The short film Butcher's Hill was showing at Dead by Dawn 2008 and the Director was there to see our reaction, not just that but he revealed that it has already been picked up for a feature, something that filled the audience with hope for the film.

We weren't disappointed either, although there's not a huge plot for the story, the visuals and the way it plays out are very good, and the fact that the main characters are children show a lot of guts from the film-maker who delivers some great shots and horror.

The first thing you notice about the film are the visuals and the quality of the filming, it looks like a feature already and has far more style and strong cinematography than many mainstream films.

There are some beautiful visuals in here, using camera angles, slow motion, editing and some great effects. There are two scenes that stick out in my mind in particular, one with the perfect timing of the meat cleaver against the wall and the other with the overhead shot of the near miss.

Butcher's Hill sees two children coming across a house in the woods that they've heard spoken of, and entering inside they find that everything that was said about it was true. However there's much more there than they were told.

The children are great actors, and the fact that they are children add so much more to the story, and shows that the writer/director had some guts letting the story play out the way it did. This is a facet of the film that you should really savour, and I'm really surprised that it's been picked up for a full feature, perhaps there will be changes come the feature script review.

However here they really go to town on the whole idea and it provides for some fantastic horrific moments surrounded by great visuals. This short is something special and you can see why it's been picked up for a feature, more than that why the writer/director is going onto bigger and better things.

Butcher's Hill trailer
Dead by Dawn 2008
UK IMDB Film Details