In his directorial debut, Sightseers star Steve Oram delivers a remarkable film that satirises human behaviour with apeshit craziness.
Set in a superficially recognisable South London of semi-detached houses, football pitches and fashionable clothing boutiques, Aaaaaaaah! nevertheless offers an alternate reality that entirely eschews dialogue for primal grunts and gesticulations, with civilisation repeatedly shown to be a thin veneer over simian wildness.
Aaaaaaaah! features some dark and comically extreme sequences, but it’s not too aloof in its arthouse outlook. Plotwise, it’s essentially Romeo and Juliet.
• Continue reading at Chortle. Catch up on all of our Aaaaaaaah! news here.
The world of VOD is sometimes seen as the bargain bin of film but new services like Frightfest Presents and its new ape drama might be about to change all that
British comedy stalwart Steve Oram’s directorial debut Aaaaaaaah! sees a host of famous faces (Toyah Willcox included) occupy a world in which human beings act like apes, their social graces eradicated and all known language replaced by a series of unintelligible grunts. So far, so kooky, but from the opening moments of the film – in which Oram’s character weepily urinates over a photo of his ex-wife – Aaaaaaaah! reveals itself as something much more tender than its offbeat premise might imply.
Quadrophenia, still awesome and legendary some 36 years after first being released, is showing at the Pawsons Arms, Croydon in South London this Friday – Seminal rock and roll infused portrait of ’60s British youth culture – More details by clicking below.
The Aaaaaaaah! T-Shirt, first revealed by Toyah and Steve Oram at the Birmingham screening of the film at the beginning of October, is now available to buy online from Last Exit To Nowhere.
The vibrant red shirt, with the Aaaaaaaah! image on the front and logo on the reverse, comes in various sizes (small to xxl) and is priced £20 plus postage.
Aaaaaaaah! – Regular T-shirt
Inspired by Aaaaaaaah! (2015)
We’ve been working with Rook Films on a T-shirt for Steve Oram’s (co-writer and star of Sightseers) subversive comedy and directorial debut, Aaaaaaaah! A six colour design, hand screen printed on a regular fit, 100% cotton red t-shirt.
Aaaaaaaah! has its Scottish premiere at the Cameo, Edinburgh this Friday… There’s a screening at the QFT, Belfast on Saturday 17th October… It’s also showing as part of the Mayhem Film Festival in Nottingham on Sunday 18th October (All of these include a Q&A with director Steve Oram)… There’s another screening this Friday at the Picturehouse, London… Aaaaaaaah! is released as a digital download by Frightfest Presents on Monday 19th October… Catch up on all our Aaaaaaaah! news by clicking – on the new promo image for the film – below.
Toyah Willcox on why she wasn’t terrified of the sex scenes in new film Aaaaaaaah!
Former teenage rebel stars in new film where the actors resort to grunting rather than words
Hell hath no fury like a woman with a frying pan in her hand when men are being stupid. But if you asked Toyah Willcox’s latest film character Barbara what she’s doing with it, you might not be able to understand her answer.
In the directorial debut of Sightseers’ actor and comedy star Steve Oram, the cast began with a script in English and then threw it away after breaking the words down into grunts. The result is Aaaaaaaah! – the year’s most original comedy horror, about a dysfunctional community who seem to be taking the human race backwards in south London. Although the actors look like humans and the film is a study of the human condition, the characters on screen behave and grunt like apes.
With Toyah playing a community leader called Barbara, the story is about men’s relationships with each other and the opposite sex while trying to reach for alpha-male status. While it’s a rare 18-certificate movie with no bad language, the 79-minute film is peppered with explicit and sometimes violent sexual scenes which include dismemberment.
Aaaaaaaah! is screened in, Toyah’s home town, Birmingham tonight, at The Electric Cinema. Toyah, along with Director Steve Oram, will be in attendance for a Q&A post-screening. Due to demand more tickets have been released for this event. Further details by clicking below.
Don’t forget a limited edition Aaaaaaaah! poster is also currently available from Rook Films.
• On Demand: Aaaaaaaah! will be released as a digital download and on demand via Icon and Frightfest Presents from 19 October. Further info at horrorchannel.com and toyahwillcox.com.
