Dying Light: A New British Horror Looking to Genre Fans to Help Take it Back to its Roots
Dying Light is an upcoming feature-length horror film that’s aiming to return the genre to its roots and put the focus back on its core appeal: exploring our fear of the dark and the unknown. The film’s being produced by award-winning film makers David Newbigging and Gordon Mclean, director and writer respectively. It focuses on Eddie Bowen, a young guy who finds himself trapped in a room and trying to comprehend the fact that there’s a supernatural entity waiting for him in the shadows and the light is gradually fading. The film’s tagline is: ‘When the light dies… so do you’.
Gordon stated: “With our film we’re not using a shadow to hide a masked killer or anything like that but rather making the audience look at the darkness itself because it will – without question – make them afraid. I don’t care how brave you think you are – if you’re alone in a dark room and you hear a strange noise you will get scared.
David said: “We’re all afraid of the dark and unknown. Point someone in the direction of a shadow and tell them there’s something hiding in it and they can’t help but imagine what it is. No monster or effect you can put on the screen is as scary as what the audience is picturing inside their head because they’re using their own fears to build it. We’re using the audience’s minds against them! I’m looking forward to using every film making trick and technique I can to mess with the audience and freak them out.”
Dying Light’s plot sees Eddie Bowen hooks up with the beautiful and sexually aggressive Suze Phillips for what he believes is a night of sex. However it’s all a set-up and she entraps them both within a specially-prepared room. While Eddie tries to escape the room’s stone walls and securely-locked door he tries to force out answers from the seemingly psychotic Suze. Then the true horror of his situation emerges: the room is getting darker and darker and there’s some sort of otherworldy entity lurking in the shadows that’s coming to get him.
Gordon: “This is how I originally pitched it to Dave: ‘Imagine you’re trapped in a room, you’re standing in an ever-decreasing island of light in a sea of darkness that’s alive and coming to get you’. I thought that was such a simple idea for a horror film because it’s so simple and easy for the audience to understand. You’re not asking them to believe in ghosts or monsters, you’re just asking them to be afraid of the dark, which they already are! “From that central idea came questions like who’s trapped in the room? Why are they trapped? And the biggie – what’s in the darkness that’s coming for them? We’ve come up with some really creepy answers and now we just need to get the film made so everyone can find out what’s going on.”
The British film-making duo is going down the increasingly popular route of crowd-sourcing to raise the film’s budget. They’ve set up a page on Indiegogo to this end: https://www.indiegogo.com/Dying-Light.
David: “There’s so little private funding available for this type of film and with it comes all kinds of compromises. It makes sense to take Dying Light directly to horror fans to let them see what we’re trying to do and hopefully convince them to help us make it. That way we’re free to make the scariest film possible without forced cuts or changes. It’ll be made for horror fans, by horror fans. “Also, we want to stress that everyone who donates gets something in return. From their name in the credits and signed DVDs to tickets to the premiere and even a unique way we’ve come up with of featuring them in the film. What we’re especially excited about is one particular perk that someone can buy: their very own private screening in the very room featured in the film. It’ll just be them alone in the room with a screen and the darkness.”
Gordon: “This is make or break time for the project. To all horror fans I say, ‘If you’re able to, please contribute what you can to help us get this film made’. I’m a huge horror fan and getting the chance to make my own would be a dream come true. I can safely promise that Dying Light will be scary and a real attention grabber because I’m far too much of a horror fan to make some crappy hack job. Give us some money and we’ll give you some scares!”
