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Escape, is a new survival thriller with horror elements that is helmed by director Howard J. Ford, and stars Louis James. The film and is a rollercoaster ride about a trafficking ring and ten young women in a fight for survival that is not to be missed.

To celebrate the release of the movie, Love Horror’s Gavin Brown caught up with both Howard and Louis, who kindly gave us time to talk about Escape and the making of the film, on Louis’ wedding day no less! They also talked about the pair’s upcoming cannibal film River Of Blood, and even discussed Howard’s horror titles The Dead and The Lockdown Hauntings. And what interview with love horror would be complete withthough a conversation about and Howard’s horror influences?

Love Horror: Your latest film, Escape, is coming to streaming very soon. How did the making of the film go for both of you?...

Escape

Independent film director Howard Ford's next two feature films, Escape and Dark Game, revolve around characters in captivity. In Escape, written and directed by Ford, ten women fight back in the desert against the traffickers that have kidnapped them. Meanwhile, DarkGame, written by Tom George, Gary Grant and Niall Johnson, centres on a game show on the dark web, where the participants are captives forced to play for their lives.

Ford is drawn to characters facing adversity, whether it be a climber stranded on a mountain fending off a group of killers above her in The Ledge or a mother on vacation in Never Let Go, who goes renegade to rescue her abducted son. Escape and Dark Game are a natural expansion of his violent cinematic universe, built around survival.

I first met Ford in-person at FrightFest 2013, when The Dead 2: India, which he co-directed...

Stars: Ksenia Islamova, Sarah Alexandra Marks, Sean Cronin, Louis James, Sophie Rankin | Written and Directed by Howard J. Ford

Escape opens with a massive burst of adrenaline. A woman running for her life across a desert landscape trips and impales herself on a sun-bleached piece of wood. Her pursuer leaves her for dead because, as he tells his boss, “She’s too damaged. Even if she lives, she’d never sell.” He should have made sure she was dead because as he looks at a map, she comes up behind him and beats his head in with a rock. Then she stabs him with his own knife and, just to make sure, puts the pickaxe in the back of his truck through his chest.

Twenty-four hours ago Tamsin (Ksenia Islamova; The Lockdown Hauntings) and her friend Karla arrived in Fuerteventura. It didn’t take long for Andras and his crew...

When Martin Scorsese is lauded with Berlin Film Festival’s Honorary Golden Bear next month, the awards ceremony will be accompanied by a screening of his 2006 film “The Departed.”

The crime thriller, which won four Oscars including best picture and director, stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson and Mark Wahlberg. The film tells the story of an Irish mob boss who plants a spy within the Massachusetts State Police just as the police assign an undercover cop to infiltrate the gang. What follows is a race to expose the other’s identity first.

The Berlinale on Wednesday also announced that Levan Akin’s “Crossing” will open this year’s Panorama section, which will focus on “bridges between lived experiences and cinematic possibilities.” “Crossing” follows an unlikely duo who travel “from Batumi, Georgia to the urban, labyrinthine Istanbul in search of a young trans woman named Tekla,” according to the fest’s description.

REinvent International Sales has boarded Howard J. Ford’s “River of Blood,” a psychological thriller that’s about to start shooting in Thailand. The company will unveil the project to buyers at the American Film Market.

The cast comprises of Joseph Millson (“Casino Royale”), Louis James (“Help”), Ella Starbuck (“Witch”), David Wayman (“The Ledge”) and Sarah A. Marks (“Witch”).

Penned by Tom Boyle, the film follows two young couples on a luxurious holiday at a jungle resort who go on a kayaking tour through the jungle and see their guide, Ritchie, disappear mysteriously.

As they search for Ritchie, the couples unwittingly wander into the perilous territory of an Indigenous tribe of cannibals known for their gruesome rituals. Their dream-vacation soon transforms into a nightmarish fight for survival on sacred land.

Ford’s credits include “The Dead,” “The Ledge,” “Never Let Go” and the horror thriller “The Lockdown Hauntings.”

Rikke Ennis,...

For a movie so transparently intended to tie up the loose ends of a long-frayed horror franchise that’s only put out prequels for the last 10 years, “Insidious: The Red Door” is a surprisingly accessible introduction to the Lambert family and their unfortunate history of demonic possession. This jolt-happy July programmer might be as dull and rusty as a nail in the coffin could possibly get without breaking apart, but “Insidious” newcomers should rest assured that they’ll be able to follow along with their friends’ exasperation.

One reason you should be able to jump in easily enough: the film starts with young Dalton (Ty Simpkins) and his dad Josh (Patrick Wilson) being hypnotized to forget everything that happened in “Insidious” and “Insidious: Chapter 2,” which effectively puts them on the same page as most of the people in the audience. For another thing, Scott Teems’ script — somehow even thinner than...

