Blood, guts and gore – it’s all in a day’s work for Black Country filmmaker Dave Hastings. . .

Movies are full of blood-curdling characters from Count Dracula and Hannibal Lecter to creepy doll Chucky and Hellraiser’s nightmare-inducing Pinhead giving us the good fright we crave and, potentially, a sleepless night.

And we just can’t get enough because we know whatever scary, spooky or gory scenes we watch during a two-hour movie, when we walk out of the cinema or turn the living room lights back on, we will have come to no harm.

Although the same can not always be said for the film’s protagonists.

For horror movie fanatic and Black Country filmmaker Dave Hastings, this is just one of the genre’s many attractions.

“Horror films have been with us since the start of cinema, and horrifying events and actions have been around since we began as a species.

“Therefore horror cinema has always allowed itself to be the guilty genre that responds to the darker side of society, the things that we discover that scare us, but within the confines of a movie screen.

“That way, the horrors we see on screen, and are a response to our darkest fears, are kept on screen.

“Sure we jump, scream, close our eyes, but it is safely contained on celluloid and that makes us, as an audience feel like we’re confronting everything that is wrong with the world but from a safe vantage point.

“You can look at examples such as The Texas Chainsaw, Maasacre and Psycho which were inspired by the real life serial killer Ed Gein, or even monster movies such as Godzilla, which was a response to the atomic bomb being dropped on Japan.

“All these examples and so many more allow us to see the dark side of humanity, and highlight how we got them wrong and still do,” explains the 35-year-old.

Since he was teenager, Dave, who founded his own film company Lightbeam Productions in 2006, has enjoyed watching movies that feature the darker sides of life.

“I started watching films with my mum and dad. I watched the Hammer horror films with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing as well as films such as Halloween and Friday the 13th.

“They left a big impression on me. It wasn’t just the villains but also the special effects they used and the way they told the story.

“As a kid, I then started making my own films. I found the whole process fascinating and my filmmaking has evolved from there.

“A lot of people hate horror or think it’s in some way inferior but I don’t.

“A decent horror film must have a good story behind it but the music also plays a part in setting the atmosphere and building the tension.

“Then there will be the sequels with the villains you thought were long dead coming back to life in many different ways to kill once again,” adds Dave, who lives in Darlaston.

His day job sees him work as a film lecturer at Walsall College but in his spare time he works with fellow movie addicts and actors from across the Midlands to produce both short and feature-length films.

“Making horror films is fun, you get to play around with so many cool FX sequences and locations and characters, cast and crew, and I think despite all the doom and gloom above, audiences like horror films because they are fun too.

“You can go to the cinema, scare yourself silly for 90 minutes and then come outside knowing you escaped Jason, Freddy or even Michael Myers. Well, until the sequels, of course!”

“My favourite horror film is Halloween. A man goes home 15 years after killing his sister and wreaks havoc once again.

“It is so well-made that it still looks as good now as when I watched it for the first time,” says Dave, who works with other local filmmakers including Kaush Patel, Alex Bourne, Troy Dennison and Rebecca Harris-Smith.

Some of his projects have seen him pay homage to the Hammer horror films that he grew up watching.

In 2015, his short film Halloween Night Terror, won the best film award at the Phoenix Comic Con Film Festival in the USA.

It saw the mythos of cinema’s infamous boogeyman, Michael Myers, expanding and proving that on All Hallow’ Eve, no-one is safe from the madman’s grasp.

Filmed in late 2015 and early 2016 was The House of Screaming Death.

Shot on a budget of just £4,000, it involved around 100 people, including cast and crew, all of whom provided their services free of charge and was filmed at West Bromwich’s Manor House Museum as well as sites in Walsall and Staffordshire.

The plot is based on Ian McNeice’s character, The Architect, who tells the audience four short stories, each set in different time periods and each exploring a different part of the supernatural world from ghosts to vampires.

They had met Ian, who has appeared in Doctor Who, Doc Martin and Game of Thrones, at Walsall Comic Con in 2015 and won him over with some early footage they had shot.

Dave says he was over the moon when the actor, also known for appearances in blockbuster horror films From Hell and White Noise, agreed to take part.

“We didn’t tell any of the cast or crew and we shot his scenes in complete secrecy.

“He has been amazing and really supportive of what we are doing,” he adds.

This weekend The House of Screaming Death has been selected for the Cardiff International Film Festival and will also be screened at next year’s Starburst International Film Festival.

See a trailer for the film here:

The films are a real labour of love for Dave and his friends, who juggle their projects around full-time jobs.

“It can be very demanding and sometimes a part-time job on top of a full-time job but we all do it because we love it so much.

“It can involve a lot of long hours, we can be shooting all weekend and then back at work on Monday morning. We also, unfortunately, do not have the money to throw at special effects and there are very few funding opportunities for filmmaking in the West Midlands, which is frustrating.

“But we do have a wonderful group of actors and crew to work with. We are very proud of the talent that is here and we want to show it off.

“That’s why we always film in the Black Country and Midlands because we want to show off this area too,” explains Dave, who is currently in his second year of a film and screen masters degree course at the University of Wolverhampton.

