Each year amongst the line-up of seventy odd films at Pigeon Shrine FrightFest sits the First Blood strand. The selection of programming, curated by FrightFest co-director Ian Rattray, celebrates the best new talent in working within the horror genre in the United Kingdom. This year’s offerings present FrightFest attendees with a wide variety across the genre spectrum, from science-fiction invasion (Touchdown), to sultry psychological thriller (7 Keys), and the Welsh mystery driven slasher, Scopophobia, from writer and director Aled Owen.
Scopophobia is the extreme, irrational fear of being looked at. Four girls, Rhiannon (Catrin Jones), Mia (Ellen Jane-Thomas), Erin (Emma Stacey), and Sam (Bethany Williams-Potter), return home to a ghost town, but find themselves being followed. Is it by someone who knows what they did, or just their guilty conscience? However, there’s more to each girl than meets the eye. From Melyn Pictures, inspired by the Giallo films of Italy. Giallo translates to Yellow, which in Welsh is Melyn. First-time director Aled Owen uses the titular fear of being stared at and relates it to the medium of film itself in an exciting genre crossbreed of slasher, horror and Hitchcockian thriller within a gore-fest trench coat.
Aled Owen’s Scopophobia will debut at FrightFest and there couldn’t be a better placed audience for this film. Full of horrors, both visible and psychological, Owens borrows from the Hitchcock guide to creating tension, before throwing in some fun Giallo elements. The mixture blends together brilliantly and is sure to please the genre loving crowd. Ahead of Scopohobia’s debut, THN were able to speak with both Aled Owen and lead actress Catrin Jones. We discussed the film’s creation and hopes for its reception, amongst many other topics.
Scopophobia screens at Pigeon Shrine FrightFest on Saturday 24th August. More information on the film and tickets can be found on the FrightFest website.
