28 March 2024 The Irish Film & Television Network
     
Irish Horror ‘Dead Meat’ Opens Exclusively At IFI
09 Dec 2004 :

Conor McMahon's Dead Meat

“It’s always been horror,” beams Conor McMahon. The writer/director of this country’s first completely Irish horror film can afford to smile. Thrilled his debut feature ‘Dead Meat’ finally hits the big screen at the Irish Film Institute this weekend and a blood thirsty audience eagerly anticipates its arrival.

‘Dead Meat’ is the story of a BSE-infected cow who escapes the slaughter and runs loose across the Leitrim countryside infecting the natives and turning them into flesh eating zombies. The narrative follows a band of non-infected folk across the county, desperate to flee the zombies and reach the haven of the local castle where aid is promised, but will they find what they are looking for?

From gory fight scenes to anxious chase sequences the accomplished direction from McMahon and a script, pinched with just enough comedic salt, combine to create a film that is a fun tale of terror which displays production qualities that far excel its ultra-low €100,000 budget.

It’s been a long, three year wait for the filmmaking team of Three Ways Productions. After meeting the director at the Horrorthon Festival in 2001, producers and Horrorthon festival directors Michael Griffen and Edward King, knew they had finally found what they were looking for in Conor McMahon. A young director fresh from college, a bright filmmaking talent with above all else, a passion for big screen blood spilling that matched their own.

The appetite for horror and fantasy films in Ireland is huge, explains producer Edward King: “You don’t have to be a big horror fan to enjoy the festival. Horrorthon is a massive weekend and probably the biggest weekend of the year in the IFI, financially. It’s a niche market and every country has it. They call it fantastic cinema now, that’s just the respectable word for horror.” Some of the world’s most respected directors began their filmmaking careers with low budget horror pictures, with directors like Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Braindead), Sam Rami (Spiderman 1 & 2, The Evil Dead), Ridley Scott (Gladiator, Alien) and James Cameron (Titanic, Piranha Part Two) spending their early years immersed in fantasy film, the €100,000 seems a wise investment from the Irish Film Board and one Brendan McCarthy was keen to make.

“Brendan McCarthy of the Irish Film Board is a huge horror fan,” says Ed, “and when the financiers are really supportive and really behind you, that just helps so much. They were great and because it was the first horror film they left us alone to do what we had to do. We just disappeared off the map and came back with a horror film a few months later.”

Funded entirely by the Low Budget Scheme introduced by the IFB, McMahon feels this was invaluable to him at such an early stage in his career, but an option not all directors would be prepared to take.


David Ryan in Dead Meat

“It was perfect for what we were doing. I think coming out of college to have the opportunity to shoot a feature film was great. If it’s a bigger budget, say a million, the chances are you probably wouldn’t get to direct it. Just the opportunity to make a feature suddenly puts you in a better position to make another feature, but you have to be in the frame of mind to be willing to make a film for that amount of money. Like obviously you can’t get all the equipment you want, you can’t shoot on film, but if you are willing to sacrifice things to try and make a film then it’s great.”

IADT classmate Eoin Whelan in Dead Meat'

He also believes it was a fantastic learning experience for the young production team involved in the project, predominantly made up of his old Dun Laoghaire IADT classmates.

“I think it suits people who come out of college especially. For example everybody who had worked on our shoot had not

worked on a feature before. The main thing was that it was going to be a learning experience for all of us. Everybody was gaining something, if you have that enthusiasm and people willing to take different roles together, there is a spirit making the film and I think if you have that it really helps.”

‘Dead Meat’ was filmed on location in Leitrim over a five week period beginning in April 2003. Despite little money, an inexperienced crew and umpteen extras to manage, the production was a relatively easy one to manage says King.

“The shoot was smooth, there wasn’t a problem. We prepped it well and we knew exactly what we were doing when we were going down.”

Conor agrees “Also, there was nothing in the film that I knew we couldn’t really do. It was written to be made for a low budget. It was mainly outdoors, there wasn’t a huge amount of lighting and it mainly focuses on two or three actors for a lot of the film.”

Marian Araujo and David Mallard in Dead Meat'

However, things didn’t always go according to plan.  

”I remember the first day of shooting,” says Ed with a nostalgic look at Conor. “The camera assistant got lost in the countryside with the camera equipment and all the stocks. We were

standing around thinking, well we can’t do anything. It was the first day, and I was like ‘this can’t be happening!’” he laughs.

‘Dead Meat’ was shot on DSR-500 Digital video camera, with a steady cam and a crane (made in a metalwork class by a friend in the IADT) and McMahon edited the film intermittently over a five month period using Final Cut Pro editing software.

After screening earlier this year at the LA Screamfest to rave responses from the attending film fans ("‘ Dead Meat’ is a damn entertaining little horror flick in its own right," says the e-film critc) the film has been picked up in ten territories thanks to its Canadian based sales agency, Cinema Vault.

“What they did was to promote the movie they put together a trailer which was actually edited by the same guy who is editing George Romero’s ‘ Land Of The Dead.’ They screened it at MIFED to generate interest from buyers and at the American Film Market we had posters and banners with two full screenings and luckily we got some buyers,” says King.

With two other horror features in the pipeline, it seems the world is a blood drenched oyster for the horror filmmaking trio.

“We want to continue to make movies that we want to make. We all love what we do, we get on really well and we’re on the same page. If we got a call to do something big, well GREAT! But in the mean time we’re just going to continue with our plans and get out there and make more films, more horror movies and hopefully people will enjoy it. That’s the plan at the moment and we are sticking to it,” says Ed and IFTN believes him.

‘Dead Meat’ is released exclusively at Dublin’s Irish Film Institute from the 10 th of December 2004.

'Dead Meat' is produced by Three Way Productions.

View the trailer for 'Dead Meat' in the IFTN Prieview Theatre

Visit the official 'Dead Meat' website

By Tanya Warren.





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