Welcome to the third instalment in my Filmmaker Profiles series, which focuses on the lives and careers of British indie horror filmmakers. Following our previous spotlights on the unique and talented Tony Mardon and Andy Edwards, we now turn our attention to yet another criminally underappreciated talent in the British horror scene.
While the UK horror landscape is, at its core, fuelled by fiercely independent creators, the writers, producers and directors toiling away on their passion projects simply don’t get the recognition they deserve. Mainstream media focus on the latest pop-cultural trends, often labelling multi-million-pound corporate projects as indie (ahem, A24, it’s a joke A24, please don’t sue me). Often, at the expense of the true grassroots voices operating at the fringes of creative accomplishment. That sort of accomplishment includes managing to write a script while still being able to afford super noodles and pay the rent. Not always in that order either.
That’s why this series exists: to celebrate and advocate for the British indie horror scene, with a focus on the filmmakers who are quite literally shaping modern British horror from the ground up. And few exemplify that spirit better than a remarkable Irish woman who came to live in Scotland, Sarah Daly.
Who is Sarah Daly?
Sarah Daly is a true multi-hyphenate force of indie filmmaking relentlessness who has worn just about every hat in the craft. She’s best known as the co-founder and lead creative of Hex Studios, one of the UK’s most prolific independent horror production companies. For well over a decade, Sarah has been the chief storyteller and smartypants at Hex, serving as screenwriter and producer on an array of award-winning cult films. If you’ve ever shuddered at the sight of the Owlman in Lord of Tears (or more likely, been amused by his presence in our notorious Owlman prank videos), or been drawn into the brooding atmosphere of The Unkindness of Ravens, which premiered at FrightFest, then you’ve already experienced Daly’s work.
Together with her long-time producing partner Lawrie Brewster (that’s me… who happens to be her Hex Studios co-founder), she has helped shepherd over a dozen feature films from script to screen, and as always against the odds, often with very modest budgets.
What truly makes Sarah stand out is the breadth of her talents. She isn’t “just” a writer-producer; she’s also an accomplished musician and poet. In fact, Daly’s artistic journey began with words and music. She has published poetry and performed as a singer-songwriter (her musical alter ego “Metaphorest” is known to some fans), infusing a lyrical sensibility into everything she creates. This rare blend of skills has led to some extraordinary creative crossovers. Early in her career, Hollywood came knocking. Sarah wrote short films in collaboration with Joseph Gordon-Levitt (one such whimsical short starred Gordon-Levitt and Channing Tatum), and even had one of her original songs performed live by pop icon Sia. She earned praise from the likes of Gary Oldman and Anne Hathaway for her imaginative scripts, which they performed on stage.
It was the kind of attention that could have lured her toward a more conventional Hollywood path. Instead, she doubled down on promoting independent horror here in the UK, channelling those talents into building Hex Studios and crafting the kind of eerily beautiful genre stories she loves. (Fun fact: she also runs Hex’s publishing arm, Hex Arcana, and once even got a shout-out from New Order for her haunting cover of their song Elegia. Is there anything this woman can’t do?)
When she relocated from Ireland to Fife in 2010 with big ideas and a freshly inked script, there wasn’t exactly a roadmap for making indie horror films in a working-class Scottish town. So, Sarah helped create the path herself. Hex Studios was born in 2011 in Kirkcaldy as a truly independent outfit, a studio in name but essentially a tiny team of dreamers working out of a small office with DIY gear and maxed-out passion. From the outset, the goal wasn’t just to make movies, but to make a community. Sarah and her team actively reached out to involve others. That began right away in 2010 when she hosted the Dysart Sail-In Film Festival, attracting over 2,000 visitors, in an event attended by Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Today, Daly also serves as the driving force behind Fife Creative Studios, a charitable organisation she co-founded to nurture local talent and to provide accessible film production opportunities (most often in the realms of horror and fantasy).
Crucially, Daly has helped foster a truly independent filmmaking model. She’s been outspoken about the challenges of making horror on the fringes: no handy rulebook, constantly shifting distribution landscapes, and the need to innovate or die in the face of algorithm changes and industry shake-ups. Her solution has been to embrace total independence. That means controlling as much of the process as possible, from raising funds (often via Kickstarter or Patreon) to handling distribution directly to fans. Under Sarah’s guidance, Hex built its own online fan community (the British Horror Studio project) to bypass traditional gatekeepers and connect directly with viewers who care about indie horror.
