A NEW horror film shot in Ayrshire is aiming to “get back to the roots of the genre” and show that “not everything needs to be a million dollars,” following the success of Backrooms and Obsession.
Low-budget horror films are having an extraordinary year with new filmmakers raking in millions and outperforming traditional blockbusters in cinemas over the last few weeks.
Two indie films, Backrooms and Obsession, in the indie genre have thoroughly outperformed some of the biggest multi-million dollar productions to come out this summer, including Masters of the Universe and Star Wars.
Now a group of Ayrshire filmmakers with a passion for classic monster horror films are aiming to also prove that audiences have grown tired of super-polished CGI movies and want something more authentic and raw.
“I'm sick of all this AI stuff. I'm sick of all this non-human stuff. I'm sick of all this high budget, everything needs to be a million dollars,” the director behind The MothMan Cometh told The National.
He added: “I'm wanting to go out there and prove that you can do it with nothing more than passion.”
The MothMan Cometh is a callback to the classic monster horror movie genre and follows a pair of amateur cryptozoologists who set out to discover the truth behind recent disappearances in the fictional town of Blackwoods.
The pair of amateur detectives, Steve and Gordon, follow a decades-old trail of “fear and torment” when their investigation takes a sudden turn for the worse and soon find what's lurking in the shadows.
“The director is a pretty mysterious guy in a lot of ways,” Mac Dowling, producer and actor in The MothMan Cometh, said.
“He's like an M. Night Shyamalan type is how I describe it.”
Behind the film is 30-year-old first-time director M. Spooky, who said he was inspired by everything from classics in the horror monster genre, from Godzilla to the Creature of the Black Lagoon.
However, he believes that with the advancements of technology within the industry, especially with the prevalence of AI in recent years, modern Hollywood horror films have lost their way.
“I've tried watching monster movies in recent years, and I feel like they've lost their allure,” M. Spooky said.
“They've lost their sparkle, people don't do things the way they used to, and that’s what ultimately lit the fire within me.”
He added that after one night discussing the state of Hollywood, he and Dowling decided to start making their own horror film.
“We were both angry about the state of Hollywood and the state of film, and then I started writing,” he said.
M. Spooky said he plans to stay true to the genre by using as many practical effects as he can, which includes the film's monster and all the blood, as he wants it to be “as real as possible”.
Filming has already started with M Spooky instantly to capture some of the story on 75 millimeter film stock, which is synonymous with the genre in the 1980s.
When asked why he decided Ayrshire would be the perfect fit for his film, M. Spooky said the area has “mystery laid deep into the land” as he added: “I felt like it was perfect for what I was trying to do”.
Dowling said he met M Spooky while he was doing other work in the horror industry and that, admittedly, the pitch for the film was “simple,” but it was something he knew he wanted to work on instantly.
“It’s a really nice throwback to classic horror in every sense,” Dowling said.
“It is a throwback to the sort of B movies of the eighties, the creatures that were on TV all the time back then.”
He added that the film is shot “pretty indie in a lot of ways”, but added he believes it will work in their favour as it will help fit the style they are looking for.
The MothMan Cometh is entirely self-funded, M. Spooky classing it as running on a “nano budget”, but they have been overwhelmed by the local community's response to the film and offering to help.
M. Spooky said that when he was setting up for one of the film's scenes, a local sandwich shop said they were “more than happy” to offer their premises as one of the filming locations.
“It was completely unexpected, a couple of wee grannies were sitting there cooking some bacon rolls, and they went, ‘shoot your little horror movie, son, on you go’,” he said.
The MothMan Cometh is M. Spooky’s first feature-length film and he said he really wanted to make sure as much local talent was involved in the project as possible.
“I really want to go all out and showcase the local talent because there is a lot and it is not getting nearly enough light on it,” he said.
The filmmakers are hoping to have filming wrapped up in the coming weeks with their eyes on a Halloween release this year.
M. Spooky said he believes that there are a lot of Scottish horror fans and that he hopes his efforts to shoot an authentic monster horror film will resonate with the genre's fan base.
“There's such a huge horror fandom in Scotland that I think people forget about that,” he said.
