THE cast and crew of Geoff Harmer’s new feature film Addict – which has already won a British International Amateur Film Festival award - gathered recently in central Basingstoke for a special screening.

The project began as a five minute short film about a few days in the life of a serial killer, but has grown into a 96 minute full-length feature, boasting an absolute tour de force from local actor Paul Anthony Kelly (as Paul Anthony) in the leading role.

He plays frustrated sales manager David Pettigrew, whose addictions eventually get the better of him. Stacy Hart plays the object of his affections, Kim, whilst Jenny Mitchell makes a fantastic impression as Sarah. 

It began shooting in June 2011, on location in Basingstoke, Andover and Wallingford, with Poison Bar among the local landmarks clearly visible throughout. A stunning scene in the woods was filmed at the Crabtree Plantation. 

Geoff’s Fraught Productions was supported in the venture by both Pork Chop Pictures and Red Carpet Screenings; in addition, Pork Chop’s Carl Austin acted co-cinematographer and Red Carpet founder Seb Hall acted as both part of the sound team and associate producer.  

Pork Chop’s Mark Brennan (another local) is co-producer and co-writer, and worked on the screenplay with Geoff and James Webber. And Geoff and Carl contributed the visual FX, a crucial element given the occasional essential gore.

Geoff, who edited, directed and produced the film, revealed: “I wanted everyone who worked on the film to see it before someone talks to them about it!

“We have already entered a few festivals – three so far - including Dead By Dawn. We are going to hit as many as we can, so we have started the ball rolling and we also hope to have a Basingstoke Fringe Festival screening at some point.

“I thought when we were filming ‘let’s go over the top’ because I knew I could then always cut it back.”

Black Dam dad-of-three Geoff, who revealed many intricate details of Addict, including the in-jokes (among them a poster for Pork Chop’s short Meat in the background) the recurring insect motif, and the fact that he had written the childhood of David Pettigrew, said he was happy to be finally finished tinkering.

“The temptation is to keep adding,” he admitted, “but I have moved on now. I'm done. I am not going to play around anymore.”

Keep up-to-date with news about Addict, and all of Fraught’s work, online at fraught.net.