Horror Favourites – Adrian Langley

Sharp Teeth Films is thrilled to release their latest horror, Butchers. Directed by Adrian Langley, the Canadian independent horror will be released in the UK across all major digital platforms from 22nd February and DVD on 8th March to coincide with National Butchers Week. To celebrate all of this we spoke to the director about what horror he loves the most.

After their car breaks down, four youths find themselves stranded in the middle of nowhere. Little do they know they are being watched. They soon fall captive to a family of sadistic butchers who keep their ‘fresh meat’ tied up in a wooden outhouse. With hints of WRONG TURN, the four friends have little time to escape before it’s their turn to meet the chopping block.

Sharp Teeth Films’ director Joey Leung was delighted to share the news of the UK release. He says, “At Sharp Teeth Films, we love supporting independent directors. Adrian Langley is one to watch, having co-written and directed this refresh on a story that horror fans will be very familiar with. We are also proud to be releasing this in the UK, with a strong British and Irish cast starring in the film. This will definitely broaden the appeal over here, especially with Simon Phillips from the White Collar Hooligan franchise playing a menacing Canadian cannibal!”

Adrian Langley started in 1993 as a script reader and eventually graduated from The Vancouver Film School’s director’s stream in 1995. He has since directed over a half dozen feature films in additional to directing TV movies, commercials, short films and music videos.

Working in every facet of film from script to cinematography and editing, his list of collaborators range from Forest Whitaker, Brian Bertino and Osgoode Perkins behind the camera, to Emma Roberts, Ted Levine, Jena Malone and Gil Bellows in front of the lens. “Butchers” marks his debut as a horror director.

Below Adrian tell us all about his favorite horror film:

“Like almost every director out there, finding a favourite movie, in any genre, is a task. Beyond the quality of any given horror film, much of what makes a favourite a favourite has to do with personal tastes and what “scares” us individually. I would say that, though often referred to as a serial killer film, David Fincher’s Se7en edges into the spot of my top horror pick.

Darius Khondji’s cinematography, Howard Shore’s score, Andrew Kevin Walker’s unique script – ultimately about the horrors of society’s apathy in the face of humanity’s dark nature – and Fincher’s direction have made it a classic, almost in a class by itself. And still, over twenty-five years later, unparalleled. I think, as much as people make visual and atmospheric comparisons to Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner – which, by the way, when I first saw it on VHS in 1984, at the grand old age of 10, scared the shit out of me – Se7en is now a film with a long line of movies that followed in its shadow, many of which are more “straightforward” horror flicks.

It is of course impossible to talk about the film without referring to its head-in-the-box ending, but what gets me every time is its unrelenting dread – the feeling it lowers you into and holds you in for two hours – is the stuff of horror film dreams and I think I’d be hard pressed to find a horror fan who doesn’t have a keen love and/or pure respect for the film.

As I can’t not mention at least the runner up, the other horror film that often finds its way onto my home theatre screen is Takashi Miike’s Box. Unique in many respects – including that it’s a short on the 3 Extremes Vol. 1 collection – the film transcends its typical ghost story tropes to rise to the level of almost pure art, radiating the horrors of guilt, and wrapping you in its cold grip. It’s fantastic.”

Butchers will be available on all major digital stores from 22nd February and coinciding with National Butchers Week, available on DVD from 8th March.

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Alex Humphrey

Alex studied film at the University of Kent and went on to work for Universal Pictures in their Post Room gaining an inside look at the movie industry from the very bottom. Constantly writing reviews in everything from local magazines to Hip Hop sites Alex honed his critical skills even spending a brief period as a restaurant critic. Read more

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