While horror is his first love, Dave has also worked on different genres including comedy drama Checking In which won the title of Best British Film at the London Film Awards in 2014.

Set in a hotel over the course of 24 hours, it tells five stories, each allowing the audience an insight into some of these guests.

He also challenged his script-writing skills with Grid which is set in the mid 1980s at the start of the Aids crisis.

While researching he found out about a woman called Ruth Coker Burks who cared for hundreds of people whose families had abandoned them

“I had to read a lot of real-life tales, as well as understanding the virus and how that attacked, and it all just broke my heart.

“But they helped me make sure that these stories would have as authentic a voice as we could provide, something that they didn’t have before.

“And while I researching, I came across Ruth Coker Burks, and her story was not only inspiring but just remarkable.

“I managed to get in touch with Ruth through Facebook, and we’ve continued to speak ever since,” says Dave.

He sent her the final cut and said he was delighted when Ruth gave it her blessing saying: “Thank you for telling this beautiful story with such dignity and thoughts and feeling.”

“This was a wonderful feeling, it was one of the most challenging and difficult of films I’ve probably worked on so far, because the subject matter is so delicate still even today and in a personal way.

“So I worked as hard as I could to make it right, to make it as real as I could.

“She was there with hundreds of gay men at the end, who had no-one left, she witnessed and experienced all these heartbreaking occasions, so to hear Ruth’s words, it validated the film in a way.

“More than I could ever have hoped, and with it going around the world this past year to all kinds of festivals, and receiving such overwhelming feedback, well as a filmmaker, that is the best thing you can ever receive.

“To know you’ve honoured memories in a delicate and dignified way.

“As well as this, I always make it a first priority afterwards to highlight the people I work with on these films to show how absolutely amazing they are too,” explains Dave.

A trailer has just been released for Sustain, a feature film he has directed and worked on with Troy and Keiran Bowers during the past two years.

See the Sustain trailer here:

Sustain tells the story of a racially motivated attack that ends in tragedy. In the aftermath, a grieving family try to pick up the shattered pieces of their lives and a brother discovers just how far he will go to find justice.

“Working in horror, you get to play with all these imaginary characters, and they are frightening of course in their own way, but I also find real life to be even more terrifying,” says Dave.

But he says while he is enjoying focusing on other themes, he plans to get back to scaring his audiences again soon.

“Horror is something that has always been with me and I will never turn my back on it. Horror will always be my guilty pleasure.”

The House of Screaming Death will be shown at 7.30pm at the Forest Arts Centre in Walsall.

For tickets call the box office on 0300 555 2898. For further information about Sustain and Dave’s other films see www.LightbeamProductions.co.uk

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Aaaargh! The ones to watch this Halloween:

Watch these films if you dare! Here, horror fanatic Dave Hastings shares his top five recommendations for terrifying movies that will make your heart pound and send shivers down your spine:

1. HALLOWEEN (1978)

Fifteen years after murdering his 17-year-old sister Judith on Halloween night 1963, a 21-year-old Michael Myers steals a car, escapes from a mental hospital and returns to the small town of Haddonfield to kill again.

The film stars Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, Nick Castle and Tony Moran.

Dave’s verdict: “John Carpenter’s original horror classic is a ruthless and simple film and manages to keep you watching out for the boogeyman. “

2. JAWS (1975)

Duuuunnnn duun...duuunnnnnnnn dunn dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun!

A giant great white shark arrives on the shores of a New England beach resort and wreaks havoc with bloody attacks on swimmers, until a local sheriff teams up with a marine biologist and an old seafarer to hunt the monster down.

Directed by Steven Spielberg, the Oscar winner stars Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss

Dave’s verdict: Spielberg’s fantastic and tense large fish film is still a joy to watch today and that music . . . need I say more.

3. THE EXORCIST (1974)

When a girl is possessed by a mysterious entity, her mother seeks the help of two priests to save her daughter.

The film earned 10 Oscar nominations, winning Best Sound Mixing and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Dave’s verdict: Powerful, bold and intense – a battle between good and evil has never played out so perfectly on screen since.

4. NOSFERATU (1922)

In 1838, Thomas Hutter lives in the fictional German city of Wisborg. His employer, Knock, sends Hutter to Transylvania to visit a new client named Count Orlok, who is also a vampire. Count Orlok expresses interest in a new residence and real estate agent Hutter’s wife.

Dave’s verdict: F.W.Murnau’s silent masterpiece gives us Max Schreck’s chilling and immortal version of the infamous king of the vampires.

5. DRACULA (1958)

He’s probably the most famous bloodsucker. In this movie, Jonathan Harker begets the ire of Count Dracula after he accepts a job at the vampire’s castle under false pretenses. On a search for his missing friend, vampire hunter Dr Van Helsing is led to Count Dracula’s castle.

Directed by Terence Fisher, it stars Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Michael Gough.

Dave’s verdict My favourite actor, Peter Cushing takes on Christopher Lee’s Count Dracula, in this Gothic and infamous entry from the Hammer House of Horror, that features the best climatic ending to a vampire film ever!