Anna Dixon on working in different areas of horror and WiHM

Positively Horror recently got the chance to ask the amazing Anna Dixon some questions about her work in the genre. Please enjoy the full interview below. 

Please tell us a bit about yourself and your relationship with the genre?

I’m Anna Dixon, I’m producer, AD, coffee runner (delete as applicable) at Mycho Entertainment. We make short and feature length indie horror films and are coming up on our tenth feature.

What was your introduction to horror, and at what age? 

Being the youngest of three, I used to sneak downstairs to watch things my older sisters were watching sometimes. I have a very vivid memory of peeking through the living room door at the original Child’s Play and being absolutely terrified. I guess that would’ve been around 1990ish so I would’ve been around 7 years old. I couldn't watch anything like that again for years and I think the next time was Scream at the cinema (when I was definitely too young to be in there!) and that had me hooked.

You have an impressive credits list on IMDB as a producer, what drew you to the producer role? 

Thank you, I’ve been really lucky! I befriended MJ on the mean streets of Preston about 12 years ago (blimey!) and I helped out on a couple of things he was doing; mainly building props, being someone in the background, holding a light, etc. It was a lot of fun and I wanted to do lots more! MJ had shot Slasher House not long before and was looking for someone to help with the post-production producer stuff, so I stepped into that role and the rest is history.

You held the MYCon festival last year, with lots of exciting announcements made for the future of Mycho. Are there any particular projects you're eager to jump into?

That was so much fun and such bitter-sweet memories now, as that was the last time the CleaverS cast were gathered together. We then very sadly lost the amazing and talented Paul Rogers who plays the main man to this awful virus last year. It’s left a huge hole in our personal and professional lives. There’s lots to be excited for, but I will always wish he was there with us for the ride.

It's currently women in horror month, how do you feel the role of women has changed in the genre over recent years both in front of, and behind the camera? Do you feel that the online horror community has helped to garner more inclusiveness with things like women in horror month? 

I always think that horror is a much more inclusive and progressive genre than any other I have worked in and seems ahead of the curve in recognising the need for diversity in the creators as well as the creations. I think there are loads more female voices now, telling stories from a female perspective and the range of characters has grown and changed over the years so that women can now be the heroes, the villains, the cowards and everything in between. The horror community is such a supportive and uplifting one and is great at celebrating inclusiveness, and long may it continue.

As a woman working in the genre, what would you like to see for the future of horror?

At the moment, I’d just like to get back to making some horror with all our favourite people, late, cold nights and cheap coffee in an insubstantial plastic cup now look so much more attractive. In the longer term, I’d love to see more equitable distribution models that allow indie horror creators (films, books, or any other medium) to earn a more reliable income.

Who are some of your favourite people working in the genre at the moment? 

There are way too many to name and I’ll definitely forget people and never forgive myself. I am very much enjoying the true crime meets horror movie podcast me and Queen Eve (Oliver) are doing right now and we have some plans to move into producing horror shorts and features inspired by true crime events together under the Reel Horror brand, so watch this space.

And are there any other projects you're involved with that you'd like to talk about?

Everything is a little bit in flux due to this pandemic I keep hearing about, but we’re hopefully heading into production on Slasher House 3, Strawmen and Wrath of Thorn just as soon as we can. I’m also writing my first feature, White Night, (with a lot of help from my live-in expert) and I’m pretty excited about that. And we have an anthology feature in the works called HorrorScopes based on astrological signs and we’re chatting with some really talented and exciting contributors on that one.

Thanks so much for thinking of me for this 😊

Thank you again to Anna for the great interview. To learn more and to get all the great Mycho releases just follow the links below:

https://mycho.weebly.com/

https://www.patreon.com/mycho 

And to give to FAST (foundation for angelman's syndrome theraputics) click here: 

 https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/anna-dixon5?fbclid=IwAR3QG6U1qD73qDRRbpUT_29E9STywJ9dmmdrbTiyRYrUX_T4TTI1AFmCly4 

Kay Parker on writing and WiHM

The latest Positively Horror interview celebrating Women in horror month is with the brilliant horror author, Kay Parker. Please enjoy the full interview below. 

