JULIAN RICHARDS | INTERVIEW
Newport-born film maker Julian Richards’ horror Skin Collector is newly available on DVD and VOD this month – after a long journey to UK distribution. Keiron Self chats to him about the trials and tribulations of creating independent films and the future of his beloved horror genre.
In his youth an avid watcher of classic black and white creature features like King Kong, Frankenstein and Dracula, plus the Hammer films’ bloodier, more technicolour scares, Julian Richards was one of the first kids in his school to get a Betamax video player back in the early 1980s. He would screen banned video ‘nasties’ like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre for his schoolmates, before deciding that this was a career path he wanted to go down himself.
Richards subsequently went to film school, where he was steered away from the horror genre to more sociorealist British drama. “But I always loved horror,” he recalls, “so the first thing I did when I left film school was to write a horror script.”
This became 1996’s Darklands – Richards’ debut feature, a Port Talbot-set folk horror starring Craig Fairbrass, Jon Finch and Richard Lynch, now a Pobol Y Cwm regular. Since this Celtic thriller, Richards has gone on to make another eight features, all with a thriller/horror element – from award-winning coming-of-age Summer Scars, the controversial handheld serial killer nastiness of The Last Horror Movie and, most recently, the telekinetic, Carrie-esque Reborn.
Skin Collector was his first US feature – made in 2012, but only now getting to the UK thanks to the involvement of Richard’s sales company Jinga and distribution company Danse Macabre. Specialising in horror and fantasy films from around the globe, the company delivers a constant stream of films to genre fans and has become a way for the self-employed director to support himself, stay connected with the industry and network between directing projects.
Initially, Richards was a ‘gun for hire’ on Skin Collector – eventually taking over a project that had been birthed way back in 1992 by its writer/producer, in the wake of Silence Of The Lambs. Shot in Portland, Oregon, it required Richards to be quick on his feet – be that with location issues, an evolving script or dealing with the acting choices of its lead, Wolf Creek’s John Jarratt [below]. He emerged mostly unscathed but since then has been trying to get the film seen by a wider audience, whilst also making two more director-for-hire films, Daddy’s Girl and Reborn.
Although enjoyable, Richards is now keen to return to a more auteur-driven aesthetic, having full creative control over his projects. His relationship with horror and suspense has also evolved: the man who made Darklands is not the man he is today.
“My fascination with horror has moved and changed as I’ve evolved myself,” he says. “I very much started off as a fanboy, loving the rollercoaster ride. Horror can be formulaic – by definition, genre is formulaic – the challenge is to find something fresh and new.” Richards now wants to deal more with subtext, anxieties about the world we live in today rather than superficial scares.
An aim for Hitchcockian suspense has also been current in his work, with Skin Collector having a Frenzy type vibe to it along with a sense of the Italian giallo. Elements of 2003’s self-distributed The Last Horror Movie still really shock and surprise with their grittily realised nastiness, Richards unashamedly drawing on those video screenings of his youth to disturbing effect.
Engaging and enthused, there’s no doubting Richards’ passion for film – whether it be for discovering new thriller gems to distribute from Latin America, or catching up on old Darklands collaborator Craig Fairbrass’ latest film Muscle. He has several projects in the pipeline involving vampires, zombies and a Brazilian-set Marathon Man, which he hopes he will get time to direct, and is looking to collaborate with writers that he really clicks with, who may not even be writers at all. The writer on his award-winning Summer Scars, Al Wilson, was a roofer from Barry!
Richards further stresses he has no desire to do a film about the pandemic, or lockdown: “It’s all been done… apart from maybe bringing serial killer Max Parry from Last Horror Movie into the equation.” Whatever the next chapter in his celluloid life, Julian Richards’ work will still please horror fanboys and fangirls everywhere – and the evolving, maturing and resilient fanboy within him.
Skin Collector is out now on DVD and VOD. Watch a trailer here.
words KEIRON SELF