Vertigo films have produced many films of a good quality that have become major hits in the last few years. In 2006 they had a very busy and successful year. It started off with Dirty Sanchez and continued with other films such as London to Brighton. Not all of their films are well known; however their films have all gotten good reviews and are all best sellers. Whereas 2007 was not as good, Vertigo films released ‘Shrooms’ which did not turn out to be the success they
hoped for.
When choosing the cast in filming, Vertigo films have been known to use new young fresh faced characters, in their filming. Many of the actors they use are from different origins which adds to the variety and different in their choices.
Vertigo films have used numerous different producers in their filming. One of the producers they have used is Rob Walpole; Walpole is one of Ireland’s leading independent feature film producers. His credits include ‘i went down’ and ‘man about dog’, indie hits that were two of Ireland’s profitable movies ever. Another film of his is Shrooms. Rob Walpole would be known to some independent film goers.
Shrooms, bought out in 2007, was not a very big hit. In fact many people did not enjoy it. It opened to many negative reviews. It only had a 24% approval rate and was de
scribed as “A shake-'n'-bake slash
er movie that shows just how difficult it is to do effective, modestly budgeted horror", by Variety magazine. Not getting very much good attention at all this clearly wasn’t one of Rob Walpole’s best achievements.
When producing Shrooms, Rob Walpole used writer Pearse Elliott. He got his idea from when he was younger and was taking mushrooms with his friends. Elliott decided it would be interesting to make a horror movie, specifying a part of some youths growing up. It was decided the most important aspect of the Director was that he must be very technically skilled in producing horror movies and so Paddy Breathnach was chosen as he obtains all of these qualities. Whilst Shrooms was in pre-production the crew faced a problem, at the time of their filming horror movies were going out of fashion; however everyone continued to do their best.
The cast of Shrooms is a mixture or American, Irish and English actors, all of which are beginning to make an impact in Hollywood and are becoming bigger stars. The fact a young cast was chosen helps them to play college characters easily. Walpole uses a mix of backgrounds with these actors, so as to deliver to a mass audience. The youth of the actors would appeal to young audiences who still get a thrill from horror films. The actors did a good job in this film as all of them worked their hardest and did all they were asked of.
Shrooms was produced in a period of seven weeks. During the seven weeks the cast and crew worked their hardest through any weather. They were located; largely in Rossmore Park in Monaghan, Ireland and also in Gosford Forest Park, Markethill, Northern Ireland. This was a new angle for Vertigo films as they are an English filming production company and so most of their films are filmed in England. However this bought a wider audience to view this film.
The Vertigo film company has bought out a number of profitable films. Most of which have been positively reviewed, of course they have bought out a few films that have been negatively reviewed due to the public’s views at the time. Overall however I feel that Vertigo film production company who maintain a good selection of films.
