The accessibility of digital video has led to a kind of low-budget horror renaissance, and the home-video market is filling up with independently produced and distributed horror movies - many are utter crap, but some are nothing short of brilliant. To elevate a film above the SOV rabble requires vision, talent - and above all, balls. Fortunately, British filmmaker Alex Chandon's got all of the above, as evidenced by his ultra-gory cult hit CRADLE OF FEAR, which recently hit DVD in the U.S. through Image Entertainment. I had a little chat with Alex about his blood-drenched cinematic vision.

I remember reading an enthusiastic review of your early shorts "Bad Karma" and "Drillbit" something like ten years ago. How long have you been making films?

Well, they were 1991 and 1992... fruits of my anarchic art school/painting degree, and they were my first 'proper' efforts. But I'd been tinkering with Super 8mm cameras since I was about 12, 10 years before BAD KARMA! I saw EVIL DEAD when I was 14 and it changed my life. That was the one that really inspired me to live in shit for years struggling to make it. I'm getting there.

Cradle of Filth fans know your work on several of the band's promo videos. When did you first hook up with Dani Filth and the gang, and what led to the concept for CRADLE OF FEAR?

First met 'em in late 1998, I believe, when they needed a director for their first ever promo (From The Cradle To Enslave). We got on like a house on fire. Me and Dani clicked especially well... a similar fascination for the macabre, the artistic... for sick perfection and theatrical flourishes. A morbidly mutual friendship developed, and spawned into the film itself.

Was it always planned as a Filth feature?

Yup. From The Cradle.... was released on a video as PANDAEMONEON (out on DVD now, I think) with 2 versions of the vid and a documentary I did and some live footage... it sold almost 100,000 VHS copies for 'em! We didn’t get any of that (fair enough), but it did show the potential for a Filth-related film. Initially we wanted to (and still want to, if anyone at Sony is listening!) make a proper CRADLE OF FILTH film... a sick-rock opera... a double-album and themed film where the band are HUGE demons from another dimension destroying millions on earth. It would be epic-ly sick. But it would cost a bit. It didn't happen... and the band's rise and rise to fame meant it was pretty impossible logistically and legally to make a film around them and their music... but that didn't stop us from using the band as actors, and licensing a few tunes. So a film starring Dani was born... and the anthology idea seemed the best way to work around his limited availability and stuff. The band and their management have been involved, and been brilliantly supportive and helpful from the start. I would love to do a sequel; I know Dani would as well. Or maybe that "Demon Stomping People" film... a 'proper' Filth Feature!

Are you slated to direct any upcoming promo videos from Filth's new album?

Well, I wasn't approached for that first one for BABYLON AD... I won't tell you what I think of it, apart to say I'm pissed off people think I did it! Dani wants me to direct the promo for DEVIL WOMAN, which isn't on the album but WAS recorded. A lot depends on the album's success... it sounds fucking great, and if anyone can make 'em big (they deserve to be... Dani works like a cunt to keep things together and valid!), then Sony can. I'll forgive 'em a few 'soft' promos if it gets the masses into the REAL Filth to follow... only time will tell. I'd love to help get 'em banned again one day though!

So much of the crap on the horror market today is made by people who don't even watch horror films, or don't have the balls to try and scare their audience. Did you consciously attack that attitude with this film?

Yup. The only good horror films these days are either no-budget stuff (underground USA and Germany are prolific), or excellent Eastern films: VERSUS, EVIL DEAD TRAP, SPLATTER and so many more really show what the West should be doing but ain't. I've never seen so much shit.... RESIDENT WANK, 28 SHITS LATER, FINAL ARSE-DESTINATION, THE FUCKING YANK RING etc., ad-boring-infintum. I wanted to create a throwback to sleazy '70s and '80s horror, where sex 'n' violence got bums on seats and made profits. Gore for gore's sake... sleaze for god's sake... sickness, not slickness... and real make-up fx and blood tubes, not CGI wank. (Okay, I used a bit... but sparingly and effictively... the 'knife-through-the-cheek' has Hollywood FX artists stumped! Thick idiots! No imagination... ruined by big budgets!) As you can tell the state of affairs pisses me off. And when an AMAZING HORROR film IS made in the USA, no one gets to hear about it. I'm talking about SESSION NINE - the scariest thing I've seen in years! The reason we don't hear about it? 'Cos none of the majors/studios was involved, so it can't get shown anywhere. You know what will happen? Tom Cunt Cruise will buy the original, destroy the negative and remake it as the biggest piece of WANK since he fucked up that remake of that decent Spanish film. And I have NO faith in George Romero's new zombie pic; it will be shit... we all know it will.

FEAR is clearly the work of a dedicated horror fan. Your lighting scheme reminded me a lot of Argento, and I saw a connection to the Amicus horror anthologies of the '70s. What films and filmmakers inspired you the most?