Sophie Rankin and Sarah Marks in Escape

Howard J. Ford, one of the UK’s most creative genre filmmakers, marks his 10th career movie with brutal kidnap thriller Escape, which will be launched by Gfm Film Sales at the forthcoming EFM in Berlin. The film stars Sarah Alexandra Marks, Sophie Rankin, Sean Cronin, Angela Dixon, Louis James & Glenn Salvage. Co-produced by Tamara Orlova, executive produced by Amir Moallemi & Fred Hedman. Ford describes the film as:

“…a total outlandish blast. I wanted to go back to films and filmmakers that had an impact on me growing up like Sergio Leone’s classic westerns with echoes of ‘The Hills Have Eyes’ but with a completely modern twist.

2023 also sees the release of Ford’s Darkgame, which centres on a Portland private detective, played by Ed Westwick, who heads up a task force investigating the case of numerous captives forced to play out...

Directed by Howard J Ford, the film is in post-production.

UK-based Gfm Film Sales will launch worldwide sales on Escape, the latest film from British director Howard J Ford, at next week’s European Film Market.

Gfm Film Sales has released a first look image from the film, above; promo footage will be available to distributors at EFM.

Escape is currently in post-production after a shoot on location in Spain’s Canary Islands.

The film follows 10 young women imprisoned in a makeshift dungeon. The criminal gang preparing to ship them overseas are caught unawares when some of the women break free.

A couple months ago, director Kevin Smith released his horror anthology KillRoy Was Here as an Nft. Now writer/director Jonas Odenheimer is bringing us a film that puts a horror twist on the concept of NFTs and crypto currency. The title of Odenheimer’s film is Nft, and a teaser trailer has just arrived online. You can check it out in the embed above.

Nft centers on

a group of crypto-savvy millennials who are trying to escape their 9-5s by flipping NFTs as a side hustle. After buying into a supposedly ‘cursed’ Nft collection, they begin experiencing mysterious occurrences and will now have to fight for their lives.

The film stars David Wayman (The Ledge), Mariah Nonnemacher (Terminator: Dark Fate), Durassie Kiangangu (Imperial Blue), Amelie Edwards (Neighbourhood Ties), Nobuse Jnr (South Beast), Jasmine Clark (The Wasteland of Education), newcomer Charlie Rich, and Najarra Townsend of Contracted, Wolf Mother,...

Reunites director Howard J Ford with Gfm Film Sales.

Post-production is underway on Howard J Ford’s latest thriller Darkgame starring Gossip Girl actor Ed Westwick.

Gfm Film Sales has boarded world sales rights on the film through its genre label Evolution Pictures. It will launch sales at Toronto Film Festival this week, sharing footage with buyers.

Screen can reveal an exclusive first look at the film, above.

From a script by Gary Grant and Niall Johnson, Darkgame centres on a Portland private detective heading up the task force investigating the case of six people forced to play out a...

From 2010’s The Dead and its sequel to 2015’s Never Let Go, Howard J Ford has formed a habit of cracking out intense, highly distinctive thrillers featuring terrific stunt work, and The Ledge will not disappoint his fans. It begins with a simple but powerful premise. Kelly (Brittany Ashworth) is on a climbing holiday with her friend Sophie (Anaïs Parello) when they meet a group of young men. Kelly is tired and goes to bed early, but Sophie wants to stay up drinking with them. When things get out of hand and Sophie is killed, Kelly, who decided to go looking for her, captures the act on her camera, but is seen doing so. There’s no way she can outpace four guys, all taller than her, on the ground, so the only thing she can go is to grab her climbing gear and go up.

What follows is a.

Brittany Ashworth in The Ledge Photo: Signature Entertainment

A lone witness to a shocking crime. A group of young men determined to prevent her from sharing her story. She can’t outpace them on the ground. There’s no-one else around from whom to seek help. She has only one way out: to head straight up the mountain beside them and trust in her superior climbing skills to give her the edge.

This is the set-up for Howard J Ford’s The Ledge, which screened as part of the Frightfest strand at the 2022 Glasgow Film Festival, and if you’ve followed his career to date, you’ll know that you can expect some thrilling action scenes powered by impressive stunt work. When we meet up to discuss the film he begins by thanking me for a review I wrote of one of his previous films, Never Let Go, and pointing...

High concept, tiny budget thrillers are ironically, something of a cliff edge for filmmakers; they’re often either a breeding ground for clever innovation, or they totally fall apart at the seams with wild intentions but not enough resources to follow through properly. And while Howard J. Ford’s The Ledge definitely boasts a meaty genre set-up that makes for a killer hook, actually pulling it off ends up much harder than it looks.