Please tell us a bit about yourself and your relationship with the genre?

Hi! Thank you for having me. I’m known as Kay and believe it or not I’m first and foremost a medieval historian working for the National Trust!  However, I’ve been an avid reader all my life and a great lover of sci-fi and horror since my early teens. My introduction to the genre was Stephen King (of course!) unless you count a vast collection of Goosebumps books when I was a child! 

What was your introduction to horror, and at what age?

It was probably Hellraiser, The Lost Boys and IT movies with my mum at the very raw age of 8-9 years old. They scared me to death! They were such an upgrade from the Goosebumps show and Are You Afraid of the Dark? that I was obsessed with. They’re still some of my favourite films today! I saw Nightmare on Elm Street around the same age and couldn’t sleep for a fortnight! He terrified me. I learned to turn that fear on its head though by making him my favourite bad guy!

What drew you to writing horror?

It was a long process. I’ve always dabbled in writing horror shorts, writing them for English homework at school, writing them to read to my friends... but it was never anything I did seriously. A few years ago I was commissioned to write a history book for a publisher who later let me down, it piqued my interest so I began looking into things to do with publishing and self-publishing and began playing with ideas. Those ideas culminated in the release of ‘Sleeping with Her Demons’ in September 2020 and it was so much fun! I’m still at it! 

You currently have a book out for pre order, 'Fairfolk of the oaks' could you tell us a bit about it? 

Of course! ‘Fairfolk’ is definitely my favourite work so far. It will be my fourth story but my third book and it’s heavily influenced by my own spirituality, my own beliefs and my own home environment. It’s the story I’ve always wanted—a faery tale that tells us of the dangers of the fae, a faery tale where the witch isn’t a big, bad villain but actually just a lovely, nature-loving free spirit. It’s also a gorey, bloodied mess of vicious elemental beings eating people from the inside out and turning them into fungi.

As an own voices author all of your books have LGBTIA+ representation. How do you feel representation in horror has changed over the last few years?  

I don’t really think it has but I hope to bring that much needed Queer Rep into the horror genre. There are very few horror books out there with honest, wholesome rep that I’ve seen and it is something I’d love to see more of within the community. 

It's currently women in horror month, how do you feel the role of women has changed in the genre over recent years? 

There’s certainly a lot more women in horror these days! That’s for sure! But I do think we still need a bit more representation in the community. Most of us are self-published and I can’t help but feel this is more due to our gender than it should be. Most publishers are only looking for the next Stephen King and unfortunately they don’t think that can be a woman.

Do you feel that the online horror community has helped to garner more inclusiveness with things like women in horror month? 

Yes!! The online horror community is so welcoming and inclusive! I’ve never felt at the edges of things within it at all, not as a woman, nor as a queer identifying person. The community is much more fluid, free thinking and inclusive than the publishing sector for sure! 

As a woman working in the genre, what would you like to see for the future of horror? 

I would really like to see more inclusivity in horror. I want to see more queer and female authors, I want to see more queer horror, I want to see black/minority protagonists too! I’d also personally like to see more female antagonists! The bad guys are always just that... guys, males.... I’d like to see some lady killers.

Who are some of your favourite people working in the genre at the moment?

This is a tricky one to answer because almost all my favourite authors are oldies. However, I do truly adore Lou Yardley, Sergio Gomez, James Brogden and Kealan Patrick Burke. 

And are there any other projects you're involved with that you'd like to talk about?

Well, alongside working on ‘Fairfolk of the Oaks’ I’m also working on a SF Horror, an anthology of short stories featuring lady killers and a women’s history book that will be traditionally published by Pen and Sword Books. So they’re all things to look out for over the next few months and years!

