Helloween

Director: Phil Claydon
Writer: Phil Claydon
Producer: Jonathan Sothcott
Cast: Jeanine Nerissa Sothcott, Michael Paré, Ronan Summers
Country: UK
Year of release: 2025
Website: www.shogunfilms.com

Helloween is the fourth film from Mr Sothcott’s Shogun Films brand, following the thrillers Nemesis and Renegades and the school reunion slasher Peter Rabid (which, like Hostel, is a title that only works as a pun if you say it the American way). It is the fourth feature from Phil Claydon, who previously made Alone, Lesbian Vampire Killers (a work-for-hire gig for which he should not be blamed) and an American movie I haven’t seen called Within.

There is rarely anything new in horror, especially in B-movie horror, so there’s no shame in Helloween wearing its influences on it sleeve. What is unusual is that they are sequential, rather than all mixed up. So the prologue is an obvious riff on Halloween, the first act is 50% Joker, 50% Silence of the Lambs, the middle act is kind of The Purge with a sheen of It, and the third act is Saw meets Sophie’s Choice. It’s a horror buffet.

On Halloween 1996 young Carl Cane (Claydon’s son Brody, doing a terrific job) murders his foster parents and some other people. Twenty years later he is still locked up in a high security loony bin where his under the care of Dr Ellen Marks, a single mum with two teenage daughters. Cane by now is played by Ronan Summers, who is quite clearly having an absolute f***ing ball playing a crazy psycho. He mostly does video game voice work but has some feature credits including a small role in Giles Alderson’s The Dare. Dr Marks is Mrs Sothcott, giving one of her best performances, especially in the domestic scenes.

The hospital/prison seemingly has only one other member of staff, an orderly name Rob (singer Shenton Dixon, who was a contestant on The Voice). Also, everywhere is kept in semi-darkness, which doesn’t ring true because hospitals and prisons, except for sleeping quarters at night, are always kept very brightly lit. There is a practical reason for this dark photography of course: it helps to disguise the location which is clearly neither a hospital or a prison. But the problem it creates is that, when all the lights go out, the effect is dampened because it’s not much darker than it was before.

Transatlantic name value Michael Paré is John Parker, visiting FBI spook come to interview Cane about the increasing prevalence of antisocial behaviour by young people with their faces painted in Cane’s distinctive ‘lashes and slashes’ make-up (designed by the director). When the power goes and all the inmates escape, Dr Marks has to get home to her daughters Leah (Caroline Wilde, who was in 2019 Bollywood horror Ghost) and Alice (Megan Marszal). A cult of Cane clones is spreading across the UK, targeting locations marked with a yellow balloon – and there’s one outside the Marks house.

In the final act it all goes a bit torture porn as Dr Marks is chained up in the asylum, playing Cane’s ‘game’: find the key to her chains, find her daughters, and inject an antidote to a poison they have been given, except there is only one dose in the hypodermic.

For all its obvious borrowing of ideas, Helloween is a solid B-movie horror which, aside from the high security facility’s lack of staff and lightbulbs, doesn’t fall apart on closer inspection. It is all very dark, but DP James Westlake (who also lit Peter Rabid) makes sure we can at least see who’s on screen. The cast all turn in good performances, and Phil Claydon shows what he can do when not hobbled by a fast turnaround to grab a tax loophole or the pre-conceptions associated with a flavour-of-the-month comedy duo.

There is a soundtrack album by regular Sothcott collaborators Robert Geoffrey Hughes and Chris Hurst, and also some action figures, apparently! London-based funk metal band In Search of Sun contribute two songs. Phil Claydon has a cameo as one of the clowns, and is also credited with Editing, Carl Cane Make-up and Costume Design, Visual Effects, Additional Graphic Design and Opening and End Titles Design, Sound Effects and Music Editing, and Additional Music. Lance Patrick (Exorcism, Dark Rage) is credited as Co-producer, and one of the three Executive Producers is ‘Lt. Col. Matthew Webb’, which is impressive!

