I’m a film director, and here you’ll find info and clips on my film Evil Aliens (2005) the first full British horror film ever to be made in high definition format and edited at home. I’ve been making horror films since the mid ‘90s, one of the first being the vampire film Razor Blade Smile (1998), and I’m currently working on Pumkinhead III: Ashes to Ashes, which is in post-production at the moment.
I describe Evil Aliens as ‘splat-stick’ and ‘tongue through cheek’ and it’s my love letter to old school horror like ‘Evil Dead’, ‘Phantasm’ and Peter Jackson’s ‘Bad taste’ that I was lucky enough to experience as an impressionable teen… and it struck me no one was making these kind of movies anymore.
The story kicks off with the alien impregnation of local randy farm girl Cat Williams (Jennifer Williams) and the anal probing of her hitchhiker boyfriend Angelo Jones (Eden Ford). Ouch! A disreputable cable TV team in town begin investigating and soon realise that there’s much more to this story than a farmer with a machete to grind…
I wanted this story to be shot in a location where you wouldn’t normally expect to encounter celluloid aliens (rather than setting it in Nevada!). A remote island in the back of Wales can be as sinister as a city back alley after dark. Only accessible at low tide via a causeway known as the ‘Devil’s Spine’ and also home to an ancient stone circle known as the ‘Devils Teeth’ – I thought it was the perfect setting for Evil Aliens .
Splatter and humour are what these type of flicks are all about, and with Evil Aliens I wanted to thrust the viewer right in there. You’re spared nothing, and with the high definition resolution format we used, there’s really no way to escape it (the splatter of blood that is!). We came up with some inventive ideas as far as methods of murder are concerned, involving hammers, chainsaws, rotary tillers, machetes, not to mention the combine harvester…
This is a true independent film. On a budget of $490,000 (£290,000), five weeks shooting and 150 digital effects (that took a year to achieve) we came out with something to be really proud of – Evil Aliens has met with more success than I could ever have anticipated. The film won the Raindance award at the 2005 British Independent Film Awards, and top prize at the San Francisco Independent Film Festival and was officially selected as a Midnight Madness film at the prestigious Toronto International film festival.
Clearly Evil Aliens is a film for those who like their movies served up bloody with a side order of laughs. Anyone taking this too seriously probably didn’t take notice of the title!
I’d love to know what you think of it…plus check out my official website: www.jakewest.com
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