GFF09: THE DUNGEON MOOR KILLINGS

Jim Hickey, who previously gave us FINDING BOB MCARTHUR, returns to Glasgow with another extremely low budget offering about the misadventures of a group of young Scots out in the Dumfries wilds who come across some rather sinister goings on.

Once again the budgetary constraints are obvious and the acting competent but hardly top notch, however that's not really what the film's about. This is all about getting out there and getting a film made rather than spending years getting finance and in that respect the strength shouldn't really be in the film so much as in what it hopefully inspires in other filmmakers.

That said, it's not without positives. There are some genuinely creepy moments, the cheap and nasty synth score gives many scenes an 80s video nasty vibe and there are some cracking gore effects. It's hardly original (judging by the Q&A I wasn't the only one thinking BLAIR WITCH PROJECT meets WILD COUNTRY) but then horror films rarely are. The former is a particuarly relevant comparison since it was an example where the low budget look worked in the film's favour - THE DUNGEON MOOR KILLINGS doesn't quite manage that but it's not far wrong.

Above all else though, for all its faults, it deserves praise for proving that Scottish people can actually make genre films (to illustrate this point, try naming five other Scottish horror movies). Who knows what we might be able to do if we actually got given any money.