Abertoir
The International Horror Festival of Wales

Ground-breaking director William Crain was one of the first Black filmmakers to achieve commercial success. A graduate of UCLA’s film school, in the 1970s his focus was on mainstream and genre-driven filmmaking. In 1972, Crain made history by directing Blacula, a game-changing film that while not critically successful at the time, was a huge hit, becoming a beloved cult classic and hugely important film.  While he was also establishing himself in the world of television (being behind the steering wheel of episodes of Starsky and Hutch and The Dukes of Hazzard), he also followed up his Blaxploitation cannon with Dr Black, Mr Hyde in 1976. 

Neil Brand has been a silent film accompanist for over 30 years throughout the UK and at film festivals around the world. He is well-known as a TV presenter with five hugely successful ‘Sound of …’ series on BBC4, is a regular presenter on Radio 4's Film Programme and Soul Music, a Fellow of Aberystwyth University and a Member and Visiting Professor of the Royal Academy of Music, was awarded the BASCA Gold Badge in 2016 and is considered one of the finest improvising piano accompanists in the world. www.neilbrand.com

Berkley Brady is a producer, director and writer based in Calgary, Alberta. With Metis and Scottish ancestry, Brady’s inspiration comes from cinematic and art history, hip-hop and the land.  After working as an assistant on documentary and experimental film, Brady completed and MFA in Film Directing at Columbia University, and directed her first short, Blow Out, in 2015. Brady returned to Canada in 2016, and Dark Nature is her first feature film.

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.

We know Nicko and Joe most at Abertoir for their Bad Film Club, unashamedly providing live commentaries to some of the most awful pieces of cinematic sewage to ever be put to celluloid… and we love them for it.

As well as appearing in the popular soap Emmerdale, Dominic also runs Mitchell-Brunt Films along with his producer wife Joanne Mitchell. He won Best Director at The Nevada Film Festival for Bait, which was also the closing film of The Fantasia Film Festival in Toronto.  His other feature films, Before Dawn, Attack of the Adult Babies and Evie have also gained world-wide sales and distribution as well as playing at many of the leading film festivals throughout the world.His 5th feature film as director, Wolf Manor, will be released early next year after gaining a world-wide distribution deal.  [Dominic added the following to his official biography, which we at Abertoir like very much] We are proud, honoured and excited to be showing our film as part of the prestigious Abertoir Film Festival.  [Good on ya Dom!]

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. 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.

Adam is a writer, critic, broadcaster and programmer involved in various film collectives and festivals including Come The Revolution, Cinema Rediscovered, Cables & Cameras, Common Hand and Bristol Black Horror Club.

His programming interests focus on Blackness and African diaspora on screen. With a particular passion for exploring mixed-race identity, global hip hop culture, science fiction: utopia/dystopia, and exploring Black horror.

Sébastien Blanc is a Swiss and Dutch writer, director and producer, and co-founder of Lakeside Pictures. After graduating with first class honours at the Met Film School in London, he wrote, directed and produced more than a dozen short films; the most recent, Fifteen, was selected into a wide range of film festivals worldwide and is currently distributed by Shorts TV. Cerebrum is his feature directorial debut.

Davide Marangoni is a Swiss and Italian producer and actor based in London. He started his career in Switzerland, acting in local plays and films when he was 8, gradually moving behind the scenes. He then moved to London where he obtained a BA in film production. In the last few years, he produced a variety of short films, music videos and commercials, as well as production coordinated on feature films and for the famous brand BuzzFeed. Most recently he produced his second feature film, Cerebrum.

Up and coming actor Tobi King is best known for his role in the Sky original drama, Temple, and as Michaela Cole's on-screen brother in award-winning series I May Destroy You. Cerebrum is his feature debut.

Dr Maisha Wester is a British Academy-sponsored Global Professor in the School of English, University of Sheffield; her home institution is Indiana University, Bloomington. Wester’s research investigates racial representation in Gothic Literature and Horror Film, and socio-political appropriations of Gothic and Horror tropes in racial discourses.

Kristen McGorry is a scriptwriter who has somehow managed to turn her passion for playing games into a career. Now Lead Writer at Ubisoft Montreal on Project Hexe, Kristen has worked with some of the biggest games studios and written for some of the most recognisable franchises, including the recent Assassins Creed: Valhalla.

Joel Ferrari is one of the writers of Wolf Manor and a true horror / exploitation fanatic from Manchester.  He also wrote the supernatural horror Pandora which was recently picked up for distribution by Trans Atlantic Pictures (run by one of the stars of Pieces!).  Joel's been to Abertoir as a regular customer in the past, and we're thrilled that our audience aulumni are learning their trade from the best crowd!

Dellamorte is a DJ who has been involved in more scenes and genres than we can reasonably list here. From Northern soul nights, to being co-founder of long-running London breakbeat night Rocksteady, to lighting up late night radio as part of cult electronica trio Codex Machine. More recently you can find him playing to local audiences on a regular basis and globally on Twitch.

While working as an architect, in his spare time Park became involved with various independent films as an actor, writer and producer, and in 2015 directed his first short film Vicious. It quickly became one of the most watched short horror films on YouTube, and the following year Park released his second short, Still which was immediately picked up for release by Eli Roth’s Crypt TV.

In 2020, Park was approached by Millennium Media to direct The Offering, a Jewish horror story based around the myth of the infamous demon ‘Abyzou’. Park is currently developing several other projects as writer and director with New Line Cinema, Atlas Entertainment, Lionsgate and is attached as writer and director to the film adaptation of the horror game Layers of Fear.