It will be a case of deja vu for four Horsforth friends when the locally made movie ‘Trail of Splatter’ comes to streaming platforms later this year.
The 60 year olds: Ian Ray-White, Mark Standeaven, Nigel Batty and Ian Torkington met as teenagers at Horsforth School in the early 1980’s.
Lights, camera, action: Ian Ray-White, Kelly Dawn Taylor and Mark Standeaven
Together they produced and acted in a 20-minute Super 8 comedy horror film called ‘Splatter’ – a spoof of the then-popular slasher films such as ‘Friday the 13th’ and ‘Halloween’.
Now, over 40 years later the four have reunited to appear in a low budget full length feature film version of their mini masterpiece, written and directed by Ian Ray-White, now a professional actor.
“I’d always dreamed of expanding the old film into a ‘proper’ movie,” says Ian. “And only wished I’d done it earlier.”
Mark Standeaven as Norman Eclair
The four friends had kept in touch but not actually met up for many years so it really was a reunion when they started filming in the summer of 2024.
“I was amazed how easily we all stepped back into the characters we played all those years ago, it was as if we’d never been apart,” said Ian, who worked for many years in the sign industry before redundancy lead to a sudden change of career
“I’d always wanted to be an actor as a kid, but didn’t have the confidence, then when I lost my job I thought ‘what have I got to lose?’ so I signed up to an extras agency and ended up on film sets such as ‘The Darkest Hour’ and even the ‘Dad’s Army’ remake before graduating to speaking parts.”
Mark Standeaven and Ian Ray-White
It was sitting around on film sets for hours between takes which gave Ian the idea to have a crack at directing a film himself and set about raising the money to start filming.
Although “not exactly a big budget Hollywood film” says Ian, it has been accepted by the Filmhub distribution network which aims to get ‘Trail of Splatter’ onto streaming platforms such as Amazon Prime and relay.
For more information on the film, which was shot entirely in Horsforth, visit its website.
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