Ashley Thorpe picks up Buried Alive! Visionary Award in Atlanta, USA

Horror Visionary: the Exeter-based filmmaker Ashley Thorpe picks up the Buried Alive! Visionary Award at the Buried Alive film festival in Atlanta USA. He’s now working on another in his Penny Dreadful series, Spring Heel Jack

Exeter filmmaker Ashley Thorpe has picked up the Buried Alive! Visionary Award at the fifth annual Buried Alive! film festival in Atlanta USA.

Ashley attended the historic horror film fest as guest of honour to present two triptych screenings of three of his films Scayrecrow, The Screaming Skull, and The Hairy Hands.

We got the news of Ashley’s win from the Famous Monsters of Filmland website, which cited Ashely’s appearance as one of the highlights of the event.

The Buried Alive film festival is presided over by Phil Nutman, who Famous Monsters of Filmland calls ‘author and horror evangelist’. And it is he who is Ashley is working with at the moment on another of Ashley’s Penny Dreadful series, Spring Heel Jack.

Philip has said Ashley is the most unique British filmmaker since Clive Barker, and that Ashley’s “stunning blend of live action and animation is unlike anything you’ve seen before”.

Ashley is no stranger to awards, picking up plaudits and prizes for his films throughout the world, and he nabbed the Media Innovations award for independent film in March, 2009. He announced then that it was the start of the British horror revival. So far the Exeter filmmaker seems to be making good on that promise.

(image: early artwork for Ashley Thorpe’s Spring Heel Jack)