A new film brings together a terrific York actor and a great city location to chilling effect.
Acclaimed filmmaker Tony Hipwell has form when it comes to horror movies, co-creating both Whoops! and Zomblogalypse.
Now he ready to give us all the creeps with his latest production.
Bad Penny is his new horror short. It sees Tony’s long-term collaborator Andrew Dunn, star of Dinnerladies and Coronation Street, play an antiques dealer who gets a lot more than he bargained for when he come across a cursed object that won’t take no for an answer…
It is set in the Antiques Centre on Stonegate, which looks fabulously spooky in the trailer.
“I’ve always wanted to shoot a horror film in an antique stores and The Antiques Centre York were incredibly gracious to let us shoot in there for a couple of nights,” Tony told YorkMix.
“I have a friend, Ben Turner, who worked there. After giving me a tour one day, it was just a matter of coming up with what was going to be the cause of the haunting.
“After finding a treasure trove of ancient coins, I had my answer. I sadly had to cut the ominous staircase out of the final film but was able to give it a second life in the trailer!”
James Waggot who owns The Antiques Centre York said: “We do this sort of thing now and again to support local artists and businesses.
“Our antiques showcases and building look great on film and the publicity helps us find more customers for our dealer community.
“This is our first horror film, mind. It was a pleasure to support Tony’s project, we think his film is brilliant. It even starred one of our vintage fashion dealers!”
The centre has its own unrelated ghost story: it is said to be home to the spirit of Flossy, a six year old girl who fell to her doom from the top of the staircase.
Tony has launched a GoFundMe page to get Bad Penny to film festivals.
“I had a great run with my last two films (Standing Woman and Zomblogalypse), which won multiple awards and screened at Bafta and Oscar-qualifying festivals,” he writes.
“I want to give this little chiller a chance to shine/scare too, but submitting to festivals is very expensive, and I emptied every coffer I could for my last films. So anything you could donate for this film to go on a proper festival tour would be most appreciated.”
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He told YorkMix: “We’ve had a great response to the festival campaign so far so any help people can give will only take this York-based chiller even further.”
All donations will be spent on festival submissions, with regular updates on the film’s progress shared via social media.
A private screener will also be shared with anyone who supported the film.
Tony, who studied at both York St John University and the University of York, is an academic fellow in film production at the University of Salford and formed a film company with Miles Watts – MilesTone Films – in 2008.
You can explore more of Tony’s work here.