• Aaaaaaaah! at The Electric: Shock & Gore presents Aaaaaaaah! + Steve Oram & Toyah Willcox Q&A Thursday 1st October, 8pm: Screen 2. Tickets are almost sold out – Continue reading…
• Aaaaaaaah! Posters: Extremely limited, beautiful 5 layer screen print by Brighton’s finest The Private Press of Jay Shaw’s artwork for Steve Oram’s debut feature AAAAAAAAH! 100 copies only… when they are gone – they are gone! – Continue reading…
• Taste Of Cinema: Aaaaaaaah! – VIFF 2015 Review: Aaaaaaaah! is adventurous and bombastic postmodern cinema, full stop. Puritans, the easily offended, the mild-mannered and the populist filmgoer need not apply. And this, trust me, is a very good thing… Utilizing a fully committed and courageous cast of unlikely and unlikeable characters, including alpha male Smith (Oram), his object of affection, Denise (Lucy Honigman), the culinarily-challenged Barbara (Toyah Willcox), the emasculated Jupiter (Julian Barrett), and inept shop clerk, Carl (Noel Fielding). The cast alone ensures Aaaaaaaah!’s cult status while its Beckett-like scenario and savage ravel all but cinches it – Continue reading…
• Shooting People: Aaaaaaaah!: One of the cinematic highlights of my year has been watching Steve Oram’s sensational new film “AAAAAAAAH!”… “AAAAAAAAH!” which is perhaps the best sequel I could ever imagine to the original “Planet of the Apes” is funny, obscene, ludicrous, poignant and braver, bolder and better than anything else you will see this year- Continue reading…
• Aaaaaaaah! @ Dreamscape: Browse all of our related news…
Discover true terror on October 19th as Icon Film Distribution and FrightFest, the UK’s leading genre film festival, team up to launch FrightFest Presents, an all-new expert driven social community-building label ready to deliver true shocks and scares straight into your home just in time for Halloween and beyond…FrightFest Presents will bring you the most unsettling feature films from the festival; a series of movies that wowed and earned critical accliam hand-picked by FrightFest directors Alan Jones and Paul McEvoy.
The first phase of six films hand curated by FrightFest Presents will be available to download from October 19 and are: The Sand, Estranged, After Death, Aaaaaaaaah!, Night of the Living Deb and Some Kind of Hate.
Aaaaaaaah! was featured in The Sunday Times’ Culture magazine on 20th September – Monkey business – The actors go ape in a new movie that has grunts instead of gags. It’s already a cult hit. Click below to read the article. (Thanks to Lärwi for the scan)
Welcome to our 150th “Newsy Bits & Pieces!” since changing to the WordPress format three years ago…
• Straight: Your guide to the 2015 Vancouver International Film Festival: Of the 350-plus other movies coming to Vancouver between September 24 and October 9, let’s say it’s not unreasonable to expect the same quality, not to mention journeys near and far… Among the cinematic delights at this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival is the appropriately titled AAAAAAAAH!, starring Toyah Willcox – Continue reading…
Den Of Geek: Aaaaaaah! review: Looking for a very different – and disturbing British indie comedy? Then check out Steve Oram’s Aaaaaaaah! If one of the jobs of a filmmaker is to present us with something we haven’t seen before, then it’s mission accomplished for writer, director and actor Steve Oram – Continue reading…
• Classic Rock Revisited: Tony Banks – A Chord Too Far Review: The rock side of Banks has seen him collaborate with the world’s most respected musicians including singers Toyah Willcox, Fish and Nick Kershaw – Continue reading…
• Rebel Run: Released this very week in 1983 – Now get down and stay down – A Toyah pop skatertastic classic! Download ‘Rebel Run’ at iTunes, view the promo video, and the airing on Top Of The Pops. Watch Toyah perform the single on Hold Tight and Saturday Superstore. Listen to the song live at Hammersmith Odeon on the ‘Rebel Run’ Tour in December 1983. Andromeda Rising covered the song in 2005. Listen to their version here.
Mearns FM: Toyah in Stonehaven: Eighties pop icon Toyah Willcox will play Stonehaven Town Hall this Friday and Saturday night (18th & 19th September) with the singer eager to look around the town – Continue reading…
A short feature on the production of the promotional poster for Aaaaaaaah! by The Private Press.
A 6 colour screen printed poster for a brilliant new film called ‘Aaaaaaaah!, written and directed by Steve Oram, including a cast of Julian Barratt, Toyah Wilcox, Julian Rhind Tutt and Holli Dempsey. The poster prints onto Fenner Paper’s Bright Red Colorset 270gsm and the zip prints a shiny metallic silver.