Helloween was released in September 2025. Shogun followed this with Doctor Plague, starring Martin Kemp and the Chinese Detective himself, David Yip. Werewolf Hunt and Knightfall, both with Michael Paré again, are currently in post.

Witches’ Brew

Director: Eileen Daly
Writer: Eileen Daly
Producers: Eileen Daly, Jean Jeanie Daly-Branch
cast: Eileen Daly, Sam Cullingworth, Justin G Gibson
Country: UK
Year of release: 2023
Website: www.eileendalyproductions.com

And so we come to the third in Dame Eileen Daly’s self-produced ‘I See the Dead’ trilogy, which has already extended to two more titles: First Bite is the Deepest and She’s a Bitch (aka Witches Can be Bitches).

In this entry in the series, Sebby and Simon have both been taking a mysterious potion, which has made Simon very randy and has had a startling double effect on Seb, giving him a frightwig of dark hair and turning him heterosexual.

The trio travel to a medieval castle which is somehow also a terraced house in Northampton where they are once again greeted by Tom (Michael John Lovett) from the last film. He has two young women in body stocking living with him, whom he introduces as his nieces, who seduce Seb and Simon, must to Eileen’s exasperations.

These two girls are witches, apparently, although they also seem to be shapeshifting succubi. Halfway through, the team are joined by a drag queen named Mort, variously credited as Jem John Millar or (presumably his stage name) Gwen Ever. There is also a tramp (Marco Drilling) in some scenes, a clown (Michael Higham) who appears occasionally behind the voluminous dust-sheets that fill almost every room, and a glowing ball of light which is the spirit of Seb’s mother. Right at the end, when the witches/demons have been vanquished, Tom magically transforms into the younger (and ridiculously handsome) MJ Dixon.

Jason Impey once again DPed, and again there are plenty of atmospheric stock footage establishing shots borrowed from the works of Jean Rollin via Nigel Wingrove’s DVD collection (Requiem for a Vampire and Nude for Satan, in this instance). Eileen even gets to don some vampire fangs at one point, harking back to the old Lilith Silver character she played in Razor Blade Smile.

This third ‘Dalyade’ is very much in the vein of the first two. The best moments are whenever Eileen gets fed up with dealing with Seb and Simon and their pursuit of the young ladies. Those are moments that give her a chance to really act. For all that the three are a team, they work best when there is character conflict between them. All screen trios do, from the Stooges to the Goodies.

Witches’ Brew is another microbudget comedy horror romp that is bound to please Eileen’s many fans.

Hollywood Betrayed

Director: Eileen Daly
Writers: Eileen Daly, Lindsey S
Producers: Eileen Daly, Lindsey S, Dominic Daly
Cast: Eileen Daly, Sam Cullingworth, Justin G Gibson
Country: UK
Year of release: 2022
Website: www.eileendalyproductions.com

The second of EileenDaly’s homegrown horror features is set in, and was filmed in, Northampton - hence the presence of local legend Jason Impey as DoP (co-credited with Carlos Dittborn Callejas) and editor (co-credited with Eileen herself and her mysterious partner ‘Lindsey S’).

For this ‘Dalyade’ the ghost-hunting team of Eileen, bodybuilding medium Seb Wainwright (Sam Cullingworth) and defrocked priest Simon Vogel (Justin G Gibson) visit a B&B which was once home to a 1930s Hollywood starlet. There’s a lot of them in Northampton. Michael John Lovett is the creepy proprietor Tom, and Nicky Kells is Eileen’s friend Nicky who runs a weekly art club on the premises (Michael Highman, Debbie Hill-Cousins and Sam Matthews are the participants).

Eileen becomes possessed by the starlet’s unquiet spirit as she committed suicide after being spurned by her lover (Scott Richard Bodill). For the possession scenes (and some 1930s flashbacks), Eileen dons a blonde wig and pink dress and a Marilyn Monroe demeanour. There’s an exorcism scene with Eileen tied to the bed, and also a Ouija board scene. For those whose tastes lean towards the homoerotic, there’s a scene of Cullingworth/Wainwright posing in front of a mirror, and for the truly disturbed there’s a scene of Vogel/Gibson, in stockings and basque, whacking his own arse with a fish spatula.