Sarah Daly may not yet be a household name among horror fans, but within industry insider circles she’s regarded with a kind of cult admiration, and it’s easy to see why. She’s the rare kind of creator who does it all: write, produce, compose, inspire, lead. Her journey, from a young poet in Ireland to the mastermind behind one of Britain’s most exciting horror studio, is a testament to what passionate, independent filmmaking can achieve.
For aspiring indie horror filmmakers and avid horror fans alike, Daly’s career offers a powerful message: true creativity knows no bounds, and the grassroots approach can yield results.
As we continue to watch Hex Studios churn out uncanny tales (with Sarah’s pen fuelling each nightmare) and await her forthcoming feature directorial debut, one thing is certain: Sarah Daly’s influence on British horror is only growing.
Let’s Ask Sarah Daly Some Questions!
When I first met you, it was through a filmmaking forum where you were sharing scripts you were writing, and working so hard to get onto the first rungs of the film industry while juggling about a million jobs! Your tenacity was a real inspiration to me and got me off my arse, but have you always wanted to work in film? Can you tell us more about your path into the industry?
Growing up in a small town in Ireland, a career in film would have seemed so utterly implausible that I never even considered it as a possibility, but I’ve definitely always loved to create. As a child, I wrote endless stories, poems, and songs, and loved making any kind of art. I was also obsessed with television (even though we only had the two Irish channels which mostly showed reruns of American TV from the 60s and 70s) and my two favourite places were the library and the video rental shop. So, I guess all the ingredients were there, even if they hadn’t formed into a career goal quite yet!
My path into film started properly at 18, when it came time to choose what to do after secondary school. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to go to university, since it’s free in Ireland, and there’s even a small grant to help with living expenses. I didn’t know yet what I wanted to do with my life, but I knew that I wanted to do something creative. The course I chose was a general media degree called ‘Media Arts’ at Dublin Institute of Technology. The course covered a pretty ridiculous array of subjects: TV production, film theory, radio, photography, sociology, even French (ooh la la!)! I didn’t feel that I was particularly good at a lot of the practical stuff, and found the whole university experience quite difficult, but one part of the course that I really did enjoy, and found I had an affinity for, was scriptwriting. As someone who’s very logical as well as creative, I fell in love with the way that screenwriting combines structure and imagination.
So, when I graduated, I finally had a dream at least–to somehow make a living out of writing films. Of course, I had no idea how to do that! I worked normal jobs all the way through college, and kept this up for another three years, doing pretty soul-destroying work like transcribing airline manuals, and formatting market research reports.
But, I was still trying to keep the dream alive on the side, and managed to get a couple of little freelance gigs as a script reader for local production companies, as well as making online connections with aspiring filmmakers who produced some of my scripts into short films.Turning my passion into something resembling a career still seemed a long way off.
(By the way, I certainly don’t think that a degree in film is necessary, but for me, the opportunity to try out all these different disciplines let me find the one that I enjoyed, and was decent at. If you’re lucky enough to already have even a vague idea of what you want to do, just go ahead and do it! )
Now… I know a bit about this story, but others won’t. Can you share how you came to Hex Studios with the only very slightly overweight but still strangely attractive horror filmmaker, Lawrie Brewster?
About two years after I left college, I joined a website called DVXUser – which was a pretty basic forum for filmmakers to chat and collaborate. The site had one feature that was particularly popular, a monthly competition for members to produce short films based on a specific theme. As a writer, this was an amazing opportunity to network with aspiring directors, and actually get some projects from the page onto the screen.
One such director that I connected with was Lawrie Brewster. We realised pretty quickly that we had very similar artistic sensibilities and aspirations, and became regular collaborators. We made a flurry of short films in quick succession, and then, in a pretty crazy twist of fate, ended up working together on a series of shorts with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Channing Tatum that screened at Sundance and South By Southwest. It was clear that when we worked together, big things could happen. And so, in 2010, I moved from Dublin to Kirkcaldy in Scotland to see just what was possible if we both devoted ourselves to our filmmaking dream.
At that point, Lawrie had a corporate video company, so to start with, we mostly worked on videos for local arts organisations, but our creative aspirations were always at the forefront of our minds. In the space of a few months, we produced several short films, learning and improving as we went along.