Thank you again to Kay for the wonderful interview. To keep up with Kay and to get her books, including the pre order for Fairfolk of the Oaks please follow the links below. 

https://Instagram.com/spookiesthistorian/

https://Twitter.com/kayparkerauthor/

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TheSpookiestBookShop

GUEST BLOG: WiHM SOUNDTRACK SPOTLIGHT: ELISABETH LUTYENS DR TERRORS HOUSE OF HORROR SCORE

For this soundtrack spotlight in celebration of women in horror month I would like to take a listen to the 1965 anthology horror ‘Dr Terror’s house of horror’ composed by the ‘Horror Queen’ Elisabeth Lutyens. 

Lutyens was a well-established classical composer, working on chamber music, orchestral scores, choral pieces and operas, with a musical leaning to the avant-garde. Lutyens was not only a pioneer amongst female composers, but a pioneer in bringing the twelve-tone serial technique to Britain.  This technique lends itself perfectly to horror soundtracks with its discordant, a-tonal textures, which Lutyens was more than capable of exploiting. 

The opening scene of Dr Terror’s house of horror starts with a cacophonous burst of instrumentation, immediately putting the audience on edge for what is to come.  This then changes to a minimalist single instrumental melody sparsely set to the introductory conversation.

For the first story in this anthology horror, titled ‘Werewolf’, the music begins in a more traditional ‘tuneful’ way, but soon descends into discordance to create the feel of unease.  As this trend continues, there are quick crescendos leading to sharp pauses in the music and intermittent percussion.

When the coffin of Count Cosmo Valdemar is found in the cellar, a high pitched drone sounds while a serial sequence is played on a piano, again stopping suddenly. The music continues to move further into discordance until Valda’s body is found, at which point the music reaches a loud repeated melody, and keeps to this motif until it’s conclusion.

The next segment, ‘Creeping Vine’, starts with a light hearted piece of music in a similar way to the previous story, other than this first melodic piece the music is again sparse, sudden to begin and end without resolving.  To begin with the music is comprised of more staccato percussive hits of strings in single tones, and brief repeated melodies, but again builds into a crescendo of the repeated string melody accompanied by a serial piano sequence.

In the third instalment ‘Voodoo’,  the music begins with a jazz band practicing, with music becoming a main focus of the story.  The band gets a gig in the West Indies and in the next scene are greeted by a ‘calypso’ piece from the resorts resident band.

After being warned against attending the local voodoo ceremonies, the band leader, Biff, immediately does exactly the opposite and begins to transcribe the ceremonial music. He is then warned not to steal the music as it belongs to the voodoo God , so of course he again ignores the warnings and steals the music for his own band once they return home to London.  As the band performs the ceremonial music strange things begin to happen around them.

The previous stories comprised of non-diegetic a-tonal minimalist music but this instalment showcases almost entirely diegetic music, with the band providing the soundtrack.

The fourth segment, ‘Disembodied Hand’, does not begin with any music like the previous entries, the first piece of music only begins when Landor wakes up in the hospital to realize he has lost his hand, with a single, intense violin melody playing.  A descending melody is then presented while Landor looks at  his artwork and is then picked up by a horn section leading to Landor shooting himself. 

Another sudden burst of strings, horns and percussion begins when Franklyn is attacked by Landors hand in his home, this same percussive cacophony is played when Franklyn is again attacked, this time at his office, and eventually coming to a head when Franklyn crashes his car.

The final segment, ‘Vampire’, begins with no soundtrack again, until Nicolle sees Bob bleeding from a cut on his finger, at which point a single woodwind melody is played, until the scene changes to the next morning.

The simple melody is a repeating motif throughout this segment without deviating in dynamics too much, remaining subdued with little in the way of crescendos, creating a more melancholic mood rather than one of unease.

In the final scene a return to multi-instrumental serial sequences is brought to a cacophonous climax with Dr Schreck’s revalation.

Though the serial technique is utilized throughout most of the stories, due to its non-repetitive nature, no two soundtracks are alike.

With Lutyens pioneering of the twelve-tone serial technique in horror soundtracks, she paved the way for the experimentation and common use of this technique in horror ever since.

Destiny Soria on Christmas Slasher and WiHM

Positively horror recently got the chance to talk with Desitiny Soria about her upcoming festive horror film, Christmas Slasher. Please enjoy the full interview below.

Please tell us a bit about yourself and your relationship with the genre? 

