Cineverse is bringing the tricks and treats with the Halloween-themed comedy/horror movie Haunted Ulster Live with a release across all platforms, including Bloody Disgusting’s SCREAMBOX streaming service, on October 8th.
Haunted Ulster Live is a mockumentary horror movie similar to Ghostwatch, WNUF Halloween Special and Late Night With the Devil where a live broadcast from a haunted house goes hauntingly wrong on Halloween Night 1998. Dead Northern raves, "Ghostwatch finally meets its match with Haunted Ulster Live!"
SYNOPSIS: On Halloween, a Northern Ireland TV veteran teams up with a popular new children’s presenter to investigate poltergeist activity in a reputedly haunted house in Belfast. Light entertainment turns to horror when an unseen terror reveals itself.
The feature debut of writer-director Dominic O’Neill, the UK found footage film stars Mark Claney, Aimee Richardson, and Siobhan Kelly. O’Neill produced with Will McConnell, Rika McGowan, Paul Sinacore, and Tyler Dane Sutton.
"We’re found footage fanatics, and devotees of the genre will hopefully enjoy the faux doc chills of Haunted Ulster Live," says O’Neill. "We grew up on old Irish and British horror TV, the kind of TV that makes you want to hide behind the couch when you’re a kid! Our film is firmly rooted in ‘90s Belfast, drawing from the rich well of Irish folk stories and the conflict of that time."
"Since our world premiere at Frightfest London, the response to the film has been phenomenal," adds McConnell. "We’re delighted to work with Cineverse, Screambox, and Bloody Disgusting to bring Haunted Ulster Live to North American audiences. This is our first feature, and it wasn’t easy, so it’s an incredibly proud moment for us and hopefully the start of more to come!"
Trailer:Reconstruction movie clip:
Dominic O'Neill interview for HAUNTED ULSTER LIVE at FrightFest 2023:
HAUNTED ULSTER LIVE director Dominic O’Neill on the story behind his FrightFest First Blood film:
Dominic O'Neill Interview on Directing HAUNTED ULSTER LIVE, Halloween in Ireland, and More:
FrightFest blurb:
"Inspired by the iconic BBC series Ghostwatch, think Ulster TV meets The Blair Witch Project in Dominic O’Neill’s fusion of traditional Irish storytelling and folk horror suffused in an atmosphere of 1960s British and American horror."
Reviews:
"In order to work, the audience needs to be well-versed in the lore and broadcast of Ghostwatch [...] Although lacking the star power or real transmission components of Ghostwatch, Haunted Ulster Live has a lot of fun with its scenario. Its reliance on the audience being media literate might leave the uninitiated bemused, but for those who are keyed into the joke, Dominic O’Neill has made a rip-roaring good time." ★★★ TheHollywoodNews.com
" …the story takes some really unexpected twists and turns in the third act, and for my money, that just might be the best thing about this movie. I was on the absolute edge of my seat for the last 20 minutes or so, and my eyes were completely glued to the screen as I learned what was really going on here. That great third act cements Haunted Ulster Live as a worthy new addition to the haunted house subgenre…" HorrorObsessive.com
"An evocation of what TV used to look like, it also weaves in threads about the way the media were going – with some very tiny flash-forwards to suggest the aftermath of the events and also set up a couple of clever reversals. It has a Nigel Kneale-like attitude to what ghosts might actually be, though it takes the trouble to build an air of menace in the house – where, from the first, we get a sense that putting this psychodrama on television to share with the viewers at home is a very bad idea." JohnnyAlucard.com
" …has an awareness of its own derivativeness built in. "I know youse want to recreate this night for laughs," one character will say, "but this actually happened to me." It is that slippage between popular entertainment and lived experience, between creepy comedy and personal tragedy, that creates the contradictory layers of meaning in O’Neill’s film, where what Gerry speculates may be "a double haunting" will turn out to be rather more involuted." ProjectedFigures.com
"Haunted Ulster Live is nice to watch, its duration is more than adequate and it has good moments inside, but in the final balance, it gives the sensation of wanting to be very brainy and complex without having worked enough on it." TerrorWeekend.com ★★½ [translated from Spanish]
"While I can’t judge how well he recreated late 90s Irish TV O’Neill does do an excellent job of making the viewer feel like they’re watching a live TV show that’s going more and more off the rails as it progresses. Haunted Ulster Live starts out as enjoyably spooky Halloween entertainment and becomes progressively more frightening as it goes on. The last act lets loose and delivers a twist I certainly didn’t see coming." ★★★★ VoicesFromTheBalcony.com
Stills:
No comments:
Post a Comment