20/10/2026
Well I was up until 3AM again last night editing Fanatical.
It is looking superb to be honest.
Colour graded the footage shot of Matt ( Alan H***e ) and Corinne ( Margaret Flo McEwan ) wandering into places they really ought to steer clear of, and meeting a sticky end.
I have 75% mixed the score and sound effects for these scenes, and once the remaining 25% is done, and I run the whole thing for final checks and clean up, I think we will have a finished feature film!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yee-haw!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We have clocked in around 102 minutes, so this is a little epic.
I do hope audiences will appreciate the slow build and character development I have aimed for here.
So many films just throw you in with 20 deaths before the opening credits roll, and you don't know anything about the victims or give a s**t if they live or die.
Our movie slowly lets you into the world of the Cine Macabre Horror Club, it's longtime members who are close friends, and how they all interact with each other.
I hope audiences will relate to these characters, have some empathy with them, and will be engaged in what happens to them as their supposedly innocent weekend in Whitstable to honour their idol Peter Cushing, turns more and more sour and diabolical.
I think this tiny budgeted movie will really show people that if you want to do something enough, you can find a way, whether you have a budget or not.
I chose not to go down the crowd funder route because I wasn't sure I could deliver a polished enough product that people could invest in to be honest.
That's my own personal insecurities coming out there. So deciding to fund it all alone, meant that it would either succeed or fail on my shoulders, and I wouldn't feel obliged to owe anybody anything for not fulfilling on pledges.
The other side of the coin of course is that with no money, we had no way to afford a professional cinematographer, no sound recording manager, and nobody to make professional makeup effects.
Everything you will see on screen with regard to camera work has been done by either myself or Margaret, and the editing, colour grading ( after a Youtube tutorial ) music mixing, practical effects, and props, are all from me.
Luckily our cast have thrown themselves into this project knowing it's humble background, and have jumped at the chance to be in a full feature film with a decent main character role for a change. It has been a great learning curve for everyone.
And we must have done something right, as the organisers of the Horror-On-Sea film festival have kindly selected us for a showing on Sunday 24th January 2027 at 10:00AM. I hope to see many of you there to share in this bit of fun.
Chris Walker - Director - Fanatical.