Experienced climber Kelly (Brittany Ashworth) finds her gorgeous European mountain-climbing vacation taking a turn for the nightmarish, when her best friend Sophie winds up dead at the hands of a gang of hyper-masculine city bros. With a video of the attack in her rucksack and only one escape route, she makes for the nearest cliff, soon finding herself trapped without supplies, suspended hundreds of feet in the air, and with the killers giving chase.

It’s...

In his latest video review, Kevin sits down to discuss the new Howard J. Ford flick The Ledge, a scintillating thriller set on a cliff face that pushes its female lead to the extreme – which screens this weekend as part of Frightfest Glasgow 2022.

A rock climbing adventure between two friends turns into a terrifying nightmare. After Kelly captures the murder of her best friend on camera, she becomes the next target of a tight-knit group of friends who will stop at nothing to destroy the evidence and anyone in their way. Desperate for her safety, she begins a treacherous climb up a mountain cliff and her survival instincts are put to the test when she becomes trapped with the killers just 20 feet away.

You can also check out an interview with The Ledge director Howard J. Ford right here.

Ahead of FrightFest’s UK premiere of The Ledge at the Glasgow Film Festival, director Howard Ford talks about how he nearly lost his life to a mountain fall, reviving The Dead and playing ‘Russian Roulette’.

Your latest film, The Ledge, is receiving its UK premiere at FrightFest Glasgow 2022. Excited, nervous?

Well it’s always an exciting time with FrightFest and I do love the big screen with a crowd as that’s why I got into making films in the first place. With ‘The Ledge’ I have tried to frame it to work well as cinema in its traditional manner as I wanted the shots and mountain scenery to breathe. So it’ll be exciting to share that immersive experience.

The Ledge has been described as a “suspense-filled, deadly cat and mouse game thriller set on a mountain”. Happy with that?

I’m more than happy with the description.

The UK’s No.1 horror & fantasy film festival is back in person at the Glasgow Film Theatre, which for 17 glorious years has been FrightFest’s second home, as part of the internationally renowned Glasgow Film Festival.

From Thursday 10th March to Saturday 12th March, FrightFest opens its terror trove to present twelve tasty treasures; an extravaganza of the dark arts, embracing the latest genre discoveries from around the globe, spanning eight countries in three continents, which includes World, International and UK premieres.

Alan Jones, co-director of FrightFest commentated:

It’s with great delight and with every single bloody bell and werewolf whistle available, we can proudly announce that FrightFest Glasgow 2022 will be an awesome in-person event featuring the best new fantasy, horror and thriller movies, plus all the expected trimmings.

Despite the gloom and doom being spoken about the future of the film industry in general, it’s heartening to...

Why do we watch revenge movies? An often argued reason is catharsis. Revenge movies have a unique way of dredging up cultural anxieties and stabbing them in the back, so when the lights come up, we can feel safer about contemporary fears and issues. Howard J. Ford has managed to do this in crisp, low-budget ways with “Never Let Go” (kidnapped girls) and “The Dead” and “The Dead 2” (autoimmune viruses).

Continue reading ‘The Ledge’ Review: Howard J. Ford’s Latest Revenge Thriller Lacks Any Sort Of Tension at The Playlist.

Running away from a villain is familiar in thrillers and horror films. These scenes take place primarily on foot, in open or enclosed spaces, and often in the dark to intensify the stakes and possible deadly outcome for the film’s protagonist – but they always put up a fight. It isn’t often we see a chase executed in such a unique way like in The Ledge. Howard J. Ford’s film sees a woman’s life literally hang in the balance as she climbs the face of the 11 thousand foot Dolomite Mountains to escape the hunters on her tail.

Gearing up for an epic climb is Kelly (Brittany Ashworth) and Sophie (Anaïs Parello). An opening shot of the Italian mountain range accompanied by an energetic score emphasizes what a thrilling feat this will be for them, but that’s shattered when a group of guys shows up. Josh (Ben Lamb...

Exclusive: Gfm Evolution to launch The Ledge at Cannes.

UK production outfit Evolution Pictures is plotting The Ledge, the latest feature from Never Let Go and The Dead director Howard J Ford.

Set in the Italian Dolomites, the action thriller follows a lone female climber who finds herself trapped on the face of a mountain as she is goaded by a group of young male climbers who seem intent on killing her.

Sales outfit Gfm Evolution will launch the project to buyers at Cannes.

Rod Smith and Edoardo Bussi will produce for Evolution Pictures and Italy’s Videa Spa will provide local production services. Tom Boyle has written the screenplay.

Casting is underway with Lucy Hellier at Independent Talent Group and production is set to start in September 2017.

Director Ford commented: ”I’m incredibly excited about The Ledge; I want to grab everyone who sits down to watch this film and pull them to places they have...