Kit Ryan made his feature film debut with Botched in 2007 which starred Hollywood actor Stephen Dorff and Sean Pertwee.
This year he’s releasing his latest film Dementamania which received its world premiere at Film4 FrightFest. Starring Sam Robertson (Beaver Falls, Coronation Street) the film is a dark tale with plenty of twists and turns along the way.
We managed to grab Kit for a brief chat before the screening yesterday to find out a little more about the film and discuss the casting of Sam in the lead role.
How does it feel that Dementamania is having its world premiere at Film4 FrightFest 2013?
I’m so excited and thrilled. We only just finished it recently. The guys here at FrightFest only saw a very rough cut and it was very nerve-wracking whether they were going to take it or not. I’ve been here once before with Botched a few years ago and it had a great reception. We had a chat after we screened the rough cut of Dementamania and they really enjoyed it.
Screen 1 at the Empire has huge history behind it and I can’t wait to see it up there. I’m really excited.
What can people expect from Dementamania? We’ve heard that it’s a bit like The Fly meets The Office…
You could take it that way yes. It is a psychological horror and there are moments of comedy. Basically it’s centred around an office worker, called Edward Arkham, and it’s 24 hours in his day. His mundane reality starts to be warped with a very different mentality that he has.
We start to figure out as his day progresses that he’s not all there. I see it as a bit like Jacob’s Ladder and The Fly.
What did you see in Sam Robertson that convinced you he was the right actor to play Edward?
I just thought he was the perfect person. There were times when we could have gone down a comedy route for it with the main leads and it could have ended up being a little more humorous. That wasn’t what I wanted; I wanted it to be straight down the line. Sam delivered all of that and we had a very short shooting schedule. Within that he performed every day in the way that Edward Arkham was written and how I saw him.
Best of luck with the film. We hope it goes down well with the audience today!
Thanks! Thank you very much.
Dementamania was screened as part of Day 2 of Film4 FrightFest 2013 at the Empire, Leicester Square.
