Scream To Screen

Episode 7: Alexander J Farrell on going from documentaries to working with a legendary producer

In this episode of the Scream To Screen horror podcast, Chris and Lucy are joined by the brilliant Alexander J. Farrell. After moving to LA, Alex began his career in documentary filmmaking with REFUGEE, a ground-breaking feature length documentary exploring the perilous journey of Syrian refugees, produced by the team behind Fahrenheit 9/11 and Bowling for Columbine. He followed this up with MAKING A KILLING, where he exposes the injustices that medical insurance companies in the US have tried to keep secret for over 45 years.  Alex then co-wrote and directed his first horror feature film, THE BEAST WITHIN, a mystery horror-thriller starring Kit Harington, which won the prestigious L’Ecran Fantastique award at Fantasia 2024. That same year, he also co-wrote British teen romantic comedy film HOW TO DATE BILLY WALSH for Amazon Studios. Alex is such an exciting filmmaker to watch, and alongside the incredible CV we’ve already listed, he also has several TV and film productions in development. One of these, HIDE AND DON’T SPEAK, is currently filming now, produced by the horror legend Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, who you might know from films like INSIDIOUS, SINISTER and LONGLEGS. We hope you enjoy our chat with Alex!

Episode 6: James Swanton on The First Omen, Frankenstein's Creature, & crafting terrifying monsters

In this episode of the Scream To Screen horror podcast, Chris and Lucy are joined by actor, writer and stage performer James Swanton. Horror fans will know James from a wide range of roles across stage, film and television – including recent appearances in The First Omen and Apartment 7A, as well as frequent collaborations with director Rob Savage on films like HOST and DASHCAM. Alongside his screen work, James has built a really distinctive career in theatre, particularly through one-man shows and classic Victorian ghost stories. His solo performances of Dickens and adaptations like Frankenstein’s Creature have earned huge praise, and he’s become a staple of seasonal ghost storytelling in the UK. He’s also starred in BBC horror, including Inside No.9 and Mark Gatiss’s A Ghost Story for Christmas. We talk to James about how he built a career from fringe theatre and solo shows into major horror productions, how his love of classic literature and monsters feeds into his screen work, and what it’s like to carve out a niche as a modern horror performer. We hope you enjoy our chat with James!

Episode 5: Gemma Hurley on Host, Dashcam, & building a career as a genre writer

In this episode of the Scream To Screen horror podcast, Chris and Lucy are joined by the wildly talented writer and producer Gemma Hurley. Some horror fans might already know Gemma as the co-writer of Zoom found footage horror HOST, which was made with incredible speed in order to be released in July of 2020, just four months after the UK entered lockdown. She collaborated with this same team – co-writer Jed Shepherd and director Rob Savage – as exec producer on the action- and horror-packed DASHCAM, produced by Blumhouse and premiering at TIFF and LFF in 2021. Since then, Gemma has branched out into TV, where she was part of the writers room and wrote an episode for tech horror RED ROSE in 2022, and she has further TV projects in development, including a YA folk horror with Working Title Productions! Gemma started her career like Lucy did, in theatre, and you'll hear about her journey from stage to screen, the big difference between TV and film projects, what it’s like to be part of a writers’ room, and, of course, what it was like bringing HOST to life! We hope you enjoy our chat with Gemma!

Episode 4: Toby Poser & John Adams

In this episode of the Scream To Screen horror podcast, Chris and Lucy are joined by Toby Poser and John Adams! Toby and John partners both in life and in filmmaking, who alongside their daughters Zelda and Lulu make up the Adams family (no, not that Adams family). Following careers that spanned acting, modelling, music, and even reality TV, in their 40s with two young children, Toby and John decided to shoot their first film, Rumblestrips, which won Best No Budget Feature Film Award at the Berlin Independent Film Festival. That was in 2013, and in the 13 years since (unlucky for some – but definitely not for them!) The Adams Family have continued to prove that they are masters in independent filmmaking. It was their fifth film, The Hatred, a Civil War set ghost story starring their daughter Zelda, which was their first horror feature, and since then they haven’t looked back. Under their production company Wonder Wheel Productions, their subsequent horror features: The Deeper You Dig, Hellbender, Where the Devil Roams, Hell Hole, and Mother of Flies have featured at incredible festivals including FrightFest, Fantastic Fest, Fantasia, and released on platforms like Shudder.  Alongside their impressive film roster, Toby and John are also incredibly generous artists: attending festivals, talking to fellow indie filmmakers, encouraging others to follow their path. We really hope you enjoy our chat with Tony and John! And if you do, we'd be supremely grateful if you could give us a 5 star rating and/or leave a comment wherever you get your podcasts, to help us on our merry way. Scream To Screen is hosted by Lucy Foster and Chris Nials. It's edited by Elsie Watkinson, our music is composed by Andrew Clegg, and it's produced and distributed by The Independent Horror Society.

Episode 3: Axelle Carolyn

In this episode of the Scream To Screen horror filmmaking podcast, Lucy and Chris are joined by Axelle Carolyn, who has an incredible CV as actor, horror journalist, writer, producer, and director! As a film writer, she contributed to platforms like Fangoria and IGN, and has even published her own horror books such as It Lives Again! Horror Movies in the New Millennium. Now, she is best known for her work behind the camera. Her feature debut as writer and director was with the horror movie Soulmate in 2013. Since then, Axelle’s career has thrived in both film and TV. She’s written for shows like The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and directed on multiple TV shows including Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Bly Manor and The Midnight Club, as well as horror series Them and American Horror Story. If you’re listening to this episode on release date, then today, March 26th, a new horror TV series that Axelle directed on, Something Very Bad is Going to Happen, has just been released on Netflix. This has been exec produced by the Duffer Brothers, right off the back of their massive success with Stranger Things. We really hope you enjoy our chat with Axelle! And if you do, we'd be supremely grateful if you could give us a 5 star rating and/or leave a comment wherever you get your podcasts, to help us on our merry way. Scream To Screen is hosted by Lucy Foster and Chris Nials. It's edited by Elsie Watkinson, our music is composed by Andrew Clegg, and it's produced and distributed by The Independent Horror Society.