''Red Kingdom Rising'' is an independent

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...

written, produced and directed by Navin Dev. The film is inspired by

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet, mathematician, photographer and reluctant Anglicanism, Anglican deacon. His most notable works are ''Alice ...

's 1865 novel ''

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (also known as ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English Children's literature, children's novel by Lewis Carroll, a mathematics university don, don at the University of Oxford. It details the story of a ...

'' and its 1871 sequel ''

Through the Looking Glass ''Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There'' is a novel published in December 1871 by Lewis Carroll, the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a mathematics lecturer at Christ Church, University of Oxford. It was the sequel to h ...

''. It marks Dev's first feature-length film, following on from his similarly themed fairy tale short films.

Plot

Mary Ann has been tormented her whole life by dreams of a sinister figure called the Red King and his morbid fairytale kingdom. Following the death of her father, she returns to her family home where she recalls the childhood stories of the Red King and Alice from ''

'' that her father once read to her. Within the decaying and neglected state of the gothic family house, Mary Ann soon discovers that her once highly religious and abusive mother is now secretly engaging in black magic. A brutal bewitching attack from her mother propels Mary Ann into the twisted, fairy tale dream world of the Red King. In this dream world Mary Ann encounters an unlikely guide in the form of a mysterious,

Cheshire Cat The Cheshire Cat ( ) is a fictional cat popularised by Lewis Carroll in ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' and known for its distinctive mischievous grin. While now most often used in ''Alice''-related contexts, the association of a "Chesh ...

masked little girl calling herself Alice. Alice prompts Mary Ann to question the relevancy of the dreamscape and whether this is Mary Ann's dream or that of the Red King's. Haunting events and emergence of suppressed memories force Mary Ann to unlock secrets of her painful childhood as she journeys through the realms of the dream world, landing in a final confrontation with the Red King. Mary Ann must face this embodiment of her childhood fears to forever gain closure to the pains and horrors of her past.

Cast

* Emily Stride – Mary Ann *

David Caron David D. Caron (28 June 1952 – 20 February 2018) was an American attorney who was the dean of the King's College London School of Law, and an emeritus professor of UC Berkeley School of Law. Caron was a Member of the Iran-United States Claim ...

– Father * Silvana Maimone – Mother * Etalia Turnbull – Alice

Production

Director Navin Dev was inspired by real accounts of adult survivors of child abuse and wanted to portray a symbolic, nightmarish world that evoked the psychological horrors they endured. Having researched

Bruno Bettelheim Bruno Bettelheim (; August 28, 1903 – March 13, 1990) was an Austrian-born American psychologist, scholar, public intellectual and writer who spent most of his academic and clinical career in the United States. An early writer on autism, Bet ...

's '' The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales'', Dev set the film within the fantasy horror genre as it would enable the film to be elaborated upon the mature and symbolic themes found in fairy tales. Carroll's ''

'' and in particular, ''

Through the Looking-Glass ''Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There'' is a novel published in December 1871 by Lewis Carroll, the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a mathematics lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford, Christ Church, University of Oxford. I ...

'', were used as direct inspirations due to the ideas of dream reversal, occultism, and dream symbolism that Carroll presents in his work and that author

Marc Edmund Jones Dr. Marc Edmund Jones (October 1, 1888 – March 5, 1980) was an American writer, screenwriter and astrologer. Early life Born October 1, 1888, at 8:37 a.m. CST in St. Louis, Missouri, Marc Edmund Jones showed an early fascination with co ...

elaborates on. Production of ''Red Kingdom Rising'' was achieved on a low budget, with pre-production commencing months prior to shooting in order to design and build the complicated character make up prosthetics as well as a full scale Red Kingdom dream world. Dev undertook extensive rehearsals with his cast, familiarising them with

affective memory Affective memory was an early element of Stanislavski's 'system'. It was adopted by Lee Strasberg and made a central part of his own acting technique 'The Method' more broadly referred to as method acting. Affective memory requires actors to call ...

exercises in order to reach the complexity of the troubled characters. Visual inspirations for ''Red Kingdom Rising'' ranged from Gustav Dore’s fable paintings, artist

Mark Ryden Mark Ryden (born January 20, 1963) is an American painter who is considered to be part of the Lowbrow (or pop surrealist) art movement. He was dubbed "the god-father of pop surrealism" by ''Interview'' magazine.Jaromil Jireš Jaromil Jireš (10 December 1935 – 24 October 2001) was a director associated with the Czechoslovak New Wave movement. Work His 1963 film '' The Cry'' was entered into the 1964 Cannes Film Festival. It is often described as the first film o ...

