Many will know Dominic Brunt for his popular role of Paddy in the soap opera Emmerdale. Dominic though is making his mark in the horror industry too, not only did he direct and star in the forthcoming zombie flick Before Dawn and also starred in Alex Chandon's superb shocker Inbred. Here Dominic chats about these films and his love of horror movies.

HC: How did you come to be part of the Inbred cast?

DB: I am a massive fan of Cradle Of Fear and also Pervirella. They are just classic VHS British horror fodder so I was thrilled to be asked to meet Alex to read for a part. I took my copy of Cradle Of Fear along to be signed. I'm THAT sad I'm afraid.

HC: How did you approach the character of Podge?

DB: I received the script and it very quickly became apparent that Inbred was two film styles in one. The "outsiders" were written very straight and realistically with a natural, fear and confusion to them. The "Inbreds" were played as almost Monty Python-esque, larger than life, murderous caricatures with no sense of consequence or guilt. This gave me free reign to go well over the top with personality ticks, costume, vocals and make up. I had such a great time wandering around with a chainsaw in a dress.
It's a look which I feel will catch on next season.

HC: Podge reminded me of a northern version of Leatherface, was this intentional?

DB: Not really but since looking back at the pictures I can totally see that. Whether that was subconscious or coincidence I don't know. I just wanted Podge to be grotesque and unapproachable.

HC: What was it like on set?

DB: Funny and sociable. If I wasn’t filming I'd be lying about with everyone else in the fields of North Yorkshire playing guitars and chatting. Albeit covered in blood.

HC: Are you a fan this sort of splatter movie?

DB: I'm a fan of horror but not the spiteful slashers. As appaling as some or most scenes are in Inbred there's no macho, misogyny at play and it's also hugely funny and repulsively hysterical.

HC: Would you work with director Alex Chandon again?

DB: I would give my arms to work with Alex again if he’d have me. He'd probably take them as well.

HC: We first met at FrightFest where your movie, Before Dawn was showing. How nervous were you?

DB: Really, really, really nervous. We'd shown the film to friends and family and the odd post production person but never to members of the paying public so I was a bit of a wreck. The chaps at FrightFest are just amazing though and we felt massively supported and looked after from the beginning.

HC: You must have been happy with the reception it got from the crowd?

DB: It's a gory horror film with human drama at it's heart, but we weren't sure how a horror audience would take it but in my experience it's that very crowd which is the most open minded. We were hugely gratified to get such a positive reception and felt encouraged by the response. We stuck to making the story we wanted and it worked. I feel very protective and sensitive towards Before Dawn and it's difficult let it go bizarrely.

HC: So what are you working on at the moment?

DB: We've just finished a WW2 short horror called After Three as a stop gap to a big project which will start next year.

HC: Dominic Blunt, thank you very much.

DB: No, no, no, no. Thank YOU!