Horror Favourites – Mark Kenna

Folk-horror Sacrilege sees four lifelong friends head to a remote lodge for a weekend of fun. What begins as an idyllic retreat quickly descends into a fight for their lives when a local Pagan cult offer them up to their Goddess as a sacrifice for the Solstice.

The film stars a host of British talent, including Tamaryn Payne (Hollyoaks), Emily Wyatt (Rise of the Footsoldier), Sian Abrahams (Complete Strangers), Naomi Willow (A Guide To Second Date Sex), Ian Champion (Property), Rory Wilton (Fisherman’s Friends) & Emma Spurgin Hussey (Poldark).

Sacrilege was produced and filmed in the South West of England where Producer Mark Kenna and Writer/ Director David Creed reside. Much of the film was shot in nearby Forest of Dean, as well as Weston-Super-Mare.

The film was scheduled for a UK wide release in March 2020 and premiered at Empire Cineworld in Leicester Square to a packed out screening. Unfortunately within days, the Covid-19 pandemic gripped the country and many of the film’s screenings were curtailed.

“We’re thrilled that UK audiences will finally be able to get the chance to watch Sacrilege. We’ve been blown away by its reception in the US and it’s great to see it finally come home after a tumultous eighteen months”, said producer Mark Kenna.

Bad Blood Films pushed the limits of the budget by using a drone for the opening credit scene, as well as making use of a robot camera dolly and a five-camera set-up for the Ritual scene, casting 60 local residents as extras.

The company also tested what could be done within independent film-making in terms of special effects, bringing in stunt man David Anders (Spectre, Wonder Woman) in order to set him on fire for a scene. This was a remarkable feat within the independent film-making industry, with most companies opting for the less realistic alternative of CGI. More information on the Burning Man stunt scene can be found here.

This will be Bristol-based Bad Blood Films’ first feature length title, however they are already in different stages of production with five upcoming horror titles, starting with supernatural The Rippers Ghost and creature-feature horror Facility 31.

Below Mark Kenna talks about his favourite horror film:

“When I was asked to choose my favourite horror, it really took me back down memory lane. Horror is like music for me, it time-stamps events in my life and growing up during the 70’s and 80’s there was so much horror available, with the rise of the video, everyone wanted to see the banned films like The Exorcist and Peter Jacksons Bad Taste!

My earliest memory of being scared was watching Jaws with my Dad, yeah that scene when the head fell out of the boat, I jumped off the sofa! I took the stairs for many years after watching Omen II when that guy gets cut in half in the lift, although I couldn’t tell my mum why or she would kill me and the gremlin in the 1983 Twilight-zone movie with John Lithgow, directed by Steven Spielberg and John Landis was just really scary as young lad. In fact, we used to tease my younger brother often playing the werewolf transformation in Michael Jackson’s Thriller, which we thought was hilarious, even a stone throw into a dark hedge would set him off, haha, seems really mean now, but at the time it was hilarious.

I’ve always been a fan of technology as a young lad and would often set up family & friends video players and end up watching films on them, quite often horror films. My Uncle loved his horror and I remember watching Return of the Living Dead for the first time, I must have been about 13 and it scared the shit out of me, I knew I shouldn’t have watched it, but I always went back from more. I collected horror soundtracks too and was always drawn towards the sound of John Carpenter with Christine being one of my favourites, well The Lost Boys too. I had an old BBC sound effects tape that I would create horror scare scenes at the end of a 120 minute cassette, go upstairs before my brothers bedtime and plant the cassette player under his bed and press play so that the audio scare scene would come on an hour later, it was great fun to learn the power of sound at such an early age, but I was often getting into trouble introducing the scares to my younger brother, who I loved to scare.

When it comes to more recent horror, I do love Neil Marshals ‘The Descent’ and Danny Boyles ’28 Days Later’, both great movies which I have seen many times. I’m still working my way through the horror classics, remakes and modern horror and often watch with my wife, daughter or business partner, who is a real horror fanatic and has introduced me to films such asNeil Marshals ‘Dog Soldiers’ and more recently, ‘I Spit on your Grave’. I’ve also had the pleasure of working with filmmakers such as Lars Von Trier on Antichrist, which I found a difficult watch, I loved the sound deign on Trollhunter and Død Snø was just great fun, in fact we saw Død Snø 2 out in Cannes which I thought was a better movie.

Being in the industry, I’m always interested in how horror has changed over the years and try to understand what the next generation of horror fans are enjoying, seeking and what resonates with them. My daughter (17) enjoyed It Follows, The Visit and Mama which I also really enjoyed. Most recently we watched the 1992 Candyman which was just brilliantly cast, fantastic music by Philip Glass and love the mythology around the Candyman. The new Candyman was just brilliant in every way, a perfect modern horror with all the right elements, playing homage to the original, but being its own film. My boy(16), who rarely comes to the cinema said he will go back and watch the original, which is just what you want, the next generation seeking out the old horror classics, what more could you ask for.

So, as you can imagine, having to select one horror favourite from 4 decades of horror memories is almost an impossible task for me. However, if we’re talking what horror film have I enjoyed the most and watched the most, it would have to be ‘Shaun of the Dead’. The dialogue just feels so natural, the film is perfectly cast, wonderfully edited with a brilliant soundtrack. I was a big fan of Spaced back in 1999 and Edgar Wright, & Simon Peg are just so talented. I watched this film with my son this summer out in the garden, he loved it, pure entertainment!”