Wednesday 24 April 2019

Interview with David McGillivray



Ahead of Horror Channel’s premiere of Pete Walker’s SCHIZO, horror and sexploitation movie writer/director David McGillivray reflects on disastrous scripts, his volatile relationship with Walker and writing smut for Julian Clary

Q: SCHIZO is unusual in your body of work with director Pete Walker because the concept and narrative were not of your choosing. How much of a problem was that for you?

Huge. I thought the script that we re-worked was terribly old-fashioned and this led to big arguments with Walker that ended our relationship.

Q: You often play a cameo in the movies you’ve written – you’re ‘Man at Séance’ in SCHIZO. Any particular reason?

I liked to write myself parts so that I could observe Walker at work. He was an extremely talented exploitation director who influenced the remainder of my career. 

Q: SCHIZO exhibits many Hitchcockian references and Pete Walker cites Hitch as a hero. Is he for you too?

Yes, of course. Psycho is one of my favourite horror films. 

Q: You’ve written many films for many people in so many genres, but what’s your own personal favourite?

My first film for Pete Walker, House of Whipcord. It was very exciting because it was the kind of film I’d dreamed of writing.


Scene from SCHIZO

Q: Just prior to SCHIZO you wrote a pop opera in the ROCKY HORROR vein for Pete Walker titled SVENGALI based on George du Maurier’s Gothic melodrama. Do you regret that project being shelved?

No, it would have been a disaster. Walker realised this and cancelled it almost before I’d typed the final page of the script. 

Q: Your autobiography Little Did You Know is published in June. Rumour says it’s not your typical memoir though, so what’s it all about?

I don’t want to spoil the surprise. Suffice it to say that after its publication I will never work again.

Q: Your love/hate relationship with Pete Walker is common knowledge. Are there any more scandalous revelations about that in the book?

Oh yes…

Q: You write a lot of the material for comedian Julian Clary. How did that business relationship begin and is this the nearest you can get to the Golden Era of the British sexploitation film you so brilliantly essayed in your book Doing Rude Things? 

Writing smut for Julian Clary is my day job. I enjoy it immensely. I have written for him for something like 37 years. In Julian’s latest show, which tours the UK before playing the London Palladium on 8th June, unsuspecting audience members are subjected to so-called ‘Heterosexual Aversion Therapy.’ If you sit in the front row, you deserve all you get.

Q: You’ve announced your next film project is The Wrong People based on the novel by Robin Maugham. So you have no intention of retiring from the film industry just yet?

I love movies. I am fresh from a meeting with a director who bravely has chosen to take on this project. But In all likelihood it is so controversial that probably it will finish both our careers. If Little Did You Know hasn’t finished mine already. 

Q: Finally, SCHIZO receives its Horror Channel premiere on Sat April 27th. Will you be watching?

I’m pleased Horror Channel viewers will get the chance to see it, but will I be watching? Certainly not. I can’t bear to see my own work, which is all dreadful.

SCHIZO has its Channel premiere on Horror Channel, Sat 27, 10.40pm.

LITTLE DID YOU KNOW: THE CONFESSIONS OF DAVID McGILLIVRAY is published by FAB Press and it out from June 1.


Thursday 18 April 2019

Dark forces invade Horror Channel in May with alien invasion season


Dark forces arrive on Horror Channel in May when the UK’s most popular genre TV channel unleashes INVASION SEASON: a collection of Saturday night alien attack sci-fi movies. The line-up includes Chris Gorak’s Moscow-set apocalyptic fantasy, THE DARKEST HOUR, Colin Minihan’s wonderfully effective sci-fi shocker EXTRATERRESTRIAL, Scott Stewart’s compulsive alien home-invasion thriller DARK SKIES and the high velocity alien battler drama SKYLINE, directed by Greg and Colin Strause.

Full film details:

Sat 4 May @ 21:00 – THE DARKEST HOUR (2011) *Channel Premiere
Young entrepreneurs Sean (Emile Hirsch) and Ben (Max Minghella) find themselves stranded in Moscow, alongside fellow travellers Natalie (Olivia Thirlby) and Anne (Rachael Taylor), fighting to survive when an alien attack devastates the city. They must somehow fight back against a deadly invisible enemy that can find and disintegrate them at any moment.


Sat 11 May @ 21:00 – EXTRATERRESTRIAL (2014) * Channel Premiere
Still reeling from her parents' divorce, April (Brittany Allen) is dragged back to the vacation cabin she spent fond summers at as a child accompanied by a group of friends. Her trip down memory lane takes a dramatic and terrifying turn when a fireball descends from the sky and explodes in the nearby woods. The college friends soon find themselves caught in the middle of something bigger and more terrifying than they ever thought possible.


Sat 18 May @ 21:00 – DARK SKIES (2013) *Channel Premiere
The Barrett family start to experience an escalating series of disturbing phenomena occurring around their suburban home, leading them to believe that they are being targeted by an unimaginable deadly force. They soon realise that they must uncover this deadly mystery, by any means necessary, before it’s too late.


Sat 25 May @ 21:00 – SKYLINE (2010)
The residents of Los Angeles are awakened in the dead of night by an eerie light which is hypnotically drawing people outside before they suddenly vanish into thin air. As the world unravels, a band of survivors soon discover they must fight against the onslaught of a mysterious alien horde. Who or what are these extra-terrestrials and how long before mankind succumbs to their overwhelming power?


There is also the UK TV premiere for Roxy Shith’s blood-thirsty psychological thriller PAINKILLERS and channel premieres for pulp horror anthology, TALES THAT WITNESS MADNESS, helmed by Freddie Francis and Neil LaBute’s horrifying racial drama LAKEVIEW TERRACE, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Patrick Wilson,

Plus, the channel also premieres Paul W.S. Anderson’s RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION, with Milla Jovovich, returning as iconic heroine Alice.


Horror Channel: Be Afraid
TV: Sky 317 / Virgin 149 / Freeview 70 / Freesat 138

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