Lothian community clubs together to create werewolf flick

THE make-up artists were local face painters and the world premiere will be in a village hall – but when the cast of horror movie The Undiscovered walk down the red carpet, they will be as proud as any Hollywood star.

The Wicker Man may not have given small Scottish villages the best reputation, but when a crew arrived to film its follow-up, The Wicker Tree, in Temple, Midlothian, residents decided they'd like to shout "action" for themselves.

They created a 45-minute werewolf film which brought together more than 100 villagers, from babies in prams to pensioners and pets.

Screenwriter and director Jackie Gibb, 42, said inspiration first struck last summer.

"The film crews were always being spotted in the countryside and one day they were in the village and closed off the roads, so it really did just take over for a while," she said. "We started to think it would be really good fun to have a go ourselves."

Appropriately for a community blockbuster, the idea for the plot came about during a trip to the swings, rather than a high- powered script meeting.

The full-time mum said: "It was just a lovely, late summer's evening. We went to the park after nursery one day and one little boy was chatting about the woods nearby and said there really were werewolves there, and we thought that would be a really good plot – if there was a film crew filming a horror movie and they were oblivious to the fact that there were real werewolves in the village."

She began asking friends and family if they'd like to join in, and before they knew it, they were being approached by other villagers who wanted to take part. Soon about half the village had signed up.

It might have been low-budget, but the filmmakers didn't let that hold them back. They shot a 60-person outdoor dance sequence in the pouring rain with the help of Mrs Gibb's niece, who was visiting from Australia and had studied dance at college, and, not being able to run to CGI, used Hallowe'en masks and silhouette sequences to hint at the werewolves' transformation.

It might have been intended as a fun project, but there was also a serious side. The screenings will raise funds for the village hall, local nursery and a new film club, and the project has helped to bring the villagers closer together.

Resident Coline Hyslop, 45, who features in the film as Gossip No. 1, said: "It's quite a small village, it's not got a pub or shop and the school was closed a few years ago by the council after vociferous protests, so we're really trying to keep the community going, to have a focal point at the village hall."

The film will premiere in the hall on 6 March, complete with a red carpet and paparazzi snapping the stars as they arrive in black four-wheel drives.

It is already sold out, but tickets are still available for a matinee showing the following day. For details, see www.theundiscoveredmovie.com.