Midnight Pictures are an Armagh-based independent production company specialise in horror and science fiction films. They have sold their work worldwide on DVD via the internet; a recent production has even been screened on Mexican television. James Gracey catches up with them on the set of their latest venture.

Long shadows streak across the ceiling. Strange, inhuman noises seep down from the attic directly above our heads. A young woman gingerly climbs out of bed and cautiously crosses the room to the door and tip-toes out onto the dark landing, her shadow, backlit from the small light in her bedroom, stretching along the floor before her. She knows for sure the noises are not rats, as she initially believed them to be – or hoped they would be. She stands beneath the trapdoor into the attic. The sounds grow more manic. She becomes more perturbed. Thoughts rush through her head; twisted, paranoid, illogical fears. All of them, as she is about to find out, perfectly true. She would never see it coming, though. Not like this. Propping a ladder up, she climbs shakily towards the attic door, torch in hand and puts her hand to the door to push it open. Director Andrew Harrison calls 'cut'. He likes what he has seen so far, but wants to see Samantha Herron act more visibly nervous. He describes, in characteristically enthusiastic fashion, the unspeakable horror that lurks in the young woman's attic. And more fiendishly, it's intentions for her. Having worked with Andrew before on the filmmaker's last feature, Saul's Pupils, Samantha isn't at all fazed by his darkly, over-the-top enthusiasm. She listens intently to his directions, asks questions, and offers suggestions.

Midnight's Children
Don't Look in the Attic is the latest offering from Midnight Pictures. Based in Portadown, County Armagh, Midnight Pictures consists of Andrew Harrison (producer/director/editor/special FX/camera) and Darryl Sloan (producer/editor/composer/actor/webmaster). The pair met in school and have been friends ever since. The first filmic efforts from Midnight Pictures were the rather student-film sounding Weirdo in the Woods, The Blaxorcist and Son of Michael Myers. The increase in their confidence and experience afforded the filmmakers the ability to put together what would become their first feature, Zombie Genocide (1993), in which a group of friends return home to Portadown from a camping trip to discover that the town is over run with zombies. This film required a lot of filming in the early hours of the morning and on weekends in order to capture a sufficiently desolate, eerie atmosphere. The film runs at just over an hour and took over two years to make. Midnight Pictures made a few transitions during this period, including the departure of founding member Paul Barton. It was during the making of this feature that Harrison and Sloan developed and honed what would become their specific roles within Midnight Pictures.

The full article is printed in Film Ireland 107.