The posters were printed to coincide with the film’s premiere in Leicester Square as part of Frightfest 2015. More information on the film can be found at both the Rook Films and Lincoln Studios sites.
Steve Oram’s entertaining drama imagines a world populated by vile beasts who look like humans but behave like apes
The directorial debut of Sightseers star Steve Oram is a singular item of monkey business that imagines a world populated by vile beasts who look like humans, but think, act and converse like apes. Shot for peanuts (or bananas) around decidedly trusting souls’ flats, the result often resembles an actors’ body-language workshop run amok, but between the territory-marking and leg-humping – funny on some primal level – a narrative and wounded psychology does evolve.
Onion Talking: Steve Oram Opens Wide & Says AAAAAAAAH!
With AAAAAAAAH!, are you trying to say something significant about modern society, or is the construct simply an idea that you liked?
It’s just something I found funny; I didn’t set out to make something that was a satire or a commentary. I just really enjoyed creating an intricate world, and creating the interactions and the characters – making them do silly, extreme things.
You’ve worked with many of the cast members multiple times before, but how did you decide on which new faces to bring on board, like Toyah and Julian Rhind-Tutt?
With Toyah, I loved her work in Jubilee and Quadrophenia – I’ve been a massive fan of hers for years. I was trying to cast a lady in her 50s who wouldn’t mind having to do embarrassing sex scenes and have blancmange thrown at her face. There’s not that many of them! I didn’t know her before, but I sent her the script and she loved it.
• Read the full interview at The Velvet Onion. Browse all of our Steve Oram news.
Another screening and Q&A – including Toyah – has been announced for Aaaaaaaah!
This one, following last month’s premiere/Q&A at FrightFest 2015 and last Friday’s screening/Q&A at Picture House Central, will take place at The Electric Cinema in, Toyah’s home city, Birmingham on Thursday 1st October. The Electric is located on Station Street.
Shock & Gore presents Aaaaaaaah! + Steve Oram & Toyah Willcox Q&A
Thursday 1st October, 8pm: Screen 2
Director: Steve Oram. Starring: Noel Fielding, Julian Barratt, Toyah Willcox
UK 2015, 79mins
Quadrophenia: ITV4: Sunday 13th September: 11pm Quadrophenia: ITV4: Tuesday 15th September: 11.35pm
The Who wrote and produced this energetic story of a young man disillusioned with his life in 1960s London. Phil Daniels excels as the alienated anti-hero Jimmy Cooper. Director: Franc Roddam. Starring: Phil Daniels, Leslie Ash, Toyah Willcox, Philip Davis, Mark Wingett, Sting, and Ray Winstone. Also airing on ITV4 HD and Plus 1.
There’s a busy weekend ahead – Tonight there is the Aaaaaaaah! screening + Cast Q&A at Picture House Central in Piccadilly, London. Tomorrow afternoon Toyah guests on Dermot O’Leary’s BBC Radio Two show, and on Sunday plays an Acoustic, Up Close & Personal gig at Cottingham Folk Festival (scheduled to be onstage at 3pm at The Civic Hall)
A final couple of Aaaaaaaah! reviews. See a selection of the recent opinion pieces on the film here.
• Little White Lies: Aaaaaaaah! Review: Actor Steve Oram has decided to make a movie, and the results are spectacularly disturbing… Let’s not mince words: Steve Oram is a master filmmaker. He’ll be known to British audiences for his co-starring role in Ben Wheatley’s 2012 comedy-horror hybrid, Sightseers, in which he played one half of an oddball twosome traversing the English countryside and who take a hatchet to the skull of anything or anyone that doesn’t chime with their quaint Midlands sensibilities. Aaaaaaaah! is his debut feature film as writer and director, a transgressive situationist comedy which is also one of the great British films of the new millennium. Explaining why is not going to be easy – Continue reading…
• Methods Unsound: Best of Film4 FrightFest 2015: Most Balls Out Insane Film: So let’s get to the heart of the matter, horror is often about extremes both visually and thematically, what was the most fucked up thing on offer? Aaaaaaaah! directed by Sightseer’s Steve Oram… The bluntness of the bestial activities throughout would be depraved and shocking in any other film but here they push up against human norms creating situations that are just hilariously surreal, such as Toyah Wilcox having a heart to heart with her daughter in grunts as she takes a shit on the kitchen floor – Continue reading…
In his directorial debut, Sightseers star Steve Oram delivers a remarkable film that satirises human behaviour with apeshit craziness.
