The indie horror anthology The Hounds of Darkness has been a long-time coming from North West production company Slumberjack Entertainment.
Hindered by the pandemic and originally titled The Micro Killers, this anthology works on the basis that each segment was made with little to no budget.
Having said this, you wouldn’t know as there is a certain degree of production level behind the completed project.
We have already seen the opener The Widower (which screened at The Bloody Flicks Awards 2020), which tells a dark tale with some wicked humour to boot. Main protagonist Percy, with a penchant for River Monsters and fish and chips becomes our unreliable narrator, taking us through a mixed bag of tales.
In the director’s chair, we have Peter McKeirnon, who many will know the name from the excellent web series Dead Town and he is ably backed up by Peter Harper, who crafts the more sombre Paper Sun segment.
‘The Lover’ segment carries the same sort of dark wit of The Widower, as a husband buries his wife alive in the woods. At times it is funny, but then you also remember the dark undertones permeating every frame of The Hounds of Darkness.
The anthology itself belongs to Neil Gallagher’s Percy though, who has an odd calmness to him where he could make you a cup of tea one minute but spike it with poison the next.
At a brisk 82 minutes, The Hounds of Darkness doesn’t outstay its welcome and doesn’t bloat itself with too many stories. The segments mesh together quite well, making it an entertaining watch with some darker moments but also plenty of laughs.
The Hounds of Darkness has its world premiere at Rhyller Thriller film festival in March.
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