As with Mr Crispin, the notion of whether or not this is some sort of TV show teeters on the edge of the narrative, including a brief shot near the end of an entire TV crew (played by Highman, Hill-Cousins and Matthews) running out of the house just before the three leads do.

As before, there are clips from the work on Jean Rollin, whose defiance of simple narrative constructions and coherent storytelling is a very evident influence on Dame Eileen’s own work. Nigel Wingrove at Redemption loaned this production clips from Shivers of the Vampires, Two Orphan Vampires and The Living Dead Girl plus – very noticeably to those of us who notice these things – his own Sacred Flesh. Occasional establishing stock shots of a mittel-European schloss do not, it must be said, match at all with the urban East Midlands location.

Hollywood Betrayed is another fun microbudget romp that will appeal to anyone who loves contemporary British horror that doesn’t take itself seriously.

Mr Crispin

Directors: Eileen Daly, Lindsey S
Writers: Eileen Daly, Lindsey S
Producers: Eileen Daly, Lindsey S, Dominique Daly
Cast: Eileen Daly, Tom Bonnington, Sam Cullingworth, Justin G Gibson
Country: UK
Year of release: 2020
Reviewed from UK DVD
Website: www.eileendalyproductions.com

Much like Slartibartfast designing Earth Mk.2, I am coming out of retirement for one extraordinary commission. At Darkfest in November 2025 I finally caught up in person, after far too many years, with my old pal Eileen Daly, grand dame of British indie horror. And she immediately thrust into my hand the DVDs of her first three features as writer-director-producer: Mr Crispin, Hollywood Betrayed and Witches’ Brew.

These were not included in my four self-published volumes of British Horror Cinema 2000-2019 because they were among that small coterie of titles which fell between two stools. Although listed on IMDb as 2013/14 productions, they did meet my definition of ‘commercially released’ before 31st December 2019 so did not make it into Volume 3. However, by the time I published my addendum of ‘Unreleased and Incomplete’ films, Eileen had self-released these movies on DVD so they didn’t qualify for that either. I am happy to resolve this unfortunate bit of bad timing with this and the two subsequent reviews.

The basic premise here is that Eileen, playing herself, is a paranormal investigator. She has a back-up team of gay medium Lord Sebastian Wainwright and defrocked priest Simon Vogel. The former is played by the impressively ripped Sam Cullingworth (The Eschatrilogy, Legacy of Thorn, Slasher House 2 and 3) as somewhere inbetween Right Said Fred and the Hood from Thunderbirds. The latter is played by Justin G Gibson with a vaguely Satanic beard and an extravagant cravat, as if someone had cast Mike Raven as the poofter neighbour in a 1970s sitcom.

They are investigating a man named Crispin Williams, who claims that there are ghosts and demons in his house, an Edwardian semi he shares with his mother. Crispin is a bespectacled, balding, middle-aged nebbish, a classic mixture of reticence and over-confidence with no social skills. Tom Bonnington only seems to have a couple of short films to his credit but, by golly, he throws himself magnificently into the role of this cheerfully awkward loner.

The first half of the film has Eileen spend time with Crispin, before her two associates arrive the next day. There is an assumption throughout that the elderly, unseen Mrs Crispin is the key to whatever is happening. We all assume there’s a Mrs Bates thing going on – and maybe there is, maybe there isn’t (no spoilers).

But here’s the thing. The actual plot is of secondary importance here. Watching Mr Crispin, the phrase that popped into my noggin ran thus: this film has the same casual attitude towards narrative coherence that one finds in the works of, for example, Jean Rollin. And indeed, the credits reveal that some of the interstitial shots that pop up frequently but irregularly have indeed been lifted, with permission from Salvation Films, from Shiver of the Vampires. What we have here, ladies and gentlemen, is a ‘Dalyade’.

