Where was horror film The Moors filmed?

Yorkshire is beloved by horror aficionados the world over as the location for carnage and dark secrets courtesy of two rain-drenched American back-packers who stray into the village of East Proctor and inadvertently become victims of a werewolf.

The film, of course, is 1981’s An American Werewolf in London, with dour Brian Glover advising the hapless tourists to “beware the moon, lads”. Movie lore tells us that they don’t heed the warning. Moreover, East Proctor doesn’t exist - neither in Yorkshire nor in Wales, which is where writer/director John Landis actually shot the memorable moorland sequences.

Now, four decades later, Yorkshire’s moors are indeed the location for an all-new werewolf film. It’s called The Moors - the clue is in the title - and the cast includes fly-tippers, a dog walker, detectives...and a 7ft-tall wolfman.

Filmmaker Adam Mawson describes his 30-minute horror/comedy as “a labour of love” set in his adopted village of Baildon. What’s more, Baildon itself is as big a character as the werewolf and its victims. “I tried to make my own original horror story with current affairs at its heart,” he says. “There’s a dark secret in the village: if anyone comes in from outside and they disrespect the area, they end up dead. It’s a werewolf with a social conscience.”

Mawson, 47, grew up in Undercliffe in the 1980s and as a teenager was steeped in classics like The Fog, Halloween, the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, Poltergeist, and An American Werewolf in London. He says The Moors has “the vibe” of American Werewolf but that its central monster is less hellhound than wolfman - a cross between American Werewolf and the looming beasts of The Howling.

(Image: Community News)

To give birth to his creature he turned to special effects creator Darren Grassby, another Yorkshireman whose past work includes making the living dead for Dominic (Emmerdale) Brunt’s low-budget feature debut Before Dawn.

Says Mawson: “I believe that less is more because it builds the tension. You shouldn’t show too much. So you don’t see a lot of the werewolf in the film. But I wanted a practical werewolf. I wanted it to be real. It took Darren 12 months to build the werewolf, which is a head-and-shoulders puppet. He built the top half of the body and then separate arms and legs. And it looks great.”

The trailer for The Moors has already had more than 40,000 views on You Tube with people commenting on the quality of the mood and the sound and visual effects. It also has the benefit of those eerie moorland locations.

All of the film was shot on Baildon Moor and Ilkley Moor, an inspirational landscape Mawson describes as “perfect”.

And given that his house and day job - the personalised gift company Artylicious - overlooks Baildon Moor he didn’t have far to travel to find the right spot.

The film stars fellow Bradfordian Danny Cunningham plus Adam Probets, Sebastian Storey, Andrea Kovacs, David Cross, and Keith Dickinson. Cunningham’s career stretches back to the 1980s and includes films such as Little Shoppe of Horrors and 24 Hour Party People. He’d previously worked with his friend Mawson on the sci-fi short Abduction and reacted favourably when asked if he wanted to be in The Moors. Mawson recalls: “He said, ‘Don’t ask stupid questions! Of course I want to!’ Other cast members came via a Twitter casting call. Adam and Keith do a lot on Emmerdale and Coronation Street. The rest are family and friends.”

Filming locally, even using his own home to shoot the werewolf effects, means Mawson managed to keep his low-budget production ridiculously low. He estimates it cost less than £1,000 - though that doesn’t include his in-house duties and time as writer, director, cameraman, editor, and supporting artiste. Cameras and lighting were already available due to having used them on Abduction five years ago. With typical British understatement he quips: “It’s been a bit of a challenge.” He set up a crowdfunder to raise money for festival screenings and an eventual Blu-ray release, not least to cover the cost of English subtitles on an English soundtrack “because Americans can’t understand the Yorkshire dialect.”

Mawson had the notion for The Moors in 2020, then lockdown happened and he shelved it. He started writing again in 2021 and “after 25 drafts I thought had something great.” Casting followed with a brief hiatus for Grassby to work his magic and then The Moors finally went before the cameras. Music is provided by composer Adamo Di Giorgio who, having seen Abduction called Mawson and volunteered his services. Given that he’s worked on the likes of Logan, The Twilight Zone, and A Quiet Place, he fits right in. And the new talent includes Mawson’s 17-year-old son, Harvey, who, with his band Into the Mystic, provides the end credits song.

Says Mawson: “Everyone brought their game to the film. Everything is spot-on. It’s been a lot of pressure, but worth it for what we’ve got. I was inspired by multiple films when making The Moors, from American Werewolf and The Howling to Dog Soldiers and Howl. There’s no original werewolf movies anymore. They keep remaking The Wolfman and they’re remaking it again. The Moors mixes current affairs with that village mentality: if people come to the area and disrespect it, they die. It’s a lesson learned the hard way.”

* For the crowdfunding go to indiegogo.com/projects/the-moors-werewolf-horror-film#/

Watch The Moors trailer at youtube.com/watch?v=HMtBMfWGWUc