s THE HOBBIT (one of the Elves apparently), so I guess that’s going to keep him busy for a while.

There is also good news for Craig, who’s a finalist in New Zealand’s Aotearoa Film & TV Awards for 2011, in the capacity of Best Supporting Actor for his performances in BLOODLINES, and for one of the movie’s crew-members, Phil Burton, who is up for Best Sound Design for his work on PANIC AT ROCK ISLAND. Good luck to both of those guys. They deserve it.

Meanwhile, the movie’s female star, Gina Varela, pictured right in the sort of pose which shows she can make just about any costume look good, is interviewed in depth along with Paul Campion in the latest edition of NEXUS.

This is a cracking read, and it's worth popping in to have a look.

Folk keep asking me if there will be a follow-up movie, THE DEVIL’S ROCK 2 by any chance? Well … would it be revealing too much to say that I’ve now received my first official set of preliminary notes regarding a possible sequel? I can’t say too much more about it, except that from what I see here, if it goes ahead, it will be a much bigger operation, with more chills, more action and more demons.

On the subject of follow-ups, I can also reveal that I’ve now officially commissioned the second in my TERROR TALES OF … series of anthologies, which are being published by GRAY FRIAR PRESS.

The first one, TERROR TALES OF THE LAKE DISTRICT, did astonishingly well very quickly. An unofficial launch at Fantasycon 2011 – an event attended by an almost unprecedented 500 delegates – provided a great platform for us of course, but the book can now be ordered via AMAZON UK and AMAZON US as well. And the sales are continuing at a healthy rate of knots.

In all honesty, though I’ve got great plans for this series of books, and though I’m a lover of horror stories inspired by folklore and local history, I always had it in the back of my mind that this entire plan was possibly a little over-ambitious. I certainly did not expect to be drawing up the second volume before Christmas, but I’m never one to look a gift-horse in the mouth.

The writers are all now on board, terms have been agreed, and the stories are being written. The cover, I’m told, is already on its way to completion. I hasten to add that the book won’t be published until 2012. You can’t afford to hurry these things too much – so for that reason I’m not going to reveal anything else about the book yet. In the homespun philosophy of my neck of the woods, a closed mouth gathers no foot.

However, just as a mischievous little taster, look at the picture below. if you can identify that room, then it’s likely you'll recollect the truly devilish deed that was done there. And that will tell you all you need to know about the region of Britain which the next book in the series will focus on.