SUCCUBUS À DISTANCE
PRESS RELEASE
Independent British record label re-models as film production house, collects festival awards & announces online premiere of first experimental horror short film.
Eulogy Media Ltd. was established in 2005 as a stand-alone management & PR outfit for UK industrial metal act, interlock. Incorporating in 2007 as a record label, the company went on to distribute releases by Spires, Rannoch, Agonyst, Beth Ryan and talanas – the latter’s album ‘the waspkeeper’ being declared by the Guardian newspaper as having been crucially overlooked for a Mercury Music Prize in 2011.
Further commissions followed such as the charity single ‘In Solitude‘ for UK ISO Metal Merger / StageHand projects, appearing on BBC & Sky News throughout the lockdown of 2021 and the first music video for Birmingham death metal super-group Memoriam and the lead song ‘All is Lost’ from their fifth studio album ‘Rise to Power’ released through Reaper Entertainment in early 2023, a promo that was selected for the United Artist International Film Festival, a finalist for The Fear Faire Film Festival and finally receiving an Honourable Mention from the Europe Music Awards alongside an award win from the Royal Society of Television & Motion Picture Awards.
Despite other commissions for music-related & commercial content (such as the EFG London Jazz Festival, Strigoi, Korean Cultural Centre, the Royal College of Music, Torture Garden events and contemporary cellist Jo Quail among others), a slate of dramatic & horror-centric narrative pieces has been in stern development. The first of which was completed specifically for ‘A Glimpse of Kink’ – an exhibition that took residence in the Summer of 2021 at the Bateman Street Gallery in Soho, which saw Eulogy Media build a themed set in the venue’s subterranean vault as the ‘Chapel of Syn’ in which various short films & mood pieces in the company’s repertoire were screened. One of which, ‘Succubus à Distance’, rose to prominence and was tendered to the festival market soon after.
The 6 minute short experimental piece has now gained official selection status at Horror Lust Film Festival & the Kalakari Film Fest, being given quarter-finalist status at Nasty Frames Independent Film Festival and winning the ‘Best Experimental Film’ award at the Filmzen International Film Festival and the Athens International Monthly Art Film Festival.
Writer & Director of the film, and Eulogy Media’s founder, Hal Sinden comments:
Succubus à Distance’ is finally a chance to present my muse [Syn Ariad] in a narrative piece that weaves together my love of more abstract-leaning, gothic aesthetic with my fascination with the human dream-state. As a long term & heavily medicated sufferer of numerous sleep conditions (severe parasomnia, sleep paralysis, night terrors etc.), my continued treatment at the hands of various consultants, clinicians & therapists does little to address what I go through / witness on a daily [nightly] basis. This short film is one in a number of forthcoming pieces that explore my experiences from various states of consciousness.
The film stars Mistress Syn Ariad; one of Europe’s BDSM scene’s more renowned dominatrices, model & fetish performance artist alongside Raven Victoria; an alternative model, dancer / performance artist and awardwinning marketing consultant.
Shot between various locations in Brussels as well as London, the production made exclusive use of vintage (and in some cases, antique) mid-20th century anamorphic lenses twinned with various magnifying & assorted other glass artefacts inherited through the Sinden family, often as heirlooms with crucial theatrical historical value.
Conceptually, though inherently experimental / textural, ‘Succubus à Distance’ presents the character of a young woman who is troubled by night terrors. Eventually she suffers a vision of a sleep paralysis demon in the form of a succubus who may possibly have managed to cross into the waking realm. The notion is then presented that the film’s protagonist may have intentionally summoned her demon herself.
An online premiere is now set for 9.30pm (GMT) on Monday March 20 2023 (minutes after this year’s March Equinox) on Eulogy Media’s YouTube channel.
USEFUL LINKS:
‘Succubus à Distance’ official YouTube upload
Interview with Hal Sinden about ‘Succubus à Distance’ on AIMAFF
Hal Sinden IMDb page (includes biog)
‘Succubus à Distance’ Press Pack (including high res photos) on Dropbox
Promotional video for ‘Succubus à Distance’ online premiere date on Instagram
Promotional video for ‘Succubus à Distance’ online premiere date on Facebook
Promotional video for ‘Succubus à Distance’ online premiere date on Twitter
Promotional video for ‘Succubus à Distance’ online premiere date on TikTok
Promotional video for ‘Succubus à Distance’ online premiere date on LinkedIn
Eulogy Media official website
For additional information about this press release, contact Stewart Campbell [email protected] (07971 951 530) at Eulogy Media Ltd.
Editors Note: Malevolent Dark will be writing a Indie Horror pre-release review of Succubus À Distance.
