Four childhood friends from Horsforth are set to relive their teenage filmmaking days in a full-length movie inspired by their original Super 8 project, more than four decades later.
Ian Ray-White, Mark Standeaven, Nigel Batty, and Ian Torkington first met at school in Horsforth in the early 1980s. As teenagers, they collaborated on a 20-minute Super 8 comedy-horror titled “Splatter”, a parody of popular slasher films of the era such as Friday the 13th and Halloween.
Now, in their sixties, the group has reunited to bring a feature-length adaptation of that early project to life. The new film, Trail of Splatter, is written and directed by Ian Ray-White, who has since become a professional actor.
Ray-White said the idea had been with him for years. He had long wanted to expand the original short film into a “proper” movie, but only acted on it later in life. After losing his job in the sign industry, he decided to pursue acting seriously—joining an extras agency and later appearing in productions including The Darkest Hour and the Dad’s Army remake.
“I’d always wanted to be an actor as a kid, but didn’t have the confidence,”
he explained.
“When I lost my job, I thought, ‘What have I got to lose?’”
Working on film sets eventually inspired him to try directing his own project. He began developing the idea and raising funds to produce the film independently.
Filming began in the summer of 2024, marking a genuine reunion for the four friends, who had not all been together for many years. According to Ray-White, stepping back into their original roles felt surprisingly natural.
“I was amazed how easily we all stepped back into the characters we played all those years ago—it was as if we’d never been apart,”
he said.
Although produced on a modest budget, the film has secured distribution through Filmhub, which aims to place independent titles on streaming platforms such as Amazon Prime.
Trail of Splatter is expected to arrive on streaming services later this year.
More information about the project is available at: Trail of Splatter Official Site
