An interview with Ashley Thorpe
Animator, Writer and Director
Originally published 14 September 2024.
I’m looking forward to the return of Hell Tor Festival, a celebration of Devon’s heritage and legacy of horrors with a focus this year on vampires, which takes place at the Exeter Phoenix from Friday 20 to Sunday 22 September.
In anticipation of the festival I’ve interviewed Ashley Thorpe, a ghoulish animator and screenwriter who organises Hell Tor alongside his wife, Festival Director Sue Thorpe. I met Ashley several years ago when I wrote about a screening of his animated feature Borley Rectory, bringing to life a story that so many British horror-lovers first discovered in books about the supernatural when we were growing up.
Animator, Writer and Director Ashley Thorpe worked for BBC Manchester for a number of years and then in London and Athens doing illustration, before returning to his Devon roots in 2005 and focusing his energies on creating a series of animated short films inspired by English mythology - SCAYRECROW 2008 (winner of the Media Innovation Award 2009), THE SCREAMING SKULL 2008 (nominated Best UK Short film at Raindance 2009) and THE HAIRY HANDS 2010 (A SWS / UK Film Council project featuring VO by Doug Bradley).
His first feature, BORLEY RECTORY, which was a Carrion Film / Glass Eye Pix co-venture with Reece Shearsmith and Julian Sands, was completed late 2017 and premiered at GRIMMFEST, Manchester. In November 2017 it won 'Best Animated Feature' at Buffalo Dreams Festival New York and a ‘Special Achievement in Cinema’ accolade. After being released on Blu-Ray in 2019 the film is now streaming on Netflix, Prime and Talking Pictures.
As a freelance animator Ashley has provided animated titles / sequences for such varied projects as the multi award winning WOODLANDS DARK & DAYS BEWITCHED, Saturn award winning TALES OF HALLOWEEN, Dominic Brunt's WOLF MANOR and titles and various graphics for Danny Robins’ hit BBC show UNCANNY.
Can you give me a short history of Hell Tor and your hopes for the horror festival?
Hell Tor was born after two years of touring Borley Rectory around festivals both here and abroad. It dawned on both myself and my wife - Festival director Sue Thorpe - that not only were some festivals better than others (certainly in the way that they treated their guests) but it also highlighted the fact that there was very little in terms of horror festivals in the South West of England, so we decided to rectify that.
Carrion Films always had that DIY punk ethic of don't wait for popular culture to satisfy you, just do it yourself, so we did it. The first festival went well, had some amazing guests but it was hard work breaking through that all pervading indifference out there and actually reaching people, so this time we've really pushed with it. I hear so many people moaning that nothing interesting happens in the South West, but if you are not going to get off your asses and support these local things what do you expect?
We have some amazing guests, including Caroline Munro, Madeline Smith, Reece Shearsmith, and Jonathan Rigby… So many great guests and we are hoping that the event will be a success and lead to not just a regular annual event but also open up the opportunity to put on one-off special screenings. It's all up to the punters now.
What are some highlights to look out for at this year’s Hell Tor?
With so much on over the weekend it's hard to know where to start! Jonathan Rigby's interview with Caroline Munro and Madeline Smith is an obvious highlight. I never would have dreamed that these two actors, whose films I grew up on, whether that's Hammer, Bond or Ray Harryhausen, would actually grace the building where I teach.
The three-way vampire discussion with Reece Shearsmith, Jonathan and James Swanton is another obvious highlight. But I'm also excited by things like Rachel Knightley's writing workshop and our short film panel. Our aim has always been trying to not only bring great guests, but also to encourage and develop local filmmakers.
Can you tell me what you’ve worked on recently and what your plans are for the future?
I seem to have spent the past five years solidly animating for other people's films. I’m not complaining, obviously. My hope when Borley Rectory came out was that it would lead to regular interesting and creative animation work. Which it has.
I'm currently working on a stylistically interesting title sequence for a forthcoming Shudder TV series, among a few other horror films that are due for release over the next few months.
I've also had the itch to get back to making something of my own again. I wrote two features during lockdown, a dark comedy horror based on a previous radio script I produced with Glass Eye Pix, and a feature length version of my short The Screaming Skull, which is utterly devoid of humour! Very bleak gothic stuff, but a take on haunted houses that I don't think has ever been done before.
What is it about horror that inspires you?
I always loved monsters as a kid. Not so much horror, as I suffered from awful night terrors, trances I could not be woken from, so even the slightest veering towards something sinister, like the titles of 'Armchair Thriller, would set these things off and I'd get the swollen hand blues and feverish nights. But then I saw Alien, which apart from utterly traumatising me, really gripped my imagination. The beauty of Giger's world started something, I think. It was something like some evolutionary trespass.
As a result of my Alien obsession I started reading Fangoria magazine and by submerging myself in the world of creators of this sort of material, the night terrors slowly went away. As much as horror is another strain of fantasy, especially the Hammer films, there's something about horror that has always felt like truth to me. The skin between the worlds is a thin one. Horror gives us a glimpse of what is on the other side.