Then, in the epic winter of 2010, we shot our first feature. I’d gotten a DLSR camera for Christmas (thanks to my brother Marc!) and our historical snow-covered village provided the perfect backdrop for an apocalyptic disaster film called White Out. With the help of three friends; an actor, a camera man, and a sound guy, as well as Lawrie’s mum, we managed to produce a feature film that wasn’t half bad! The inclusion of video diaries from folks we knew from all over the world gave the film a much broader scope than it should have had, which really helped, and I produced the soundtrack for the film, along with a musician friend from Ireland.
It was very much a team effort, and a pretty modest affair, but because of that first film, we managed to raise a little funding for our next film, the much more conventional, and ambitious, horror film Lord of Tears. It was with that film that Hex Media, as it was then called, was born. (Later we decided that Hex Studios just had a better ring to it!)
Lawrie and I have been working together now for fifteen years, through the highs and lows, the dreams and the nightmares! Together we’ve built what is now British Horror Studio, encompassing Hex Studios, the revived Amicus Productions, and the B-Team, which is a fledgling studio where a broader range of aspiring filmmakers work together with our support to produce smaller, more experimental horror films.
Whatever life’s thrown at us throughout the journey, and there’s been plenty, we’ve always kept our independent spirit, and a burning desire to tell original, unique stories at the centre of everything we do.
As well as your work with the British Horror Studio project, you’re also making music and writing beautiful, often hilarious and macabre poetry. Can you tell us more about these different creative disciplines? I feel it’s important for filmmakers to be as creative and multi-disciplined as possible.
Oh, that’s a tough one! I love each medium for different reasons. Choosing a favourite is a bit like choosing a favourite child!
Film is incredible because it’s the most full, real, tangible way to bring a story to life. To create a world in your imagination, and then see it captured on screen forever is something pretty special. But of course it does come with compromises. You can write anything you like if it just stays on the page, but if you have to then turn that into a concrete reality, that can be difficult or impossible, even with the best intentions and all the ambition in the world. Budget constraints exist unfortunately!
So, from that point of view, writing short stories or poems can be very freeing, as there are no limits on your imagination. You don’t have to worry about the logistics of making it real. Poetry especially is also a very cathartic medium. It’s a great, instant way to turn the things that are troubling you into something beautiful or meaningful. It can feel a little self-indulgent at times, but I believe that any time we share something that’s true for us, it will undoubtedly resonate with other people who’ve felt the same way, or encountered the same problem. That’s how I get past my concerns about it at least!
And as for music, well there’s something almost magical about how intensely a certain combination of lyrics and melody can affect us. It can rouse so much emotion in a way that’s hard to achieve with any other artform. It’s also the only medium where I use my own voice to express a story or a feeling, so that’s quite a vulnerable but powerful thing.
And that’s my roundabout way of not really answering the question!
Tell us a bit about your fantastic project, Fife Creative Studios, and what your hopes and goals are for the charity.
Fife is not traditionally a place where filmmaking thrives. Most people who live here would not think that a career in film was possible, and certainly not without moving away to Glasgow, or more likely, London. I want to change that in a tangible, grassroots way, by providing opportunities to aspiring creatives in Fife, and beyond. Through the services that Fife Creative Studios offers, they can network, learn, and actually produce films together.
In practical terms, the charity can provide the resources and the training needed to give people that first leg up towards their dream. The charity’s values are all about accessibility, practical support, and boosting creative ambition in a place where artistic aspirations are too often sneered at as being unrealistic or not worthwhile.
We’ve already made some great strides with dozens of workshops, networking events, and films being produced under the charity’s banner, but there’s so much more I want to do. I’d love to see a Fife Creative Studios film festival for sure, and more generally, to continue to show what’s possible when you take down the traditional barriers that gatekeep filmmaking, not just in the UK, but all over the world.
Too often, filmmaking is a pursuit that’s only available to those born with privilege, who can afford to survive the several years of low or no income while they try to get their feet in the door. It’s incredibly important that the stories we tell come from across all sections of society, not just an elite few who tend to have fairly homogenous perspectives.That’s why the charity’s main tenet is its accessibility to all. So, if you’ve ever dreamed of getting involved in film, in any capacity, come on down!
I often spend a fair bit of time in my own brutal editorials trying to deconstruct the glamorous myths that surround working in film, but are there any myths you’d like to dispel?
To start with, it’s definitely not a glamorous business! A lot of what you see of the film industry from the outside is red carpets and awards, but the truth is it’s mostly crazy long hours, a lot of hard slog, and very little glitz & glamour! You’re much more likely to find us in the freezing cold up a hill in Scotland at four in the morning covered in mud than dressed up & drinking champagne at a film festival. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.
