Reviews

Attack of the Adult Babies

The film’s gonzo excess and lurid imagination contains more genuine punk-rock attitude than any UK movie I’ve seen in ages.
Andrew Winter – Film Enquiry

There’s a joyousness about this kind of filmmaking, an imaginative piece of work. Destined to attract a cult following.
Jennie Kermode – Eye For Film.

There’s plenty for everyone to enjoy though. Whether you’re a fan of anything a bit bizarre or like your comedies oddly dark or you’re just love lots of gore, then this film’s for you.

Attack of the Adult Babies is the best of British horror bizarreness, right up there alongside The League of Gentleman, Aaaaaaaah! and Psychoville.
Alain Elliot – Nerdly

It’s fair to say they’re one of the most exciting teams working in UK indie horror in recent years. More of it, please!
Ben Bussey – Warped Perspective

A damn funny comedy.
Matt Hudson – Horror News

A great audience movie. The laughs trickle across the theatre, and grow throughout the crowd, as each distinct chuckle adds to the surreal humour of it all. Unlike anything else out there.
Benedict Seal – Bloody Disgusting

You will laugh, you will be grossed out but ultimately you will be entertained.
Bloody Flicks

Attack of the Adult Babies is funny. Really funny, in fact.
Luke Owen – Flickering Myth

Attack of the Adult Babies will put a smile on the face of any comedy horror lover.
Dave Adamson – Vulture Hound

At a time when swathes of modern horror films are so diluted as to be barely recognisable as such, it is refreshing to see a filmmaker bold enough to take risks. With a cast wholly committed to their caricatured roles, including a wicked turn from Joanne Mitchell who also co-produced, and effects akin to a major studio production, Attack Of The Adult Babies is a welcome slice of extreme genre cinema. It may well disgust, it will likely make you laugh, but it is never less than entertaining throughout, and for that Brunt and his overactive imagination should be applauded.
John Townsend – Diabilique Magazine

From watching Attack of the Adult Babies, it was more fun than I can put it into words. The movie is really a breath of fresh air to horror fans; it tries new things and smashes it out of the park. It is so common to finish watching a movie and instantly compare it to something you’ve seen before, however this movie is so unique that it crafts its own style which is so different to everything else released before it. After my first viewing, I instantly wanted to watch it again incase I’d missed anything and also because I wanted to repeat the experience (and what an amazing experience it is). Sometimes you watch something special that you know you’ll be talking about for years to come, Attack of the Adult Babies is one of those movies. It left me wanting more and I hope this is the first of many movies in this series as it has the potential to grow into an institution in British horror.
Neon Frights

A gloriously wild ride
Martin Unsworth – Starburst Magazine

Disgusting, depraved, brave, bonkers, brilliant and quintessentially British in its humour and depravity
Horror Hothouse

Bait

RADIO TIMES (4 out of 5 stars) ‘Brunt creates an ominous atmosphere punctuated by staccato bursts of shocking violence against anyone who gets in the scoundrel’s way – age, gender or disability (Dawn has an autistic son) are no protection against his depredations or the brutality of his man-mountain sidekick (Adam Fogerty). Slinger creates one of British cinema’s vilest villains, excruciatingly smug but menacing and deadly to boot. But be warned, the climax (echoing the kitchen scene from Hitchcock’s Torn Curtain) is definitely not for the faint-hearted.’

THE GUARDIAN ‘This impressively vicious thriller directed by Dominic Brunt (who played Paddy Kirk in Emmerdale for years) looks at first like straight-up exploitation nonsense with its opening shots of a bra-clad Joanne Mitchell covered in blood screaming in a bathroom as Victoria Smurfit (also gore-smeared and in her undies) climbs the stairs with a knife. But as the narrative rolls back to show how we got to this place, Bait reveals itself to be smarter and subtler than the usual genre workout. The two women, it turns out, are best friends who run a cake stall in a market and get suckered into making a deal with Jonathan Slinger’s exquisitely evil loan shark.’

