UVFF: The Trap (feature)

ALPHA PAPA meets THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE in this high-octane comedy horror.

Two very different groups arrive at the same building on the same night. Both after the same loot, a hoard of ancient treasure buried deep within a vast, abandoned Victorian bathhouse. One is a group of professional cat burglars. Hardened, experienced, and on one last mission before retirement. The other … well, not so professional. A bunch of misfit, unemployed youngsters on a team building exercise.

But neither group’s ready for the horrors they encounter…

Just one obstruction stands between them and riches beyond their wildest dreams. A deranged security guard has spent decades preparing the building against invasion and set up deadly and disturbing traps throughout the labyrinth.

As the two groups venture deeper into the bathhouse, the traps become ever more elaborate, as the tension and the hilarity reach fever pitch.

Why are they being hunted?

Who will survive the night?

When will the next trap be sprung?

The Trap – You Will Have Your Sides Split.

Cast Includes: Felicity Wren, Alex Kirk, James Wren, Sarah Coyle, David Haydn, Ben Neale, Millie Reeves, Ishod Issac, Matthew Spencer, Sean Garratt, Vivienne Acheampong, Mason Phillips, Si Spencer, Bob Pipe, Richard Glover, Louie Bayliss & Mark Lyminster.

Written by Alan Freestone, Fergus March & James Wren

Directed by Fergus March

Associate Director: Alan Freestone

Produced by Alan Freestone, Fergus March & James Wren

How THE TRAP was sprung: The story of how the film came to be.

Shortly after finishing our first feature PEACOCK SEASON, FMW Films were approached by Rachel Egan from Islington Council (who had seen our film) with a proposition: The iconic North London building, Hornsey Road Baths and Laundry was being converted into an arts centre by the council. Work was due to start on the three million pound renovation in the next 8 weeks and until then the building would be empty.  She said we could use it as a location free of charge if we were interested…

So we had a fantastic, creepy old building but we had no budget, no script and we were very much against the clock. It would have been idiotic to do a feature length movie under those circumstances… However…

As time was against us, we quickly agreed on a basic synopsis: our story would have two sets of people in the bath house at night, neither group knowing of the others’ existence; buried treasure and plenty of gruesome deaths. On top off that, we knew we wanted some sort of deranged killer and as the building had been empty since the 1980s, it was the perfect playground for a psychopath to call home. Over the next few days our story came together and we realised that our two groups of adventurers were actually very funny. Being lovers of “Comedy horror” we decided to set ourselves the challenge of making the audience laugh and scream in equal measure, ideally, both at the same time!

Within 3 weeks a script was written and a cast and crew secured. What followed was 30 consecutive 18 hour days in a scary old bath house…

And so, The Trap was born: