I could open this introduction with a oh-so-witty observation about how amusingly perverted this horror films title is, or how it conjures up images of a certain sexual nature, but I won't. In fact this film offers plenty of flesh to those who may be thinking of having a hairy palm moment, its just that most of the skin on show here is dripping with blood and hanging out of some zombies mouth. The fabulously titled Boy Eats Girl is another offering in the increasingly popular rom-zom-com (Romantic Zombie Comedy) sub-genre, and is the directorial horror debut of Stephen Bradley. TFA recently had the chance to chat with Stephen about his gory entrance to the genre scene...........

This guy has a serious case of the munchies.

Comic horror isn’t something you would necessarily associate with Irish cinema. How well has the film been received over there?

The reception in Ireland, as elsewhere, has been mixed depending on whether a viewer clicks into the sense of humour of the film or not. I think in pitching the film to potential viewers it’s important to stress that it’s not attempting to be a hardcore horror and that the comic sense of fun is what drives it .

Why did you choose the town of Ramsey on the Isle of Man for the location for your film?

The Isle of Man Film Commission invested in the film and part of the deal was that we shot half the schedule on the island. Obviously I was slightly concerned when I heard this in terms of getting the right locations but in fact I found better locations than the one’s I’d already been looking at in Ireland. In particular, Jessica’s house which was just as I’d imagined it in my head and served the needs of the script brilliantly.

Boy Eats Girl is liberally splattered with blood and gore. Was it always an intension to give the fans lots of visual violence and are you ultimately happy with the work that Image FX did to create this gruesome mayhem?

Bob Keen and his team at Image FX worked on a ridiculously low budget and did a great job. I absolutely wanted that raw sense of gore but also wanted to build it in a very deliberate way so that the audience is just getting glimpses to begin with and then we build to a comically over-the-top blood-bath at the finale.

What would you say was the biggest challenge of the project and are there any amusing stories from the set?

The biggest challenge was obviously the short amount of time we had to shoot (30 days) including stunts, effects, fires etc so it was a constant race to get everything covered. This was made additionally difficult having to move the cast and crew to a different country half way through the schedule. There were lots of laughs on the shoot, many of them at my expense! One thing which did amuse me was when we arrived at the location for Jessica’s house to begin seven days of shooting there, the assistant directors were being very careful making sure that the crew stayed off the grass. Seven days later every blade of grass in the place was covered in fake blood!

It’s great to see Optimum Releasing bringing the film to UK DVD. Are you happy with the way the release has shaped up?

Everyone seems optimistic about the release and there seems to be a lot of coverage on the internet and in the press. I’m in LA for a few months so it’s hard for me to get a sense of the film’s impact on the ground but it’s great that Optimum are doing it there. They were investors in the film from the beginning so I hope it does well for them.

I sent the script to Samantha very early on in the process and she called me at home and said she just had to do it. I hadn’t known what a fan of horror films she is but she just loved it. That really helped in terms of making the project gel and concentrating the minds of the financiers.