Disgusting, depraved, brave, bonkers, brilliant and quintessentially British in its humour and depravity
Horror Hothouse

Before Dawn

TOTAL FILM (4 out of 5 stars) ‘..this striking low budget horror-drama features first time filmmakers playing smartly to their strengths…it’s an intimate tale of a couple on a make-or-break country getaway unaware of the apocalypse unfurling around them…what emerges is a surprisingly poignant study of a marriage in meltdown as the world mutely follows suit.. ‘ RADIO TIMES (4 out of 5 stars) ‘..this surprisingly effective blend of zombie horror and relationship drama (think George A Romero meets Mike Leigh)..it’s primarily an intimate portrait of a couple trying to rekindle their love, though there’s a constant sense of foreboding and several clues that all is not well beyond their cottage..it makes for a genuinely unnerving, shocking and ultimately poignant experience..’

HORROR CHANNEL (5 out of 5 stars) ‘ There are many husband and wife teams out there in the entertainment industry, but few have delivered such a stunning feature movie debut as Dominic Brunt and Joanne Mitchell.. Before Dawn is an emotional and brutal horror movie that crosses genres..taking the shambling zombie into dramatic territory..’

STARBURST(9 out of 10) ‘….this is a stunningly assured piece of work characterised by a smart script, compellingly naturalistic performances from the two leads…Before Dawn is a film about people and relationships as much as it is about zombies…there’s enough genuine human interest to guarantee that the time invested in these characters pays dividends in the final shattering few minutes….Haunting and yet beautiful, Before Dawn, is a little modern masterpiece and possibly the most exciting British genre movie in a decade or more. Essential viewing.’

SciFiNow (4 out of 5 stars) ‘ ..Before Dawn confounds expectations, however, as for the first 30 minutes you don’t see a sniff of the undead. Instead, the human element is called upon to provide the tension between Alex (Brunt) and his wife Meg (Mitchell) retreat to an isolated Yorkshire cottage to rebuild their struggling marriage…an exhausting and invasive mixture of human drama and end times futility…it feels as shocking an escalation as that first torrent of gore in The Shining.’

FILM JUICE ‘…brilliantly acted, showing the couples flaws and their weaknesses..this is what sets it apart from so many of its ilk, the characters are well-drawn and believable, lending more weight to the nightmare closing in around them…it’s a fresh, thoughtful and intelligent addition to the genre that richly deserves to find itself an audience…’

THE HOLLYWOOD NEWS (5 out of 5 stars) ‘…the script and acting from the central duo is natural and superb…and there is a real depth in character development in the early stages to suggest there is some complexity gnawing away at their love for one another..it feels like a Shane Meadows or Mike Leigh horror film..it’s gripping stuff and easily identifiable, which makes for compulsive viewing…Before Dawn really is an uncomfortable watch and one that will stay with you well after the closing credits..I have to concede to being totally blown away by the most gutwrenching modern zombie flick in years…an unforgettable and jaw-dropping shocker!’

SKY MOVIES ‘… Expertly shot and boasting snatches of dialogue that could have come from Mike Leigh, this is a refreshing spin on a genre hamstrung by formula.’

EMPIRE (3 out of 5 stars) ‘…striking imagery, decent grue and an ending that lingers.’

THE YORKSHIRE POST ‘….combining the nervous energy of a classic zombie flick – think Night of The Living Dead transplanted to Hebden Bridge – with a Ken Loach portrait of a crumbling marriage, this is a bold and frequently bloody attempt to give the genre a twist….Before Dawn is powerfully original…’

BIZARRE MAGAZINE ‘…Once the scene’s set, Brunt let’s rip with a relentless succession of blood-drenched, vicious set pieces captured on fast moving cameras and accompanied by a pulsepounding score-right through to the smack in the face finale..but for all it’s expected nastiness it’s the pathos and the vulnerability that Brunt and Joanne Mitchell inject into the proceedings that elevates Before Dawn above most living dead movies….Brunt illustrates that he’s got the smarts to carve out a full-blown career as one of the fright flick industry’s finest directors.’