Blood, guts, and lost clowns: The 40-Year journey of a Horsforth horror requel, 'Trail of Splatter'

At nine o'clock on a school morning in 1982, a Leeds headmaster walked into his main assembly hall, glanced at the projection screen, immediately turned on his heels, and walked back out.

On the screen, a torrent of DIY blood and guts was erupting in front of a stunned room of teenagers; the film was ‘Splatter’, a 20-minute short shot entirely on Super 8 film by a group of school friends.

"Our teacher didn’t really know what she was getting into when she suggested we show it," laughs Ian Ray-White, the film’s director and actor.

"But it went down a storm. We were absolute celebrities around the school after that. It was my first little taste of Hollywood."

44 years later, that schoolboy slice of rebellion has undergone a monstrous resurrection.

Ian, now an established actor and director, has captured the ultimate cinematic full-circle moment by expanding the short into a feature-length independent horror-comedy titled ‘Trail of Splatter,’ which is currently making its way onto global streaming platforms via the independent distributor Filmhub.

The path back to the director's chair was forged on the sets of major British television staples.

After decades working as a professional film and television extra - including regular stints on ‘Coronation Street’ - Ian found himself cast as the lead in a low-budget werewolf flick titled ‘It Be an Evil Moon’, directed by Ben Etchells.

"Ben knew I used to make Super 8 movies back in the day," Ian explains. "He told me how well his film was doing on Amazon Prime and said, 'Why don’t you make a movie and get it out there?'

“I started thinking about that little 20-minute short I did at school. Why not expand it into a full-length feature and see where those characters are now, 40 years later?"

To understand the DNA of Trail of Splatter, you have to go back to 1982 - at the height of the ‘video nasty’ moral panic.

Inspired by the UK releases of ‘Psycho II,’ ‘Halloween,’ and ‘Friday the 13th,’ a young Ian and his schoolmate Ian dug an ancient, unfocussable Super 8 camera out of a loft - almost akin to Peter Jackson’s early work, ‘Bad Taste.’

The films were also an active middle finger to the censorship of the era, spearheaded by ‘moral guardian’ Mary Whitehouse.

In fact, the production’s lead actor, Mark - who plays the central Norman Bates-inspired mass murderer Norman Leclaire - conducted his own hyper-localised campaign of psychological warfare against her.

"Mark had this real thing about Mary Whitehouse," Ian chuckles. "He would write letters to her every week, completely making up complaints about the most innocent shows. “

When it came to rounding up the cast for the modern ‘requel,’ production shifted to a very familiar location: Ian's parents' house.

"I sent my mum and dad away to Ilkley for a four-day holiday and transformed their place into a house of horrors," Ian admits. "Right in the middle of an incredibly gory scene, my phone rings. It’s my mother saying, 'We’re bored, can we come home early?' Everyone on set burst out laughing.

“It was an instant flashback to the eighties, when we’d be rushing to scrub fake blood out of the bathroom tile grout before they walked through the front door."

The production wasn't without public hazards; while filming a high-stakes nude chase scene in a field - featuring Ian being pursued by a chainsaw-wielding clown - a forgotten prop forced the director to make a sudden, undressed dash back to his house.

"I was walking back down the lane in just a dressing gown, and a local woman came walking towards me," Ian says. "I’d lost track of Mark, so I completely panicked and asked her, 'Have you seen a clown?'

“She just deadpanned me and said, 'No. Have you lost one?' She even offered to help me look for him."

By blending his original childhood cast with seasoned professionals, Ian has crafted a distinct cinematic cocktail that mashes together standard slasher tropes with classic gothic elements inspired by Diana Rigg in Vincent Price's ‘Theatre of Blood.’

With gritty independent horror increasingly dominating the box office over sanitised studio releases, Ian believes digital distribution platforms have changed the game, giving working-class filmmakers direct access to platforms like Relay, Tubi, and Amazon Prime.

For those looking to pick up a camera, Ian offers three golden rules forged from his decades on set: "Number one is to plan and storyboard absolutely everything. Second, keep your locations to an absolute minimum - don't waste precious time moving crews around.

“And finally, put yourself into it. Act in it if you have to, just to keep the budget down."

For more information, including the latest updates regarding the film and the latest streaming avenues, visit the official ‘Trail of Splatter’ website or follow the film on Facebook.