' 1970 film '' Valerie and Her Week of Wonders''. Dev chose to shoot the film on the

Super 16mm 16 mm film is a historically popular and economical gauge of film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 mm and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, e ...

format due to its grainy and organic quality that would uphold the organic visual style of a fairy tale.

Release

''Red Kingdom Rising'' had its world premiere at the

Portobello Film Festival The Portobello Film Festival is an independent international film festival based in London, which annually premiers over 700 new films, including feature films, features, short films, shorts, documentaries, music films, and animation. Additionall ...

at which it was nominated for the Best Horror Film award. It was also screened at the Gotham Screen Film Festival & Screenplay Contest in New York. ''Red Kingdom Rising'' won Best Fantasy Horror Film at the 2014 Feratum Film Festival - Mexico's largest genre festival in fantasy, sci-fi and horror. A Special Edition US DVD of the film containing Navin Dev's short films and a

5.1 surround sound 5.1 surround sound ("five-point one") is the common name for surround sound audio systems. 5.1 is the most commonly used layout in home theatres. It uses five full-bandwidth channels and one low-frequency effects channel (the "point one"). Dolb ...

mix of the film was released on

Amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc., doing business as Amazon, is an American multinational technology company engaged in e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. Founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos in Bellevu ...

on 28 April 2014 by the film's production company 1406 Pictures Ltd.

Reception

An early cut of the film had a private press screening at

Wilton's Music Hall Wilton's Music Hall is a Grade II* listed building in Shadwell, built as a music hall and now run as a multi-arts performance space in Graces Alley, off Cable Street in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is one of very few surviving music ...

in London to which acclaimed critic and

Empire An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outpost (military), outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a hegemony, dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the ...

contributing editor

Kim Newman Kim James Newman (born 31 July 1959) is an English journalist, film critic, and fiction writer. He is interested in film history and horror fiction – both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's ''Dracula'' at the age of eleven & ...

attended. He said that the film had 'a nicely dense, imagistic feel and a grasp of the nightmarish, a study of a cracked psyche, using the tropes of scary children's stories....' ''Red Kingdom Rising'' has received many favourable reviews, most notably from UK genre film journalist MJ Simpson who described the film as 'a hugely impressive feature debut, a visual poem reminiscent of the masters of dreamlike cinema...' and '' Flickering Myth'' who described it as 'an eerie and imaginative dark fantasy dreamscape with a visual style reminiscent of directors such as

Tim Burton Timothy Walter Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an American filmmaker and producer. Known for popularizing Goth subculture, Goth culture in the American film industry, Burton is famous for his Gothic film, gothic horror and dark fantasy films. ...

and

Guillermo del Toro Guillermo del Toro Gómez (; born 9 October 1964) is a Mexican filmmaker, author, and artist. His work has been characterized by a strong connection to fairy tales, Gothic fiction, gothicism and horror fiction, horror often blending the genres ...

....' ''Red Kingdom Rising'' has been featured in history books; English Gothic: Classic Horror Cinema (1897-2015) by

Jonathan Rigby Jonathan Rigby is an English actor and film historian who has written several books. '' Video Watchdog'' magazine described him as occupying "a proud place in the advance guard of film researchers, writers and critics," and in 2020 he was inducte ...

and The History of British Literature on Film (1895-2015) by Greg M. Colon Semenza and Robert Hasenfratz. The latter described that 'to most viewers,

Joss Whedon Joseph Hill "Joss" Whedon ( ; born June 23, 1964) is an American screenwriter, director, producer, comic book writer, and composer. He is best known as the creator of several television series: the supernatural drama ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer' ...

's Much Ado won't look much different than an equally well-crafted 16mm film such as ''Red Kingdom Rising'', Navin Dev's 2014 horror adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice novels.'

References

External links

* * * http://www.slashershouse.com/critique-red-kingdom-rising-film-2013/ * http://www.terrorweekend.com/2012/09/red-kingdom-rising-review.html * http://www.moviesmademe.com/movie/review/2663 * http://alistasi.com/2011/05/05/interview-red-kingdom-rising-director-navin-dev/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Red Kingdom Rising 2012 films 2012 horror films 2010s dark fantasy films British horror films British independent films Films based on Alice in Wonderland Films set in England Horror films based on children's franchises 2012 directorial debut films 2010s English-language films 2010s British films English-language horror films