Hello I'm Destiny soria, an actress/director. I'm married to it. Haha

What was your introduction to horror, and at what age? 

My mom taking me to see nightmare on elm Street in theaters when I was 9, but I was younger than that when I watched my first horror. My mom was the one that got me into it. 

You're currently crowdfunding for your holiday horror 'Christmas Slasher' could you tell us a bit about it? 

Yes! We beat our goal and went over! It was awesome and pretty easy on figuring out how to do it. 

You have a lot of acting credits to your name, and a good few of those are in horror. What draws you to the genre? 

The gore! The blood! And yes a great plot

It's currently women in horror month, how do you feel the role of women has changed in the genre over recent years both in front of, and behind the camera? 

It change big and better! So many talented beautiful women coming and making this amazing films! I love it!

Do you feel that the online horror community has helped to garner more inclusiveness with things like women in horror month?

Yas! The horror community is so HUGE and very sweet people too. Very supportive crowd and I'm blessed to have them!

As a woman working in the genre, what would you like to see for the future of horror? 

More badass chick's doing badass things. More crazy horror themes!

Who are some of your favourite people working in the genre at the moment? 

Samara weaving! I love her acting and her look! She fits in horrors, she is a kick ass lady. 

And are there any other projects you're involved with that you'd like to talk about?

Did you see that part 2, we film in April. Its a witchy movie.

Thank you again to Destiny for the interview. Below are some related links to check out:

Lady destiny Productions IMDB:

https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?companies=co0682851

Christmas Slasher Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=christmas%20slasher&epa=SEARCH_BOX

Christmas Slasher Instagram:

@Christmasslashermovie

The Indiegogo campaign:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/christmas-slasher-feature-film--2#/

Zetkin Yikilmis on Planet Zee and WiHM

 

Positively horror recently got the chance to see the upcoming film Planet Zee from Zektin Yikilmis, and ask her some questions about it. Please enjoy the full interview below. 

Please tell us a bit about yourself and your relationship with the genre?

I am born as a daughter of a turkish migrant family in germany. In horror I found more than a trigger for the fears and rage I felt growing inside me, while I was coming of age in a racist and sexist society as migrant and female. 

I think the horror genre is very progressive and a good means to express social issues, political and social anger and even a good canvas for revolutionary ideas, all that with fun, distance and a strong imagery. I think pain, suffering and violence are things every human reacts to immediately. To use the effective impact of force in a safe area without hurting or harming people, just creating a notion of distress in pictures is in my opinion the best way holding a mirror to society as it is and to address problems.

What was your introduction to horror, and at what age? 

Event Horizon when I was 11.

Your upcoming film 'Planet Zee' was filmed during lockdown, what were some of the difficulties of putting a film together during a lockdown, and what do you feel were the benefits of making a film this way? 

Planet Zee was post produced during lockdown - I was sitting in a room and editing and doing all the stuff without being dissed for not going out, because it was lockdown anyway. 

I am now planning to shoot my third feature in a couple of weeks. For me it is no different, I just try to keep safety standards - but since I do a lot of stuff by myself we have just a few people on set (Somtimes just me and my husband) so it's no big difference.

It's currently women in horror month, how do you feel the role of women has changed in the genre over recent years both in front of, and behind the camera? 

I think the horror genre was in it's traditions and theory very emancipatory, but like it is in the practice, sometimes you need to stand up and kick ass to bring the theory to life in its fullest sense. And a lot of female artists are doing that and fighting to do that! I think to say there are patriarchal structures holding women down in all spheres of society is not wrong. We have to break them chains and keep marching forward to bring a fully emancipated world in to being not just in film and art in general, but in all spheres of society.

Do you feel that the online horror community has helped to garner more inclusiveness with things like women in horror month? 

It's a beginning but there has to be done more.

As a woman working in the genre, what would you like to see for the future of horror? 

More independent projects from progressive filmmakers - I don't care about budget, production value or technical skills, for me it's the quality of the story that counts.

Who are some of your favourite people working in the genre at the moment?

