Cork based film company, El Diablo Productions is proud to announce that their feature film, ''Christmas At Dracula's'' has won ''Best Horror Comedy'' at the renowned Spotlight Film Festival in Atlanta, Georgia.
Shot over the course of 2 years on location in Cork City and county, with a minimal budget, ''Christmas At Dracula's'' is a dark retelling of the count's story, but with an added comedic twist that sees the infamous literary character stage a monster mash Christmas party. Blending elements from the universal horror films of the 30's, 70's B-movies with the styles of Tarantino and Scorsese, director Simon Mckeon calls the project a love letter to Cult Cinema.
Produced by veteran Cork actor, Conor Dwane, the film marks Dwane's second time playing a version of Stokers creation, his first time being in an adaptation staged in the Firkin Crane. On playing the vampire this time round, Conor says; ''It's very exciting to play Dracula in a comedic way, there's so much you can do with him, especially when the viewer is expecting to get the classic Count. There's elements of that in there too, that was the great thing about it, mixing the old with the new''.
''Winning this award is a huge thing for us, as it gets the film to a wider audience. When you're working on a shoe-string budget you have to rely on word of mouth and social media to publicise your work, so this has been a huge boost for us'', says Simon.
The film also includes a long list of other Cork actors, including Michael O'Dowd, John Browne, Lorraine Comiskey, Art Kelleher, Noelle Clarke, Jonathan O'Dwyer, Conor Slattery, David Coon, to name but a few.
With the award under their belt, El Diablo isn't even thinking about slowing down, in fact, they are prepping not one, but two films for the coming months. The first is a short comedy, penned by Conor Dwane, called "The Milk Run'', the company are currently seeking funding for the project and hope to start cameras rolling in September. ''It's a pretty cool and very funny script. It will be the first time I'll be directing a script that I haven't written myself, so I am really excited about the new challenge'', said McKeon on the short. ''We've recently recruited new blood into the company, Edvinas Maciulevicius and Muru Walters, both are exceptional film-makers. We really have a great team for this one and are very exited about future projects''. After the Milk Run, El Diablo will be turning their eyes to darker subject matter with a new feature that's also in pre-production, a murder mystery set to the back-drop of 1994 Ireland, drawing hugely from film Noirs.
''Christmas At Dracula's'' is currently on the festival circuit and will be made available to the public for viewing towards the end of the year.
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