Horror Favourites – Neil Maskell

British acting great Neil Maskell puts the fear of God into those that destroyed his family, in the wickedly twisted, brutal, anxiety inducing Bull and we grabbed a few moments of the talented mans time to talk scary movies.

Following a barnstorming reception from critics and film fans alike on its theatrical release, this savage, heart-thumping thriller, from writer/director Paul Andrew Williams, now gets the Limited Edition Blu-ray treatment, from Second Sight Films this September.

Bull (Maskell – Kill List, Utopia) is back after ten years away with only one mission… vengeance. Returning to his hometown he tracks down every member of the ruthless crime family – that left him for dead and kidnapped his only son – and will stop at nothing to make them pay for their crimes.

This deeply damaged soul, once a caring father, is now a brutal enforcer who will go to any extreme to exact his bloody and brutal revenge on those that have wronged him and the most important person in his life.

Bull arrives on Limited Edition Blu-ray in a collectable box set presented in a rigid case with brand new artwork from James Neal a soft-cover book with brand-new essays. It includes an audio commentary with Paul Andrew Williams and Neil Maskell, a new interview with the director plus interviews with producers Dominic Tighe and Leonora Darby.

Below Neil Maskell talks about his favourite horror film Penda’s Fen:

“I am very pleased to be asked about my favourite horror film as it gives me the opportunity to talk about Penda’s Fen. It’s nearly 50 years old and I can’t think of another film so resonant and terrifyingly prescient right now. A timely riposte to patriotism and the nostalgic lies that Britain is forever mired in and at the mercy of. The establishment, the church and English Public School system represent the triple headed monster that devours the land, casts out the helpless and curdles the souls of the chosen few it is tasked to protect. It is a masterpiece of restraint and artistic discipline despite being made by a fiercely anarchic iconoclast. Pagan nationalism, repressed sexuality and pastoral savagery are sometimes contained in a single wordless shot and it’s most look-away-now-watch-through-your-fingers sequence takes place in a frightening silence.

Alan Clarke’s work gets more powerful and shocking and accurate as the decades pass since his tragic, untimely death. Most of his films are sharp and violent cries of rage. Shotgun blast tracts against a ruling ideology gleefully alchemising human frailty into systemic inequality and brutal order-keeping. Penda’s Fen approaches similar themes in a different way. It’s a creeping, enveloping dream-logic mosaic that utilises Clarke’s signature long takes and jarring, pronounced cutting alongside Brechtian tableau, intrinsically unsettling landscapes and sinister asides. An intricate combination of precisely applied technique and form that slowly fills the audience with dread. The ultimate reveal is a dawning realisation of the truths contained in it’s labyrinthine ideas. Real horror lies there.”

Bull Limited Edition Blu-ray is out from Second Sight Films