Things happen but it would be naive to expect them to fit together in a completely logical way. You just have to hang on for the ride and see where the film is going. There are a couple of lengthy flashbacks: one to Simon and Seb exorcising a possessed woman tied to a bed, and one in which Eileen searches a seaside town for Seb who is, I think, planning to commit suicide by swimming out to sea because of his alcoholism. Or something.

Mr Crispin is utterly bonkers and ridiculously entertaining. I will acknowledge that someone coming to it cold would dismiss it out of hand, not least because the budget seems to be about what one would normally pay for a decent fish and chip supper. But you and I are not coming to it cold, are we? We’re coming to it as acolytes and fans of Dame Eileen Daly.

Here is the secret of Eileen’s success. She comes across as a kooky goth chick, but underneath that she is the most normal, down-to-Earth girl you could hope to meet. It’s not an act as such, it’s more a persona, but then Eileen is the sort of lady who would screech with laughter if you accused her of cultivating a persona. She plays on-screen ghost-hunter Eileen wonderfully straight here, with lots of sidelong glances to camera and the occasional exasperated whisper of “What the fuck?”.

After many years of acting in motion pictures of – shall we say – wildly varying quality, Eileen branched out into making her own movies at the end of the 2010s. For this first one she is co-credited with someone named ‘Lindsey S’ as writer, director, producer and editor. A gentleman named Carlos Dittborn Calejas is credited as DoP, which reminds me that the conceit of whether this is being shot for a putative TV show comes and goes with gay abandon throughout the film. Some of the camera-work is what they call diegetic, ie.acknowledging that there is an actual camera (which is not the same as breaking the fourth wall) and a further subset of that actually has ‘REC’ and a battery symbol in the corners. But at no point is there any acknowledgement of an actual cameraman. This is not unique to low budget films; for example the Borat films do exactly the same schtick and it is a whole subgenre of sitcom including things like The Office and Parks and Recreation.

So anyway, there are a few recognisable names in the credits. Dan Brownlie (Three’s a Shroud, Serial Kaller) gets ‘additional camera’ while the legend that is Jason Impey gets ‘additional editing and colour grading’. Layla Randle-Conde, who was in some of Philip Gardiner’s early features including The Stone and Cam Girl, plays ‘The Scary Lady’.

If you love microbudget, wildly enthusiastic British indies as much as I do, if you wonder what Jean Rollin would be doing if he was still alive and preferred the sands of Swanage to Calais beach, if you just have 80 minutes burning a hole in your calendar, you could do much worse than take a gander at Mr Crispin. It’s available to rent on Redemption TV, or you can pick it up on DVD anywhere that Eileen sets up her stall.

interview: Kadamba Simmons

In January 1997, I travelled to the freezing cold Northern tip of the Isle of Man to report on the British monster movie Rampage (aka Deadly Instincts aka Breeders). One of the cast was Kadamba Simmons and, as far as I knew, she was just an aspiring actress in a cheesy film. I have since learned that she was a well-known party girl in London social circles and her various beaux over the years included Matt Goss, Liam Gallagher, Nellee Hooper and Prince Raseem. This article is a good summary of her life. 

But the reason that was written is because in June 1998 Kadamba was murdered by an unstable boyfriend; the tragic details are all in the article. Kadamba Simmons was a talented, vivacious, charismatic young woman and it was a pleasure to know her briefly. She would probably have become a star at some point, but what was great about her was that she never behaved as if she was a star already. She took life as it comes and didn’t take anything for granted. 

I met her a second time when I flew back to the Isle of Man in September 1997 to visit the set of a thriller called Dangerous Obsession (aka Darkness Falls). Kadamba was helping out with the costume department; she recognised me and came over for a chat. In retrospect I think she probably enjoyed talking with people who were utterly alien to, and unaware of, her celebrity-filled London life. Nine months later she was dead (although I only learned of her passing several years later). This could be the only interview she ever gave. There’s not a lot to it but I think her warm, energetic personality comes across. I offer it here as tribute to a fascinating young woman whose life was cut pointlessly short, denying us all her future work.