I have some favourite directors and some favourite actors, but my heart is with everybody working his ass off, producing no budget films by putting all their creative power into that process. I know how hard it is to follow your dream trying to create your art.

And are there any other projects you're involved with that you'd like to talk about? 

My next flick I'll start shooting very soon: "Pink Rabbit" is a modern fable of a social and psychological sisyphus story, reflecting the struggle of being female and mother in today's society in a bloody way. It will be deeper and darker than all my other projects, with more psychological depth and a lot more blood. Stay in touch!

Thank you again to Yetkin for the interview. Planet Zee will be released from Darkside releasing at the link below:

tps://darksidereleasing.com/ 

M.J. Dixon and the Mychoverse

 

It's no secret that Positively Horror is a big Mycho fan and so this interview with M.J. Dixon was an absolute treat. Please enjoy it as much as I did!

Please tell us a bit about yourself and your relationship with the genre?

My name is MJ Dixon, I’m a horror filmmaker, writer and artist, currently residing in South England, along with my wife I run a Independent Production company called Mycho Entertainment, under which we produce shorts and feature films set in the expanded Mycho Universe. A shared universe of horror villains that interconnects across our movies.

 What was your introduction to horror, and at what age?

I think I’d always liked monsters and things that drew elements from that, I was a big fan of Masters of the Universe as a kid and the monsters and creatures that existed in that space. I think the first Horror movie I saw was The Mummy, around 6 and that really bothered me at the time and gave me nightmares and as I got older, I kind of became fascinated with the experience of watching a film that could do that to me.

When I was 11, I saw Halloween, taped off the TV and, although it terrified me more than anything I’d ever seen, I loved every minute of it. I became an instant horror fan from there really, and absorbed anything horror that I could get my hands on.

I would set our video machine to record over night and then close the cabinet doors and sneak down at 5 in the morning to see what horrific delights I’d managed to capture. Doing this meant that before I was even a teenager I was getting educated by the likes of Cronenberg, Carpenter and loads of other filmmakers that would forge my outlook on the genre.

Last year you hosted MYCon, where you announced some very exciting projects, is there a particular project you're really keen to jump into?

I mean, all of them fill me with excitement, but the one I think I’d been looking forward to the most was CL3AVER : MAXIMUM CLEAVAGE, its a film that I’ve been developing for years. The first killer clown prison break movie. It’s a very exciting project that brings a whole host of Mycho characters together for the first time.

Unfortunately, the lead, Paul Rogers, passed away a few weeks ago and so its kind of put a big question mark over the project and what we should do with it. Paul played Cleaver and really left his mark on the character, so in some way it feels like he took a large part of the character with him. I think time will tell what we do with the Cleaver franchise and if we can move it forward in a way that makes sense.

We have plenty of other projects to keep us busy in the meantime with sequels Wrath of Thorn, Bannister Doll Heist and Pandamonium Incorporated and a brand new entry in the Mychoverse with Strawmen, our take on the killer scarecrow sub-genre.

Your films have a very recognisable style with lighting and score. Who are some of your influences in that regard?

I have a lot of great influences, a lot of the visual style comes from Argento and Carpenter movies that I grew up loving. I try to bring a lot of comic book influence to my work, as that's a large part of my input as a visual creator. I just always really liked anything that took a bold visual approach and so I try to do the same. There are a lot of cinematographers that I take influence from but Dean Cundey, Roy Wagner and Gerry Fisher are way up there in terms of my favourites. Real masters of the craft.

In terms of music Carpenter remains a big influence, but I also try and add a lot of rock influence into that work, I spent a long time in my youth writing a performing in rock bands and so its a huge part of what I try and bring to that side of my work as a composer.

Outside of massive franchises like Marvel, there really isn't anyone else creating such a vast shared cinematic universe as the Mychoverse. Is it hard to keep track of all the characters and timelines, and was it always the plan to create this world?