When you start out, you might dream of accolades, fancy events–that whole Hollywood thing– but once you experience even a little bit of that, you realise that actually, all that stuff is fairly hollow and superficial, and isn’t going to feed your soul. What makes filmmaking amazing is telling stories that have never been told before, working with people who inspire you, and the challenge of constantly trying to learn and improve your craft. I’d honestly quite happily never go to another Cannes cocktail party for the rest of my days!
Another common misconception is that people who work in film are loaded! If you want to get rich, I suggest you do anything else. Even just making a sustainable living in film, especially on the indie side of things, is incredibly difficult, so if money is a major motivator for you, then a career in film probably isn’t going to be a good fit.
All that said, if film is your passion, there’s absolutely nothing that can match it, and no other job will do.
We’re both big horror fans, but have you always been interested in the genre? Are there any other genres you’d like to explore?
I’ve for sure always loved horror, although not necessarily always horror films. When I was little, probably too little, I read a ton of Stephen King, and loved staying up late on a Saturday night to watch The Twilight Zone (they were reruns okay, I’m not that old!)
I think like most horror fans though, just because I like horror that doesn’t mean I like all horror. I’m very specific about the kind of horror films I like to watch, and write. For me it’s all about mystery, atmosphere, twists, and creating a window into alternate worlds where anything is possible.
I love how open and broad the genre is. It gives you an enormous amount of freedom to explore any topic, any theme through the prism of horror, which lets you hold a mirror up to things in a way that’s sort of disarming. Telling a story in a way that’s one step removed from reality lets you tackle issues that you possibly couldn’t with drama, and means you don’t have to pull your punches. It’s a very poetic medium for me, as there’s so much room for metaphor, and mood, and expressionism over literalism. I’d really struggle to write a story that was confined by the rules of the real world at this point. (Although of course much of what’s happening in the world right now feels more like a horror movie than most horror movies!)
Outside of horror, I’m also a big fan of sci-fi, and would love to write/direct something in that genre some day. I adore the work of writers like Ray Bradbury, Walter Tevis, and Philip K. Dick, and that’s the kind of sci-fi I’d want to write too. It’d be a dream to write an episode of Black Mirror.
Big question, but in your opinion, what makes a great story?
Massive question, but actually, for me, a pretty simple answer. For me, it’s all about characters, obstacles, and how they face them. You can have the best concept in the world, but if you don’t have compelling characters at the centre of your story, it’s not going to have any emotional impact. It’s not going to be engaging. Even if your main character isn’t super likable–and they don’t have to be–we have to care about what happens to them, otherwise, there are no stakes, no sense of peril.
I always believe that the central characters, ideally all characters should have an arc – they should be changed by the things that happen to them,and in the absolute best stories, we’re changed along with them.
Beyond that, some key elements for me are escalating tension, a central question to keep the reader/audience hooked, and having something to say. Your script doesn’t necessarily have to have some huge message, but it should have a singular and cohesive theme, and communicate that well.
Or to sum all that up in a sentence, I’d say that for me, the best stories depict an individual struggle that has universal resonance.
About Sarah Daly
Sarah Daly is an Irish writer, filmmaker, and musician known for her poetic storytelling and love of the uncanny. As co-founder of Hex Studios, she has written cult horror favourites like Lord of Tears, while also composing music as Metaphorest. A passionate advocate for grassroots filmmaking, she also leads the charity Fife Creative Studios.
You can follow Sarah Daly and explore more of her creative work here:
Sarah Daly runs a free-to-join Patreon, where she shares creative updates, alongside her poetry and music on Instagram. You can also find her original songs on her YouTube channel and SoundCloud. Sarah is active on Threads and Twitter, where she frequently posts whimsical, thoughtful, and often very amusing musings.
About Lawrie Brewster
Lawrie Brewster is a veteran horror film producer with 15 years of experience. Lawrie Brewster leads Hex Studios, serves as president of Amicus Productions, and runs the British Horror Studio project in collaboration with filmmakers from around the world.
You can also follow Lawrie Brewster on his Official Website at www.lawriebrewster.com
Lawrie Brewster recently published a series of fascinating articles, including his five top tips for indie filmmakers, his thoughts on the current state of film distribution, the creation of the British Horror Studio project, his journey from outsider to filmmaker, and his staunch defence of 1980s-style Sword and Sorcery.