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Daughter invites 150 bleeding zombies to dad’s house to create movie
Zombie film shoot at Chapeltown Zombie extra Corrina Dannatt is made up in the driveway of the propert the shoot was being filmed at
MOST dads would do anything for their daughters - but Derek Portman went beyond the call of fatherly duty when he agreed to allow 150 bleeding, oozing zombies trudge through his Sheffield house.
The 57-year-old’s home on Ironside Crescent, Chapeltown, was turned into a film set for independent horror film The Dying Breed.
The film is the final instalment in a gory trilogy of zombie flicks made on a shoestring by South Yorkshire couple Damian and Nicola Morter, who run indie production company Safehouse Pictures.
With a miniscule budget mum-of-three Nicola, 29, turned to her dad Derek for somewhere to shoot the climax scene of the film.
Derek told The Star: “These are the things you have to do as a father!
“Nicola phoned up and said, ‘Dad, can we use your house?’.”
In return for allowing the undead into his home Derek, who runs his own engineering design business, played a cameo role in the film.
“Apparently my wife eats my intestines,” he said, as he was being plastered with gory make-up.
“It’s not a speaking part, but it should be fun.”
Derek helped producer Nicola and director Damian, 32, who live in Cudworth, deliver leaflets down his street to warn the neighbours a horde of horrors would be appearing at the end of their drives.
“They’ve all been really good,” Derek said. “Most agreed to move their cars and some asked if they can help.”
The zombie wife who tears out Derek’s innards was played by Corrina Dannatt, 41 - a Police Community Support Officer from Greasbrough, Rotherham.
“I’m just a crazy mad horror fan!” she said.
“I heard on the radio that they wanted volunteers to play zombies in a horror film and I signed straight up.
“I was an extra in the second film in the trilogy, A Father For The Dead, and in this one I play the main character’s mum. I eat my husband and then my son kills me.
“My colleagues at work think I’m barmy.”
To keep costs down all the actors and crew in the film are volunteers.
Nicola put out a call for extras to play zombies and 150 turned up on the day.
Among them was Hoyland 29-year-old Gemma Hayes, who works as an operations manager for an occupational health firm.
“I was at Ecclesfield School with Nicola,” she said. “We hadn’t been in touch for a while but then I saw on Facebook that she wanted volunteers for her film.
“In the first film I had my head twisted off. That was it, I was hooked - I can’t get enough of it now.”
Horror fans travelled from across the country to take part in the backstage work.
Set design student Laura Smart, 21, from Milton Keynes, and horror buff Mike Tharme, 27, from Preston, were among those making gruesome props for the set.
As Laura prepared the intestines that were to spill from Derek’s guts, she said: “It’s simple really - just latex, cotton wool and tights.
“And a bit of blood, of course.”
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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Comments
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conradpoons
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 03:14 PMI thought this was another council story, when I read the headline about 'bleeding zombies'.
dromedary
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 01:10 PMGreat, I cant wait for it to be released as I like comedies.
dromedary
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 01:06 PMGreat, I cant wait for it to be released as I like comedies.
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