Police called to "torture chamber" find film crew (From The Argus)

Police called to "torture chamber" find film crew

7:14pm Sunday 24th February 2013 in News By Neil Vowles

A movie torture scene was so convincing that police officers burst in fearing a terrible crime was being committed.

Brighton-based filmmaker Haydn West of Substantial Films and his crew were filming a video of a tied-up and half naked woman being threatened with a blowtorch as part of a fundraising campaign for their new horror film when a police officer intervened.

The filming – of a female assistant held hostage unless £30,000 investment was pledged towards the production was interrupted – after members of the public at the venue in Tunbridge Wells became concerned and called the police.

Fortunately when an officer did arrive, he quickly discovered that the victim was in fact actress Hannah Lowe who as a day job works as personal assistant to singer Ellie Goulding.

The crew was working on a fundraising video for Backtrack, an independent 90-minute horror film about four friends who go camping on the South Downs and end up tortured for war crimes they committed in their past lives.

The film features Ralph, a twenty-something Brightonian and a reporter for The Argus, who visits a village on the South Downs with three of his friends following a past-life regression in which he sees flashes of himself as a Nazi spy operating in wartime Britain. The crew will be using the Eight Bells pub in Jevington as their base with other locations including Alfriston, Devil’s Dyke and Chanctonbury Ring during a ten day shoot in May.

They are looking for £30,000 in donations from a crowdfunding campaign and a further £50,000 from private investors.

Director Tom Sands, 23, is a graduate of Brighton Film School who has previously directed award-winning short films, documentaries, commercials, corporate films and music videos.

The filmmakers hope to premiere Backtrack at the Duke of York’s cinema in November before taking the film to various international festivals including Frightfest and Cannes. Mr West said: “Hannah gave a fantastic performance and the first time we looked back at the video, we were a bit scared by what we had done.

“I was actually trying to get her to stop because she wasn’t feeling well and was sweating when I heard the voice of a policeman in the background.

“He was a nice man and said he had been told there was screaming here.

“We said,‘Yes, there was screaming, we were torturing a woman’ and he said, ‘Right’ and went away.”

For more information visit www.kickstarter.com/projects/tomsands/finance-the-backtrack-horror-film-or-else.

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