Book of Monsters is the culmination of a great deal of work myself and my trusted collaborator Paul Butler began back in 2012 when we first discussed the idea of bringing the combined horrors of our twisted imaginations to the big screen. The two of us were lucky enough to find ourselves working a day job together in the equipment store of our local film school and through our mutual love of creature features, we spent every lunch break concocting scripts featuring monstrous horrors and the unfortunate characters who would face them.

Like many independent filmmakers, we cut our teeth on a number of horror shorts before embarking on making our very first feature film. The Creature Below saw us scraping together every spare penny we could find and with just £400 worth of filmmaking equipment, we shot the film over fourteen days in a damp basement in York. The production was an invaluable learning experience as a director and I was both delighted and astounded to see the film make official selection at Frightfest London in 2016 in the first blood strand. Receiving feedback at Frightfest from horror fans and filmmakers alike was a vital learning experience and it solidified our desire to make our second film even better. Book of Monsters successfully raised £45,000 on Kickstarter and gave us the confidence that horror fans wanted to see what we could do next. Inspired by my love of 80s creature features like Gremlins and Critters, I wanted the film to pay homage to the rubber monsters of the era but pit them against some strong, kick-ass women that reflect modern horror heroines. Six distinct monsters were devised as nods to archetypes from 40 years of movie monsters, all realised with homemade practical effects.

With Book of Monsters we have strived to improve upon the technical and aesthetic aspects of our previous work and overall, deliver an entertaining horror comedy that feels both nostalgic and fresh. My biggest hope for this film is that viewers will laugh, scream and leave the theatre with a big smile on their face.