Shit... so many inspired me in so many ways. Yeah, Argento's lighting and camera-work and music and hard-violence; Romero (when he was God) zombies and Savini gore; Fulci's excess; sick fucking Italian exploitation stuff; mondo movies for that 'real' edge I like; EVIL DEAD for everything, and BAD TASTE for... everything... and, er... RE-ANIMATOR for... you guessed it, everything. Those last three have sick humor as integral elements, and I've carried that across. You can get away with so much more sickness with humor. I couldn't make I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE for instance... I ain't a fuckin' sick freak! But I've just written a script which is a homage to Polanski's REPULSION, surreal and quite bleak. Not funny; frightening. That's a direction I wanna explore - with gore and sex, of course! Oh yeah... those '70s anthologies! I saw TALES FROM THE CRYPT aged about 10... then ALL the others. Loved 'em then, love 'em now. Those and CREEPSHOW were a BIG inspiration when it came to how to do plot development and characterizations for the short stories.

In addition to writing and directing, you also edited the film yourself. What kind of equipment did you use?

My Pentium 2 PC with Windows 98, bought a few years ago, on Adobe Premiere... which I still love as an editing system. A lot of the digital FX were done on After Effects. My system was well configured by an excellent UK outfit (DVC based in Hove, Brighton!). It's as fast as fuck and never crashes... well... less than AVIDS and G4's I've used!

You initially sold the uncut, unrated CRADLE OF FEAR exclusively through your own website. Now that it's seeing wider distribution, have you had to deal with censorship issues in different countries, or at home?

The uncut release in the UK was a surprise to me. I’ve been told by an insider at the BBFC it went through on a 'good-day,' whatever that means... but they missed the various scenes that PURPOSELY flout THEIR guidelines - scenes I expected to be cut, leaving the website release as the only UNCUT version. But they passed it, and I was overjoyed... after the shock wore off. It's gotta be one of the sickest films in BLOCKBUSTERS!!! In USA it's just been released (by Image) UNRATED, therefore UNCUT. The same with Australia. It's been banned in Ireland, and some countries' customs refuse its entry! Which is cool. If I do a sequel, or similar type of gore-fest (which I'm desperate to), I will attempt to be more hardcore! I've been told the BBFC are especially wary of animals fucking arses... might try and write that into a scene.

FEAR has reared its head at several film festivals over the past year or so, and it's building a cult following. What kind of feedback have you been receiving from horror fans?

Absolutely excellent. We get tons of e-mails at the office and I've been at 4 cinema showings and 95 percent of people seem to love the film. The other 5 percent fucking hate it, but that's cool... hate is a potent medium for publicity! In the cinema, people were cheering at the gore, and in Dublin a few people walked out at the fetus-burst, which is always a bonus! It's definitely hit a nerve with people who miss this sorta horror film, I think. People are reading so much into the film - almost to the point of obsession - which I love. As the financial rewards haven't shown up yet, it's been the positive feedback from all over the world that has kept me going. We've seriously only had tiny percentage of bad feedback, and no bad reviews in mags. I've been surprised at how well received it's been in more mainstream circles: EMPIRE magazine in the UK gave it 4 stars, calling it ‘The best British gore film since HELLRAISER!’ Which was nice!

You mentioned you're hard at work getting a new project off the ground. Can you fill us in on that?

Well, there's a few... I'm not into putting all my eggs into one basket... that's if I could afford eggs! There's that Polanski homage... scary and spooky. There's some music promos... maybe a VERY SICK HORROR promo for the band NECROPHAGIA. Then there's 3 treatments for horror films - all kinda secret, plus I don't like pre-empting these things. But one is a zombie film; one is a teen/slasher/STRAW DOGS type thing; and one is bleedin' obvious... a FEAR sequel. Oh... and I've got to edit the CRADLE OF FEAR REMIX for the 2-disc DVD special I've promised to release this year (which is going TOO quick), so a couple of things looming. I'm desperate to get busy again... always wonder what it takes to get some decent funding. I see wankers getting shit films off the ground all around me... this industry sucks... but it's people like us that can change all that! Thanks for your support with this interview! And thanx to all those fellow sickos out there who have supported our worthy sick 'n' twisted cause by visiting our website and hopefully buying some of the sickness you will find there. More news on my early films will be on-line there soon as well; WWW.CRADLEOFFEAR.COM is the place to go. Dim the lites and turn up the volume on your computer! Oh... the wickedly evil soundtrack goes on sale on-line sort of now. What are you waiting for?

What can we expect to see on that upcoming FEAR Special Edition?

It'll be uber-special. I wanna do lots and lots of extras and funnies, and sick (room) secrets... it'll be worth the wait. It sounds impossible, but I'd like to make the film MORE EXTREME with different edits/inserts... we'll see. I wonder if I could slip that animal fuck scene in... hmm.

Alex, thanks very much for your time.

Thanx for the interview, and good luck with everything. All the very beast from me and the freakz at CRADLE OF FEAR. More horror is on its way from us soon, so until then.... Long Live The New Flesh.

Oh yeah... my wife wants me to ask you if she could be an extra in your next film.

Yup... she's gotta pay the air-fare though!