Horror Favourites – Mike Beckingham

Mike Beckingham broke onto the scene with a mesmerising turn in Tom Paton’s chilling feature film Redwood. The brother of British film royalty Simon Pegg, Mike Beckingham is making a name for himself with leading roles alongside Billy Zane in Bill Fishman’s Marlon Brando Biopic Waltzing with Brando, and an upcoming politically charged action-thriller Attack on Ashville.

His latest role is in crime-thriller The Host. As Robert Atkinson, Mike Beckingham plays a Hitchcockian hero with an unforgettable twist, and adds to the league of inspired psych-thriller performances as a banker in increasingly dark waters.

In a bid to escape his tame 9-5 life, Robert Atkinson (Mike Beckingham) takes the plunge and tries to gamble his way into success, but when luck deserts him Robert finds himself at the mercy of a powerful Chinese cartel who ask him to transport a mysterious briefcase to scenic Amsterdam. Without a choice, Robert embarks on a trip filled with twists, deception and danger, diving deeper into the seedy underbelly of crime, just to try and escape it.

The film also stars Ruby Turner MBE (once a back-up singer to Mick Jagger and Bryan Ferry, she recently released her 20th studio album Love Was Here), Dougie Poynter (Of Pop band Mcfly), Nigel Barber (veteran US actor has featured in such franchise hits as Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation and Spectre) and Togo Igawa (The Japanese screen legend has appeared in blockbuster films such as The Gentleman, Mamma Mia and Star Wars: The Last Jedi)

Check out the trailer for The Host which is available through all on demand platforms from 17th April below:

Below Mike Beckingham tells us all about his favourite horror film The Exorcist:

“My favourite horror film? This for me is a no contest, The Exorcist. Released in 1973 the reaction to the release of the film meant that priests were walking up and down cinema queues blessing them – have we ever seen anything like that again? The Exorcist is like nothing that came before it and is yet to be matched, although there has been some wonderful horrors since. You can still watch it today and it have an impact on you. It’s the ultimate Good Vs Evil leaving it to you to decide how it ends. For me Father Karras survived, but this is very much left to your own interpretation. The performances are also so on point, and for Linda Blair as a child actor to hit the performance she did with Regan within the context of the film on its own is enough to make it the number 1 horror movie ever made for me. That being said, the defining factor with any film is has it lasted the test of time? The Exorcist not only has lasted, it’s still as powerful, hard hitting and question asking as it was when it was first released all those years ago. Who will you decide wins?

As the co-star in the soon to be released feature film The Host, this is also a film based on right versus wrong. Unlike an Exorcist horror, The Host is more of a collective form of terror, fear and gentle horror creating an entertaining experience. The monster in this film creates fear not from what you can see, but from what appears as normal. The Host takes a different approach to the genre because it’s all in the characters’ hands how their story will play out. For example the decisions Robert is faced with is something he can control and what he decides, ultimately decides his fate. The Host is now available on demand. It’s an enjoyable film and I certainly hope everyone will watch it and enjoy!”

THE HOST is out now on iTunes, Amazon Prime, Google Play, Apple TV, Microsoft Movies and TV and Fandango Now. http://www.thehost.movie/