Abertoir
The International Horror Festival of Wales

Legendary Italian film music composer Fabio Frizzi is known throughout the world for his remarkable and unparalleled films scores, particularly those for the films of Lucio Fulci. Throughout a career that has spanned over 40 years, his most notable scores are for Zombie Flesh Easters, City of the Living Dead and The Beyond, which have made him a household name for lovers of horror worldwide. The F2F band are talented players and performers selected personally by Fabio Frizzi to join his band. The band is Alessandro Errichetti (guitar), Giulietta Zanardi (vocalist who has collaborated with Frizzi for more than 30 years), Riccardo Rocchi (guitar), Federico Tacchia (drums), Alessio Contorni (keyboard), and Roberto Fasciani (bass).

Lynn Lowry is a cult icon of the exploitation scene, starring in a whole range of genres during the 1970s, and best known to horror fans for her roles in I Drink Your Blood, The Crazies, and Shivers. In more recent years Lynn has starred in dozens of independent horror films, supporting up-and-coming filmmakers as well as expanding her own career as a director, writer and producer.

Luigi Cozzi (also known by his pseudonym Lewis Coates) is one of the best-known names in Italian genre cinema. Deeply involved with the films of Dario Argento, he made his own mark in 1975 directing the giallo The Killer Must Kill Again.  Luigi’s horror films include Contamination, Il Gato Nero, and Paganini Horror. Not restricted just to horror, Luigi is also the man behind the cult sci-fi classic Starcrash, the Italian re-cut of Godzilla (affectionately known as ‘Cozzilla’), and a series of Hercules films starring Lou Ferrigno.  His contribution to Italian cinema has been tremendous, and we’re delighted to be premiering his first feature film in 27 years!

Liam Gavin studied graphic design and illustration at St. Martinʼs Art College in London, and since then has worked as a professional storyboard artist, writer, and director.  Previous to working with Samson Films, he wrote and directed two shorts, while his credits as storyboard artist include Lighthouse (2000), Evil Aliens (2005), and The Mutant Chronicles (2008). His subsequent shorts (Sunshower and Jericho) have played at many prestigious festivals worldwide such as Raindance and BIFFF, even winning the Special Jury Prize at the Ozu International Film Festival 2010. A Dark Song is Liam’s first feature film.

Eoin O’Faolain is a TV and feature film Development Producer with over 10 years’ experience. Starting as a researcher and production manager in Frontier Films, he developed and produced a number of factual entertainment, documentary, and drama projects for Ireland’s national broadcaster RTE. In 2011 he joined Samson Films as Head of Development to oversee their slate of development projects. During that time he worked in over a dozen produced projects, including The Moth Diaries, Run and Jump, The Sea, Mister John, and most recently acted as Associate Producer on A Dark Song. He currently resides in London as a freelance Development Producer.

The Duke St. Workshop is an electronic duo from Wigan making soundtracks, primarily to cold cases from the late 1960’s to the present time. The group explores the nature of the Horror genre and its relationship with reality. Formed in 2012, they self-released their debut album Lexicon Of Paragon Pines before being picked up by Static Caravan Recordings who re-released it in 2013. Further official releases include Hospital (2014), Cabin 28 E.P. (2014), Tales Of H.P. Lovecraft (2016) and Scuro Estivo (2016). Tales Of H.P. Lovecraft is a work of spoken word/music featuring established horror actor Laurence R Harvey (Human Centipede II & III, The Editor, ABCs of Death 2), reading two of Lovecraft’s stories, From Beyond and the The Hound, and set to the group's music.

Michael Sabbaton has been an academic, scenographer and designer before settling on actor, producer and writer. As an actor and voice over artist, Michael has worked in a diverse range of performance fields from physical theatre to classical Shakespeare, straight drama and site specific performance. Since 2010 Michael’s major focus has been on his adaptations of some of Lovecraft’s most seminal works.

Silent film pianist Paul Shallcross is a staple part of the Abertoir Horror Festival, bringing his in-depth knowledge and passion for the silent era to the fore in his regular performances for classic silent horror films.  He has toured many different venues around the UK playing many different kinds of music, but his association with Abertoir always brings him back here to perform his new music publicly for the very first time.

Stephen Thrower is an acknowledged world authority on horror movies, being the author of such tomes as Nightmare USA: The Untold Story of the Exploitation Independents, Murderous Passions: The Delirious Cinema of Jesus Franco and Beyond Terror: The Films of Lucio Fulci. As well as his work on horror films, Stephen Thrower is an accomplished musician; a former member of Coil, his current musical project is the band Cyclobe.

Gavin Baddeley is an English writer specialising in the devilish and decadent, Gothic and macabre, with a special interest in the darker fringes of history. In addition to penning numerous books in these areas, he’s written for numerous, diverse periodicals and newspapers, ranging from The Observer and Knave, to Metal Hammer and Medieval History magazine. While researching his first book, Lucifer Rising, Baddeley was made an honorary priest by the 20th century’s leading Satanist, San Francisco’s ‘Black Pope’ Anton LaVey, and has subsequently made numerous media appearances and advised sundry bodies as a leading expert on the dark arts. He has also made annually appearing at Abertoir part of his varied career, so let's hope evil keeps giving him plenty more topics to share with us.

Steve Jones is a Senior Lecturer in Media at Northumbria University. His research mainly focuses on representations of sex and violence, gender politics, and ethics. He is the author of Torture Porn: Popular Horror after Saw (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2013), and the co-editor of Zombies and Sexuality (McFarland, 2014).

Peter Hutchings writes about horror, science fiction, thrillers and all things disturbing and nasty on film and television.  Previous work includes tomes on the British horror film and Dracula,essays on the female werewolf, the films of Mario Bava, and 1970s film adaptations of horror novels.  He is currently researching a new book on 1970s American horror cinema and finishing off a 2nd edition of his A-Z of Horror Cinema.  In his spare time, he is a Professor of Film Studies at Northumbria University.

Nicko and Joe have been confusing, disturbing and delighting audiences with their unique brand of comedy since 2004. Their infectious enthusiasm on stage and twisted creativity in their writing has resulted in many comparisons being made to other artists. These range from the surreal group They Might be Giants to Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of South Park. As well as their live shows they already have three CD's under their belt, Geek by Proxy, Wallpaper and Auld Tartan Fudge Box, the latter proving that Joe should never be allowed to name the CDs. More recently, Nicko has just published her first book (Rubber Sharks and Wooden Acting) on – you guessed it – bad films!