Two anthologies I contributed to have just hit the bookshelves! 

My first ever short story, called RESURRECTION MAN, will be published this September! It'll be part of the brilliant anthology DARK DELICACIES III: HAUNTED, and will appear alongside Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club), Eric Red (The Hitcher), Mick Garris, and many others. I'm very excited!

Hey there...

I got a whole series of very cool new photos, from the ever-brilliant Titus Powell (London-based photographer, highly recommended to you actors and models out there!).

I need to choose one of the following two as an acting headshot. Which one do you prefer?

I hope someone still reads MySpace, and not everyone has left for Twitter and Facebook...


 


 

Here's a couple of others from the same session.


 


 


 

So what do you think? Which of the first two do you like best?

Hey everyone,
Just wanted to let you know that I will be signing copies of my book, IT LIVES AGAIN! HORROR MOVIES IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM, at Dark Delicacies in Burbank next Sunday, April 19, at 6pm.
http://www.darkdel.com
I'll be joined by Neil Marshall (foreword) and Mick Garris (introduction). And who knows who else might pop by...
See you there!

As I mentioned in my previous blog, 2009 is looking like a busy year, not only for me, but for the film industry in general. Despite constant talks of a recession in the news, short films and features seem to be getting made everywhere. This month only, I've worked on a short film and I'm about to appear in two features.
But before I get to that, I wanted to share with you the first poster and teaser trailer for FERAL, Ryan Haysom's short film I'd mentioned a couple of months ago.



YOUTUBE FERAL TEASER

I do look slightly demented on that poster, don't I? And here's more of me looking crazy, in the short film I worked on over the weekend: BUBBLING UNDER, from director Matt Compton, in which I play a business woman who suddenly attacks a man she's interviewing for a job.





As much as I like to look nice in photos, I absolutely don't care about the way I look when I'm acting. I didn't even check my makeup before we started shooting; I let the makeup artist do her job and went straight to set. I'm also happy to sneer, shout and get bloody if required. On the plus side, it means I'm not too difficult to work with, but the downside is that I end up looking all kinds of crazy on stills.



See what I mean?

Finally, one of the features I'm working on early next month, STRAW MAN, from newcomer Andy Barker, has a brand new MySpace page, which you'll find here. The film will tell the story of the last man on earth, played by Leslie Simpson, and the woman, played by yours truly, who haunts the empty city he lives in. It's one of the best scripts I've read in a long, long time; kind of like I Am Legend, but much more surreal and poetic, without being boring. All I can show right now is a picture of the abandoned RAF base we'll be shooting in:



It's a whole village left to rot in the middle of England...

More on Straw Man soon!

Here's a little update on my upcoming book, "It Lives Again! Horror Movies in the New Millennium".

First off, I'm extremely proud to say that Rue Morgue magazine picked it as book of the month this December, and gave it a full page article. I haven't seen it yet, but I can tell you that I was interviewed by writer Sean Plummer a couple of months ago, and his questions were awesome.

Now the bad news: the release has been pushed back to March. Damn. Really sorry for anyone who's already ordered it; it seems the printer came back with a much higher price than originally agreed, and it would have made the publisher set retail price at an unacceptable £40 ($60)!! So now the book's off to a printing house in India.

To be the first to have a copy, you can pre-order it on the Telos website, in the "Cult TV and Film" section. The site has just been updated with a series of spreads, and I thought I'd share them here too. So here's a first glimpse at what the book will look like!

The Telos website has a couple more pages (under "Telos News"), and they're large enough that you can read the text.

Finally, as an exclusive, here's the pic that illustrates the "About the Author" section! Photo by Stuart Nicholas White.

Yep, the writer has no pants! :)

So what do you think?

Just wanted to share some pics from a short film I worked on this weekend. It's called FERAL, and the director is Ryan Haysom, whose previous short LV-16 has been seen pretty much everywhere around the world. This one is a thriller shot over two days in the countryside around Worcester (UK), and if you look at the photos (taken by the ever-awesome Owen Billcliffe, who should really update his MySpace page...), I'm sure you'll agree it looks pretty cool.

Look at that: American Werewolf or what??

As usual, I get bruised and abused (some day I'll have to make a film where I can look glamorous throughout...) But my first scene, where I'm assaulted and nearly raped (with my clothes on -- ha!), was particularly challenging...

The near-rapist was played by a young actor called Sean Turner:

The two guys who find us and free me (...or do they?) are played by Valmike Rampersad...

...and Jake Maskall, who was the lead vampire in Hammer's Beyond the Rave:

All three were brilliant; I really couldn't say enough good things about my co-stars! Jake looked so intense, it really wasn't hard to look scared...

Thankfully in the end, the victim may not be who it seemed! I love this shot:

Front row right, with the glasses, is Ryan. The one in the middle with the script is our producer Adam Cocker.

You'll find more pics on Owen's website. Here's Owen himself on set! (the following photos were taken by costume designer Lesette King):

Poor Sean...

And I wanted to add this one, to show that I don't always look scared and demented!

I'll keep you posted as soon as the film can be seen somewhere... In the meantime, let me know what you think of the stills! :)

Hey guys,

Just wanted to let you know that the December/January issue of The Dark Side, on sale now, has a four-page feature on yours truly! It's even mentioned on the cover, and needless to say, I'm very proud of it.

The same issue also has an article about BBC exorcism drama Apparitions, whose first episode was broadcast in the UK last Thursday. I was pretty impressed by it, but couldn't help wonder: has any of you heard about it?

Dead Set got a lot of attention in the UK and the US a few weeks ago when it screened in the buildup to Halloween, but I've hardly heard anything about Apparitions. It's really worth looking up though, because I found it vastly superior to Dead Set. Check out the trailer!

Here's a few pictures from a shoot I did in October with Matteo Prezioso, a great portrait and still photographer I'd worked with on Blood and Roses. The shoot took place in a small churchyard in North London, and it was absolutely freezing; as soon as I came back home I fell asleep for two hours next to a heater with a heavy blanket on! But I think the result was worth it.

Makeup by Zsofia Benedek.

We ended with a few shots with a wig, so this is me as a redhead!

Which pic do you like best?

Hey guys,

Happy Halloween! This month I had the honor to be invited by my friend Rob G. to be the October Fright Girl on his website Icons of Fright; follow the link and have a look! While you're at it, check out the rest of the site if you haven't already, it's worth it...

I've also just posted this month's column on IGN, this month dedicated to Halloween movies. See it here and let me know what you think; I know quite a few people have posted similar lists recently...

In other news, I've done a few interviews this month. Two for magazines I'm very excited about and will tell you about soon; another here for French-speaking website Cinemafantastique, and a short one here to chat about my book with Horrornews. Said book has by the way been pushed back to December, but you can preorder it on Telos.co.uk and get a signed copy!

Be back soon with more news... in the meantime, happy Halloween!