Director Stephen Bradley gave Fango some comments about his horror/comedy BOY EATS GIRL, which opens this Friday, September 23 in its native Ireland. “We are keeping our fingers crossed that it’ll find a wide audience,” Bradley tells us. “There’s a good buzz about it, and female lead Samantha [THE TIME MACHINE] Mumba is a big star in Ireland, so that really helps in terms of publicity and vibe. Then it’s on to the UK, Australia, France and Germany before Christmas and the U.S. sometime next year. We need a good early result to build some momentum!”
BOY stars Mumba as Jessica, the object of desire of teenager Nathan (David Leon). When he dies in an accident, his mother brings him back to life as a zombie who still pines for Jessica—but also has that pesky flesheating habit. “I see the film as an Irish version of the mixed-genre American high-school horror/comedy,” Bradley says. “To an American audience, that may seem like an odd comment, but what has to be understood about Ireland is that it has undergone massive economic and cultural change in the last 15 years—known as the ‘Celtic Tiger’ economy—and young people have consumed and embraced American culture in a huge way. So the film reflects that, as well as staying true to its Irish sense of humor.
“It’s the end of two and a half years working on the film for me,” he adds, “and it’s great to finally be releasing it on an unsuspecting public. Ironically, for a country that’s probably known internationally as a home of ghost stories and tales of horror—after all, DRACULA was written by an Irishman—this is one of its first horror films. There have also been very few high-school movies made here in the American style, so for teenagers in Ireland, it’s exciting to have a movie like this coming out. I’m very optimistic about the prospects of the good-looking, young and funny cast, many of whom will undoubtedly soar after the film comes out.”
Though the tone is humorous, the movie contains a good amount of splatter as well. “It was also great to work with HELLRAISER and CANDYMAN’s Bob Keen on the special effects,” Bradley says. “We wanted to go the traditional ‘blood and guts’ route rather than anything digital, and there’s no better man than Bob. He told me he’d never used so much fake blood before on a film—and considering his horror heritage, I take that as a huge badge of honor!”
There’s an official website for the film open here. Look for more coverage of BOY EATS GIRL in a future issue of Fango.
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