How many times have you seen something out of the corner of your eye but when you turn to look, it’s gone?  I know it’s not just me this happens to but it seems to be happening more and more.

For me, I sometimes see a dark shape glimpsed out of the corner of my eye. Sometimes it’s just sudden movement on the periphery of my vision, sometimes and this is really creepy, I’m just aware that there’s something / someone standing there watching me.

The really strange thing is that I keep seeing the same thing in the same place time and again.

I keep glimpsing this “ghost” on the periphery of my vision standing in the doorway of my kitchen.

I know what you‘re thinking. Maybe it‘s a trick of the light. Or maybe I’m tired. But I’ve seen it from different positions in my kitchen, always when I’m turned side on, always out of the corner of my eye.

I haven’t seen my doorway ghost that often, maybe once a week, or three times a month. But whenever it happens, I get completely freaked out by it.

What’s more, I had a friend with a baby come around the other day. The baby crawled over to the door of my kitchen, got to his feet then held his arms up above his head, looking up at the doorway, as though he wanted to be picked up by whoever it was that was standing there – but there wasn’t anyone there. Just the doorway ghost. Very freaky. And the baby stood like that for ages, getting increasingly agitated, wanting to be picked up by the ghost until his mum rescued him.

So what’s that all about???

And I wouldn’t be a horror director if I didn’t think this, any suggestions for how to film it?

I’ve always thought that there are unseen entities co-existing alongside us in our lives, that when you walk into a room there are other things in that room with us. But I’ve always thought these entities are doing their own thing in another realm, that they cannot see or interact with us, that the only times they cross over into our present day existence is when we try to contact the dead, or as the old pagan (I think?) tradition says, in particular “thin places” where we are much closer to the dead.

Kshitij Sharma left a great comment to my last post – “What makes me curious is… are there actually unseen forces hiding in the shadows waiting for us to discover them or is it our mind playing tricks on our soul? Either ways, we are not alone. Never.”

Which got me thinking. What if Kshitij is right – that these unseen entities hiding in the darkness are actually desperate to be discovered. What if they are constantly sending our signals, reaching out to us, trying to be noticed – and for almost all of the time, they are ignored. And what if it’s not so much want to be discovered, that they need to be discovered as they can’t move on to another dimension until they have been acknowledged. So in fact, their desperate pleas tragically fall upon our deaf ears and our blind eyes.

But how would we know? What can we do?

Because what if the reverse is true – that actually the entities are quite happy existing in this other realm and that they don’t want to be contacted, that they want to be left alone – and in fact by us contacting the dead makes them angry or scared even.

What does anyone else think?

From now on, it’s no longer just my film, it’s everyone’s film, it’s out in the public domain for people to say what they like about it. Some might like it, some might hate it, some might think there’s not enough gore for a horror movie, others might think that there’s just the right amount of horror / jumps / suspense, some might like the twist at the end, some might not get the twist. In fact, my twin brother phoned me up as there’s been a question posted on Yahoo Answers asking about the twist ending and he wanted to post an answer giving the inside track from the director’s twin! I was horrified – I thought that was a real cheat.

I do care about what people think but ultimately, I don’t want to get hung up reading movie reviews and I’m determined not to be obsessive about checking what ratings people give it. It’s a film, I’m proud of it and I hope that it finds an audience.

But I do feel as though I’m a proud parent watching my child venture out into the outside world for the first time without me. My logical head says I need to cut those apron strings and I need to sit back and watch from a distance how my “child” fares. But my emotional side wants to make sure it’s ok, that it’s not bullied, I want to actively write responses to online reviews and to be proactively involved in those oh so important first few formative days / weeks/ months.

But we will see which side of me wins out. Whether I do cave in and become the overly protective parent or whether I heed to that age old saying, if you love someone, you have to let them go…

devils curse poster

For the US release by Lionsgate next week of our horror movie The Devil’s Curse (the American title for Credo), Alex and I recently did an interview for movie news and review website – Bumscorner – click HERE to read the full interview.

It’s quite a long interview with a few behind the scenes snaps (shame that I look particularly ropey in the stills!) but hopefully it gives an idea of how we got the film made and the story of the film so far.

Let me know what you think!

This weekend is my thinking weekend.

My horizons have completely shifted after going to the Power to the Pixel conference this week and learning all about digital film distribution and the power of the internet.

Power To The Pixel

Every conversation I had with people directly related to Credo and also to all my other projects. Sparks were igniting in my head all the time. Ideas were racing.

Suddenly I realise that I am completely in control of my own film-making destiny. Anything is possible but I need to be focused and I need to up my game.

There is so much I want to do in the next year.

I want to get Credo launched in the UK, I want to do a webisode series, I want to launch a factual series that I’ve made this year, I want to make my next low-budget horror feature which is an interactive internet-based feature film and I want to make a bigger budget psychological thriller.

Ok, I realise that might be a bit too ambitious to do over the next year, so maybe that’s my two year plan.

But before I can do anything, I need to figure out a cunning plan and to prioritise.

So what do I want to do and when??

A new day, a new blog and the start of a new online presence.

I am the director of a horror film called CREDO which is being released next month on DVD by Lionsgate in the US (it’s been retitled THE DEVIL’S CURSE in the US).

It’s a really exciting time for me as I can’t wait to see what an audience thinks of the film. Yesterday it received it’s first review and you know what, it’s a great review. Wow. The film I’ve worked so hard on for the last two years is liked and what’s more, it’s being recommended.