THE TEAM
CREATOR & HOST
Paul is the founder and co-director of FrightFest, the UK’s largest genre film festival. Showcasing a wide range of fantasy, horror, thriller and science fiction films. The main FrightFest event is held in Leicester Square, London and showcases circa 100 World / UK / International Premieres of features and short films over 5 days in the 2 huge Odeon Cinemas, with over 600 international film guests in attendance. In its 25 year history, FrightFest has screened thousands of premieres, including Pan's Labyrinth, Donnie Darko, Let The Right One In, The Raid, Battle Royale, Oldboy, Martyrs, The Orphanage, The Babadook, Barbarian and numerous other titles.
Paul has hosted numerous film-related special events worldwide, including Q&A sessions with Elijah Wood, James Wan, Leigh Whannell, Jessica Alba and many more. Paul also worked in-house at the AMC Horror Channel for both the UK and Italy.
JAKE WEST
PRODUCER & EDITOR
Jake is best known as a director & his feature film work is primarily in the horror/Fantasy & Sci-Fi genres. These include Razor Blade Smile, Evil Aliens, Pumpkinhead: Ashes to Ashes, Doghouse, The ABC's of Death, Midnight Peepshow and his latest, the acclaimed feature documentary Mancunian Man: The Legendary Life of Cliff Twemlow which after its Festival and Cinema runs will be released on Blu-ray in the US & UK in the Summer of 2024.
Jake is also a passionate film connoisseur and also owns Nucleus Films, a UK-based independent distribution label that he founded in 2003 with film researcher and author Marc Morris. Nucleus Films produced and released the highly acclaimed documentary Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship & Videotape, hailed as “a comprehensive telling of national vigilantism run amuck” (DVD Talk). And the sequel Video Nasties: Draconian Days, was hailed “a brilliant reminder of how far the UK has come, and a revealing time capsule that should prove a cautionary example against future reactionary insanity” (Eye For Film).
SIMON BOSWELL
MUSIC
Simon has scored over 125 films by some of cinema's incredible mavericks such as Danny Boyle's Shallow Grave, Alejandro Jodorowsky's Santa Sangre, Dario Argento's Phenomena, Michael Hoffman's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Iain Softley’s Hackers, Alex de la Iglesias's Perdita Durango and Richard Stanley's Hardware and Dust Devil.
Along the way Simon has garnered many international awards and nominations, including 2 BAFTAs and a Classical Brit Award.
After spending several years in bands such as Advertising and Live Wire, Simon became a highly successful record producer and remixer. In 1982, his production of Italian superstar, Renato Zero, became one of the biggest selling Italian albums of all time, shifting a staggering 6 million copies. Later on his work with 23 Skidoo on Coup evolved into the Chemical Brothers' Block Rockin Beats. He has also produced, amongst many others, Elton John, Nik Kershaw, Dolly Parton, Marianne Faithful, Andrea Bocelli and Orbital.
ASHLEY THORPE
ARTWORK
Ashley is a Devon based illustrator and animator whose early films were inspired by a desire to share what he believed to be the neglected aspects of British folklore. Films such as Scayrecrow, The Screaming Skull and The Hairy Hands led to writing award nominated 'Brit-centric' articles and art for Fangoria and Rue Morgue Magazine. Two radio scripts for Glass Eye Pix (The Demon Huntsman and Dead Men's Shoes) helped to develop his first feature - Borley Rectory - starring Reece Shearsmith, Jonathan Rigby and Julian Sands. The film was released on Blu-ray by Nucleus Films in 2019 and is currently streaming on Netflix.
A love of digitally created retro analog textures has led to a long-standing relationship with Severin Films and has seen Ashley provide animated sequences for such varied projects as Woodlands dark & days bewitched, Black Emmanuelle, Mancunian Man: The Legendary Life of Cliff Twemlow and the forthcoming Exorcismo.
In 2023, Ashley also provided the animated titles for Danny Robins’ hit paranormal series Uncanny for the BBC.
AARON TRUSS
DIGITAL CONTENT DIRECTOR
Aaron is an award-winning director and one of the co-founders of Q Cumber Films (alongside Joe Acres, Ignacio Mazuecos and Adam Brown). Aaron is a former child actor and Thames Valley University graduate as well a former stand up comedian. In 2010, Aaron produced the anti-knife crime short film Cold Kiss starring Ray Winstone.
In 2018, Aaron partnered with The Rob Knox Foundation to produce and direct (K)nox: The Rob Knox Story, which received it’s UK TV premiere on ITVX in 2023 and it’s North American/Canadian TV premiere on BBC Select in 2024.
In 2020, Truss joined the team at Strangelove Films to produce Cult of VHS, a documentary focusing on the age of VHS and eccentric collectors around the world. The film World Premiered at London's FrightFest in 2022. Aaron then directed the award winning horror short, Pareidolia starring Diane Franklin, Graham Cole, Carolyn Pickles and Joe Acres. Truss is an anti-knife crime campaigner and supporter for The Rob Knox Foundation, Lives not Knives and The Midi Music Company, as well as the Co-Director of the Rob Knox London Film Festival.