The British Horror Studio Halloween Ball, held at the company’s Kirkcaldy headquarters, was the occasion for announcements concerning new pictures, a three-year agreement with Miss Megan Tremethick, and the further development of production and editing facilities. The gathering brought together players, filmmakers and supporters for a review of work accomplished and an account of the programme now proposed.
The studio reports that six pictures are complete or approaching completion. Renovations to the round room and kitchen at its principal building were also celebrated, while work continues upon a separate facility intended to provide editing and sound-editing suites for The B-Team.
An Agreement with Miss Tremethick
The agreement between Miss Megan Tremethick and the British Horror Studio provides for a slate of pictures over three years. These are to draw upon notable female figures from literature and history, adapted as arthouse horror dramas and produced by The B-Team and Hex Studios within the studio’s wider family.
The arrangement recognises Miss Tremethick’s importance to the company and gives a longer prospect to a collaboration already extending across performance and direction. It was further announced that she would be involved in an imminent sequel, the title of which remains under embargo, and would write and direct another picture scheduled for December 2026.
Miss Tremethick attended in a costume recalling the more formidable ladies of the James Bond pictures, with an eye patch and pale fur. Mr. Michael Brewster had arranged a portrait set with lighting drawn from the Hollywood practice of the nineteen-forties. Further photographs from those sittings are to be issued in due course.
The Year’s Pictures
The six titles cited as complete or nearing completion were Black Chariot, Spoiling You, Mr. Whispers, Meow, Chronicles of Depression and The Slave and the Torturer. The distinction between completion and impending completion is material: this was an account of production progress, rather than a statement that all six pictures had reached general release.
The first three received premieres at the Romford Horror Film Festival. Spoiling You, Miss Tremethick’s directorial debut, introduces the disturbing Miss Mutter, an ASMR performer. The B-Team’s Mr. Whispers has also been the subject of a recent report in these pages.
Mr. Dorian Todd’s work upon Meow included an earlier work-in-progress screening at Romford. Progress upon The Slave and the Torturer, for which a Kickstarter campaign is approaching, was likewise acknowledged. Readers may consult our earlier account of the proposed sequel and its returning players.
Opportunities for New Directors
The B-Team is described by the studio as its avant-garde wing, intended to give unusual horror subjects an opportunity for development and to enable artists already associated with the company to undertake greater responsibility. Among the productions discussed was Place of Execution, the directorial debut of Mr. Tom Stanton, with Mr. Novarro Ramon, Mr. Callum Alexander Wright and Mr. Steve Budgell.
Mr. Lawrie Brewster is to direct Daguerreotype in March 2027. Its subject is postmortem photography. A collaboration between Miss Sarah Daly and Miss Ayvianna Snow will mark Miss Daly’s feature-film directorial debut; its title cannot yet be disclosed. Miss Snow’s establishment of Snow Pictures and the feature The Nice Ones were reported here last month.
Other plans included a tentative Amicus Productions picture for the summer of 2027 and a further B-Team film to be directed by Mr. Todd in collaboration with Mr. Sam McMillan. These proposals remain subject to further particulars. Mr. Andrew Gourley and Mr. Craig Seath are developing a separate project to pitch to The B-Team.
Mr. Brewster also spoke warmly of Miss Julia Quayle’s abilities in comedy and writing. The possibility of a future pairing with Miss Tremethick, in something of the spirit of Arsenic and Old Lace, was raised as a prospect, rather than announced as a production.
Among the visiting filmmakers was Mr. Lewis Baillie, whose Community Theatre has been shortlisted for the BAFTA Scotland Short Film and Animation award. The distinction was recognised in a Scottish Parliament motion. The studio hopes to work with Mr. Baillie upon a future non-fiction project.
The Premises and a Return to Publishing
The proposed editing and sound suites form part of a continuing renovation of The B-Team’s own facility. At the main building, completion of the round room and kitchen was marked alongside improvements to the exterior. The next works are intended to extend through all public reception areas.
Guests passing through the newly repainted entrance doors found the British Horror Studio artwork framed above Victorian Minton tiles, with a glimpse of the round room beyond. Blue light upon the exterior lent the entrance an appropriately nocturnal character. A corridor, lit with fairy lights, led towards a further studio banner.
Within the round room, restored chairs, a sideboard and a Green Man buffet cart testified to the work of the team. Quartz-marble tops had been fitted to the restored furniture; new speakers and a vintage microphone completed the arrangements. Mr. Paul William Kelly, Big Irish Tom, Mr. Brewster and Miss Daly attended to the final preparations. The neighbouring kitchen offered a quieter retreat for conversation, a provision which Mr. Brewster considered particularly valuable to the team’s neurodivergent members and to guests wishing to rest from the music.
Miss Daly is also preparing a book which would mark a return to publishing for the studio and its first venture outside horror. The title and subject remain under embargo. It was described at the gathering as a deeply personal work.
Players and Friends of the Studio
Miss Isabella Bonfante, actress and filmmaker, was among those who had travelled to Kirkcaldy for the occasion. Miss Snow came from London with her partner, Daniel. Their presence, and that of the Mexican actress Miss Sharon Puchot Diaz, reflected the gathering’s reach beyond the studio’s immediate circle.
Miss Tia Maria, lately seen as a demonic creature in Miss Daly’s Hypnos segment for For We Are Many 2, attended in a blue gown of the nineteen-fifties. She was accompanied by Miss Charlotte Marshalsey, whose own training in performance may yet lead to work before the studio’s cameras.
Mr. Brewster, Mr. Kelly, Mr. Wright and Mr. Michael Brewster paused for a group photograph before the room filled. Other familiar faces included Mr. Stephen Correll, remembered as the Chancellor in The Reign of Queen Ginnarra; Mr. Gourley, whom Mr. Brewster affectionately compares to Peter Cushing; Miss Jordanna Stowe; and the make-up and effects artist Miss Rachel Gebbie.
Mr. Todd attended with filmmaker Miss Natasha Livingston. Miss Quayle joined the company between performances, while Mr. Novarro Ramon entertained guests beside a buffet which had by then suffered the expected depredations. Emma, Rhiannon Crothers and Carrie Todd were also among those welcomed.
Music, and Some Less Formal Proceedings
Outside stood Poppy, the Wolseley seen in Black Chariot, brought out for the evening by Kiwi Neil. The car supplied a suitable introduction to a gathering whose formal opening was accompanied by music from classic cinema, including scores by Alfred Newman and Bernard Herrmann.
Later, the company turned to dancing and karaoke. Mr. Wright served as master of ceremonies and contributed songs associated with Elvis Presley. Carrie Todd and Miss Jacklyn Calvard, actress, photographer, model and singer, were among those who performed. The later proceedings appear to have been conducted with rather less restraint than the speeches.
Carrie Todd’s local promotion had also assisted the earlier screening of Amicus Productions’ In the Grip of Terror at Kirkcaldy’s Adam Smith Theatre. Thanks were extended to the studio’s supporters, including Rhiannon Crothers, Nathan Wellers and his family, whose help, with that of others, had contributed to repairs to the damaged roof.
The ball thus served a practical as well as a social purpose. It afforded the company an opportunity to acknowledge the labour behind its pictures, to receive those who sustain it, and to set out the work still before it. Further production particulars and Mr. Michael Brewster’s portrait photographs are expected in due course.
For a contemporary account of the evening, with colour photographs, readers may turn to Mr. Guthrie’s companion report in Amicus Horror. Mr. Brewster’s own account is available to the British Horror Studio’s Patreon community.
Robert Guthrie
Arts Correspondent, British Horror Chronicle