Sometimes, its very hard to remember when people were born off the top of my head, so I have tables and constantly have to make diagrams. It becomes even more complicated when characters slip in and out of ‘time bending hell dimensions’ and the like, so it’s a bit of task trying to keep up with it all. Someone created a Mycho Wiki that attempts to make all our nonsense make sense and thats actually been an invaluable resource for me when coming back to various corners of the universe, as after 9 movies and multiple time jumps its still a bit tricky and having it laid out really helps.

I always knew, way back in like 2000 (before it was even called the Mychoverse) that I wanted there to be a world of characters, I loved comic books and especially when they crossed over with other titles, and never understood why horror/slasher movies didn’t do that kind of thing more. I initially planned to start with some thing much bigger, but when I realised that it was a little beyond my scope as a young filmmaker I started developing smaller ideas set in the same world that would eventually lead to an epic finale and as that developed the Mychoverse was born.

In 2005 I jumped the gun little bit and started writing our first ‘crossover’ movie Slasher House and that kind of accidentally became the starting point for the whole thing, but the initial plan was to do Thorn and Hollower first. Sometimes things just don’t work out that way. But Slasher House turned out to be a great jumping off point for all the characters and kind of gave a boost to the whole idea.

 As well as features, you have an impressive collection of shorts under your belt. Do you have a different approach to shorts than you do to features?

Its kind of weird, but a lot of times, making a feature is about the same effort as making a short in terms of pre-production, cost and planning. So it’s often that we’ll opt to do a feature instead of a short if we get the opportunity. But when it comes to shorts, exactly the same effort goes in, but the upside is, that we’re just there for a much shorter time (mostly).

But I think shorts are great for exploring ideas that sometimes would just be too over stretched as a feature, and they are a great way for exploring ideas that we couldn’t fit into a feature due to time. Eric: A Tale of Thorn was a whole load of stuff that I wanted to add to Legacy of Thorn, but the film was already running just under 2 hours and so it was abandoned at the time. So getting to put that together as a short was a really wonderful way to revisit that character and that story.

We also get an opportunity to test ideas, get a feel for them and see of they have more to offer. Strawmen started life as our short Rough Patch and it gave us a clear idea of where we could take the story and how it could be expanded into a feature length film. Its also a good way for your audience to let you know what they want to see more of.

Aside from films, you've branched out into a podcast network with great original content. Do you have plans to expand further in the future?

The podcast was kind of an accidental thing. It started out as just interviews of cast members to give to our Patreon members and then when the pandemic hit, we just upscaled our production to fill the space where our films should be. Then Anna and Eve brought their show on and then Lewis and I decided to test drive Gritty Reboots and before long we had kind of built our own little network.

We’re looking to expand it more this year, with more interviews and hopefully some new shows. I think we’d really like to bring some new talent on board if possible and just keep it growing over the next few years and see where it goes.

Who are some of your favourite people working in the genre at the moment?

There are so many great creative voices out there at the moment that it’s hard to pick even just a handful. There are some great filmmakers doing some great stuff at the minute. Enjoying the work of TIS films as they gear up for their next feature and they feel like a really fun team who produced some wonderful stuff with I Scream on the Beach. And of course Maria Lee Metheringham always astounds me with her work ethic and quality of production, I always like to see what she’s up to.

And are there any other projects you're involved with that you'd like to talk about?

I guess the obvious one is Slasher House 3, which should be finished by now, but the current state of affairs has postponed that for now. Hopefully we’ll be able to pick that back up this year if all goes to plan, and hopefully there’ll be some cool announcements to go with it.

Outside of that I recently Directed a film for Milton Keynes Film Network called Roundabouts, written by my good friend Grant Kempster. It’s a romantic comedy that jumps through film genres and that should hopefully be festival ready this year.

We’re also prepping our short film The Thinning Veil for Festivals this year. So far the response has been great and so we’re excited about getting it out to a bigger audience.

Thank you again to M.J. for the great interview. Below are some links to further explore the Mychoverse:

The official Mycho site to keep up with the latest news:

https://mycho.weebly.com/

The Mycho YouTube channel for shorts and more:

https://youtube.com/c/MJDixonuk

The Patreon, where for as little as £1.50 a month you can access exclusive content!:

https://www.patreon.com/mycho