Horror Favourites – Candis Nergaard

Available to download from all major platforms including iTunes, Amazon, SKY Box Office, Sony and Google now The Heiress is a powerful and haunting supernatural thriller with a brilliant cast including the wonderful Candis Nergaard.

The female-driven story, blending the occult with contemporary familial issues, sees Hergaard as Claire and Jayne Wisener as Anna, sisters who share a mysterious connection to a dark family secret. Following the death of Clare’s grandmother, ancient spirits are unleashed and the women must do battle with ‘Lilith’, a malevolent female spirit who has returned to claim possession of Anna’s unborn child.

Directed by Chris Bell and written by Danny Prescott, Jezz Vernon, Chris Bell and Kelly Prescott, THE HEIRESS is an Old Way Film & Television production, produced by, Richard Turner, Terry Stone, Jezz Vernon & Danny Prescott. It stars Candis Nergaard (Call the Midwife, Grantchester) , Jayne Wisener (Sweeney Todd, Jane Eyre), Jonny Phillips (Titanic, Outlaw King), David Schaal (The Inbetweeners, Frontier), Denise Stephenson (St Trinians, Swimming with Men), Mark Arden (Agatha Raisin, Teenage Kicks) and Flip Webster (Harry Potter, The Alienist).

Below Candis Nergaard gives us a in depth look at her favorite horror films:

“My love of horror started young, staying at my dad’s house at weekends; black coffee in a beaker, tales of Grimoires (black magic books), and curling up on his lap in an oversize jumper to watch Dr Terror present a duo of horror films in an otherwise dark room. The occasional flicker of the TV would reveal huge nocturnal spiders scuttling about… It suited my maudlin curiosity and rarely scared me beyond the credits’ end.

I’d say my go-to comfort horror is usually gothic vampire horror, Bram Stoker’s Dracula being my all time favourite, and Gary Oldman a bit of an idol of mine. But Ridley Scott’s ‘Alien’ was where horror began for me. The fear… I remember clinging to my dad, and most vividly the parasitic face-smothering Alien. Ripley’s logic is set against a pervading distrust among her crew, which essentially leaves them open to attack from the Alien. For me, the fear often springs from how people behave towards each other in crisis, whipping fear up into a frenzy.

My favourite recent horror is Robert Eggerton’s The Witch. Each character’s loyalty seems tethered elsewhere, their eyes pleading fealty to something unseen; possibly God or The Devil. The first character we lock in on is the cherubim-faced Thomasin, playing peek-a-boo with a violent edged gusto. Then, baby Samuel disappears. Surprisingly, a crone Witch is revealed early on, making a baby flesh poultice/pomade for her deteriorating body. Despite the reveal, no tension drops, only increases exponentially. It takes intimacy, sexuality and suffocation of the characters to uncomfortable levels, and animates historical accounts with a contemporary fear. As a voyeur, it seems we never leave the crepuscular hours, a never ending monochrome hell punctuated by vivid red blood, and mud, and grit. For me, a masterpiece of horror, a perfect fusion of elements, which made me experience something akin to a taste-visual, or a mirror-touch synaesthesia mash up, and a feeling of violation.”

Read our review of The Heiress right HERE and check out the trailer below: