Alix Turner
New British horror film Demons at Dawn has been described as “a cool, frightening mix of The Professional and End of Days” (though I see hints of Kill List too). Director Randy Kent and writer/producer Chris Sanders shared some of their time with me recently to talk about the film. They form a contrasting pair, with one from the USA and one from the UK, so I started by asking how the partnership works.
“It all started with my first feature, a few years back, called Nest of Vampires,” said Chris. “One of the actors was called Hans Hernke, and we brought him over from Los Angeles. Hans is good friends with Randy, who’s a director; and so when it came time to make this one, it made sense, as there was already a good working relationship between these guys. So we brought Randy over and it worked really well.”
I had thought that a Leicestershire/Los Angeles partnership was a little odd. “It’s unique!” said Chris.
“I’d done second unit shooting on Werewolf Cabal, which we’re just working on finishing now,” said Randy. “We started together there, in Los Angeles, then made the jump to doing a whole feature in Demons. It was a big leap, a big change, moving to Leicester.”
Both locations were used in Demons at Dawn, making it certainly more cosmopolitan than it might first appear. “We shot in Los Angeles for two days,” confirmed Randy.
I wondered whether there were other low-budget filmmakers that Chris or Randy looked up to. “For me, I’m inspired by Roger Corman,” said Chris. “Very smart businessman. Also Jason Blum. We’re following the same model as those guys, keeping the budget low, with one or two locations, three or four main actors. That way, when we get distributed, there’ll be a profit on each one.”
“Absolutely, Roger Corman and the Blumhouse guys,” agreed Randy. “Also early John Carpenter, like Halloween.”
One of the selling points of Demons at Dawn is the casting of John Altman, the classic thug actor from his days in Eastenders. “Oh yes, one of the best TV baddies of all time,” said Chris. “So when I was looking to cast for the Carlos character, he sprang to mind straight away. Apart from a tiny part in American Werewolf in London, he wasn’t known for horror, but that can work out quite well in a marketing sense. His name and history as Nick Cotton can certainly help to sell a movie, but he played the part well, with all the right experience.”
I’d wondered whether the main character, Mickey (played by Ben Silver) had been inspired by Mickey Rourke’s character in Angel Heart. “Maybe, yeah,” nodded Chris. “Ben’s a very good actor, has the ability to show the audience how he’s feeling. We were very happy with him and he turned out well.”
“Yeah, he was great to work with for sure,” agreed Randy. “You can see contemplation in his eyes sometimes, and he was a great leading man.”
“Maybe the next Mickey Rourke,” Chris smiled, and Randy agreed.
There were also some fascinating female characters in Demons at Dawn too, a strong contrast to the principal male parts. “Amber Doig-Thorne made a movie recently called Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey,” said Chris, “and that’s kind of blown up across the internet and social media because they’ve taken an old Enid Blyton [sic] story that’s come out of copyright and turned it into a horror movie. She’s an experienced actress and did a great job. The other female lead, Amanda Himsworth who played Teri: I think this was only her second feature, but we felt she was right for the role from her auditions and showreels that she sent in, so we brought her on board and she did a great job too.”
The story is a blend of orgnaised crime with the occult, and I asked Chris how that story idea came about. “During the research, I found that those two themes do go together,” said Chirs. “You have human trafficking going on, it didn’t take much research to find that there are groups out there involved with that who do follow a left-hand path. So it is based on reality a little bit. There is a YouTube channel by an ex-police officer who did a lot of research into this, so there really is some truth here.”
“Don’t forget human trafficking has a big spotlight in the film,” added Randy.
“Many cultures, like the Aztecs and the Mayans, used human sacrifice to give them power,” said Chris, “so we played with that in the film, and gave it a more contemporary setting with trafficking gangs.”
I turned to Randy for any stories he had to tell about the production of Demons at Dawn. “It was a great shoot,” he said. “We had limited time, in this cottage for seven days, with no internet, no cell service, no nothing. We had to live just like the characters, in the middle of nowhere, a little afraid. We shot at nighttime, heard strange noises sometimes; and being an American coming over, it felt very American Werewolf in London. So it was definitely a different experience, and a fun experience, to be on the other side of the pond shooting.”
An experience he might want to repeat? “Sure!” he said. “I’m going back out in a couple of months and we’re shooting in that cottage again.”
A related film or something completely different, I asked. “It’s completely different,” Randy said.
Chris continued: “The next one is a folk horror film, so we’re exploring witchcraft and paganism, and the relationship they have with the surrounding countryside. I guess The Wicher Man, Witchfinder General, those sorts of films are the inspiration this time. Werewolf Cabal is coming out before that though; that’s got Vernon Wells, who was in the original Mad Max movie; and we’ve just finished a comedy horror called The Haunted Studio with Bai Ling, who played Myca in The Crow.”
So good news for the Randy Kent and Chris Sanders partnership then! “Yes, until he falls out with me,” Chris said. “But it’s all good so far.”
Demons at Dawn is available now on digital platforms from Black Coppice Films Ltd.
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