SHUDDER ORIGINAL:
THE FOUND FOOTAGE PHENOMENON

A brand new feature length independent documentary on the rise of a global sub-genre. Directed and produced by Sarah Appleton and Phillip Escott, the documentary tracks the origins of the found footage technique and how it transformed with technological changes throughout the last few decades. The Found Footage Phenomenon features interviews with integral found footage directors whose films impacted the horror genre like no other sub-genre has, around the turn of the millennium. Score by music legend Simon Boswell.

COMING SOON:

THE J-HORROR VIRUS - THE GLOBAL ERUPTION OF HORROR FROM JAPAN

Dir. Sarah Appleton, Jasper Sharp

Synopsis: The J-Horror Virus aims to address how a new strain of horror emerged at the turn of the millennium in Japan and went on to take over the world.
Beginning with looking back at the horror films which came before J-Horror such as The Ghost of Yotsuya, Kaidan and Jigoku, as well as their influences, the origins of the ideas present within J-horror films will be discussed and explored before we look at direct inspirations. Moving into the late 80s early 90s with Kurosawa’s Sweet Home and True Scary Stories. The film will look at the career beginnings for Nakata, Takahashi and Kurosawa as they developed ideas together and separately which collectively kicked off the massive J-horror successes moving into the late 1990s and early 2000s. 
Hideo Nakata’s Ring (1998) and Takashi Shimizu’s JuOn: The Grudge (2002) became massive global sensations and the documentary will track their origins, trajectory as well as their massive impact and legacy, spanning multiple sequels and remakes including a recent reboot in 2020. 
Ultimately The J-Horror Virus will be asking why the long black-haired ghosts haunted the entire world at the turn of the millennium and how they gave Japan multiple horror film franchises the likes of which they had not known before.

damaged: the Very british obscenity of david hamilton-grant

A Severin Films production, directed by Sarah Appleton, about a mysterious film producer who vanished into thin air after being convicted and doing time for distributing the video nasty Nightmares in a Damaged Brain (1981). Some say he was “garrotted in a gangland hit” and some think he’s still alive somewhere hiding from his demons. This documentary investigates the man behind the sex comedies such as Secrets of a Door to Door Salesman (1973) and The Office Party (1976) and how his entrepreneurial spirit was ultimately his downfall in a strange decade for the British Film Industry.