We have less than two weeks until Arrow Video FrightFest returns to its home at Cineworld Leicester Square. The event runs for five days from Thursday 26th August, and will see an abundance of horror delights screen for fans of the macabre. Its organisers are big champions of filmmaking talent at all stages of their career, and even go so far as to dedicate an entire day of Discovery Screen to their First Blood strand of programming. The First Blood strand has become a film industry watchword for those in the know wanting to discover the next great genre talent pool from the UK and Ireland. Each film shows a range of innovation and an exciting breadth of professionalism waiting to burst through into the mainstream.
One of the five films that will take over the Discovery screens on Saturday 28th August is Eric Steele’s Boy #5. The film was shot entirely in Manchester UK and was fully self-funded for a budget of under $10,000. Boy #5 wears it’s British origins with pride and tells an engaging and emotionally charged story of social worker Majorie (Laura Montgomery Bennett) whose latest charge, Nathan (Lennon Leckey), begins to display vampiric urges. Pushed to her limit, and desperate to make up for past trauma, Majorie crosses the line in her efforts to help Nathan.
Boy #5 is not only Eric’s feature film debut as a director, but also lead actor Laura Montgomery Bennett’s first time acting. It’s an incredible performance for someone with no prior experience, the naturalistic approach to the role and the production as a whole really helps to sell the idea. Given its rather interesting blend of social drama and supernatural, Boy #5 has started to gather some early buzz with Steele also being one of the shortlisted talents for the festival’s annual Rising Genre Star award. Ahead of the world premiere at FrightFest we caught up with both Eric Steele and his star Laura Montgomery Bennett to uncover more details about the project.
Boy #5 will receive its world premiere at Arrow Video FrightFest on Saturday 28th August 2021. Tickets for the screening can be purchased on the FrightFest website.