It's not the commonest of names, is it?
“No, it's not. My parents are kind of hippies really. My whole name is actually Kadamba Angel Isle of Compassion Simmons. With a dad called John and a mum called Linda. When my mother moved to London, one of her hippy friends found a guru, and she used to go these ashrams. A bit of a Paula Yates vibe, I guess.”

How did you get this role?
“I'd worked with PeakViewing before. I was in a previous film of theirs.”

Was that Grim?
“Yes. I think Paul Matthews, when he was writing the part, had me in mind. It's maybe a bit presumptious to say it was written for me, but it was definitely written with my face in his head.”

How uncomfortable is that prosthetic? Can you tell that it's there?
“Right now, no. Often I forget about it until someone says, but obviously you'll work some ten, twelve-hour days because it's going on back to back. What they stick it on with is a glue invented during the Vietnam War, used on the battlefield when people had open wounds. Sticking arms and legs on; they obviously didn't have time to sew things on so they used to glue them on with this glue. That can't be good for me.”

Are you enjoying the shoot?
“Oh yes, it's great. I'm having a great time. Everyone's great. What can I say? I haven't had any problems.”

What other stuff have you done?
“Filmwise, one of the biggest films I did was with Stephen Frears, at Pinewood, and that was Mary Reilly. I was a character called Rosie. That was in the brothel. Doctor Jekyll comes in and rapes and kills a girl, but leaves his hankie, and that blows his cover. So Glenn Close was my madam.”

What was that like to work on?
“It was great, it was all spectacular. My scenes were when it was all going according to plan, and there had been no tantrums. Everyone was happy. I must admit, Stephen Frears was so enthusiastic as a director, which is brilliant. He keeps the energy up. If the energy of the director's up, everyone else naturally has to follow suit.”

Does the size of the budget affect you as an actor?
You know what? At the end of the day, a set's a set, a catering van's a catering van. You might have an aircraft hanger like we've got here, or you might have a beautiful brothel with chandeliers. But it's just a backdrop, isn't it?”

Do you do any stagework?
“Not really, just because I work back to back on screen. But as a child, Sam Janus and I used to go to the same stage school, where we were trained to be precocious little starlets. I used to do shows there - we used to do West End shows. That was the only time, but that was more singing and dancing.”

Do you like doing straight stuff or more OTT fantastic stuff like this?
“It's always nice to do fantasy and over-the-top stuff. You know what, it's anything you can get your teeth stuck into, whether it's running away from monsters or getting divorced on camera. As long as it's not just hovering in the background looking beautiful, I don't care. But yes, it is great to do stuff like this. To see the monster, have half my face hanging off, get slimed. You know what? It's fun. It's a lot of fun, because it is so far removed from the life that we live. You have fun with it, without hamming it up, obviously. It's like all the old comic books that we grew up on. I'm taking lots of Polaroids and sending them to my cousins who are seven years old and really freaking them out. When I was seven, it's just like: 'Yes! Monsters!'”

How does the monster here compare with the one in Grim?
"Completely different. The one in Grim was more of a troll. This one, because the guy actually playing the monster is a trained dancer and has studied ballet, so he's so much more graceful. The movement within the monster is so much more believable. If I'm acting to that monster, I will believe it. The one in Grim was almost like a lump of lard in comparison. This one is streets ahead. There is actually no comparison, I think.”

Is it disappointing when you do something like Grim and it doesn't even get a video release in the UK? [Grim was subsequently released on UK DVD – MJS]
“I never really expected it to anyway. If you think about the market for horror movies, it's all in America. I was doing an American accent, so it was an American film. It didn't disappoint me. It did really well over there, and I'm really happy. I wasn't expecting it.”

RIP Kadamba Simmons, 1974-1998