So Planet of Horror was a fun little film to make. It’s amazing what silver spray paint can do. I used it on everything, the Helmet and the Spaceship, the planet… Ah this was my first little foray into Science Fiction and I was accompanied by Rikki Then Hammond and Now Lovett, and Rebecca Buckle, one of the amazing girls who endured me at college.

I did a lot of work on this little film and I am quite proud of it. It was filmed on a really, really old camcorder and was pretty terrible to be honest. As it was science fiction, I tried to do a little research on a few things. 

Despite it never making me a YouTube Superstar, (because I am probably too ugly) the film did well and ended up in a compilation.

Set, Sound and Music were all constructed by me, though Rebecca helped me and probably stopped me from being crushed to death in the miasma that was my garage.

I am quite happy with the film, and looking back at it, the effects were really decent. I should really have worked harder on the spaceships and model shoots, but when one is a young naive idiot that has grown into an older, naiver idiot, one never really learns from one’s experiences.

 

What the hell was going on?

It was estimated by my character that Rikki’s character died from SADS. SADS stands for Sudden adult death syndrome or sudden arrhythmic death syndrome. 

From my studies I noted that it tends to occur in people who leave the population they are from, so it would not necessarily be a bizarre experience to occur in space where we are far away from our home world.

I figured it would be a dark touch to imply that this was commonplace, and would potentially become a normal occurrence in space travel. The later implication there will be an investigation at the station offsets the idea that the crew could examine the body there. It’s too convenient and it gives no opportunity for suspicion to build within Rebecca’s character.

The crew were tired and sleeping little. Working night shifts and unusual hours people tend to not get a lot of sleep. I figured that in space, fatigue would be a common thing, especially for people in a small ship with little room for exercise. Ah the fun of a sedentary lifestyle.

I purposefully chose the timings and had the crewmembers cycling their sleep and awake times so there would always be two crew awake in case of emergencies.

Alan going down to the planet wasn’t a good idea, but he went down anyway. It was part of a longer mission they had undertaken. On the planet something dark and foreboding happened… Of course we keep that secret because the best horror is full of secrets. It’s no fun if we know everything about Freddy Krueger, as we found out when we started to find out everything.

Alan returns, and has a minor seizure whilst playing chess. Stacey is alarmed and they find that Tom has died. Stacey suspects Alan is involved and takes measures to protect herself. Due to tiredness, paranoia is probably rife. Later she shoots Alan.

 

How did Rikki’s character die?

 

  • Tom died from being in one of my crappy scripts.
  • I don’t like explaining horror, but something came back on board with Alan, whether or not it was inside him is unknown. There was a connection from the moment Tom’s character died with Alan, but as to whether Alan caused it, who can say?

 

Why did Rebecca shoot me?

 

  • Because she was in one of my terrible films. 
  • When you don’t sleep a lot, you become paranoid. Alan didn’t listen to Stacey when she warned him and she pulled the trigger almost instinctively.

 

Pointless Trivia:

 

  • Rikki and Rebecca were never on set together. I don’t know if they’ve ever met, though I suspect they have as they’re artsy types. I used a hand to join our scenes together.
  • The Ship Name, U.S.S. John Hurt was inspired by John Hurt who was tragically killed on the Nostromo then even more tragically had to endure modern Doctor Who. What an actor. A legend, for sure!
  • I have always liked the name Alan, and hated Alex. I guess being the physical embodiment of the uncanny valley, having a similar name is somewhat ironic.
  • The planet’s surface is made of flour and spray paint. The smoke is from a smoke machine. (I was real original back then!)
  • I purposefully chose the timings and had the crewmembers cycling their sleep and awake times so there would always be two crew awake in case of emergencies.
  • The visual feedback effect I created was something I learned from watching old documentaries on Doctor Who.
  • “I’ve known him for years, he’s my friend…” That came from The Thing.
  • The guns were made by Martin Bower, model supervisor for Alien. Yes they are in everything I make.
  • Yes, there was a sound like Orac. That was intentional.
  • This is one of the films I am actually proud of.
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