The Sound of a Broken Fairground
From a musical perspective, Charlie Shaw’s Revenge lives in the space between nostalgia and corrosion. The soundtrack draws heavily on warped circus textures — detuned organs, metallic scrapes, and mechanical groans — echoing the decayed joy of the park itself.
These harsher elements are contrasted with reflective piano and restrained string writing, used sparingly to underline moments of doubt, memory, and fragile humanity. As the pressure tightens, familiar musical ideas bend, distort, and collapse, mirroring the psychological unravelling on screen.
The result is a score that doesn’t simply accompany the horror, but breathes with it — sometimes oppressive, sometimes mournful, always close to the characters’ inner worlds.
Charlie Shaw’s Revenge will have its industry screening in London on Friday 13 February 2026, ahead of a planned rollout on major streaming platforms. A book adaptation is also in development, signalling long-term ambitions for the property.
This is a film rooted in character, atmosphere, and craft — where fear isn’t just seen, but heard.
Charlie Shaw’s Revenge — A Story of Pressure, Fear, and Sound
UK indie production company Drop Dead Films is preparing to launch Charlie Shaw’s Revenge, a psychologically driven thriller-horror that places character, tension, and emotional fracture at the centre of its scares.
Written and directed by John Langridge, and produced by Sussex-based Renato Pires and Justin Hayward, the film follows a group of workers tasked with reopening a struggling adventure park. What begins as routine maintenance and rehearsal soon mutates into something far darker, as they realise they are being stalked by a silent killer — trapped, isolated, and with no clear means of escape.
Rather than leaning on overt spectacle, Charlie Shaw’s Revenge builds its dread through group psychology and moral pressure. Trust erodes, alliances shift, and fear reshapes behaviour in real time. The horror emerges not just from what hunts them, but from how survival forces impossible decisions.
“This was always a film about people before it was about horror,” says Langridge. “We were interested in how fear changes behaviour — how quickly trust breaks down when people realise they’re trapped.”
At the centre of the story is Marion, played by Cerys Knighton, a newly appointed manager forced into leadership as the situation spirals out of control. Opposite her is the film’s unsettling antagonist, Otto the Clown, portrayed by James Payton in a largely silent, physically driven performance. Otto functions less as a traditional slasher figure and more as an omnipresent psychological weight — always felt, rarely seen.
The ensemble cast includes Bill Fellows, Mark Benton, John Locke, alongside emerging talents Shahla Ayamah, Amelie Leroy, Billy Cashin, Molly Cattanach, Keri Martin, and Aaliyah-Monroe Pires.
